They call me the breeze. I keep blowin' down the road.
The wind is a wild and fickle thing. Sometimes, we're happy for a cool breeze on a hot day. Other times, it's a hurricane gale destroying all ar
They call me the breeze. I keep blowin' down the road.
The wind is a wild and fickle thing. Sometimes, we're happy for a cool breeze on a hot day. Other times, it's a hurricane gale destroying all around us. Arcane Wonders is bringing the wind to Onitama. The new expansion, Way of the Wind is coming next month. In this preview, we get a look at how you have to both deal with and can harness the wind in the game.
From the post:
The second Arcane Wonders launch coming October 31st to local game stores near you or available to PRE-ORDER NOW at the Arcane Wonders web shop, is the next expansion for Onitama!
“Once again, rival schools have made the treacherous journey through the mist-shrouded mountains to the shrine of Onitama. But something is different this time… their activity has attracted the attention of a Wind Spirit!”
ONITAMA: WAY OF THE WIND
In Onitama: Way of the Wind, an indomitable force, the wind spirit, will be interfering with the rival schools that are competing at the ancient shine of Onitama. This expansion, that requires the base game Onitama to play, creates a new layer of interaction and tactics in the game.
Hey everyone,Sorry about the posts the other day. As I'd mentioned previously, I wasn't at the office the last couple days. And, well, you know the old saying, "if it isn't one thing, it's another"? T
Hey everyone, Sorry about the posts the other day. As I'd mentioned previously, I wasn't at the office the last couple days. And, well, you know the old saying, "if it isn't one thing, it's another"? That kinda sums up my last 2 days. Not anything godawful, but just... "well... ok, then." So, you kinda got a quick bit of stories this morning, and with the Review Roundup, hopefully we'll be back on track here.
Anyway, today we have: Ganz Schon Clever, Getaway Driver, Onitama: Sensei’s Path Expansion, Impulse, Alien Artifacts, and Tadmor.
If you follow along with board gaming news, you might have been scratching your head at the announcement of the “roll and write” game Ganz schön clever being nominated for the “gamers game” award, the Kennerspiel des Jahres. “They nominated a game like Yahtzee?” you might ask. But you’d be selling this game short.
Much like the popular Bruno Cathala game Mr. Jack, Getaway Driver is an asymmetric two-player game where one player is trying to catch the other. But that’s where the similarities end. In Getaway Driver, The Police chase The Driver through an ever-evolving map, trying to corner them before they can escape.
Ontitama: Sensei’s Path comes in an adorable little mini box that mirrors the larger one of the base game. It contains 16 new movement cards that will fit into the original box. Four symmetrical (green) actions are added, and 6 each opposing asymmetrical (red and blue) movements. These are shuffled together with the original cards during set up, adding additional movement types to the game. No rules changes or additional components are added, just more movement abilities.
Each player in Thanos Rising will control their own team of Marvel superheroes and starts with one character: Captain America, Gamora, Dr. Strange, or Black Panther. At the beginning of the game, you will roll four dice each turn, but as you recruit additional heroes you will gain additional dice and abilities.
Impulse is a space game that has you exploring planets, researching technologies, blasting enemies, and mining for resources. To understand the game is to understand the impulse. The impulse is central a row of up to 4 cards that dictate the actions of every player’s turn. You will activate the cards in the impulse one at a time in the order in which they were added to the impulse. Nearly every action you do in the game revolves around the cards in the impulse.
The goal of Alien Artifacts is to create the greatest most powerful space empire. Earn points by building ships, developing technology, and settling planets. Also by attacking other players and alien civilizations, and by scoring operational technology cards which require specific arrangements of elements within your empire. Each player’s civilization also has a unique way of scoring points.
Tadmor is an intense worker placement game about epic journeys, trading and personal prestige across the dangerous and endless caravan routes of the Syrian Desert.
Players take the role of rich merchants based in Tadmor (also known as Palmyra). They will increase in power and prestige by expanding their trading routes and by contributing to the political and religious life of the city. In the game, a merchant’s success is measured in Prestige Points. The winning merchant is the one who scores the most Prestige at the end of the game.
Hey everyone,Sorry about the posts the other day. As I'd mentioned previously, I wasn't at the office the last couple days. And, well, you know the old saying, "if it isn't one thing, it's another"? T
Hey everyone, Sorry about the posts the other day. As I'd mentioned previously, I wasn't at the office the last couple days. And, well, you know the old saying, "if it isn't one thing, it's another"? That kinda sums up my last 2 days. Not anything godawful, but just... "well... ok, then." So, you kinda got a quick bit of stories this morning, and with the Review Roundup, hopefully we'll be back on track here.
Anyway, today we have: Ganz Schon Clever, Getaway Driver, Onitama: Sensei’s Path Expansion, Impulse, Alien Artifacts, and Tadmor.
If you follow along with board gaming news, you might have been scratching your head at the announcement of the “roll and write” game Ganz schön clever being nominated for the “gamers game” award, the Kennerspiel des Jahres. “They nominated a game like Yahtzee?” you might ask. But you’d be selling this game short.
Much like the popular Bruno Cathala game Mr. Jack, Getaway Driver is an asymmetric two-player game where one player is trying to catch the other. But that’s where the similarities end. In Getaway Driver, The Police chase The Driver through an ever-evolving map, trying to corner them before they can escape.
Ontitama: Sensei’s Path comes in an adorable little mini box that mirrors the larger one of the base game. It contains 16 new movement cards that will fit into the original box. Four symmetrical (green) actions are added, and 6 each opposing asymmetrical (red and blue) movements. These are shuffled together with the original cards during set up, adding additional movement types to the game. No rules changes or additional components are added, just more movement abilities.
