It looks to be a quiet week in the crowdfunding space with some interesting revisits and expansions. The next project from CMON (Household) hits Kickstarter this week. After recent issues with hidden costs and shipping, please remember to back carefully. Sometimes the best answer is to just back enough for the pledge manager.
Thunderstone returns with Thunderstone Quest. Recruit your heroes, arm your party, then visit the dungeon — and the dungeon has new perils not seen in prior Thunderstone releases. All-new dungeon tiles create new challenges and rewards as you explore deeper and deeper in the dungeon. Each quest brings new dungeons as well as new side adventures!
Thunderstone is a fantasy deck-building game. Each player starts with a basic deck of cards that they can use to purchase, or upgrade to, other, more powerful cards. Thunderstone Quest brings new play modes to the table. The game will tell a specific story with a series of pre-set dungeon tiles, monsters, heroes and support cards. Each will come with a series of mini-adventures and a story booklet that tells players what happens as they progress through the scenarios.
Once players have completed the quests they will be able to enjoy great replay value with the available selection of monsters, heroes, and support cards, as well as the new dungeon tiles, by choosing random set-ups before the start of play. Aside from heroes such as wizards, fighters, rogues, and clerics, cards will include supplies that heroes need like weapons, spells, items, or light to reach further into the dungeon.
The dungeon deck is created by combining several different groups of monsters together. Certain groups of monsters may be more or less susceptible to different hero types, so players have to take this into account when they choose what to buy.
Union Stockyards is a mid-weight economic euro game with unique features:
A supply/demand driven market that is central to game play, not a sidebar.
Low randomness -- market changes due to player decisions.
A worker-placement game where your workers may go on strike.
Extensively-researched historical theme about one of the great industrial wonders of U.S. Gilded Age.
Opening in 1865, the Union Stockyards became Chicago’s largest industry and one of the city’s top tourist attractions with a half million visitors annually in the early 1900’s. From the Civil War through the 1920’s, more meat was processed here than anywhere in the world. During its height, 40,000 mostly immigrant workers labored in “the busiest square mile on earth”, where over one million livestock passed monthly, supplying 80% of all U.S. meat. There were over 2,300 livestock pens and 130 miles of railroad within the “yards”.
You play one the “Big Five” meat packers, developing technologies to use every part of the animal while battling labor unions and manipulating the market to your advantage. Union Stockyards is played over six years (rounds), each beginning with an historical event affecting game conditions or adding an additional action. You select your actions through worker placement; however, if you don’t pay your workers enough, they may go on “strike”. You earn cash based on your profit margins when you slaughter cattle, hogs, or sheep. Your profit margin is your meat value minus the livestock cost. The livestock cost is the same for all players, but your meat values will differ due to your engine-building decisions of constructing buildings, establishing branch houses in eastern cities, and improving your brand reputation. At the end of each year, livestock costs (cattle, hogs, sheep) will be adjusted up or down depending on the demand that you created. Sometimes you may choose to slaughter certain livestock just to manipulate the market in your favor. Whichever packer accumulates the most wealth wins the game.
Pharaoh is about to abdicate and give the reins of power to one of his children: the Sa-Re. To determine who will be the most able to rule Egypt among them, Pharaoh gives his children a mission: each of them should build a monumental city.
The most talented will receive the crown.
Each player has their own construction site, resources and workers, who need to be “incited” to work faster and better than the others. But beware of revolts that could paralyze your plans! Each turn, players can choose to push their workers beyond their limits to work more than necessary and accumulate resources to erect new buildings. These buildings will reward players with various advantages during the game.
Be the first one to erect a monumental city and rule over Egypt!
Household is a tabletop role-playing game in which players take the roles of Littlings, small creatures such as Faeries and Boggarts from European Folklore. Set in a massive, abandoned mansion, Household takes players on thrilling adventures filled with incredible characters, exciting exploration, court intrigue, and, of course, creepy and dangerous spiders (these are Littlings, after all).
This is not a mere translation of the original game, however, but a Collector’s Edition, designed to look like an antique Regency-Era book, with upgraded art, incredible new illustrations, and deluxe components that add to the immersion of the game.
