This week we see the return of some popular publishers in the Crowdfunding space. Druid City brings back Wonderlands War with an expansion. Bad Comet, creators of Wild Serengeti are back with Life of the Amazonia and Board Game Tables introduce their next trio of games to be re-released. Have a great week everyone.
The Looking Glass has shattered, madness is being drained from the inhabitants, and war has come to Wonderland. Alice, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, Jabberwock, and Cheshire Cat must gather all that they can while playing nice at the Hatter's Tea Party before going to battle!
In Wonderland's War, 2-5 players take the role as a faction leader who has been invited to the Hatter's tea party. Drink tea and eat cake as you move around the table drafting cards to gather your forces, build your towers, upgrade your leader, and recruit Wonderlandians to your cause — but one must be careful as shards of the Looking Glass are spread throughout Wonderland. Once all the plates are empty, the Tea Party is over and war begins. Use the forces you gathered to battle your enemies in familiar locations, but make sure not to draw your Madness chips or your supporters will abandon your cause and you will be out of the fight. Can you muster enough strength to win the battle, or will you just try to complete Quests instead by meeting the right conditions such as gaining region bonuses and set collection throughout the game?
After all the battles have been fought, a truce is called and everyone meets back at the tea party to plot their moves for the next fight. After three rounds, the faction with the most points will be crowned as the new leader of Wonderland!
A whimsical Japanese-themed playing card series featuring puzzles and animals galore.
You’ve been working as an engineer for a brilliant but very eccentric scientist and you’ve just discovered that the project you’ve been working on is not the climate change solution it was touted to be. It’s a Doomsday device!
You rush to tell your fellow engineers. They see your evidence and everyone agrees this could only mean one thing. Now you all have to escape his high-tech lab by working together and using your contributions to the project, so that you can tell others before it’s too late!
Suddenly, you hear the sounds of someone heading your way. It’s him. Frantically you each grab the circuitry you were working on and rush for the door. An announcement comes from overhead. "Fourteen minutes ‘til lockdown". You've got to get out, and fast!
Players work together by flipping, turning, rotating, and placing polyomino shaped circuit pieces to complete connections in each room to get one step closer to escape and then complete the tricky final circuit before you’re caught and run out of time. Hurry up! The clock is ticking! 14 Frantic Minutes is a real-time cooperative game. You all win or lose together.
Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay is the first game in the Wander series. A fully cooperative, campaign-driven, miniatures board game, Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay tells the story of 5 heroes from the Wanderer's Guild, and their struggle to free the small fishing town of Barnacle Bay from the slimy claws of Elder Bane. Driven mad by power, and physically twisted from dark magic, Elder Bane has created a cult of mutated townsfolk that only desire to spread their message of madness to the rest of the world, bending it to their whim along the way.
In Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay, players will select one of five unique heroes, outfit their hero with starting gear (represented by mini cards on a player dashboard), and join their friends to take back Barnacle Bay. Defeating foes and surviving random encounters earns players experience points and loot. Loot, like weapons and Armor, is a persistent upgrade, staying with the heroes as they continue on their adventure. Experience points are used to level up heroes during their current adventure in the campaign. A dual-facing upgrade tree allows players to continually try new combinations of skills each adventure to determine what fits their play style, or current set of foes, best.
Using a modular board, players assemble maps as indicated in the campaign book, then use action points to move or attack with their hero.
All enemies in the game are controlled by a simple line of sight A.I., and automatically hit the players' heroes once they're able to. This means there is no player rolling for success for enemies' attacks. Heroes will, however, be able to roll for defence in an effort to prevent incoming wounds. One set of custom dice determines a hero's success for both defending and attacking. Random encounter cards, which are revealed when players enter an unexplored "darkness" space, also promise that no campaign adventure is ever be the same.
In Dreams, is a slightly surreal storytelling game for one and the winner of the 2022 54-Card Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek. The core deck of In Dreams provides card-based journaling prompts with vivid imagery and evocative text to immerse you in a dreamworld you wouldn’t have otherwise imagined. 36 prompt cards each have 4 prompts on them, and a location on the back. 18 event cards have 3 events each, modified by six possible "tones". The cards chain together in interesting ways to create millions of potential unique encounters. The dreamscape is fluid and surreal. Close your eyes and let the dream carry you through worlds never before imagined...
