A good mix of big and small games this week. There are 10 projects launching this week and all of them fall on Tuesday 25th. 'Ascendancy' and 'Guards of Atlantis' look huge; judging by pictures of each game. There are masses of choice to be had in the 'Hex games collection' and a whole lot of fantasy in the other projects.
As always, remember, back with your head, not your heart and most importantly, love your games.
Ascendancy is the ultimate 4x fantasy board game experience.
Lead 1 of many asymmetric houses of royal lineage, each vying for the throne. Reclaim your family name, through a hero's (or villains) journey spanning multiple generations, or a single scenario.
Build your empire skyward, seize control outward, manipulate the economy, or dominate the battlefield. There are several paths to victory. Every decision counts, and no two games of Ascendancy are ever the same.
At the heart of the game, a deep melting pot of interesting decision points awaits you. Tried & true gameplay mechanics such as worker placement, yet with novel innovations, such as "social class" based action programming & progression. Almost everything (and everyone) in the world of Ascendancy can be upgraded and improved. Reward Your Loyalists, exile your traitors, or promote outlaws to land holding lords. Master your strategy, and you will be rewarded with a limitless kingdom of your own design.
As labour of love in active development for over 4 years, it's inspired by classics from the likes of Heroes of Might & Magic III, Civilization, Magic The Gathering, and Game of Thrones. The world of Ascendancy wears its epic fantasy roots proudly, yet exists for you to blaze your own trail.
Core mechanics; Engine build your tableau, Worker Placement, Move to explore, place tiles, establish area control outwards, and build upwards.
Gameplay features:
Solo, Competitive AND Co-operative team modes.
Single scenario, or multi-session campaigns, with multiple branching generations, marriage decisions, legacy family traits, and heirloom inheritance.
“Choose your own adventure” style narrative structure, where decisions matter. 4 victory point tracks; rule by Cunning, Might, Intellect, or Loyalty.
Rock paper scissor based JRPG side style combat, combining deep strategy, and a bit of dice chucking excitement.
Deep branching tech trees, with over 200 unique unlockables.
18 champion class evolutions. 6 Schools of Elemental Magic, with creature summoning, lycanthropy, equipment crafting, and epic boss battles that you'll be talking about for a long time.
Secret objectives, hidden roles, family vendettas, and personal agendas.
Eurogame style economics, with anytime market access, and dynamic pricing of goods.
3 Correlated Gameplay Loops, with 6 Ways-to-Win Strategies. Play How YOU Want, Including;
Go Wide or go Tall (empire building) Grow fast, or slow roll out-tech (engine building) Push-your-luck, or minimize risk (encounter resolution)
100% optional combat, and PvP
Long ago, when humans were still primitive, gods ruled the world. Submissive people served their idols, who sought to gain more and more power through the blind faith of their followers. However, the arrogance of the gods and their incessant confrontations led to their decline and almost extinction. The last survivors hid in oblivion waiting to return, more powerful than ever.
In the years that followed, humanity was thirsty for knowledge and understanding. This triggered the awakening of the gods who demanded eternal faith and obedience in order to regain their power. Soon, epic battles between gods spread throughout the world and humanity descended into chaos.
The Dark Ages returned more tyrannical than ever. The gods, along with their followers, are fighting to be the only ones to rule. Who will be the last god to control humanity? Will this god bring light, love, war, fear or eternal darkness?
The fate of the world is in your hands!
Gameplay
Altar: Realms of the gods is a card game for 2 to 5 players. During the game you fight against enemy gods and try to protect your Realm. Your goal is to build Shrines and discover the hidden Altars in your god's Realm in order to activate them and make your god the most powerful of all and win the game!
Each player chooses a god and takes their board which represents their Realm. On their turn a player must first draw a card and then perform 1 main action:
Use the Ability of a card (e.g. Activate an Altar, draw additional cards, destroy enemy Altars etc.), Perform a Ritual to build a Shrine and place it on their god’s Realm or Worship a god. When worshipping a follower is placed face-up next to their god’s realm to show where they activate their abilities and protect against the enemy gods. In addition to the main action, a player may take any number of free actions.
The game ends when a player builds at least one Shrine and discovers and activates all the Altars on their god's Realm.
Guards of Atlantis: Tabletop MOBA is a competitive "zero-luck" team-based board game inspired by computer games of the MOBA genre.
In the game, each player controls a single hero and uses a hand of cards to move that hero around the game board, employ special abilities, and attack enemies. Defeating enemy minions earns you coins, which are used to buy levels and upgrade your hero. Your goal is to help your "minions" — units that are not directly controlled by the players — reach the enemy base and capture it.
Guards of Atlantis II is a complete overhaul of the original game with 22 new heroes, new double-sided game board and much more. In addition to new content, Guards of Atlantis II streamlines the rules of the original, making it faster and tighter.
