The folks over at Starling Games aren't just bringing you one expansion for their Everdell board game with their latest Kickstarter campaign. No, they're bringing you two! Want to leave the valley and
The folks over at Starling Games aren't just bringing you one expansion for their Everdell board game with their latest Kickstarter campaign. No, they're bringing you two! Want to leave the valley and strike out for unknown territory, you can head to Spirecrest. If you're wanting to bring more people into the game than ever, grab Bellfaire, with room for 5-6 player games.
From the campaign:
Saying "the campaign is doing well" is an understatement, as it's like 14x funded with 15 days left to go.
Saturdaaaaaaaaaay! Woo! All the woo! Continuous woo!And, as I'm sure many of you are well-aware, it's the last Saturday before Gen Con. So get in all the prep you can now before heading out for the sh
Saturdaaaaaaaaaay! Woo! All the woo! Continuous woo! And, as I'm sure many of you are well-aware, it's the last Saturday before Gen Con. So get in all the prep you can now before heading out for the show this week. Me? I'm playing some D&D. But I've planned ahead and scheduled these reviews for you that I know you so desperately desire.
Today we have: The Edge: Downfall, Rise of Tribes: Deluxe Edition, Expancity, War of the Cross, Moonshiners of the Apocalypse, But Wait There's Even More, Valhal, Dino Party, Scythe: The Rise of Fenris, TopSpin, Rival Realms, Carthago, Ninja Taisen, Battlegroup Torch, The Edge: Downfall, Everdell, Sunset Over Water, Dale of Merchants, and Pulsar 2849.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at the brand new The Edge: Dawnfall board game and this thing is MASSIVE! It offers 3 modes of play: a competitive miniatures game, a fully cooperative multi-player campaign game and a solo campaign experience. Each game mode is an awesome and well executed experience and yet again adds to Awaken Realms stock of excellent games!
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at the brand new Rise Of Tribes from Breaking Games and Team this is a winner in my book! It's a solid buy recommendation. You are getting a great worker placement and area control game here and it drips with theme. the game is simple, clean and offers a lot of different ways to be the first tribe to 15 points - winning the game. As you start the game you truly feel like a small tribe growing in power round to round. The dice mechanic offers a good way to create some choice on which actions you decide to take, although they do not dictate with actions you take - I like this. It give the player the choice to still take the actions they want even if the dice do not provide a bonus. So check this one out when it releases in Aug and get in on the giveaway, as its an EPIC LEVEL one.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Breaking Games brand new Expancity. Here you will be building a downtown landscape with both commercial and residential buildings. Then scoring points once you cap them off with a roof - but be careful not to violate the building codes, as city council will be watching! So get your contracts and start designing your very own downtown!
A game of Valhal proceeds round by round through three stages, where each stage represents a season of the year. With winter and spring, players are planning their voyages and constructing buildings to help them train warriors faster and build new ships. During the summer, in addition to normal activities, the Vikingfahrt occurs and players roll dice to see what spoils and glory their adventures have yielded.
If I had to choose the favorite game type my kids prefer, then it would be dexterity games. From Terror in Meeple City, Ice Cool, Riff Raff, or PitchCar to name a few, they love playing these games that challenge their reflexes and coordination. What keeps my kids coming back to dexterity games is that they have more success than other game types. And the victory is so much sweeter when it’s over mom and dad.
This brings us to today’s review, Dino Party from Ankama. In this game, players throw dino meeples onto the board to make pairs and increase their number of dinos to their hand. Dino Party is a family friendly dexterity game that plays best with 4 and plays in about 20 minutes.
Kickstarted Scythe Collector’s Edition. It arrived and I loved it. Picked up Scythe: Invaders from Afar. It added two new factions to the game and two new player mats. While not revolutionary, I liked the variability this expansion added. Reviewed Scythe: The Wind Gambit. I also liked this expansion, especially the new Resolution Tiles.
Ok, now that my Scythe history is out of the way, let’s get to why you are here – to learn more about Scythe: The Rise of Fenris (simply Fenris going forward).
I was stoked (I loved Point Break!) to be given the opportunity to review Rise of Fenris. I was looking forward to experiencing the re-settable and replayable campaign that is the meat of Fenris. At the same time, I was saddened because explicitly stated on the box was “the conclusion of the Scythe expansion trilogy.” I truly love the Scythe universe, from the art to—most importantly—the gameplay. Is Rise of Fenris the swan song Scythe deserves or will it go out with a whimper?
Dexterity board games come in all shapes and sizes. Some will have you tossing plastic coconuts across the table (Coconuts), while others might have you balancing wooden pieces on a swaying ship (Riff Raff). And that’s the great thing about the genre, you can be as creative as you want to be with the components.
Today we are going to be looking at TopSpin, a newcomer to the genre that, unsurprisingly, uses a spinning top as the core mechanic. The rules are fairly simple, but winning can be anything but. Let’s take this game for a spin and see if it’s worth bringing to you tabletop.
