There are a lot of holidays throughout the year (heck, as I mentioned earlier, it's one here today in the US). But there's only one holiday that's specifically all about gaming. And it's not just one
There are a lot of holidays throughout the year (heck, as I mentioned earlier, it's one here today in the US). But there's only one holiday that's specifically all about gaming. And it's not just one country's holiday. It's everyone's! It's International Tabletop Day. And it's been growing with every year. This year, you can even get some exclusive items. Just ask your FLGS to put their name on the list to get the box of goodies.
From the announcement:
This year, we’ll have five exclusive products you can buy at your friendly neighborhood gaming store on April 28:
A copy of Sparkle*Kitty with variant box art by Breaking Games Sagrada Promos by Floodgate Games Wonderland (an exclusive game) by Renegade Games Action Cats ITTD expansion by Twogether Studios ITTD Promo Pack by Fireside Games
If you want to pick them up on ITTD, make sure you tell your friendly local gaming store to order these items from their distributors by March 16 so they can have them in their stores the week of April 22. You can also remind your FLGS to register their ITTD even on TabletopDay.com to stay up to date.
Hey everyone! As you're reading this, I'm enjoying Day 2 of the CMON Expo. If you're in the Atlanta area, head down and check it out. It's a great time had by all. Can't make it? Be sure to check out
Hey everyone! As you're reading this, I'm enjoying Day 2 of the CMON Expo. If you're in the Atlanta area, head down and check it out. It's a great time had by all. Can't make it? Be sure to check out the TGN Facebook Page for updates about all the stuff going on here throughout the day. As for here and now, it's time for those game reviews I know you all love so much.
Today we have: Zombie Tsunami, Arctic Scavengers, Dastardly Dirigibles, Ivion, Darkrock Ventures, Battle for Greyport, Phalanxx, V-Commandos, Mangaka, Onirim iOS, Twenty One, 3 to 4 Headed Monsters, Neroshima Hex: Mephisto, Veggie Garden, Barcelona: The Rose of Fire, Dragoon, Path of Light and Shadow, Watson & Holmes, Steam Works, and Gyrating Hamsters.
Professor Phineas Edmund Hornswoggle, known for building the highest quality airships, has announced his retirement. As one of the greatest airship engineers in the kingdom, you have gathered at the Hornswoggle factory in a competition to build the best airships you can and become the successor to the Hornswoggle empire.
In Dastardly Dirigibles, you will build your airship from different parts of 9 beautiful suits. Each airship is made of 7 cards, each representing a different part of the airship, such as the nose cone or lift engine. Whenever you add a part to your airship, ALL players MUST add the SAME part, even if it means replacing an existing part.
Use Special cards to your advantage or to thwart your opponents. The round ends when the first airship is complete. But you score only the suit used most in your airship. The player with the highest score after 3 rounds wins!
Ivion combines the intensity of a fighting game with the strategy of deck-building card games to create an experience unlike any other. In Ivion, your deck IS your character.
Build your deck from a variety of Classes and Specializations, ranging from the brutal Giant to the occult Ebon Mage. Each character type has numerous cards to choose from, and wildly different play-styles. Mix and match them to create your own, unique character to fight with!
Upon the field of battle, crush your opponent with various strikes, stabs, slashes, spells and other mayhem at your disposal. Be careful, though–they have numerous ways to block, dodge, parry, fizzle and disrupt your assault.
Only one can be the victor, and the battle will be bloody.
Zombie Tsunami is a party game for 3 to 6 players that plays in under 30 minutes.
In the game, every player leads a horde of zombies storming the city. The winner is the one with the most zombies at the end of a 3 round game. But beware, humans are everywhere and they won’t let you win without a fight.
Players will have to collaborate, bluff, and sometimes betray one another in order to win the game!
Darkrock Ventures is a worker placement game about mining and exporting in a hostile outer space. Players will be controlling a mining company working in harsh conditions to acquire the most credits.
You and your adventuring companions are just returning to the bustling city of Greyport after your latest adventure. You are all looking forward to relaxing and spending some of your hard-earned loot at The Red Dragon Inn. The party will have to wait, though, because the city is under attack by evil monsters! Battle for Greyport is a cooperative deck-building game based on the characters and world of The Red Dragon Inn. You will travel to important locations around the city, fighting epic battles and recruiting whatever heroes and items you can along the way. Each encounter presents more opportunities to improve your deck, but also brings more dire foes for you to face! With five playable characters, seven different scenarios, and an assortment of variants, you can have a new game every time, adjusting the game’s difficulty as you improve. Will you defend the city from the monsters and defeat their nefarious boss, or will the city (and the tavern!) be overrun? The Red Dragon Inn: Battle for Greyport also contains two items for use with any of the standalone The Red Dragon Inn titles: Chronos the Time Mage character deck and Drog’s Special Reserve drink card.
