This week is all about small games with a big table presence. The newest instalment from the Tiny Epic series, sees us taking control of Vikings. Trailblazer: the John Muir Trail looks stunning and is the biggest contender for my back this week. If you are backing any this week please let me know in the comments.
In the frigid Runic Isles of the North Sea, the Vikings reign supreme. These determined explorers navigate the icy fjords, build fertile settlements upon rocky crags, and fight for the glory of their clans with blood and steel. Only the Gods stand above them, and it is every Vikings’ dream to serve their God in the afterlife, Valhalla.
Tiny Epic Vikings is a fast playing 1-4 player strategy game of drafting, area control, and set collection.
In Tiny Epic Vikings, players lead a clan of Vikings over 3 eras, in hopes of claiming the icy lands for their own. They play Viking Cards that represent their clan’s leaders, choosing the best builders, harvesters, explorers, and warriors. Raid and conquer the islands with settlers, build boats and temples to gain influence, and battle for the favor of the gods!
Supersize your Kingdom Builder experience with the Empire Edition.
This super-sized product includes custom shaped plastic houses with a different design for each player color, as well as 3D castles. In order to accommodate the larger houses, all of the player boards are 25% larger as well.
Additionally, the Empire Edition includes all new artwork on the box and cards, as well as bakelite location tokens.
Also includes The Emperor's Choice promo pack of "Twist" cards (first featured in Winter Kingdom) that can add a new rule to each game.
SuperUkrainian is a game in which Ukrainians defeat orcs. You will plunge deeper into the atmosphere of today and feel like a Ukrainian who is fighting for their independence in any way. Even with jars of pickles. And, this is the real story. You will be able to get help from the ghost of Kiev, to be armed with Javelin, even having Zelensky’s steel balls. So, what orcs and 33 misfortunes await you? Well, and most importantly, only after overcoming them, you will be able to get into the bunker and end the tyranny of a Crazy Dwarf. However, do not forget that other players also dream about it, and they will do everything possible to get into the bunker first. Each card is special, based on real stories and is based on humor Ukrainians do not lose even in such dark times. Number of players: 3-8. Age: +12. Game duration: 60+ minutes
Micro Cosmos is a 1-4 player, card based, resource management game in which players try to terraform planets, create colonies and bring back survivors to their home worlds.
On each turn players move their spaceship (Ark), use their cards in one of 3 different ways in order to gain and convert resources and perform various actions on planets, moons and space stations. Players try to gain victory points by terraforming planets, scouting for survivors, settling them on their home worlds and creating colonies on planets they visit.
Once a set number of planets is fully terraformed, the player with the most victory points is considered the winner.
The game includes a robust solo mode that uses a super simple Automa deck to perform the AI players actions. Various levels of difficulty create a challenge for any player.
Collect the lost creatures and build the weirdest wildlife park. Will you choose the right hunter at the right time? Cards, fun & puns.
Hunters of the Lost Creatures is a fast-paced people-friendly card game that you can win against your buddies or lose against your 6 year old kid. But winning or losing only depends on your decisions – not on dice or drawing luck. Join the ultimate battle between strategy and haphazardness. But keep an eye on the interests of your competitors and beware of Trolls, Thieves and Turnados.
The basic rules are simple. Secretly choose a hunter for a designated hunting area: Sea, Air, Forest or Plains. He or she will catch a creature for your awesome wildlife park. You get the creature unless another player has sent a hunter to the same hunting area. The shy creatures will hide if more than one hunter is in their area. So think ahead of your opponents.
Will they go for the most worthy creature? Will they try to block the creature you desperately need for a combo? Or will they place an annoying troll or thief in your park?
Who knew that landing on a potentially unstable yet exponentially profitable planet would’ve had consequences? Lo and behold, the predictable has happened and the planet has started to collapse. But fear not! The Planetary Development Corporation (PDC) has sent along a life pod with your expedition in case something bad happened. However, they’re not going to just let any old survivor of a cataclysmic event in! You have to prove your value to the PDC, and you do that by bringing back the rarest and most priceless artifacts from your expedition. If you can, it looks like a life of leisure and riches await. If you can’t, then you don’t have to worry about it for very long…
Welcome to Escape from a Dying Planet, a push your luck style card game where you and the other members of your doomed expedition fight to make it to the escape pod, grabbing as much treasure along the way and get off the planet! This game is a 2-8 player card game where players must try to overcome challenges and bid on treasures over the course of 10 turns. Be careful as you can gain contamination which will clog your deck and gain you negative points. Whomever has the highest value of treasures at the end wins!
