Nemesis

Woo! Saturday!
And I'm finally mostly over being sick. You never realize just how much you are thankful that you can breathe through your nose or take a couple breaths without coughing until that's exactly the opposite of how you're doing. Ah well. While I groove along to The Guess Who (because why not?), let's get you some gaming reviews.

This week, we've got: 51st State Master Set, Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle: The Monster Box of Monsters, Arkon, Pockety Odyssey, Noises at Night, Siege Storm, Rambo: the Board Game, Hardback, Voodoo, Palette Swap, Vast: The Crystal Caverns, Pryamids, Kingsburg (2nd Edition), Crossfire, Through the Desert (Euro Classics Edition), Nemesis, Bad Squiddo Games Onna-bugeisha, and Test of Honour: Ninjas of Iga Warband.



Play Board Games:

51st State Master Set Review

51st State Master Set is the latest version of the game. It streamlines some rules and makes the game easier to teach.

Betrayal at Baldur's Gate Review

In Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate something evil is rising up in the city and you must get to the root of it. But beware it might just possess you.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shadows of the Past is a one versus all miniatures skirmish game. Up to four players take on the roles of the Turtles and face off against the player using the forces of evil.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle: The Monster Box of Monsters Review

The Monster Box of Monsters is the first expansion for Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. It adds more difficulty and more content, including a new Hero to help you and creatures to fight.

Undead Viking:

Arkon Review



Pocket Odyssey Review



Noises at Night Review



theMCGuiRE review:

Siege Storm Review

theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Siege Storm a brand new (super new) TCG out of Awaken Realms and designed by Marcin Swierkot. A very cool new take on a traditional card game. There are tons of TCG's out there and this adds to a market that is already saturated. Thing is....its different in many ways and feels like a completely different experience than your standard run of the mill TCG's. Its not just the fantastic artwork but the game play mechanics and layout of the cards really feel like much more than your standard card game. Excellent design and very fun, versatile, and quick experience! Well done Marcin!

Rambo: The Board Game Prototype Review

theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Rambo The Board Game a brand new one from Everything EPIC, which is currently in kickstarter (upon uploading this video) and the link is below! Here you will find a very nice and fun easy tactical miniatures war game. Simple mechanics and combat keep this title a really good gateway for anyone and the missions are based on the movies. I find the game has excellent theme and you really feel as though you are on a mission in the jungle to bring justice! This is not one to miss and is a very fun mission by mission based game!

Board Game Quest:

Hardback Review

Hardback is essentially a race game to be the first player to earn 60 points. Each player starts with a 10 cards deck of letters, eight identical and two random ones.

Voodoo Review

Each player is trying to be the first to score 11 points by casting curses on the other players. To do this, players will first need to roll five dice. If you happen to roll the required ingredient for a curse, you can spend those dice to cast it onto another player and earn victory points. This will cause the player to do certain actions during the game, such as talk like a frog, cover one eye, or don’t let your feet touch the floor. If that player doesn’t follow the curse requirements, the casting player earns extra points.

Palette Swap Review

In Palette Swap, you attempt to complete your color schemes via mixing, matching, and trading colored cubes with other players. Each player is given a color palette and six color schemes to complete based on the colors contained on their palettes and other players. A small set of primary colored cubes represent your actions – swapping with other players, mixing yours and their colors, or gaining a cube of a color they possess. Once your palette and an opponent’s contain the right colors, you complete color scheme card. The first to complete all six of their cards wins.

Vast: The Crystal Caverns Review

Explaining the entire concept of the game involves a brief description of each of the five sides in play. In general, various creatures and/or heroes find themselves at odds inside a cave littered with crystals and treasures. Each side has a separate goal depending on which other sides are also in play. The general game structure is one of continuous rounds until one side fulfills their win condition.

Pyramids Review

Players in Pyramids are ancient Egyptian architects. They complete structures by acquiring building cards from a center pool and then adding them to various buildings, including a mandatory pyramid.

iSlaytheDragon:

Kingsburg (Second Edition) Review

Apart from the cosmetic changes in all new illustrations, a slightly redesigned board, revamped components and custom dice, this new edition from Z-Man Games plays exactly the same as the original. However, it also includes all five of the modules from the separate expansion To Forge a Realm (identical rules, as well), plus a couple of additional ones. These may be mixed and matched or thrown in all together as your heart desires – or the Queen demands.

Crossfire Review

Not to be confused with the action-packed disc-shooting game from the 1970’s (and yes there’s a new version in stores), or that other card game about futuristic agents and operatives, this Crossfire is a hidden role game set in the Specter Ops universe about agents and assassins and protecting a VIP.

