'Shut up and take my money'
This week is one of those 'dangerous crowdfunding round-ups'. Campaigns I have long followed launch alongside new iterations of previously backed projects - plus unexpected games drop, to create a perfect storm eager to separate me from my money.
This week; Statera, Set A Watch and Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig all turn up the heat to boiling point in the crowdfunding arena. Every other project this week looks strong and some may just surprise us. Remember, back with your head, not your heart and most importantly, love your games.
Test your architectural skills in Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig, a flip-and-sketch strategy game to draw the most extravagant blueprints for King Ludwig's next castle!
Select rooms to add to your castle's floor plan. As you complete rooms' entrances by connecting them to other rooms, earn new abilities such as adding or removing entrances, earning new bonus cards, and taking extra turns. Keep your eye on the King's favours to beat out your opponents for public goals, as well as create courtyards and moats around your castle for some massive points to get ahead! The player who sketches the castle most suited to the whims of King Ludwig takes the royal victory!
A continuation of the Set A Watch series, Forsaken Isles features a new band of adventurers sailing to islands and other tropical locations to face new monsters and challenges.
Defend your campfire from a horde of creatures and unhallowed bosses using each hero's unique abilities to survive the night. One hero stays in camp to rest and maintain the fire while the others battle. Each round, you draw a new location to setup camp in. Survive all 8 nights (rounds) to win the game.
New adventurers include:
Corsair who earns coin by defeating enemies and mitigates bad dice rolls by taking gambles.
Druid who has their own unique nature deck full of animals that will aid him in battle. This deck can allow the Druid to shapeshift or seed the creature deck with his animal allies.
Earth Golem with d12 dice whose powers trigger off the location card for each round of the game. It can use stored earth essence to pip up its dice when bad luck strikes, making it one of the most consistent warriors in the series.
Fire Sorceress who draws her power from the campfire itself. Drawing too much from the fire means you can see less enemies in the darkness so balancing offensive abilities with her other abilities that rekindle the campfire are essential.
Set a Watch: Forsaken Isles is both a standalone game for 1-4 players and an expansion that can be combined with the original Set A Watch and Set A Watch: Swords of the Coin.
Statera is a double-asymmetric strategy game with a huge amount of replayability.
Statera is a double-asymmetric strategy game with real scales. Its stories give players a lot of replay ability and modular game map new experiences for each game. Become a leader of a Statera nation or a powerful God, fight for the territory, balance your believers, gather souls, and experience all of Statera's stories.
You can pick a different story for each game to determine the basic game's setup, get a richer experience, and learn more about the game world's story. By choosing to play for the nations of Statera or their gods you can also select the game's difficulty and the game's length.
In the Statera you will play as one of the nations of Statera or their God. The game is double-asymmetric. The first asymmetry comes from the difference between Gods and Staterans, second, there is an asymmetry between the factions. Some rules and patterns apply to the whole game, some only for Gods or Staterans, and some rules are specific to the faction.
The game is story-based. Each story tells a tale from the land of Statera and through that, it defines a number of players, unique victory conditions, setup, and some small rule adjustments. It basically means that each story, when played, feels like a different game.
The scale rising above the game board is a big part of Statera - the game and the world. The Stories already created for the game, are using the scale to count souls, balance them, lean towards a specific campsite, or take souls away from it. This component is simply crucial to play the game!
The important question is - Are you a brave Stateran, or a mighty god? It is time to lean the scale in your favour!
Stonesaga is a cooperative, campaign style, survival crafting board game set in a unique, persistent world shaped by your choices. It is designed by Max Brooke (Star Wars: X-Wing 2nd Edition, Legend of the Five Rings RPG) with Luke Eddy (Star Wars: Legion).
Generational Storytelling In Stonesaga, you unfold the epoch-spanning story of the people of a remote glacial valley, guiding multiple generations of characters who make a life there amidst harsh conditions, wondrous mysteries, and giant monsters.
Each game session covers one generation of people within a society, continuing from the last and permanently changing the valley in various ways based on in-game events and the players’ decisions.
Cooperative Survival Stonesaga follows a certain rhythm: faced by a new opportunity or crisis, the people of the valley must meet their society’s new needs. Meanwhile, the valley’s other inhabitants – immortal beasts – will seek to fulfil their own needs as their instincts dictate. You will have to navigate both sets of challenges, using might, dexterity, conviction, and awareness to survive as a tribe in the wild.
Crafting & Building Stonesaga introduces a completely new discovery based crafting mechanic. Do you think that a sharpened stone and stick could combine to create a spear? Use the crafting action and find out. You will need to discover the properties of various crafting materials as you expand your crafting “recipe” knowledge.
Work together as a community to build your village together. From a simple fire pit and tent to a forge and library, create a civilization that lasts the generations.
Exploration & Discovery Stonesaga rewards exploration and chooses to let you experience the world in a unique way each play session. Working on the established rules of the world, you will discover unique materials, monsters, and areas of the world that you won’t be directed towards. Stonesaga lets the curious and inquisitive thrive.
