Reboxing and storing Vantage (with upgrades)

 It fits! Nearly...

After purchasing Vantage and he associated upgrades, I wanted to see if I could fit everything back into the box again. I found instructions on how to do this, but for the life of me couldn't find the post again, so here are my own photos.

The following results in a 5mm lid-lift, but includes:

• All punched original components and tokens. (Story books, cards, dice etc.)
• Upgraded wooden skill tokens.
• Upgraded Metal coins.
• x6 upgrade dual-layer player boards ('grids')

How to pack Vantage:

1. Base game tokens, money, and player tokens. By pushing the three stacks of large location cards to the left of their spaces, there is enough space to carefully insert the original component to the right of each large location card space (see coins, skills tokens, and player tokens below in their baggies.)

2. Upgraded tokens and coins, and dice. With the original tokens bagged and stored, put the upgraded skill tokens, metal coins, and dice into the green boxes. Put a small baggie on top of each box to keep things in place as you slide them into their spaces. When you get them out, place a couple of fingerson the plastic baggies to help keep things in place and avoid spilling everything as you withdraw the boxes.

Note the baggies on top of the green boxes.

Boxes safely inserted!

3. Boost tokens and character card place holders can sit flat on the top large card space, which has spare depth.

Silver 'boost' cubes in their bag (at top of image), lying flat, before the 
secrets deck (in its pack) is laid on top of them.

4. Plastic card holders and secrets pack. The holders stack vertically in the storage space next to the card decks (shown at top left below.) The secrets deck (in it's plastic pack) can 

5. Dual-layer player boards. All 6 player board 'grids' lie down flat in a stack to one side of the game card decks.

6. Book of Vantages and Book of Secrets. On top of the player boards, place down the 'Book of Vantages' with the spiral binding against the wall of the box. On top of that, add the book of secrets, but leaving a gap so it isn't on top of the spiral binding.

7. Rulebook. Add the rulebook on top of the book of secrets. 

8. Game board. With step 5 ~ 7 done above, the main game board (really just a thin card) will lie flat on top of the card decks, book of vantages, and rules.

9. Storybooks. Insert the eight story books one at a time, putting the bound edge of the story book against the wall of the box. Do the same for each, but putting them down so there is just one against the box edge, then do the next one. This spiral of storybooks will slowly rise in height, but do this for all of them.

Storybook is laid down, with its binding touching the box.

2nd storybook is laid against the next edge of the box in a clockwise direction. 
Continue doing this for all storybooks.

9. Box lid. Close the box! There should be no more than 4~5mm of lid lift.

Hope this is useful!

Cheers,

On the table: Vantage by Stonemaier Games

 On the table: Vantage

It seems as though everyone is talking about Vantage, a new exploration game by Stonemaier Games.

I too was sucked in by the hype train (willingly) after some good reviews from YouTube channels that I watch and respect, including The Dungeon Dive, Man Vs. Meeple, and One Stop Co-op shop. I've never owned a Stonemaier game before, but being a fan of exploration games (I've enjoyed Lands of Galzyr and 7th Citadel) I thought this would be right up my alley. Crash land on an alien planet? Explore an alien world making choices about how to interact with the flora and fauna? High replayability due to hundreds of cards? Self-contained - not campaign - sessions? Yes please!

Also, the game is particularly suitable for solo play, and that is an important part of any purchase decision I make these days.

Seeing as it is releasing from a well-known and successful publisher, there is plenty of online coverage of the rules, as well as solo and multiplayer run-throughs to watch, so I'll just take a look at the components here and some initial thoughts.

Being located in Japan, I used Stonemaier's Australia storefront for my order. Customer service was fast and helpful in response to my questions, and Australia post provided tracking and updates. The box arrived in one piece quite quickly, and nothing was damaged (excellent packing by Stonemaier - or their distribution partners.)

I went all in, and also bought the dual layer player mats (or 'Grids' as they would be called in-game), metal coins, and wooden tokens.

Wooden tokens, coins, and dual-layer player grids.

Dual-layer player grids (x6). Note that each character
has their character card printed on the grid.

Wooden tokens (L), and metal coins (R).

I really dig the coloured metal coins. In denominations of 1, 2, 5, and 10, they could probably be used for any low player count sci-fi game (e.g. Star Wars Outer Rim), especially if playing solo.

The provided storage solution works well too. For a game that is comprised of so many cards, it is nice that they are easy to get in and out of their allotted spaces. The included cardboard boxes work well too. People are already posting very nice 3D printed insert blueprints that can replace the included cardboard (if that is your thing) and Etsy has some very thematic storage solutions for sale. I can get all the original components and upgrades into the box with about 4-5mm lid lift. (I'll post a step-by-step, inspired by some reboxings seen on YouTube.)

The components (in the base box) are fine and get the job done.

After some more images I'll share who I think the game is (and isn't) for.

Who is Vantage for?

I've played the game several times solo, and my initial impressions are:

Play this game if:

1. You like free-form exploration and a 'choose your own adventure' experience.
2. You are comfortable making choices without having full information.
3. You don't mind an 'experience', more than a 'game with deep mechanics'.
4. You (or your group) are happy to listen to the experiences other players might be having.
5. You aren't bothered by always having a clearly defined route to succeeding in your mission.
6. Using your imagination to fill in the narrative gaps left by the game is enjoyable for you.

I would say to anyone that it is always worth trying a game at least once to see if it hits. Having said that...

Avoid if:

1. You are the kind of player who 'switches' off when other players are taking their turn.
2. You dislike working with limited information in pursuit of a goal.
3. You aren't able to gloss over small thematic or mechanical inconsistencies (e.g. why can I only do ONE thing when I'm at this location out of a choice of SIX!)
4. You like long passages of narrative to set the scene.
5. You are expecting a linked campaign of missions.

Personally, I can see myself getting a lot of value from Vantage. The art is always fun to explore, the narrative results are interesting, and the replay value is incredibly high.

Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,