Imagine a world where a little boo-boo happened with a card trick and two magicians find themselves standing in the empty land of Fantastiqa before it was formed. First thought: That was one heck of a card trick. Second thought: And one heck of a boo-boo. Anyway, the world is now a blank canvas for them to shape however they want.
Fantastiqa: Rival Realms (known hereafter as FRR) has you placing cards in order to create your magical realm, and then exploring that realm by moving your standee over the “board” you have created. In order to build and move, you’ll have to carefully manage your card resources, gather artifacts, and recruit mythical beasts to assist you. The player who creates the “best” realm (scores the most points) is the winner.
Carthago is a hand management card game for two to four players. Players are merchant families in Carthage trying to gain the most wealth and prestige by improving their standing in the merchant guild. The player with the most points wins.
Ninja Taisen is a two-player game in which you control one village’s ninja clan. To win, you must reach your opponent’s village or eliminate all of their ninjas.
There are 11 tiles placed between players: two village tiles are at opposite ends of the nine path tiles. Players begin in their left-side home village and advance to their opponent’s right-side village.
Each player gets an identical set of 10 ninja cards with one designated as the shogun. The shogun is placed on their home village, then the ninjas are shuffled and placed randomly on predetermined tiles.
Battlegroup Torch is the latest supplement to the Battlegroup World War II rules, written by Warwick Kinrade and published by Iron Fist Publishing and the Plastic Soldier Company.
This book is hardcover with 230 full colour pages, and is of similar format to previous books.
Torch is a direct sequel to Battlegroup Tobruk, and covers the second half of the desert war, starting with the Battle of Gazala and finishing with the final defeat of the Axis forces following the fall of Tunis.
Following the introduction, the next 50 pages of the book provides an overview of 1942 and 1943. Interspersed with black-and-white period photos is a description of all the major operations and battles which took place across Egypt, Libya and Tunisa.
Those of us who lack the always enviable skill of artistry, especially that skill of painting can rejoice, finally, that there is now an alternative to colour-by-numbers and those adult colouring books (which failed my expectation on the adult front) with Sunset Over Water, a lightweight, quick game of painting landscape masterpieces and selling them off.
Warning: This review was written with a thesaurus close at hand, primarily used for synonyms of charming and delightful, because, well, Sunset Over Water is both charming and delightful. Indeed, you will be enchanted by the simplicity of the rules, and you’ll find the artwork presented on the landscape cards to be quite enchanting, but there is more to this game than meets the eye, in fact, you’ll have a very jolly, if not somewhat twee and bohemian time playing this little gem.
Players are competing to become members of the Extraordinary Guild of Traders by being the first to arrange their stall according to the Guild’s specifications. This makes Dale of Merchants a race: the first player to set out 8 stacks of goods (cards) in front of them wins. Each stack must be built of cards from your hand worth an increasing amount and from the same animal set. The first stack must be worth 1, the second 2 and so on until the final stack needs to be made up of cards worth a whopping 8.
Once you’ve used a card to build a stack you can’t reuse it, meaning that the entire game revolves around deciding when to hang on to your cards for their effects and spending power, and when to sacrifice them to create the stacks you need to win. It’s as much deck-dismantling as it is deck-building.
The game of Pulsar 2849 is a dice drafting game where players use their dice to explore the galaxy, establish and activate pulsars, and harness new technologies in an effort to score the most points by the game’s end. The game is broken into several rounds consisting of the dice drafting phase, followed by the actions phase where the players utilize their dice, and then the cleanup phase where end of round points are scored. At the end of the game, a final scoring is performed and the person who is highest on the victory track is the victor.
The valley of Everdell is a magical utopia, nestled underneath the branches of huge trees, the creatures living there are in harmony. But the current town is getting a bit cramped and it's time to exp
The valley of Everdell is a magical utopia, nestled underneath the branches of huge trees, the creatures living there are in harmony. But the current town is getting a bit cramped and it's time to expand. In Everdell, players take on the role of leaders in the community looking to found and expand their own areas of the city. But who will attract the greatest amount of citizens and create the best new area to live in? You only have a year to decide. The game is up on Kickstarter now.
From the campaign:
Summary
A board game for 1-4 players, only 20 minutes per player A detailed world realized through stunning artwork Streamlined worker placement Rewarding tableau-building with over 45 unique card types Clever "Season" mechanism for gaining new workers Simple to learn gameplay with satisfying depth Unique resources: twigs, resin, pebbles, and berries Eye-catching table presence: round board and three-dimensional tree that houses the 128-card deck (tall enough for sleeved cards) Variable setup--each game is unique
The campaign's more than 10x funded, but if you want in, there's only about a day left to make your pledge.
It's Saturday. And not just any type of Saturday, but Saturday of a 3-day weekend. I can't think of a much better sort of Saturday... Well, maybe Saturday of Gen Con. But that's a pretty damn busy Sat
It's Saturday. And not just any type of Saturday, but Saturday of a 3-day weekend. I can't think of a much better sort of Saturday... Well, maybe Saturday of Gen Con. But that's a pretty damn busy Saturday. But for "above average" Saturdays, I'd say that 3-day weekend Saturday is a pretty good Saturday. Do you think I've typed the word "Saturday" enough by now? Well, I don't know what you've got going on today, but I'm going to be delivering games to a friend, and then possibly having minis delivered to me. Because it's an awesome Saturday. I'm also here to show off some reviews for you.