Roles are dealt at the start of a round, but it’s not a straightforward deal. First everyone is given a role card (and a chance to look at it). Then everyone pass that card to the left and looks at their new role. Next, every 3rd player shuffles their role cards with their neighbors’ on either side, and deals them back out again – and finally, everyone has their final role.

Through the Desert (Euro Classics Edition) Review

Through the Desert is a network-building game for two to five players. Players are nomadic caravan leaders trying to connect their caravans to the most valuable desert territory (namely, oases and watering holes). The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Polyhedron Collider:

Nemesis Preview

The aim of the game is to get home, ensure the navigation computer is pointing in the right direction, make sure the engines are working and get back in the hibernation pods before the ship jumps to hyperspace. I think. One of my initial problems with the Nemesis prototype is that although the rulebook is by no means awful, it appears to leave a lot of aspects of the game open to interpretation, and appears to be missing some rules completely. Now we are talking about a prototype game here, so it’s understandable that this is by no means the final rulebook, but it does make providing my thoughts on the game rather problematic.

Meeples & Miniatures:

Bad Squiddo Games Onna-bugeisha Review

Bad Squiddo Games have released the first three packs of what promises to be an expanding range of Onna-bugeisha miniatures for Feudal Japan.

Test of Honour: Ninjas of Iga Warband Review

Ninjas of Iga is the latest box set of miniatures to be released by Warlord Games for their Test of Honour Samurai skirmish game – it is the second box set they have released which includes all new metal miniatures.

Do you know what nemesis means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent, personified in this case by a 'orrible bear, me.
Or, in this particular instance, Nemesis means a new semi-cooperative sci-fi board game that's tearing up the funding over on Kickstarter. Take on the role of a crew member looking to survive horrific aliens while also trying to complete your own, secret goal that may not jive with what your other crew members are trying to do.


From the campaign:

Welcome to the world of Nemesis! This new board game, designed by Adam Kwapi?ski, is the result of a collaboration between Awaken Realms (creators of This War of Mine: TBG, The Edge: Dawnfall and Lords of Hellas) and Rebel (creators of Drako, Dream Home and K2) . It's a 1-5 players semi-cooperative Sci-Fi horror where you and your friends try to survive while attempting to fulfill your secret objectives that may sometimes collide. It will also enable full co-op as well as solo play experience.

Nemesis offers one-of-a-kind gameplay, that you currently won't find anywhere else in the board game world. It has been in professional development for over three years, so it already plays very well, provides good balance and contains a multitude of interesting mechanics, as proven by the prototype reviews below.

If you like Sci-Fi survival settings and ships swarming with alien life forms, you will love it - and if that genre was never on your radar, this game is likely to change your mind!

The campaign's already raised over $2mil, so I'd say things are going well. There's still 16 days to jump in, if you want.

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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:

Nemesis Review

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.

Everdell Review

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.

Board Game Quest:

Fox in the Forest, Hamsterrolle, and Codenames: Disney Review

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.

Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Project Review

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.

878: Vikings Review

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 Review

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.

Okey Dokey Review

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.

iSlaytheDragon:

Santorini Review

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! Review

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 Review

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!

Board to Death TV:

Hunger: The Show Review

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…

As the month draws to a close, we see that it's time once more for Zenit Miniatures to post up their new releases for both of their minis games, Kensei and Nemesis (which always makes me think of the line, "Do you know what nemesis means?" But that's me). There's several releases for each game, so let's go take a look.




Starting out with Kensei, there's four new releases. We've got an Assassin (in very stylish hat), Ikame Bo (and his prayer beads), Kengo (and his nice set of swords), and the Kuro (and their hos).



After that, we've got a pair of Nemesis releases in the form of a Druid and Luna, the Moon Dream Weaver (Dreeeeeeeam weaver!... now that's stuck in my head).

You can pick up all of these over in the Zenit Miniatures webshop.

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Zenit Miniatures has their latest releases for both Kensei and Nemesis available over in their webshop. So whether you want your fantasy with a Far-Eastern flavor or more of a ... I'm not exactly sure what sort of flavor Nemesis is... It's really kind of its own thing... but anyway... If you want either, you've got some options over in the Zenit Miniatures webshop.




For Kensei, there's a new set of cavalry as well as a Samurai Painting Kit (so they're not all Silver Samurai, if you know what I mean... get it? ... get it?... anyway...). As for Nemesis, there's the new Watchtower (it's a character, not a terrain piece) and a Great Swordsmith (as opposed to just the "mediocre swordsmith").

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Zenit Miniatures is running a special Christmas sale over in their webshop. Until the 5th of January, creatures for both Nemesis and Kensei are all 15% off. So whether you're looking for some far-eastern spirit beast or a fantasy realm monstrosity, both are on sale in the Zeni Minis webshop.