In a dark and claustrophobic deep sea mining site, the uncovering of a mysterious “Sphere” is dragging everyone nearby into the endless madness. The fears deep within one’s mind are amplified and transformed into horrifying monsters from other dimensions, torturing one's body and testing their sanity. Only those with extraordinary will and conviction can escape its devastating grasp. Deep Madness is a fully cooperative board game for 1-6 players with 66 amazingly detailed miniatures, depicting a sci-fi horror world inspired by Lovecraft’s work and the Alien series. In the game, players assume the roles of investigators, venturing into the seemingly empty yet perilous deep sea mining site to find out the truth behind the lost contact event. Unimaginable horror and madness from the dark fear within is waiting.
Deep Madness is based on multiple scenarios from a continuous storyline. Each scenario has its own unique board setup, rules, special effects, and goals. From resolving fatal crises to struggling with overwhelming bosses, the investigators will face various quests filled with strategical decisions and fierce combat. With each scenario achieved, they are one step closer to the truth, but also one step deeper into the world of madness. Each scenario of the game plays in a limited number of game rounds, if the investigators fail to achieve the goals before the last round ends, the game is lost and everyone is consumed. Each game round consists of 4 phases: Devour Phase, Spawn Phase, Activation Phase, and Refresh Phase.
In Devour Phase, the Devour Marker progresses one step forward along the Devour Track, indicating the world going deeper into madness. As the Devour Marker progressing, more and more rooms (map tiles) are flipped to their madness side. These rooms will spawn monsters and provide various nasty effects to hinder the investigators or to boost the monsters.
In Spawn Phase, different types of monsters with unique abilities are spawned in the flipped rooms. Monsters do not show their existence in fixed locations, they could be spawned right next to the investigators if they ventured carelessly.
Activation Phase is the core of the game, the investigators and the monsters take turns to act alternately. Monsters do not wait for all investigators to finish their turns like in other cooperative games, but do act between them, so careless planning would put the investigators who are later in the turn order into grave danger, facing fatal attacks before they had a chance to act.
In Refresh Phase, some maintenances are performed, and some special effects are resolved.
In each investigator’s turn, it is crucial that the player chooses 3 actions to take wisely. Each kind of action has its own value, and every single decision could be life and death in Deep Madness. Unfortunately, the correct decision is rarely obvious. Moving, attacking, searching, exchanging items, locking the doors, and recovering sanity are the basic actions. Additionally, each investigator also has his/her own unique and irreplaceable abilities to activate. Different combinations of investigators provide distinctive strategies and game experiences.
Monster acts according to its own action pool during its turn. In Deep Madness monsters are highly characteristic, not just in stats, but also in abilities and behaviours. Different combinations of monsters provide unique challenges. And due to the intertwined activation mechanism, even different turn orders of the monsters make each game session different. However, no matter how the monsters setup is, Deep Madness will be a very challenging game, even death could be a strategy.
In the game, investigators battle the horrific monsters, survive the harsh crises, and above all, save their own minds from the devouring of madness. They are given many chances to consume their own sanity, to activate their abilities, to use the effects of items, to reroll the dice, and etc. However they are vulnerable when the sanity is low. After an investigator with insanity tokens manages to kill a monster, the monster will corrupt his/her mind, by permanently flipping the insanity tokens into madness tokens. As the madness token cumulates, horror haunts the investigator by resolving Madness Cards, and each of them has unique negative effect and terrifying flavour text.
7th Sea: City of Five Sails is an expandable card game set in the swashbuckling world of the 7th Sea roleplaying game by John and Jennifer Wick. Players control one of five factions as they fight to influence, control, and explore the independent and unruly city of Five Sails. It is typically played with two players, but multiplayer variants will allow more players to get into the game.
During the game, each player represents a leader who, along with their allies, explore locations and fight both with swords and with wits for overall influence over the city. Along with each player’s individual deck, 7th Sea: City of Five Sails also includes an element of randomness in the form of a separate, shared deck that represents the city itself with unusual characters, items, and events that change the focus of the game. Combat is resolved in a unique “back and forth” style reminiscent of challenging swordplay.
Mosaic: A Story of Civilization is a Civilization-Building game from Glenn Drover, designer of, among others, Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, Railways of the World, Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame, and Raccoon Tycoon.
Mosaic is an action selection game. On your turn, you will perform one of seven actions and acquire components.
Acquiring Components is important in creating the unique mosaic of your civilization. They are used as prerequisites for many new technologies, as well as for scoring. Also, by pursuing specialization in one or more Civilization Components, you may be able to claim a ‘Golden Age’ of that type.