Alexander the Great has conquered a vast empire, but his power is now waning and the time is ripe to compete for his inheritance.
Each player in Phalanxx leads one of four competing factions that are ready to rule that vast empire. To do this, you must become the most powerful faction by reinforcing your troops, ensuring sufficient supplies, and occupying the most important cities and oases.
Check out the unique dice drafting and dice management mechanism.
V-Commandos is a WW2 commandos co-operative board game. Players can either select a pre-generated mission or create their own by combining objective cards, then they assemble a team from famous Allied corps: U.S. Raiders, British SAS., Devil’s Brigade, SOE, etc. During play, you hide in darkness, wear enemy uniforms, and sneak up on your targets. Get spotted? Open fire with emblematic allied weapons and try to turn the enemy’s weapons against them! If you can, get back to cover and turn off the alarms as the enemy has more available troops than you. Thus, you need to focus on completing the mission, then leaving the area as quickly as you can
Mangaka: The Fast & Furious Game of Drawing Comics is a creative fast-paced card game in which players draw comic stories over four rounds combining Themes & an ever-growing number of Trends.
Players start by drawing three Theme Cards (such as “Kaiju/Giant Monsters”, “Robots and Androids,” or “Desire to be a Parent”) to determine the subject matter of their comic. (These three Themes stick with the player throughout the game. Many but not all of the Themes have a manga/anime/Japanese flavor.) Then each player chooses a title and “pen name.”
In Onirim, players are “Dreamwalkers” in a labyrinth. In order to escape, they must discover “oneiric” doors. There are 4 colors of doors and 2 of each color. As players play consecutive cards of the appropriate color and symbol, they unlock the doors. If a player manages to unlock all 8 doors, they win the game.
For a full reading of the rules to understand how complex the card manipulation can get, check out the rules on Z-Man Games’ website.
In Twenty One, players will roll six different colored dice and, depending on the result, write scores onto their sheet. Each sheet contains 6 rows and each player can only write a number the top-most incomplete row.
Players represent different heads of a monster rampaging through a city who must decide to be peaceful or dangerous. Through the course of the game, either the peaceful role player will win subtly or the dangerous players will win by deducing which player is peaceful. As players choose who will control the legs of the monster, they’re also determining the outcome of the game in a way similar to how The Resistance is played.
Neuroshima Hex: Mephisto comes in the standard Neuroshima Hex small-sized expansion box that you’ll immediately toss out once you open it. Like all Neuroshima Hex expansions, the main attraction here is the new army tiles.
Veggie Garden is a game about growing, well, a vegetable garden. Duh. The idea here, though, is that this is a community garden and while you’re trying to make it flourish for everyone, you want to have the richest personal harvest.
As the decision maker in an influential family, it is your goal to grow your wealth by constructing buildings while balancing the social unrest of the new immigrant population. The game is divided into five phases in which players take turns playing action cards and constructing buildings. There are three scoring periods in the game in which players will gain victory based on the type of buildings they’ve constructed. Whoever can collect the most points by game’s end is the victor.
In Dragoon, you take on the role of a dragon forced to deal with the arrival of humans. You’ll need to burn their cities to the ground, or at least subjugate them and take their gold. The first dragony player to reach 50 gold wins the game.
Picture the scene: you’re at a large convention at a popular UK site and you see through the crowd a man wearing a metallic owl on his shoulder, together in Victorian getup and an extendable spyglass fixed to the side of his head. On the streets, this kind of behaviour would usually result in a swift recapture followed by a series of injections and perhaps a straightjacket. In the safe and womb-like environment of the UK Games Expo however, it’s worthy of perhaps a gently raised eyebrow before being distracted by another miniatures vendor. Unless you’re me of course, where Steampunk holds a particular fascination ever since I donned the light gem and began a career as a thief in the PC game… er… Thief.
Here we have a fantastic card game for 2-4 players, it’s quick and easy to learn, 20 minutes play time and the most fun you’ll have with hamsters legally!
Gyrating Hamsters is bought to you by a team composed of Alex & Rebekah Host and Andrew & Allison Gerbsch, all hailing from Tenessee U.S.A.
Weeeeeeeekeeeeeeeend!Wooooooooo!Always a fan of the weekend, as you all know. Today I'm just kind of hanging out before going to a friend's birthday party later. Should be a good time had by all. But
Weeeeeeeekeeeeeeeend! Wooooooooo! Always a fan of the weekend, as you all know. Today I'm just kind of hanging out before going to a friend's birthday party later. Should be a good time had by all. But at the moment, I'm bringing you those review articles that I know you so desperately desire.
