The Best Part of the Game is in the Actual Rulebook

This review will include some impressions of the core rulebook. And the short answer to Lasting Tales is that it's a standard coop "IGO/UGO" miniature skirmish game for newer gamers, and those who want a flexible campaign system. In contrast to "simultaneous combat", "IGO/UGO" is a miniature skirmish game term for one side taking its turn (eg. Move, Attack, miscellaneous Action), then the other side doing the same. Combat typically has the attacking model making some sort of die roll with modifiers against a target number and missing and taking no damage if it fails. In contrast, in "simultaneous combat" typically the attacking model initiates combat (preferably to their advantage!), both sides roll a die with modifiers, and the higher number wins, meaning that the attacker may suffer some sort of damage if it fails. By standard, I mean that the movement and combat rules alone don't really make the game stand out from other game sets. (However, for magic-users, the magic system has ten levels of spells, plus cantrips, six spells each. Priests have three levels of miracles.)

As for coop, the game uses an unending supply of enemies as a timer. Each turn, so many enemies appear (up to a limit), so you typically need to fulfill the scenario objective sooner than later. The game AI is pretty basic -- most of the time the enemy just goes after the nearest opponent. You could easily replace the enemy AI with a gamemaster playing enemy forces. (The terrain setup rules are pretty broad, so it's up to the players to make a fair or challenging setup.) Like many miniature skirmish games, the Lasting Tales core rulebook has an extensive beastiary of stat blocks for generic fantasy miniatures. (Song of Blades and Heroes, btw, allows you to make your own stat blocks for miniatures in your collection.)

The core rulebook comes with 20 scenarios, and a 10+ scenario campaign. The game is designed so that you can mix and match enemy types with scenarios, as well as the level of your heroes. (The campaign scenarios can also be played outside the campaign.) The scenario rules scale for both number of heroes and their levels. Additionally, between scenarios, both the party and individual heroes can have encounters and visit locations in the local settlement. New skills are gained randomly, or players can spend their experience points to select a skill. Players dropping into the game are awarded enough experience points to match current heroes and follow the character creation and levelling up rules. It's the bestiary, scenarios, and between-campaign content that separates Lasting Tales from non-campaign miniature skirmish games. However, most of these features are in the core book, not the demo. The demo comes with one scenarios and some first-level pregenerated characters. You'll want four buildings and several undead miniatures for the game.

I would recommend the PDF over the hardback. With the PDF, you can print out the rules and character generation for each player, and have one player print out the scenario and beastiary statistics for the day's game. Print out the between-scenario and level advancement content before the next game, and go throught it while waiting for everyone to show up. Some between-scenario content can even be played over email.

I should mention that the Lasting Tales rating may be artificially low because of negative backer reaction to the long delays Blacklist Games had with fulfilling their Fantasy Series Miniatures. This line of miniatures can be used with the Lasting Tales rules system. As a backer myself, I hope that situation is resolved reasonably so I can better enjoy this game.