USD ($)
EUR (€)
We kick off this week's latest Board Game News section with a headline from Ludus Magnus, as they have released a killer of a board game that has stormed to their goal in 34 minutes thanks to crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
Sine Tempore is a strategic tactical cooperative board game for one to four players, who must colonise a primordial planet. The Heroes will have to fight with local enemies, but will the advanced technology be enough toward these deadly enemies accustomed to fight and hunt? In the world of Sine Tempore the players choose a role, with each Hero having an unique ability - useful to survive and fight the enemies. As in Nova Aetas there is a competitive Artificial Intelligence, that will challenge players. Nothing is decided, all is variable, all initiatives will affect the game play.
In Sine Tempore, the innovative mechanics of Nova Aetas are enhanced to make for dynamic gameplay. Activations are managed by the momentum - a unique mechanism that promotes free flow gameplay that prevents static game plans.
Board Game News - The Arrival
Martin Wallace first unveiled his board game, The Arrival, last year at Spiel. Now, Cryptozoic Entertainment are going to bring The Arrival to a wider audience with updated art, components and rules.
In the game, players take control of an ancient Ireland during a time when the land of Erin is occupied by the demonic Fomori. Players must decide whether to collect resources to spread their tribe, and thus gain more corruption, or to forget resources in order to gain more fame. At the end of the game, the winner is either decided by who has the most fame or the least corruption, depending on whether the players or the Fomori control more territory in Erin.
Lookout for The Arrival - coming to stores in Autumn this year.
Board Game News - Aviation Tycoon
Mr. B Games has released it's new board game, Aviation Tycoon, which is mix of stock management and pick-up-and-deliver for 2-5 players. In Aviation Tycoon, players invest in four different airlines.
The board has routes from the four airlines, with a similar connecting map to Ticket to Ride, connecting cities of different colours. Random passenger cubes are placed on these cities, and their colour shows the home city to which they want to travel. The game includes an interesting balance of cards which are public, and some which stay hidden.
Players can move passengers home along any airline’s route, which then generates money for that airline. When stocks payout during designated rounds, players distribute this generated revenue, with the lion’s share going to the owner of the president’s stock (usually the stock collected in a particular airline), then the player with the most stock in that airline, and so on down the line.
The player with the most money at the end of a specified number of rounds is the winner.
Aviation Tycoon will be on Kickstarter through June 5 and is expected to deliver in December 2017.
Board Game News - Carthage
First-time designer Luke Seinen of SAS Creative. In the board game, Carthage, 2-5 players enter the arena of gladiatorial combat in a battle to the death. Players are armed only with a deck of cards, and will take turns playing action cards from their starting decks to move their gladiator miniatures (that look super cool) around the arena and execute lethal moves on the other combatants. Players will earn coveted favour from the crowd to better their starting decks with stronger and nastier actions, eliminate weak cards from their decks, or reuse global effects through Theatre cards that set the conditions of each turn’s battle.
Each player starts with a basic deck of 10 cards, but can use favor to purchase better and stronger weapons and armor from the card market. The game ends with pure elimination until the last player standing. However, eliminated players are never totally out of the game because they can return to the fight as Arena Beasts and wreak havoc on the remaining fighters.
The Kickstarter campaign is set to conclude on June 17, with delivery of the game scheduled for March 2018.
Spiel des Jahres Nominations
Finally, the nominations for Spiel des Jahres 2017 have been announced with the winner being announced on July 17. The nominees are:
- Kingdomino - A tile-placement game where each player must construct a 5x5 kingdom.
- Magic Maze - A co-operative game featuring a mage, a warrior and an elf on their way to the mall!!
- El Dorado - Designed by Reiner Knizia, El Dorado sees players trying to grab the city's fabled loot before their rivals.