Salt water in the air, the cry of a gull, and the relentless roll of the waves beckon you back to the sea. The ocean is one of the last frontiers to discover and explore; a vast aquatic laboratory to learn from and protect.
In Endeavor: Deep Sea, you head an independent research institute with the goal of developing sustainable projects and preserving the fragile balance of marine life. Throughout the game, you’ll recruit field experts and use their abilities to explore new locations, research dive sites, publish critical ecological papers, and launch conservation efforts.
Expand your expertise, develop your team, and learn as much as possible about the sea. The action your institute takes now, could mean a healthy ocean and a sustainable future for the planet.
Endeavor: Deep Sea is designed by Jarratt Gray and Carl de Visser, the same creative team behind the smash hit Endeavor: Age of Sail. This edition is set in a new era of nautical discovery, but uses streamlined rules which will be familiar to fans of the original game.
A story driven adventure game for 1 to 4 players set in fantasy Britain some 20 years after the death of King Arthur Pendragon.
Each separate game session, or “quest” as it is called in the game, takes about 1 hour to play. Each quest can be won, lost, or even forfeited. The game is over when you have played through all quests listed in a separate quest-book.
Each one of the players controls a “hero”. There are four heroes to the so called “party”. The players win the game if they manage to complete the goals of all the quests of the game.
The players will take turns reading aloud from the quest-book. At regular intervals the players are allowed to make decisions on where to go and what to do. This affects the outcome of the game session. Whenever a fight occurs, it is played out on a game board made of separate modular tiles. The combat system is quick and focused on tactics and using the hero’s abilities to survive.
During the course of the game the players will be able to improve their heroes abilities, and also her equipment and retinue.
Cysmic is an epic sci-fi strategy wargame set amidst a crumbling planet. Players assume the role of one of the factions on the planet that is fighting desperately to survive. Throughout the game, players gather resources, capture enemy units, and work to construct their colony ship. Once built, the colony ship must be launched once all of your units are evacuated. The faction to do so first not only escapes with their lives but also ends up destroying the planet with the force of their ship's ignition. There are no points in Cysmic. The winner is the player who completes the objective first.
Forgotten Depths is a 1-3 player co-op dungeon adventure game that combines unique tile laying and hand management mechanics to deliver a substantial experience of exploration and combat.
The goal of the game is to get to the bottom of the dungeon and destroy the powerful entity that resides there. To make it, you’ll need to improve your heroes by finding items and buying new abilities with experience points you gain by exploring. Those experience points are in scarce supply and you’ll need to balance between saving them for abilities and spending them on the healing and keys you’ll also need.
The game is played by alternating between two main activities, Exploring and Encountering. You’ll start by Exploring, creating the layout of the level as you play, and discovering Ecology Elements. You choose when and where to Encounter the Elements you discover, and you go back to Exploring after each Encounter.
The game features:
3 Dungeon Level ‘Ecologies,’ each with their own unique Monsters, Features, and hard to find Legendary Locations
Character progression. Find and equip items, and purchase abilities and spells with your hard won XP.
30 unique Monsters. Never face the same Monster twice in a playthrough.
30 unique dungeon Features. Never discover the same Feature twice in a playthrough.
12 hard to find Legendary Locations, featuring unique encounters, treasures and effects, including 2 difficult to obtain fabled swords.
6 unique level bosses
Final boss with 27 possible configurations
Gemble is a push-your-luck card and dice game for 2 to 4 players. Players take turns rolling the dice and gambling to collect suits of gem cards matching private goals indicated on gem tokens. However, they will need cards from as many suits as possible in order to make bets.
The rules are simple: roll the gem die and carry out the following actions:
1.Collect one card if there are cards in the pot (market) matching the color of the die roll.
2.Make a bet by rolling the dot die if there are no cards in the pot matching the color of the die roll, or, if you want to collect more than one card from the pot.
If you make a succesful bet you may collect one card for a single match or all cards of one color for a double match. If you fail, you must move your bet cards to the pot.
At the end of the game, the cards matching your private goals will add points to your score while the other cards will subtract points.
A solitaire exploration game where you will discover a new land beyond the edges of the Duero river. Place the different terrain tiles to achieve every exploration objective at the end of your journey: the perfect score.
Hextremadura is a solo game that offers a relaxing and satisfying experience. The game can also be played in cooperative mode.
During the early game you will try to complete as many terrain requirements as possible. Every time you complete both basic objectives on a tile, you take that tile off the map and reserve it for later. You will use them on their back, after you finish the stack, to discover all monuments, flora and fauna of this new place and complete as many exploration objectives as you can.
This game takes about 1 minute to be learned and 15 minutes to be played on average.