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Euphoria-a Dystopian Game Available to Kickstart

Posted by :rsearing On : May 19, 2013
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euphoria

Euphroia, from Stonemaier Games, is a new game being Kickstarted that combines elements of area influence, hand management and set collection.

Build a city, enhance allegiances, and expand control using worker dice in this dystopian-themed board game for 2-5 players.

The creators of the successful Kickstarter game, Viticulture, bring you a new dice worker placement game set in a dystopian future. Euphoria incorporates mechanical elements of Alien Frontiers, Tzolk’in, and The Resistance with thematic inspirations from dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, Wool, and Brave New World.

Viticulture enabled us to form a game company called Stonemaier Games. It’s a dream come true to design and publish board games, and we’re incredibly excited to have the chance to continue to bring memorable moments to tabletops around the world.

After many months of development, we put Euphoria through a worldwide, three-round playtesting gauntlet (Viticulture backers volunteered to do this) to hone the rules and mechanics. We’ve listed all playtesters in the rulebook to show our appreciation for the hugely positive effect they’ve had on the game.

We’ve put a significant amount of our time and personal funds into making Euphoria a polished, production-ready game. With a successful Kickstarter campaign, we’ll send the final files to Panda Games in June and aim for pre-Christmas delivery to all backers.

euphroia gameplay

For more details on the game you can visit their Kickstarter page here.

 

Eight-Minute Empire – Legends on Kickstarter

Posted by :rsearing On : May 18, 2013
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eight-minute empire

 

Eight-Minute Empire: Legends, by Red Ravens Games, is an expansion to Eight-Minute Empire and it’s available to Kickstart now.  Unlike other expansions, however, Legends can be a stand-alone game and offers cards with new special powers.

Just like the original board game, players take turns selecting a card from six displayed. The card has an action that the player takes immediately, and actions help players take over the map. But what is new and different in this version?

  • Instead of goods, cards now have special abilities! Special abilities give players unique advantages and ways to break the rules throughout the game.
  • Each card has a unique, beautiful illustration of a fantasy creature or location.
  • The game includes a modular board for increased variety.
  • New variants.

Is the game still playable in eight minutes? Yes, but only if you hurry! Eight-Minute Empire: Legends is the sequel to the super-quick area control game with tough decisions. It’s easy to learn and perfect for when you only have a few minutes.

Compatible with Eight-Minute Empire

Maps from Eight-Minute Empire and Eight-Minute Empire: Legends can be used interchangeably!

eight minute legends

For more details on the game, links on the downloadable rules files, and instructions on how to fund the project, you can visit their Kickstarter page here.

Civility Available to Kickstart

Posted by :rsearing On : May 18, 2013
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civilityCivility, from Bed Beard Games, is a mix of several different elements including city building, war games, civilization, and die rolling.  It’s available to Kickstart now.  The following are some details taken from their Kickstarter page:

Civility is a board game for 2 to 4 players where players get to pick a city to control. There are 5 cities to choose from – Early Men, Fantasy, Modern, Utopian, and Medieval (more with stretch goals).  Each city has 4 unique abilities and different starting strengths.

A few examples -
Fantasy’s magic abilities allow them to manipulate dice each turn.
Medieval was a dark time so their starting technology and health is very low but their army starts off strong.
Utopians are a peaceful and advanced bunch so their technology and education start off very high but their army is very low.

Different cities will require completely different strategies and planning.  This, along with different status goals needed to win each game makes for a vastly different experience each time you play Civility.

civility board play

 

What’s in the box?

  • 1 game board
  • 5 City boards
  • 5 Player boards
  • 2 Steal a Turn tokens
  • 2 Attack Anytime tokens
  • 1 Diplomat Token
  • 8 Bridge pieces (2 each x 4 different colors)
  • 3 d6 dice
  • 4 Status tokens
  • 5 Army pieces (1 representing each city)
  • 4 Saved Die dials
  • 6 Personal Status cards
  • 6 Perks cards
  • 101 Event cards
  • 24 Status cards
  • Rules

For more details, along with details on how to fund the project, you can visit the Kickstarter page here.

 

Batman Escape Designer Discusses Game

Posted by :rsearing On : May 18, 2013
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Batman Arkham Horror Escape

 

 

Matt Hyra, designer of Batman Arkham City Escape The Board Game (Cryptozoic Games), provides us with his take on various strategies to think about during game play.

MUTUAL STRATEGIES

On the board are 10 Riddler Trophy question marks. These represent hotspots on the board, not necessarily actual Riddler Trophies. Each player has a Set-up deck of nine cards that they shuffle and then deal five of them into a pool. Your cards are good for you and your opponent’s cards are not good for you. The Set-up cards consist of some Villains, Batman Allies, and various other things you might find in Arkham City. Both sets of Set-up cards have the same card-back, so when you shuffle the ten cards together, you won’t be able to tell them apart. These cards are then placed face-down onto the board, one per Riddler Trophy spot. Now there are some mysteries to uncover on the board, and you never know what you’re going to get. Well, that’s technically true, as they are random, but you can play the percentages…

batman arkham board

When Batman or a face-up Villain enters a space containing a Set-up card, it is flipped face up. If the first few cards that get flipped up are good for the other player, the odds are great that the next one that gets flipped will be better for the other player. This is a two-way street. If none of your Set-up cards have been flipped, get out there and reveal some cards, as they are bound to be good. Alternately, if you get lucky and flip 2-3 of your own cards, you might want to shy away from flipping more, as the odds are they will be good for your opponent.