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From the sales sheet:

Christmas offer 15% discount in Némesis and Kensei Creatures

Zenit Miniatures made it through another stretch goal over on their Nemesis Kickstarter campaign.
Note: floating, topless women minis/artwork through the link.



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From the update:

36K Stretch Goal Unlocked!
This free miniature is now yours! Thanks for your help and support.

NEXT STRETCH GOAL 39K: 1 Extra Hero Miniature in every Core Set.

Zenit Miniatures added a new pledge level to their Nemesis Kickstarter campaign where you can get 3 core sets for the game.



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From the update:

We have made a new level. This level is 205 for early birds. Thank you all for your support!

Zenit Miniatures is already more than 4x funded for their Nemesis expansion Kickstarter campaign. Go check out the stretch goals already passed.



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From the campaign:

The legendary Heroes are here. You can add one of them to your pledge at the price of 4£.

Thanks to all of you for your suport!

Zenit Miniatures launched their Kickstarter campaign for Rise of the Juggers, a new expansion for their Nemesis minis game.



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From the campaign:

It is our pleasure to present you our new crowdfunding for the Zenit Miniatures’ Nemesis range of models. In this new adventure, and with your help, we intend to make Juggers large creatures which to expand the game with. Moreover, we will also focus on the creation of two new factions: the Exiled and the Nephalites. As well as the creation of the new War Machines.

All of these elements will be done if its GOAL is reached, and on the way to reach them there will be more strech goals. Once we meet all the GOALS we will add more strech goals until the end of the campaign. We hope that you will like them and we are open to your advices, as always.

Zenit Miniatures has posted up their January releases for Nemesis over on their website. Go check 'em out.



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Zenit Miniatures is showing off the next releases slated for Kensei and Nemesis.



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Zenit Miniatures has announced that a new hardcover rulebook for Nemesis 2.0 will be coming out next month.



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From the announcement:

As part of the Nemesis we contact you to introduce you the new Nemesis 2.0 which will be released on the 25th of November.
We have been working for a long time in this renovation because it affects almost every aspect of the game, from its rule to the models, but taking care not moving away from the special aesthetics and setting of this universe

Zenit Miniatures has about a week left on their Indiegogo campaign and a lot still to make it to their funding goal. To help out, they've posted up the green for the Nephalite they're working on.



From the update:

first photos of the Hero Nephalites in progress.

Zenit Miniatures updated their Nemesis Indiegogo campaign with a look at some completed and painted model pics.



From the update:

we add the army box of Rocavivas, be the first to have the watchtower, and also you can see the Great gladiator of the cult painted.

Zenit Miniatures updated their Indiegogo campaign to make it more desirable for those of you currently playing Nemesis by letting you swap out the starter for other minis worth equal cost.



From the update:

For those who have been playing Nemesis for a long time, and have their own armies, the usual starter packs’ content of every perk can be replaced by other 6 or less miniatures, of similar price ($45). Same with army boxes ($110). That way, also our old friend will be able to help us to get our GOAL. Only have to go to our Online Store to choose your miniatures.

Zenit Miniatures still has a long way to go with their Indiegogo campaign. To help out, they've posted up some new art and greens in their gallery.



From the update:

We added two new designs and two miniatures finished our IndieGoGo campaign

Zenit Miniatures has added some more perks to their stretch goals over in their Nemesis Wargame Indiegogo campaign.
Note: Topless women art on their main page.

We added more gifts at our IndieGoGo campaign If we reach 4000$, all perks of I want to Fight an higher will get “The Preacher” the first Nephalite miniature for free.

If we reach more than 6000$, all perks of I want my ARMY an higher can get for free one extra miniature among Great Gladiator, Flautist, Sword woman, Soul slayer and Rocaviva heroine. If your perk includes more than one army box you can choose one miniature for each Army box you get.

Zenit Miniatures has started an Indiegogo campaign looking to fund a new edition of their Nemesis minis game and the Nephalites army.



From the campaign:

After three years of creating hundreds of groups of players, more than one hundred and fifty models, we have begun to prepare the second edition of our rules book, (Spanish and English) but now we would like to make it with full color illustrations.

Apart from that, we want develop a new race for this game "The Nephalites". This campaign has also the objective make this new race real.

To do this, we need your help in funding the necessary work of making models and illustrations, join us to keep creating the universe of Nemesis and continuing its development.

Zenit Miniatures, while working on Kensei, still has some stuff going on for Nemesis. Here's what they've got in store.



From the release:

After a few months without new releases, here we are again to show you the new incredible miniatures for Nemesis.