Spain, 1936. General Franco and his troops advance through the territories of Spain, giving way to a long period of civil war and repression. After the Spanish Civil War, a group of loyalists to the Republic continued the armed struggle, forming resistance groups better known as "Maquis". Hidden among the mountains these men and women risked their lives to defend the ideals of democracy and freedom.
Against them they had the Army of Franco, the Civil Guard, and the Armed Police. But the Maquis perfected their guerilla warfare in France during the second World War, and were determined to take back their homeland. In the head of each Maquis resonated the echo of the desire of many compatriots: Resist!
PLAYING THE GAME
Resist! is a fast-playing, card-driven solitaire game in which you take on the role of the Spanish Maquis, fighting against the Francoist regime. Over a series of rounds, you will undertake increasingly difficult missions. Defeating missions gains you the victory points you need to win the game. Failing to defeat missions and enemies may cause you to lose the game. At the end of each round, you must choose whether to end the resistance or risk it and take on another mission.
At the beginning of the game, you will assemble a team of 12 Maquis, represented by a deck of cards. At the heart of the game is the tension between keeping your Maquis concealed from Franco or revealing them and unlocking their full potential. But you must be careful, revealed Maquis are removed from your deck and you likely won’t be able to use them for the rest of the game. While Resist! does have some minor deck-building elements, it is primarily a “deck-destruction” game, wherein you will have to carefully manage your deck, balancing the decision of defeating the immediate threat and trying to move on to the next mission.
Embark on a journey of exploration and discovery along the historic John Muir Trail through the High Sierras of California. Explore the majestic mountains and lush meadows, the picturesque waterfalls and alpine lakes. Scale the heights of Yosemite's iconic Half Dome or Sequouia's Mt. Whitney! Enjoy meandering through Evolution Valley or Tuolumne Meadows; pausing to take in the beauty of Thousand Islands Lake or cooling your feet in the Kings River. Be humbled beneath a giant and ancient Sequoia or catch(and release) a Golden Trout, listen to the song of an Ouzel, watch Marmots at play or spot the rare Snow Plant. Happy Trails!
Trailblazer: the John Muir Trail takes place over the course of 12 Days/Rounds of hiking and backpacking along the John Muir Trail(JMT). Each Player/Hiker will experience daily trail encounters, choose to Explore destinations along the trail, acquire and manage Natural and Personal Resources, Discover and observe the sights and sounds of their environment, adapt to ever-changing Weather conditions, and move along the entire Trail, all the while using wisely the Items in their Backpacks to maximize their experience.
Trail Points are acquired and earned in several ways along the route, creating many forms and layers of scoring. There is worker placement via each Hiker's use of their Tracks, set collection through the Field Guide Cards, as well as instant scoring through the Destination Cards, bonuses for timely and efficient use of one's Backpack Gear and Journey Bonus Tiles which offer additional opportunities for end game scoring.
With amazing artwork by Andrew Bosley, a full-blown Euro game-set and deep immersion into theme, we at Mariposa Games believe that you will be well satisfied with your tabletop experience of Trailblazer: the John Muir Trail.
Cryptodome is the most popular game show set in a future where technology has exploded in countless directions. Salvagers find creative ways to use these technologies to build upon their suits to help navigate an underground magma chamber on Planet Varcob. Play as a salvager, each with a unique ability, as you make your way around the Cryptodome.
The object of the game is to be the first to collect three Power Cores that are located around the outside of the board. Players start at the center and use move cards to make their way to one of the outer edges of the board to collect an artifact or power core. Once collected it's kept for the remainder of the game and the player is teleported back to the start. Artifacts give powerful abilities, but do not contribute to winning the game.
Players get to choose two actions for their turn. They can choose any combination of placing a tile, using a move, and/or drawing a card. Placing a tile allows players to change the path to their advantage or to block their opponents. Using a move can only be done if the corresponding paths are connected. Drawing a card can result in a move card or an ability card.
Cryptodome is a free-for-all game for 2-8 players ages 14 and up that can be played in about an hour. Three types of cards allows for a simple risk/reward system that players can strategize with as the game goes on. Games change in dynamic based on the number of players and the strategies that players tend towards. Players tend to collect up to two artifacts near the beginning of the game and then use them to collect three power cores more effectively.