Scratchimus

I'm only 10-15 missions in to the game but loving it so far. The only part of the design that has me seriously worried is the point that Kordanor pointed out about 'pulling' the aliens. The optimal approach for all missions but perhaps terror missions seems to be to advance at a glacial pace, advancing maybe one or two soldiers per turn, with the rest on overwatch. For the time being, I am still finding that fun to work through, but I can see this getting old. Otherwise, I am having a blast. I figured it had a 50/50 chance of being worth playing through great, and a 1/4 chance of being really fantastic - I'm upping the chances of the latter to even odds at this point. Thanks to Jake S and the Firaxis team for a great game!

I'd have been curious to hear the panel's take on Vlaada Chvatil's games. Specifically Space Alert and Dungeon Lords (the only I've played) are designed with some obviously deep thought around learning the game. To the point of having components built specifically for scripted learning scenarios (special simplified game boards, canned scripted walkthrough scenarios, etc) To be honest I find the experience a little too much - I like to just jump into games, but I see the value and appreciate the time and attention that clearly goes into the learning process.