It's New Game Friday David Wiley (Cardboard Clash) is here to tell us about the new games.
Here’s what is new this week:
-
Odicey
-
Pocket Puffins
-
Grimlore Case File #5: Elias Blackwood, Geologist
-
Dangerous Space: Oliver, Deliver Mission
-
Power Creep: The Chef, Docks 2092
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Odicey
Mark out a steady and ordered path through the chaos generated by the tumult of the waves: complete successfully at your turn a 5 dice-ships line onto the Sea and win the game!
If you like dice placement games where puzzling out how to outmaneuver your opponents is an essential part of the game, then you won’t want to miss this one. You’re trying to be the first to line up 5 of your dice in a row, but that’s not going to be as easy as it sounds. With a ton of ways to move and/or remove your opponents’ dice, there’s a ton of player interaction baked into this game, so if that’s your kind of jam, you will enjoy this game that plays from 2-4 players.
Pocket Puffins
Help! This colony of puffins wanted to explore the far north but got caught in a blizzard. Keep the puffins warm by arranging them into specific patterns and helping them build their igloos.
A fun little 18-card game that has you moving and arranging puffins into a certain pattern, repeating that for 3 different pattern cards to try and maximize your score while avoiding a loss (from taking too long!). If you enjoy solitaire puzzle games, or just think cute puffins would be fun to get to the table for 10-20 minutes, then you’ll definitely want to check out this game. It offers quite a few combinations for those patterns, allowing some good replay value in this package.
Grimlore Case File #5: Elias Blackwood, Geologist
Dr. Elias Blackwood, 38, a reclusive geologist from New England, obsesses over primal forces. His journey to Antarctica seeks truths buried beneath ancient ice. Haunted by his team’s disappearance five years ago, he carries seismic equipment and a dagger etched with elder symbols. Alone in the Mountains of Madness, he uncovers bio-mechanical entities and warnings in non-Euclidean symbols about a cataclysmic event. Despite dangers, his curiosity awakens dormant entities. A mysterious artifact offers a grim choice: flee with forbidden knowledge or perish alongside the ancient city. The icy expanse tests his resolve and humanity’s place in a vast, uncaring cosmos.
Wanting another fix of Grimlore? Don’t miss out on this week’s case file, which will have you dealing with an Opponent that can freeze your investigator dice, reducing your options as you attempt to survive without losing your sanity. I keep looking at his Equipment to check for something useful like a flamethrower, or even a torch, but I suppose you’ll be relying on your wits and strategy to overcome these threats this week. Good luck?
Dangerous Space: Oliver, Deliver Mission
Oliver likes to take a more considered approach to his dives. Slow and sure finds the prize…alive.
An interesting challenge comes our way with the Deliver mission, forcing you to balance incoming damage as you traverse terrain. Do you boost your movement gear to get where your destination is faster, or do you try and tank up with better defensive gear? With some deadly foes who like to mess with dice - both Good ones and Evil ones - you’ll want to have a plan going into this mission, just like Oliver would. I bet one of his mantras is “fail to plan, then plan to fail”...
Power Creep: The Chef, Docks 2092
A small reprieve - the raiders having moved on - allowing the settlers to scavenge for the scraps left behind.
You might think, from the flavor text there, that this is going to be a nice easy map to take on in this post-apocalyptic setting. Well, think again, as the Scientist Bots are here to wreck that nice little “vacation” at the Docks. These guys are MEAN, crossing off an ungained crafting material when they are defeated. And their leaders are even worse, removing ALL ungained crafting materials in their structure once defeated. So I guess…plan your path well and may the dice be ever in your favor?
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Games of the Week: Apropos of Board Games on sale for just $2!
It’s game night! You and your friends have gotten together to play a game, but how can you decide which to play?
We’ve all done it: played the picking a board game ungame. It is the most popular pick during some game nights, with crowds of people milling around refusing to choose a game. Well, this will not only give you a challenge to test your game knowledge, but can also lead to playing a game! Over the course of 5 rounds, you’ll increasingly narrow down the possibilities as you name games that have certain traits but not others, adding a new word (such as Dice) each round. As a bonus, you can all play the last game chosen regardless of whether you make it to the end or not - at the very least, you’ll have narrowed it down to 1-5 games that, if available to play, could be pulled out once you wrap up this fun little session.
Apropos: Of Movies on sale for just $2!
Think you’re an expert in movies? Work together to find titles that match an ever-growing list of restrictions and find out if you really know as much as you think!
This game will not only give you a challenge to test your movie knowledge, but can also lead to watching a movie! Over the course of 5 rounds, you’ll increasingly narrow down the possibilities as you name movies that have certain traits but not others, adding a new word (such as Explosions) each round. As a bonus, you can all watch the last movie chosen regardless of whether you make it to the end or not - at the very least, you’ll have narrowed it down to 1-5 movies to go binge-watch on the cold, winter days that are looming right around the corner.
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
Casinopolis
Ka-ching! Ka-ching! The sound of slot machines paying out their lucky winners are everywhere. Build up the central strip with popular themed casinos tot urn this town into a proper gambler’s haven.
Fans of the -Opolis series of games will find a lot of familiar elements in here, but with the major edition coming in the form of The Strip - your longest road. That strip dictates what scores for the blocks in your Casino layout, as well as lets you score any connected identical Slot icons of 3 or more within that strip. You always want to build fewer, longer roads in the -Opolis games, but this one puts an even stronger emphasis/incentive in there. With hundreds of scoring condition possibilities, you’ll get a TON or play value whether playing solo or as a cooperative group game, placing cards out to build the best casino you can.
Currently on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/239309591/casinopolis
Check out the new Button Shy releases here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!