It's New Game Friday! And we have our new blog writer David Wiley taking over the blog duties. You may know him as Cardboard Clash online and you can check out his other wonderful blogs here: https://cardboardclash.wordpress.com/
Happy to welcome David to the team. Take it away David!
Here’s what is new this week:
- Alert!: All Hands on Deck
- Four Against Darkness: Heart of the Lizard
- Hierarchy
- Hierarchy: Emissary
Alert!: All Hands on Deck
Your planet is under attack. Using your fleet you must defeat all incoming threat waves and save your planet. The game ends if you defeat 21 threat waves or if you lose all 3 ships. After that, you will calculate your high-score and acquire Pilot Rank. It is a solo game, played in hand, without a table. To defeat each wave, you need to use your ship’s actions to move and shoot threats. You can also collect power-ups and use ship’s special abilities!
This 18-card game from Designer Milan Zivkovic will be sure to please those with nostalgia for the shoot-em-up arcade games like Space Invaders, because you’ll be using your ships to try and survive the threats coming your way through basic actions, or special actions that you gain through power ups. Those familiar with Palm Island will feel at home with having power ups rotated out to the side for later use. The special thing here is the spatial aspect, moving via rotating your ship card 180 degrees or flipping it, each of which has your ship in a different position. This is important because you need to be aligned with the threats to fire and destroy them, you need to move through a power up space to collect it, and you can position yourself for the next wave of threats (you can see the current wave and the upcoming wave during gameplay). And there are major threats with 3 waves on the one card. Taking down your 2nd major threat will bring the game to a successful end, allowing you to tally up your final score. Failure will result in the destruction of your world which, in all probability, will go down in history as being Mostly Harmless anyway.
Four Against Darkness: Heart of the Lizard
Heart of the Lizard is a novella set in the world of Four against Darkness.Follow Haq, Kil, Gress and Varda in the abandoned remains of the ancient Temple of Zur, the god of death, on the trail of a fabled, mystical treasure."What sort of treasure are we talking about?" Gress asked, cautiously."An emerald the size of a fist-" Haq said."Cursed," Kil said."-inside an old temple filled with riches-""Haunted," the elf interjected."-one day out of this town-""A cesspool," the sorceress added."-south, in the hills.""Where the goblins dwell."A big grin split Gress' bruised features. "This is getting better and better," he said. "When do we start?"A gaming appendix gives full descriptions and stats for new monsters, treasures, and the Fire Mage, a new magic-using character class, for use with the Four Against Darkness solo game.
We need more stories in our games. Sure, we can recount tales after the fact, but how many games have a full-blown narrative packaged in there? Well, you get that and more with this expansion to Four Against Darkness. Complete with a 70+ page novella, it sets the scene for events you can incorporate into your game, including the Fire Mage class, three new monster types, 8 new spells, and a new treasure. To play this scenario, all you need is the base game of Four Against Darkness, and then you can play right along with the adventure unfolding on the pages of the novella - or just use the new content to integrate into your existing campaigns. If you ever wanted to play a RPG like Dungeons & Dragons but don’t want the heartache of trying to align conflicting schedules, this might be the game system for you.
Hierarchy
In the Kingdom of Darkhill, order and power mean everything. The royalty reign supreme, but alongside of their control are the plotting citizens, planning to get ahead using any means possible.
Hierarchy is an abstract game of order and power where players each take a random set of 7 cards and play them openly, until they cannot play any more. Cards must be played atop a card of a lesser value, unless either the last card or the new card change those rules. When the active player can no longer play a card, their opponent has won the game and has taken the seat of power away from their opponent.
I know what you are thinking: an abstract card game? Allay your fears, dear reader, for this game of political scheming and manipulation is capable of melting your brain into a puddle of ooze. The same 14 cards are present in every game, and hands are open information. What matters is how the cards are played and the order in which they are used. Even the mightiest of cards (they are numbered 1-13) have their vulnerabilities, and you’ll know they have that perfect counter to your great card. Which means you need to convince them to play said card prematurely, except they will know you want them to play that card so they clearly can’t choose that card to play. Unless you want them to hold that card until it becomes unplayable... Be sure to avoid playing this game against a Sicilian when death is on the line, as their dizzying intellect will be on full display in this battle of wits.
Hierarchy: Emissary
For years, two noble families have fought for the throne of Darkhill. This long-standing feud has ravaged the kingdom and its people, but a fragile peace has just been brokered. As Emissary, you are tasked with ensuring a smooth power transition and giving each family member a place in the new era.
A plague upon both your houses! I mean, in this solitaire expansion for Hierarchy you are taking on the task of getting both the Gold and the Purple houses completely into play. With a few replacement cards to make the abilities suited for solitaire play, plus the addition of Edict cards, this takes a thinky puzzle of a game against an opponent and makes it a perfect thinky puzzle for the solo player. The make-up of the houses changes with every play, and the people might even shift alliances mid-game as you alternate placements between the two houses. Those tricky effects that thrill you to drop on your opponent? Yep, they will happen to you as you place that card. Edicts resolve unique effects but at a cost of putting a card from play back onto the deck of its house. Will you be able to tread the path of the emissary, brokering peace between the two, or will it all fall into ruin around you?
This weeks new games are all available here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
The game of the week is Turris: City of Giants!
In Turris, players become Lords of their faction. By adding new cards to your tower you’ll add new abilities and followers to your structure. You can choose from mystic cards that call upon the gods both kind and cruel, science cards that explore power of machines and potions, or warfare cards that focus on combat. Will you specialize in one area or create powerful combos across each? The faction with the most Influence wins, but all players must defend against the Darkness, or you all lose! Looking to add more players? Just print a second set of Turris to accommodate up to four players!
If you like multi-use cards, building towers, and worker displacement than this game is worth a look. Coming in at only 18 cards, it takes full advantage of serving several purposes with most cards in the game. Vie for the most influence (i.e. Victory) points in this competitive game as you try to build your own tower while tearing down - or at least hindering - the construction efforts of your opponent. Turns are simple where you do two of the four options: play a card to your tower, draw a card, remove a follower from a tower structure to trigger its ability, or discard a card to gain a follower. Gameplay continues until the marketplace of cards is depleted and you have the same number of turns - but beware! If the game ends with the wheel on Darkness, all players lose!
Check out Turris: City of Giants here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!