Today we have: Mechs vs. Minions, Gorechosen, Star Trek: Panic, Happy Party, Hit Z Road, Dastardly Dirigibles, Loony Quest, Eclipse, Battle of the Bands Review, The Pioneers Program, Pocket Quest, Oh Gnome You Don't, and Arena of the Planeswalkers: Shadows Over Innistrad Expansion.
In Star Trek: Panic, players must work together to guide the U.S. Enterprise through its five-year journey. Each player will take on the role of one of the iconic crew members of the Enterprise, each with their own special ability.
Each round players will be fighting off threats to the ship, maneuvering the enterprise, and possibly playing cards to try to complete a mission. If the players can compete five missions before the Enterprise is destroyed, they win!
In Happy Party, each player has a wish list of four presents that they want for their birthday. On their turn, a player will roll dice and try to blow out the matching candles. If successful, they can hunt for their presents. The first player to get all four of their presents wins.
Hit Z Road is an auction and dice rolling game revolving around your group of survivors traveling from the Midwest to Los Angeles while trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. No, I am not making this up as I go.
In Dastardly Dirigibles, players are trying to assemble the most valuable airship each round. On their turn, players will be drawing cards into their hand, playing cards onto their airship, or possibly using action cards. A player will earn points by creating their airship with as many cards with matching suits as possible. After the game’s three rounds are over, the player with the most points is the winner.
Loony Quest is a drawing game for two to five players. Players earn points by drawing lines and dots on transparencies and comparing them with the objects on the level board. At the end of six levels, the player with the most points is the winner.
Each player receives a mat, a transparency, and a dry erase marker and chooses a scoring token. Players choose from one of seven worlds, and players begin.
Eclipse is a 4x game set among the stars. 4X: Expansion, Exploration, Exploitation, and Extermination. Players will start with tiny empires and build their way into massive, sprawling federations as they spread across the stars. They’ll need to build up production and science in addition to a sustainable economy so they can advance their technology and build powerful ships that can compete in the galactic arena. Otherwise, they’ll risk being cut off from the rest of the galaxy, or worse, wiped out completely.
Battle of the Bands relives the dream of every musician. You'll start small, with only your passion to fuel you and you'll buy equipment, practise your riffs and blend styles to go on tour and gain an army of loyal fans.
As part of the Pioneers Program you have been sent forth from the Arc to build a settlement and bring wealth and prosperity back to the wasteland, and to do this you'll need to accumulate four victory points or have the most victory points at the end of the game. The Pioneers Program has a variable game length but you'll always have two full rounds before the game ends, so there is a sense of urgency yet at the same time you have the opportunity to put one final plan into action.
Pocket Quest is a 6mm Dungeon Crawl game produced by Perfect 6 Miniatures and The Miniature Architect.
As you first look at it, this game is a thing of beauty. It comes in an MDF box which is just over 6? square – this doubles not only as the game box, but also as a ‘Boss’ room in the game.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Oh Gnome You Don't by Gut Bustin' Games. this is really a fun little classic path or track game. Its not your standard roll and move - there are some nice mechanics laid in that really make the game very fun to play. Love the artwork and simple but fun game play. Well done.
Shadows Over Innistrad is the second expansion for Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalkers. It adds more creatures, spells, terrain and scenarios.
So, since I spend all my regular workdays gaming, I will often step away from it on my time off. You know, you don't want to get burned out on a thing. However, last weekend and this, I've been all-ou
So, since I spend all my regular workdays gaming, I will often step away from it on my time off. You know, you don't want to get burned out on a thing. However, last weekend and this, I've been all-out gaming just about every chance I can! Last week was game day at the Milton, GA. library. Yesterday a friend came over for some Guild Ball. Today I'm headed to another friend's (and co-worker) house for more gaming, along with Italian beef and fresh-baked cookies.
So that's what I'm doing. How about you (besides reading this article)?
Speaking of this article, this week we have: Deadzone 2nd Edition, Manhattan Project: Chain Reaction, Mission to Mars, Tumult Royale, Expo 1906, The Cohort, MODX, The Siblings Trouble, Super Motherload, 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis, Fury Of Dracula, Dead of Winter, Potion Explosion, Dastardly Dirigibles, Apollo XIII, Snow Tails, Kune v Lakia, Deathbot Derby, Game of Train, and Ice Cool.
Mission to Mars 2049 is a light weight strategic family board game that keeps a dynamic game pace from the beginning till the very end. You start with a single base on the outside of the map and gradually build you colony larger one base at a time until you reach the North Pole of Mars and build a road through the polar ice cap. The player who builds the water extraction station on the center of the map first, wins the game. In order to do that you will need lots of resources (air, food and minerals) which you can acquire by building resource stations. Each time someone rolls that station on the game die, you get one card for each of the stations you have built for that resource.