This week we have: Nemesis, Everdell, Fox in the Forest, Hamsterrolle, Codenames: Disney, Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Project, 878: Vikings, Kepler-3042, Okey Dokey, Santorini, Finished!, Ex Libris, and Hunger: The Show.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at the BRAND NEW and STILL IN PROTOTYPE Nemesis by Awaken Realms and rebel. what is even more awesome about this is the fact theMCGuiRE review is GIVING AWAY THIS LIMITED PROTOTYPE to one lucky subscriber.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Everdell a brand new game from Starling Games and Game Salute. We are doing yet another prototype giveaway on this title. The game is awesome and follows a traditional worker placement game and mechanic. you have to be very decisive as you can only take one action on your turn (place worker, play a card or activate the season). Artwork is amazing and the game drips with theme and visuals. You will want to play this game just on how its looks and feels - game-play is very fun and end game design is perfect with this genre.
Thanks to some holiday get-togethers, I had plenty of gaming time with the family last month. And I’m sure I’m not alone in that one, as board games make any holiday party that much better.
As you know, in Parental Guidance, I introduce new games to my parents outside of the usual gateway games. The goal is to help you find new and interesting games to play with your family and non-gamer friends. While we all love the old standbys, variety is the spice of life.
As usual, I’ll start by giving you a quick summary of the game I chose, followed by my thoughts on why I thought it would be a good fit for a pair of non-gamers. Then my mother will close things out by letting you know how good she thought my selection was.
This game takes the same format as your standard escape room: you have 60 minutes to complete your mission by finding clues and solving puzzles. This game puts you in the role of having to find the cure for a werewolf virus.
When you to start the clock, you unpack the Escape Room in a Box to find a bevy of materials, papers, locked boxes and the like, all which provide clues to be used in solving a series of puzzles in some manner in order to proceed further into the game. Along the way, hints become available at specific time intervals if you get stuck on a specific puzzle. In the end, solving the culminating puzzle allows you to discover the cure to the lycanthropy and win the game. If time runs out, or if you use too many clues (and are honorable gamers) then the game defeats you and you turn into a werewolf.
The game begins with the English faction player(s) setting up the unsuspecting forces of England by placing plastic army figures throughout the map. Cities and towns have garrisons of units, but much of the countryside shires are barren of military force. The Viking player(s) will populate their first army led by the leader(s) represented through cards. Units are placed directly on the card if they are part of the leader’s army.
Kepler-3042 is played over 16 rounds in which players will compete to explore, colonize, and terraform various planets in the galaxy. The board is divided into three zones, with only the planets in the zone closest to Earth initially visible. The planets are spread around the board randomly, adding to the replay value of the game.
Each turn you can perform one of nine actions, optionally up to 2 bonus actions, and then move your ships. Available actions include building spaceships, generating resources, colonizing planets you have landed on, and terraforming planets you have colonized. You also have a technology board which to spend actions on, allowing you to upgrade your proficiency with various technologies, effectively powering up future actions. Progress on the technology track becomes crucial to unlock your ability to travel faster, exchange goods between planets, and produce on and terraform your colonies.
The animals have gathered for a music festival to all play their part in this special event. In the deck, there are five suits of different colors numbered 1-8. The main idea of the game is to try to play all the musicians to complete a grid of 5 rows and 10 columns with each row making up one of the colors in the deck. Seems like a simple task, but the restrictions on how those cards can be played is where the game begins.
Santorini is primarily a 2-player game, pitting players in a contest of skill to see whose workers can build a tower and ascend to the top of it. Variant rules for 3 and 4 players are included.
Finished! is a solitaire hand-management/deck-sorting puzzle game. The goal is to sort the deck in ascending order from 1-48 before you run out of coffee.
Ex Libris is a worker placement/set collection hybrid that also manages to include a spatial element in the gameplay. You’d think that this might be one mechanism too many, but it all works well together.
In Ex Libris, you are trying to win the coveted position of Grand Librarian. This position is awarded to the person with the best library. To win the job, you’ll have to send yourself and your assistants out into the world to source the finest books. Once you’ve got them, you have to shelve them in order, create strong bookshelves to hold them, and make sure you feature prominent works and avoid banned books. Plus, you want a variety of books to cater to all readers!
A casting call has gone out for the reality show “HUNGER”! Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? Do you have the wits to survive, with other participants, on a deserted tropical island? Or simply want to win $1,000,000? If so, HUNGER is searching for self-reliant contestants to attempt this bold adventure.
HUNGER: The Show is a fast paced family game with rich player interaction. To win, you have to predict your opponent’s actions. On the island, you can gather fruit and catch chickens to get more food. But to win, you also have to collect raft pieces. It’s a good thing that no one would ever think of stealing food and raft parts from other participants…
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