VILLAIN STRATEGIES

The Villains get to go first. The Villains are a bit loony, so they don’t get consistent, reliable turns. The Villain player rolls 4 dice at the start of his turn. The six-sided dice have three Arkham symbols and three Bat symbols. The Villains always want to roll Arkham symbols and Batman always wants to roll Bats.

batman tiles

For each Arkham symbol the Villain player rolls, he gets to perform one action. I won’t into of the actions here, as it is covered in great detail in the rulebook. The Villain player is going to need to choose a strategy fairly quickly:

-Should I try to sneak past Batman, or should I make a run for it?

-Should I uncover Set-up card and possible take some hotages, or should I maneuver around the Set-up cards?

-Should I hold certain Villains in my hand to wait for better synergies to show up, or should I just get as many Villains onto the baord as possible to overwhelm the Batman?

A sneaky strategy means your Villains will want to stay face down for as long as possible. When you spend an action to move your face-down Villains, all of your face-down Villains get to move 1 space in any direction. That’s very efficient, but keep in mind that you may only use this action once per turn. Staying face down also allows you to spring some traps on Batman, if he stumbles onto certain Villains.

Making a run for it involves flipping your Villains face up so that they’ll move faster than face-down Villains. When you use an action to move a face-up Villain, that Villain moves up to 2 spaces. However, only one Villain moves, not all of your face-up Villains. In order to stay mobile, you will want to avoid taking Hostages. When a Villain enters the same space (or uncovers) a Batman Ally, that Ally becomes a Hostage. However, if you want to drag that Hostage out of Arkham, your Villain will only move 1 space instead of 2. They just won’t come willingly! However, a Villain can abandon a Hostage at any time and continue moving 2 spaces at a time instead. Note that a Villain may only move once per turn, so you can’t run all the way across the map in one turn. This strategy is probably best employed when you have several high value Villains on the board. Each Villain has a Victory Point value between 1 and 3. If the Villain escapes, the Villain player scores that many VPs. If Batman captures it, Batman scores that many VPs.

Holding onto Villains in your hand, waiting for the right moment is a more advanced strategy. The Penguin works very well with Henchmen. Hugo Strange works well with Lunatics. Poison Ivy will allow you to flip some of your Villains face down, which is great for Villains who work like traps when Batman uncovers them. This strategy can be very rewarding, but just look out if your opponent has employed the Cryptographic Sequencer!

To read more you can visit Cryptozoic’s website here.

City of Remnants FAQ Posted

Posted by :rsearing On : May 16, 2013
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PlaidHatGames

 

Plaid Hat Games posted a City of Remnants FAQ up on their website. Here’s more information:

City of Remnants | 2013-05-15

Good news for you fans of City of Remnants: the first version of the FAQ is now available.

Go to the Games tab above, and click on City of Remnants, then click on Support, and you can download both the rules and the FAQ there.

Thanks to all those who contributed to this FAQ.  If you have further questions, you can discuss them in the CoR rules forum.

Thoughts on the Publishing Process

Posted by :rsearing On : May 16, 2013
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game of marketing banner

A Game of Marketing posted an article regarding thoughts that come up during the publishing process.

How do you figure out how many games to publish? And why does it matter?

There are a few ways to come up with this number, but you should do your homework, because getting it wrong can really screw you.

Make too many, and you’ve locked in your money. And you’ll also have a garage full of games.

Make too few, and you’re leaving money on the table. Meanwhile people who would have bought your game, if there was one on the shelf, have now bought a different game.

Maybe in six months when your next run is done and shipped, they might be interested in buying one then. If they haven’t forgotten about your game or moved on to the next new hot game.

In a practical sense there are two approaches, okay, well, three, to use to determine how many games to produce.

1. Make something up. (AKA “WAG” – or “wild-assed guess).
2. Economic/financial approach. How much money do you have to spend and other factors.
3. Market driven approach. How much market demand is there over a certain period of time.

For more details on the approaches, you can visit A Game of Marketing’s website here.

CBS News Satirical Look on Gaming

Posted by :rsearing On : May 16, 2013
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cbs nes

Now here’s an interesting article on CBS News of all places.  This clip takes a look at the ever-increasing popularity (and complexity) of board games.

(CBS News) There’s been quite a resurgence in board games recently, particularly European board games like Settlers of Catan. And while your blogger here is a huge fan of the revival, there’s something to be said about the increasingly complicated nature of some of them. So go ahead and watch that aforementioned “something” in the form of a satirical sketch above.

Alright, let’s get this game started now! Combining elements of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Settlers of Catan, Mousetrap (whose contraption set-up still makes me shudder to think about) and more, the tongue-in-cheek poke entitled “Most Complicated Board Game Ever” was created by Rhett and Link, who have been featured many times previously on The Feed.

cbs video on gaming

You can click on the video above to watch the video.