Each player in Thanos Rising will control their own team of Marvel superheroes and starts with one character: Captain America, Gamora, Dr. Strange, or Black Panther. At the beginning of the game, you will roll four dice each turn, but as you recruit additional heroes you will gain additional dice and abilities.
Impulse is a space game that has you exploring planets, researching technologies, blasting enemies, and mining for resources. To understand the game is to understand the impulse. The impulse is central a row of up to 4 cards that dictate the actions of every player’s turn. You will activate the cards in the impulse one at a time in the order in which they were added to the impulse. Nearly every action you do in the game revolves around the cards in the impulse.
The goal of Alien Artifacts is to create the greatest most powerful space empire. Earn points by building ships, developing technology, and settling planets. Also by attacking other players and alien civilizations, and by scoring operational technology cards which require specific arrangements of elements within your empire. Each player’s civilization also has a unique way of scoring points.
Tadmor is an intense worker placement game about epic journeys, trading and personal prestige across the dangerous and endless caravan routes of the Syrian Desert.
Players take the role of rich merchants based in Tadmor (also known as Palmyra). They will increase in power and prestige by expanding their trading routes and by contributing to the political and religious life of the city. In the game, a merchant’s success is measured in Prestige Points. The winning merchant is the one who scores the most Prestige at the end of the game.
Well, my previous plans for the day sort of fell through. No worries, though. The day will not be ruined.I might just see if my N64, that I brought back from my parent's place last time I visited, sti
Well, my previous plans for the day sort of fell through. No worries, though. The day will not be ruined. I might just see if my N64, that I brought back from my parent's place last time I visited, still works or not. If so, hello Ocarina of Time! But in the meantime, let's get you some reviews, shall we?
Today we have: Tides of Madness, Smiths of Winterforge, 3 Wishes, Garden Adventures, Top That, Happy Salmon, Kenjin, The Oracle of Delphi, Retreat to Darkmoor, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Escape From Colditz, and Onitama.
In Tides of Madness, players draft and play cards representing elder ones and places from the Lovecraftian mythos. This is in an attempt to combine suited cards and abilities, with the goal of accumulating the most victory points at the end of three rounds.
Players have to be careful as the more rewarding cards can cost players their sanity. Too much madness and players lose immediately. The player with the most victory points at the end of three rounds wins.
Players will move their agents to and from the precincts of Winterforge and attempt to complete contracts, recruit guild members, buy components, forge wondrous items, and ideally, be debt-free to gain the most reputation points (REP). The player with the most REP at game’s end wins.
In 3 Wishes, you and your friends have stumbled upon a lamp and decided to check if it was magical. Surprisingly, a genie popped out and offered to grant the owner three wishes. However, all of you are laying claim to this magical lamp. So to sort it out, the genie will only grant the wishes of the player with the most balanced set of wishes.
During the game, players will be trying to accrue one of each of the three types of wishes: a super power, a benefit for the world and a gift for yourself. However, since the cards are face down, you won’t always know what you are wishing for. During your turn, you’ll be peeking, swapping and even shuffling your cards. Once a player had decided that they have their three cards required to win the genie’s attention, they can call for the end of the game.
The game centers around the weather and managing of the garden tiles. Each turn, a player will roll a die to determine the weather for the round. Players will need the right amount of sun and rain to allow their garden to fully grow and attract the animals they need to win the game. The game will continue until a player has reached the necessary victory points to win the game.
Top That is a speed stacking game for two to four players. Each round players rush to arrange their pieces in a stack. The first to complete a predetermined number of arrangements first wins.
Each player receives a black top hat, a large red thimble, an orange tube, a green coin, and a white rabbit and lays out the pieces in front of them. Each round a card is flipped up.
Every player has a deck of cards in their chosen color. Your goal is to get rid of all of your cards before everyone else. The game is played in real time with all players acting simultaneously. You will take your deck in the palm of your hand and call out the action of the topmost card of your deck. If someone else calls out a matching action, you can perform the stated action together after which both players will discard that card and move on to the next. You can, at any time, take the topmost card and move it to the back of the deck in order to reveal the next card.
In Kenjin you take on the role of a feuding warlord in medieval Japan, marshalling your troops to control key battlefields like ports, bridges, camps and rice fields. Hey, gotta keep your army fed! The design is a standard “easy to learn, not-so-straightforward to play” card game in which cards represent units in your army of varying types, strength and abilities that interact wildly different with each other. When all the cardstock and blood settles, victory is determined by securing points at various locations through simple area control that, again, proves not so simple after all.
theMCGuiRE review takes a look at Escape From Colditz a brand new board game out of Osprey Games. Man these guys are killing it right now with all their new games to the market. I have been so impressed with their ability to continue and deliver solid titles with very high quality components. this game features a World War II theme and allied POW forces trying day and night to escape from the infamous Castle Colditz, the inescapable German POW war prison.
This game is based on real life events and designed in partnership by one of a hand full of people to actually escape the prison Major Pat Reid! Unbelievable story and history all wrapped up in one tabletop experience. So start thinking and planning your every move to even try and escape Castle Colditz!!
I love microcosms. Take the classic WWII German submarine movie, Das Boot. There is an inescapable immersion generated by the cramped quarters, the interplay among the submariners, and the life and death struggles that demand excellence and cohesion in crisis after crisis. Since prisons practically define microcosms, I’ve had my eyes on Escape from Colditz by Osprey Games since the reprint was announced last year. (The original game was published in 1973.)
Escape from Colditz allows players to immerse themselves in the historic escape attempts by the multi-national groups of POW’s secured inside the walls of Colditz Castle during WWII.
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