Household, originally designed by Simone Formicola and Riccardo “Rico” Sirignano, was awarded RPG of the Year 2019 at Lucca Comics & Games 2019 and has a huge and active Italian community, known for their amazing fan content.
Welcome to Kingdoms of Akandia "The Seven Realms".
The first volume in an extensive, immersive and FULL-cooperative open world. You and your friends are fighting together against the spreading darkness. You choose your group of heroes and have your own adventure over 3 chapters and 35-65 hours of gameplay with 1-4 players.
Some mechanics:
open world "The Seven Realms"
unique puzzle equipment system (UPES)
upgrade abilities
supply chains
soloquests
recruiting garrisons
use mounts
mix of card and dice-fighting system
upgrade tower defense
destiny cards which changes every gameplay
and much more
Joystick Heroes is a board game about playing video games - radical! Grab your friends and family and head to the arcade, where you’ll burn through tokens to play games and compete for the best scores. Each game tests different skillz, like your joystick agility or button-pressing prowess. Earn tickets, prizes, and power up your skillz. Kick butt on games in your favorite genre and win big by beating high scores. Challenge other wannabe heroes to 2-player games, grab a friend for co-op mode, and compete in arcade tournaments. The player with the most prizes when everybody’s out of tokens is the new Joystick Hero! Righteous!
At setup, create your arcade by laying out a number of Games cards. Each player starts with 10 arcade tokens. A round consists of 2 phases: (1) In the PLAY phase, choose any available Game card in your arcade, place 1 arcade token on it, and play it by rolling a number of dice based on the skills the game requires and your own skill levels. Use your hand of Power cards to boost your scores. Refer to the Top Scores chart and collect your winnings (tickets). (2) In the POWER UP phase, players spend the tickets they earned on skills upgrades or to purchase prizes.
When all players run out of arcade tokens, the player with the most prizes is the new Joystick Hero!
Your ancient alien civilization is leaving its dying planet in search of a new homeland. The promised land is represented by Gaia, which is home to the magnificent human civilization of Atlantis. But beware, other Houses (factions) of your civilization also have the same goal and only one will be able to dominate Gaia!
Anunnaki: Dawn of the Gods is a 4x eurogame by Simone Luciani and Danilo Sabia, set in an ancient dystopian past, where mythology and science-fiction come together. Each player represents a different House whose rulers are viewed by terrestrial population as gods. Players build bases, recruit troops, embody gods, explore the territory, develop their own technology, sign trade contracts, defeat local dominions and other players' armies, trying to conquer Atlantis, which owns huge treasures.
Different actions will provide a certain number of immediate Victory Points. Moreover, random setup goals will provide you with sizable Victory Point rewards at the end of the game, based on specific conditions. In the end, the player with the most VPs will be the winner.
In addition to having a strong dose of controllability (the luck factor is minimal), the game features an innovative starred action-selection-system that confronts players with interesting choices: players can reincarnate their gods by performing their actions in a precise sequence, on pre-established paths of their starred player board, or they can give up some deities, jumping freely from one action to another of their board, to choose from time to time the situationally best actions.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grandgamersguild/the-artemis-project-satellites-and-commanders?
With barely a foothold in the snow, your squads of Stabilizers have brought new technology that allows for the continuation of The Artemis Project. The launching of geosynchronous platforms called Chariots, which orbit Europa and influence the development of the colonies below.
Simultaneously, an elite group of women and men, forged under Europa's harsh conditions, have emerged to assume greater leadership roles. These Commanders have assumed a prestigious rank with great power and authority over the growing colonies.
With one harsh development cycle under your belt, you look to expand your colony and compete again to establish the most successful outpost on the resource-rich Europa. The Artemis Project continues...
The Artemis Project: Satellites & Commanders is an expansion that adds two new major opportunities for strategic play to the base game. Satellites are off-board locations which players can access and influence the action on the moon’s surface below in subtle yet powerful ways. Commanders are a new category of colonist that can act as any colonist type, lend their power to dice you send to various locations, and assist in end game scoring.
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