Kickstart the Promised Land

Posted by :rsearing On : May 16, 2013
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promised land

Ok, so maybe just “Kickstart the upcoming game by Ragnar Brothers entitled Promised Land: 1250-587 BC.”  In Promised Land, players will engage area control and influence mechanisms all while dealing with fighting and economic aspects.

A history of the Promised Land from Joshua through to the Babylonian captivity. Smite the enemy and develop Farming, Trade and Culture.

Although we have been designing and publishing our own games for over 25 years we have always had to produce them on a shoestring budget. You may have played some of our games, such as History of the World, Angola, Kings and Castles, Canal Mania, Viking Fury and Workshop of the World. Over the years we’ve aspired to improve the components quality to be on a par with professional companies and with ‘Promised Land:1250-587 BC’ we want to do just that. Raising funds through Kickstarter will allow us to give you a game that not only plays well and delivers fun and game play satisfaction (these don’t always go hand in hand) but also looks and feels great! We know what it’s like to open a game and go “Ooh! Great map, terrific meeples!”. That’s what we want for our games and of course that costs money on a limited run of 1000 games.

If we can raise the £10,000 (money we really do not have ourselves) we can put first-class artwork into the map and cards; put 45 wooden as well as card playing pieces into the deluxe edition and include a giant Ragnar Brothers cloth map in the super deluxe edition!

promised land board

For more details on the project, as well as funding options, click here to visit their Kickstarter page.

Bombat’s Admiral on Kickstarter

Posted by :rsearing On : May 16, 2013
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admiral

Bombat Games is proud to announce the Kickstarter event for Admiral, a naval war game which includes dice rolling, modular boards, and grid movement.

First of all, it is officer of the Russian Imperator’s Fleet V. Voyt who published the rules of the naval game developed by him in the ‘Naval magazine’ in 1848. Please use the link if you want to learn some more about his work. The second person, V. Golitsyn, a descendant of a noble prince family, while being a seaman and a painter, offered rules of the ‘Pirates’ game for publication in 1935. Unfortunately, publication was not realized. Vladimir Golitsyn died in Stalin’s prisons. The third one, children’s literature writer A. Orlov (the author of the previously-mentioned article in a children magazine of 1980), found the rules of a naval game in a book during World War II (according to his words) and described them in a magazine without changes. We still don’t know now who developed these rules but continue our search and hope to learn it in the future.

We successfully published the basic set of Admiral in the Ukraine in 2012. A lot of ideas on project development arose during our communications with our customers. With your help we can present the project in the USA, Europe and other regions, and produce extensions and developments for the game system.

Admiral is a board game system which allows simulation of the large naval battles of the sailing epoch. Skirmishes can be simulated between ships and also between flotillas. For this reason we provide 24 ship miniatures of sailing ships in the basic Admiral set. Miniatures are made from different-colored plastics, assembled and fully ready for the game in a basic set.

bombat admiral

admiral components

 

To find out more about the game you can visit their Kickstarter page here.

Kickstart 2nd Edition of Snowdonia

Posted by :rsearing On : May 16, 2013
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snowdonia

Snowdonia, from Indie Boards & Cards, is a worker placement and hand drafting game that was originally released in 2012.  This Kickstarter campaign is here to produce a 2nd edition that will add new miniatures as well as an expansion.

We are very excited to announce a collaborative effort with Tony Boydell and Surprised Stare games to make this fantastic worker placement game more readily available for everyone to enjoy – and this isn’t just a reprint, the 2nd edition of Snowdonia will feature highly detailed railworker miniatures.

snowdonia mini

Snowdonia is a very fast playing worker placement game – my personal favorite in the genre, that is why I approached Tony & team to help publish the 2nd edition of the game.  Easily playable in under an hour, and with options for solo play – Snowdonia packs a lot of punch into a short play time with no downtime.  The event tracks & weather mechanics are quite innovative, and they both force you to keep on your toes and ensures a high degree of replay value (before you even consider the mini-expansion (Ffestiniog) included in the base game and the Jungfrau/Mt. Washington expansions that are also available in this project).  In sum I love this strategic & surprisingly thematic worker placement game and really want to see it get the attention that it deserves!

At the same time we are releasing the 2nd Edition of Snowdonia, we are also introducing an Expansion consisting of two new scenarios for advanced players.

snowdonia expansion

You’ve forged your way up Mount Snowdon and built the Ffestiniog Railway – now try out two new peaks! Use excessive dynamite to blast your way through the Eiger, up to the Jungfraujoch (the highest railway station in the world) and on to the Sphinx Observatory. Or climb Mount Washington by building the Cog Railway from Marshfield Station to the Summit. On both these routes snow will be a new hazard, forcing the labourers to dig out track and station sites after snowstorms, but both offer interesting and challenging new mechanisms for the railway building teams. There are new trains, including the Snowplow, Foundry Loco and Old Peppersass, the first locomotive made for the Mount Washington Cog Railway, which gives you a discount on hauling stone up the mountain.

To learn more about the project, as well as fund it, you can click here to head over to the Kickstarter page.