As the game goes on and your Civilization grows, scoring cards are eventually revealed from the four decks. Each time a scoring card is revealed, your Civilization will score for each region that you dominate with your cities and military units. After the third scoring card is revealed, there is one final turn and the game ends. You will then score for your cities and towns, your wonders, projects, and golden ages, and for all of your cards that score for your unique Civilization Components.
Build your very own thriving jungle by discovering various wild animals, insects, and plants in this beautiful board game.
Life of the Amazonia is a strategic meeple placing game that combines bag building and pattern building. Players will restore land, place various animals, and plant trees and flowers to enrich their jungles and create the most ecologically rich jungle. Various lives must be placed in the jungle taking into account each unique characteristic of the plants and animals in order to create synergies within one another. To carry out these actions, bag building that fits in with the player’s strategy is crucial. With 60,000+ various ways to set up the animal cards and diverse strategic options, every game of Life of Amazonia will differ from the next.
Project EOS Rise is a one- to four-player cooperative space adventure game that mashes up Worker Placement, Push Your Luck, and Dice Placement game mechanics. You and your crew will travel the universe, hunting down Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) that will advance your progress towards finding the Paradise Planet. Once the Paradise Planet is located, the crew will put everything on the line in a desperate attempt to reach it and win the game.
Project EOS Rise features a “Roll For Location” game system that ensures each playthrough generates a unique universe with unique challenges. As well, a light RPG system allows the crew to explore and discover multiple paths to victory.
Whatever path you take, the four characters - Pilot, Combat Specialist, Engineer & Medical Director - can advance their skills strategically to best benefit your mission. Do you spend credits to expand the EOS and open new actions like mining, scanning, or crafting? Do you become a smuggler and deliver interesting cargo to distant galaxies to gain intel and advance your progress? Do you attack Alien ships using the combined strength and skills of the crew?
Whatever path you choose "Time is of the essence" because each year exploring brings the star marker on the Extinction track one step close to game over. Also keeping the Star ship EOS in working condition is paramount because, if the Command room is destroyed, your mission is aborted. In either case, the game is lost.
Step into the command chair and pilot humanity's first intergalactic star ship!
Unlucky Adventurers is a family-friendly card & dice game, where the aim of the game is to eliminate your opponents, while keeping as many cards as possible.
For 2-6 players, play against each other or in teams, using both strategy and luck to outwit your fellow players and earn yourself the lofty title of "Reasonably Lucky Adventurer".
From perplexing potions to awesome actions and everything in between, you'll find 126 cards in total across 3 decks to try your luck with on your adventures.
With over 90 unique cards, each with their own subtle (or sometimes blatant) nods to your favourite fantasy films, table-top games, pop-culture references and more, there is something for everyone to enjoy.
No fantasy adventure would be complete without the chance to encounter a whole host of weird and wonderful creatures, and Unlucky Adventurers is no different.
With 12 unique monsters to face off against, will you be able to fend them off and keep your loot?
Each player starts with 1 character card and 7 cards from the Quest Deck. Each turn you draw 1 card from the Quest Deck and play 1 card from your hand.
The aim is simple. Try to eliminate your opponent while keeping as many cards for yourself, but watch out for blunders and beast encounters!
The Stifling Dark is a one-vs-many hidden-movement horror board game with an innovative line-of-sight mechanic for 2-5 players. One player takes the role of the adversary, whose goal is to prevent the other players (the investigators) from escaping through a variety of unique actions. As an investigator, your only goals are to survive and escape.
Investigators move around the board in a point-to-point fashion using their base movement speed. They may sprint to move more quickly, but they need to keep an eye on their stamina so they don't become exhausted. Additionally, investigators can pick up and use items, lock and unlock doors, or use their flashlights to try and find the adversary. Meanwhile, the adversary is secretly moving around the board, trying to stop the investigators from escaping. There are a variety of investigators to choose from, each with their own special abilities. The adversary also has multiple attacks and abilities that change how you play the game.
Will you fix the car and drive out, or will you override the gate and try to sneak out? The investigators will need to decide if they want to stick together to watch each other's backs, or split up to race towards the exit. Either way, they must move quickly - the longer the game takes, the more chances the adversary has to stop them!
The game ends when either all of the investigators escape (meaning the investigators won) or the adversary achieves their win condition (which is different for each adversary).