How to play Mosaic: Wars and Disasters

[@buyaka777]

Most appreciative of your time to explain everything! I played 2 games of the original with my BG buddies and several online during the kickstarter (against myself, just to get the hang of it). I have yet to bust out this expansion (but plan to this coming weekend!) As our gamer group has kind of grown up and started having kids and such, so it makes it even harder to herd us all together to make schedules align! But this video will come in handy in less than 48 hoirs as we learn the next evolution of MOSAIC!
Also i concur about the idea of military unit terminology...i do think the idea that a phalanx can kill a naval unit is quite absurd conceptually. Phalanx was strictly a land unit from my understanding, and no way a land unit could decimate a naval unit. We will probably house rule that sucker because the power is already OP for the Greeks.
Ps. I'm a hardcore-oldschool advanced civ gamer from the 80s and 90s and we would play a minimum of 8 hours and never finish that game! While this game scratches the boradgame civ itch, its still not quite the same as the old school advanced civ, where you get to trade goods and pawn off disasters and epidemics while trading, and try to make another deal and pawn it off into someone else before the 5 minute timer expired! I've rarely ever seen anything quite like that since, maybe except for the card game called PIT, but without the entire civ BG thing going on! The downside to that game was everyone had to take their turn 1 at a time and each player's turn could take a half hour. Great game but timewise nobody will play it anymore haha. Hence Mosaic gives you a somewhat scaled back civ version that gives you quite a full feeling of accomplishment (hopefully with the expansion and more direct player interaction, itll feel a bit more full-on civ!) In only 3-4 hours (when you first learn how to play) and probably down to 2-3 for experienced players.
All in all, Mosaic is fastest civ BG ive played that still felt like you played a real civ game and not overly watered down. Hoping W&D expansion will bring this up from a 7.5 to an 8-9 out of 10, while adv civ for me was a 9.5 of 10 only due to the length!

[@jeroendemulder3747]

Both the overview and storage were very helpful! Thank you!

[@BlueDane7]

Great overview of the expansion and storage! Thanks!

[@KMReviews]

Glad it helped!

[@ViscountCharles]

I can see storage being a real issue for me, given that (1) I sleeve my cards, (2) my trade goods are all in coin capsules, and (3) I threw away my black plastic insert!
"I do hope somebody makes an insert for the player pieces". Oh, that’s a given. After all, I need to solve my storage problems caused by 1-3 above, so I’ll definitely design something - possibly reusing the original clear lids. Will make the STLs available on BGG and Printables s and when I do.

[@KMReviews]

I actually ended up making a custom storage solution for the player pieces which organizes all of them and it’s super nice!
Why did you tnrow away your insert?? Did you toss the one for resources too? You must have the cardboard coins because why put metal ones in capsules? Lol. I highly suggest getting the metal ones. Even then there’s still tons of room left. Having not tossed all mine everything seems to fit fine.

[@craigraley4228]

I sleeves all the cards and they do not fit in the insert. I was able to fit everything though by moving the starting tech cards to a different spot. All fits nicely now.

[@slo6026]

Great video, have you tried the expansion with the fan made bot rules?

[@KMReviews]

@@slo6026 no I haven’t.

[@Caiddenn]

Where did you get the hex additions to your buildings and workers, and the wonder hexes?

[@KMReviews]

UpgradeMyGame on Etsy sells some great Mosaic stuff!

[@stevekingswell9143]

The Military Card has both Naval and Land beneath the heading, are you saying this is wrong or confused in the rules? Great video by the way, thx

[@KMReviews]

Which military card? Do you mean the one that replaces the spot on the board? That’s different than the actual cards.

[@stevekingswell9143]

@@KMReviews yes, the one to the right of the holding area.

[@KMReviews]

@@stevekingswell9143 there’s nothing wrong or incorrect about that card so I’m not sure what you mean.

[@josephpilkus1127]

Great overview. I'm saddened, as a developer, that Glenn and his team didn't look more closely at the Military vs. Naval Unit issue. It's not so much poor design, just poor development from an editing standpoint.

[@KMReviews]

What’s the issue you have?