In Tumult Royale, you play the royals. Round after round, you collect taxes from your subjects in order to build statues of yourself across the country, thereby securing your rank. If you leave enough commodities for the people after taxation, all is well and you can continue to build monuments to your own vanity. But if you take too much, the greediest of you will be punished. Who will build the most statues and win the game? Remember: the greedy shall rule, but the greediest is a fool!
In Expo 1906, players will win by totaling more prestige points at the end of the game than their opponents. Points are awarded for completing Projects which represent historical inventions of the period. To complete a Project, a player must purchase Resources and place them in a proper combinations together with a Project in his Laboratory. This is a challenging task as Projects come in many different shapes and must fit together with their resources in an already tight space. Soon the available room in the Laboratory will reduce and players will face the puzzle solving aspect of the game.
The Cohort is a fast-paced card game for 2-6 players in a race to be the first to assemble a Legion and show Caesar you are the greatest of his commanders.
In the abstract strategy game MOD X, each player has 14 game pieces and 18 score markers, with the goal being to reach an established number of points (determined by the number of players). Players take turns placing a game piece on the board and trying to create scoring patterns – an “X”, a “+”, or a line, with each pattern requiring five pieces – while simultaneously trying to block their opponents from scoring with these same patterns.
The Siblings Trouble is a card-driven, cooperative, storytelling game inspired by finding the mysterious places in your backyard.
The Siblings Trouble boils down all the core elements of an RPG (storytelling, exploration, discover, treasure, encounters, etc) into a fun-to-play narrative romp with your family or friends.
Super Motherload is a tile-laying deck-building game, which means that you have your own deck of cards from which you draw each turn. The cards in your deck start out very basic, but over the course of the game you add new and more powerful cards to it. You use these cards to bomb and drill minerals and other bonuses from the game board. You then use the minerals you’ve collected as money to purchase better cards for your deck. Some cards give you an immediate bonus when you purchase them, and some give you other bonuses when you use them to drill. Each card you purchase from your library is worth victory points (VPs). You can also gain VPs from achievement cards that become available throughout the game. Whoever has the most VPs at the end of the game wins.
13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis is a nail-biting, theme saturated two-player strategy game about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Your fate is determined by how well you deal with the inherent dilemmas of the game, and the conflict.
For those of you who are familiar with the Bram Stoker classic, Fury is pretty close to the book’s canon in terms of characters. Aside from the big D, the hunters consist of John Seward, Lord Godalming, Lady Harker and of course, Van Helsing. Although this time, he’s not an Aussie with a penchant for bearing his claws whilst riding a Harley.
Picture the scene; it's the middle of both a post-apocalyptic zombie invasion and the worst winter in recorded history, you're running low on everything from food to medicine and you come across a horse. A horse would be very useful for getting around town quickly, it's a majestic beast and for one to have survived this far into a zombie outbreak means it's a fighter, but it also represents a significant quantity of fresh protein and there's plenty of starving mouths to feed back at the colony. So what do you do?
This kind of decision is at the very heart of Dead of Winter, it's the crossroads element that turns it from a mechanical cooperative game of survival into a story. These difficult, morally ambiguous decisions don't come up as often as they should, but when they do they're often agonising. What did we do? Let's just say it was Findus Lasagne all round.
Try not to lose your marbles as you make spells in the great all-ages game, Potion Explosion! CMON Games and Horrible Games deliver a 30-minute light strategy board game that is fun, funny, and easy to learn.
You are an inventive engineer competing with other great tinkerers to create the world’s most Dastardly Dirigibles. The victor wins Hornswoggle’s factory – gears, cogs and clockwork casings! To stand out amongst your competitors you’ll build your airship using the most perfidious means you know – set collecting! Okay, so maybe that doesn’t sound terribly devious, but worry not. There are still ways to mag your foes and leave them bellows to mend as you snidely grin, wheezingly snicker and twirl your mustache!
Apollo XIII is, naturally, a cooperative game. Players represent mission control, and they must do everything they can to get the crew of Apollo XIII back home safely.
The game is divided up into 7 different historical stages, representing the various key events of the mission. You start before the launch, carrying through events including the explosion that started the crisis, failing to land on the moon, and the desperate crawl back home. (Spoiler alert: you can’t land on the moon).
Snow Tails overall theme and objective is straight-forward and unique. You lead a dog sled against other dog sled racers and see who the best is. Unfortunately, the race is set in the Arctic Circle and so your course is made of some unforgiving snow. Racers will be drifting back and forth, trying to stay on the course while avoiding other racers and obstacles to the finish line.
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