Persistence Designed for drop-in, drop-out play and flexible playgroup availability, Stonesaga can be played by one group from start to finish, played with a rotating cast, or even passed between groups seamlessly. Components are sometimes permanently altered, but never removed or discarded entirely.
Sail
Strap up your piratical boots, and navigate your ship through turbulent waters in Sail, a co-operative trick-taking game for two players. Reach the end of this dangerous deep end, and avoid taking damage from the Kraken to win the game together...or your crew will be sleeping with the fish!
Before each round begins, players exchange cards, then play a series of tricks. Different game actions will be triggered depending on who wins each trick in combination with the unique character skills. However, the crashing sea water and the roaring Kraken make for a deafening situation, and players are unable to communicate about tactics and card information from the moment cards are dealt to the end of the action phase.
Players win the game as a team if they sail their ship into the final token before the Kraken reaches the Death tile or the Kraken deck is exhausted.
Chomp
The era of the dinosaurs is here! Your goal in Chomp is to form herds of dinos and make sure they are all fed. Herbivores and carnivores both need food sources, but if the carnies are not properly fed, they don't mind chomping an herbie to fill their bellies!
Gameplay involves dual rows of goal tiles and dino tiles, and each turn players select one tile to add to their personal arrangement. Goal tiles stay off to the side for endgame scoring, and dino tiles are arranged in front of each player. Dino tiles include three sizes each of herbivores and carnivores. Each tile must overlap previous ones, either on top of a quarter tile, half tile, or even a whole tile, ensuring that any covered cinos are completely hidden.
Adjacent dinos of the same species form herds, which will eat together if connected to a single food source — or die together if they are unfed, adjacent to a tar pit, or next to an otherwise unfed carnivore!
At the end of the game, each living and fed dino scores 1-3 points depending on its size, and the player with the highest score wins.
Couture
Take on the role of a fashion model as you hit the runways in New York, Paris, and Tokyo to build your career.
In Couture, players seek to win cards through auctions in New York, Paris, and Tokyo. New cards are available to draft in each city, allowing the winning player first pick of Iconic Poses, Signature Walks, a personal Glam Squad, and much more.
Once the seventh round has concluded, players determine their total score, with magazine cover awards bringing bonus points. The model with the highest score wins the game and with it all the fame of a global spotlight!
Mind Space
Mind Space is a thoughtful game in which players are trying to achieve serenity by adding emotions to their Brain Board.
Each emotion is represented by a polyomino shape. Five of the possible Seventeen emotion cards will be available each round, and five rolled dice will determine which colours can be used to add those shapes to a Brain Board.
After 12 rounds, the game is scored, and points can be earned by completing sections of the brain, achieving public goal cards, and meeting the organizational criteria of each colour. The one section of each Brain Board with the most unfilled squares will result in a deduction of 1 point for each unfilled square in that section.
I'm not afraid is a game of obtaining majority for your cause. It shows the complex reality of competing movements, one fighting to keep the authoritarian power and the other struggling to change the system. Contested locations include: main cities, main groups and main unions. It continues until one of the leaders secures majority of their supporters in five locations. Once you secure a special task from the bonus cards you receive points as well as an advantage in rolling more dice. At the end of the game, players score points (the points indicated on locations) and user boards. Player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player who placed 5 meeples on locations wins.
In KINGs, players will draft their party of cute characters, each with a unique ability, and compete against the other players to be crowned the "True TrickTaker"!
The game consists of 3 rounds.
Each player will draft their party.
In addition to the King, Queen, and Jack, you will draft 3 other characters to form your party.
After 5 cards are dealt, each player will organize their party that will be used for that round.
Of the 3 characters, 2 characters are used on the front side and 1 character is used on the back side.
The back of the character is a bid (predict how many times you will win).
5 tricks are played, using must follow rules, with the exception of a few cards.
After completing 5 tricks, points will be awarded according to bids made as well as any character abilities.
In round 3, you can make 1-2 bids. At this time, you can also use the jack as a bid.
After 3 rounds, the player with the most points wins the game.
Bound is a two player strategy game played on a single sheet of paper. Each turn, move one of your four standing stones in an attempt to encircle an opponent's stone.
Simple rules ensure that it is quick and easy to learn, but the unusual geometry of its pentacle-shaped board and the speed of its reversal of fortunes make Bound a dynamic and strategic contest.
BGG Link
Dice Fights is a 15-30 minute tabletop game where the players fight to the death in a battle of dice! Each player begins the game with a set of 5 Core Dice, a Bank, Life Counter, and Trackers. Opponents roll their dice, and depending on the result of that roll, can send attacks, defend against attacks, and earn gold. With that gold you can make your attacks or your defense more powerful, can gain more dice to roll, and the most exciting... can buy and roll the box, a dice itself! It's a gripping fight to the death, and the last player standing claims the victory!
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