[@josephpilkus1127]

@KMReviews using the word "Military" as an overarching term is fine but it shouldn't also be used to distinguish Naval from Land Units. A far better idea would have been to have the new panel retain Military, but specify Land vs. Naval units below and provide an updated Leader card for the General. Again, I simply see it as a missed opportunity.

[@KMReviews]

@@josephpilkus1127 yea but the problem is more so the tech. So many techs from the base game refer to military and they can’t change all those to say land units. Unless they basicalkh replaced half the deck and that would make the expansion that much more expansive.

[@josephpilkus1127]

@KMReviews You're not wrong, it just pains me as a professional board game developer who focuses on military war games, to see such a glaring error, in an otherwise excellent game.

[@KMReviews]

@@josephpilkus1127 yea and it does make it a bit confusing to teach. But I do enjoy playing and it’s been fun once people get it.

[@christianibsen1994]

Great video.
Thanks for creating and sharing.
Did you cut a small slice off the xl player boards? Mine is about 3/8 inch to big to fit in the box?

[@KMReviews]

No I didn’t cut anything off. They fit fine. Did you get the colossal edition? That’s the one I have.

[@christianibsen1994]

Yes. I got the Colossus game and the xl player boards from the first Kickstarter.
Perhaps they changed the size of the boards to fit the Colossus box for the expansion kickstarter?

[@KMReviews]

@@christianibsen1994 I believe they are all the same. If I was you I would take a video or picture proof and email them to get new ones.

[@christianibsen1994]

A lot of the backers from the first KS had the same issue. That's why I was so surprised to see that yours fit in the box.
I think I will try and cut a bit off mine myself, and see if I can make them fit. 😊
I saw a video of a guy unboxing the Sphinx expansion, and he got an updated scorepad. It looks like they did not include that in the Colossus expansion. ☹️
Have you had issues with creases in your playmat?

[@KMReviews]

@@christianibsen1994 I did have issues with the playmat. But when they did the second Kickstarter they offered anyone with those issues a new one they rolled instead folded. I also got a second set of XL player boards for free because my first set was slightly warped. You can get new ones man. You just have to write them.

[@craigraley4228]

Is there a limit per turn on how many military/naval units you can move.

[@KMReviews]

It’s the same as the base game in that you can still only recruit a maximum of 2. Whether it’s one naval and one land, or 2 naval, or 2 land. Keep in mind naval can only go to port city regions you have. However as far as movement goes, you can move up to all your units one time. So if you have 3 naval, and 5 land units, you could pay to move all of them one time each. Keep in mind land units can only go to adjacent lands, but naval units can go anywhere. But you only get the trade goods for naval units when you recruit them, not when you move them.

[@justindegagne]

I bought the Colossus Edition + expansion and have all the wooden and plastic upgraded tokens but I don't have those larger player boards with spinners... where did that come from ??

[@KMReviews]

Oh I didn’t have them either. I saw someone else with them and realized how nice they are! They are the XL player boards. I added them on with the recent Kickstarter

[@justindegagne]

@@KMReviews Ironically, 2 days after this post, my order of the expansion arrived, and I had actually ordered them!! I had simply forgotten what I had done back in the dark days of covid...

[@Aaackermann]

An egyptian admiral? Why?

[@KMReviews]

They are only Egyptian if you choose Egypt as your national military power lol

[@Aaackermann]

@@KMReviews Oh! :-D
Thanks!

[@thegamesninja3119]

Compatible with basic game?

[@KMReviews]

Yes you have to have the base game to play with this.

[@thegamesninja3119]

​@KMReviews I was wondering if it is is COMPATIBLE with the ordinary version without the plastic minis and bling

[@KMReviews]

@@thegamesninja3119 oh yea it is. They provide the plastic stuff but also the cardboard versions for the retail version of the game, etc.

[@thegamesninja3119]

@KMReviews I have the cardboard retail version, so was trying to keep an eye out for the expansion, but only saw one version of it.

[@KMReviews]

@@thegamesninja3119 yea this is basically both versions and one so no matter what version of the game you have it has components in there for you. I have the unboxing on this too if you wanna see that.