New Games for July 7th, 2023 - Spaceshipped Howling Gloves for the Cartref Abyss

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:

• Cartref
• Iron Helm: The Howling Abyss Dungeon Deck
• Dungeon Pages: Flynn, Black Glove in Meredrin

https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games

Cartref

You are a member of the goblin Hut Barons guild - purveyors of magical real estate for weefolk, bigfolk, and everyone in between. Use your wits and magic to amass the greatest wealth in the budding city of Cartref.

A game for those who enjoy spatial construction of buildings at low player counts, this enables you and up to two of your friends to compete to earn the most wealth. With four actions to choose from, and the collective working toward building the city together, you’ll have a lot of things to consider as your adjacency could make a huge difference on your ability to use those special effects on buildings. The real catch is that using building adds bad karma onto them, and as long as it has karma it cannot be used, so a real savvy opponent might take advantage of your decisions to NOT remove the karma, costing you opportunities to trigger helpful effects. This is for those who like games with simple rules, a ton of interaction with the opponents, and a relatively short play time.

Iron Helm: The Howling Abyss Dungeon Deck

The Howling Abyss is the first alternate dungeon deck for Iron Helm. It is listed as dungeon deck #2 because the designer considers the original (that comes with the base game) to be dungeon deck #1. This deck is meant to be used during play in place of the original deck to create a whole new experience! Swapping out the dungeon deck is an easy and creative way to modify Iron Helm with the use of just 18 cards!

Iron Helm is a game that’s been on my bucket list for ages, but I’m guessing that many folks have picked it up before. It has a really interesting exploration premise, where you can sort of push your luck while exploring by either doing the top effect of the card you flip, or discarding it and doing the bottom of the next card…which could be better for you, or possibly a lot worse. This expansion freshens up the deck, providing a new base to work with so that you no longer know exactly what to expect while exploring the dungeons for the 50th time. I love expansions which are really easy to use, don’t change the gameplay in a significant way, but add tremendous replay value. From the sounds of it, this expansion does exactly that to Iron Helm.

Dungeon Pages: Flynn, Black Glove in Meredrin

Flynn has shown promise in his pursuit of the title of Black Glove Knight - the elders answer to the most dangerous and evil threats to the realm. Where reason and compassion fail, these knights deal swift justice.

Ah yes, the weekly Dungeon Pages installment! Like so many of these, the really curious aspect comes from the dungeon attached in here. In this case, Meredrin has plenty of dangers for you to navigate. The Horror Lavabeast is a nasty enemy to come across, as marking an Even number next to it will deal you some damage. In case that wasn’t bad enough, the big boss of the Magma Dragon does something similar…however, there’s the trap in here to save the day. Clever timing can lead to the Purple Fungi giving you some serious rewards, as it flips all your unused dice when marked. Who else is excited for another week of delving into Dungeon Pages?

Game of the Week: SpaceShipped on sale for just $2!

You are an interplanetary trader, flying a second-hand ship, trying to make some cash. A wealthy merchant offered you a lucrative deal. Prove yourself by getting some rare crystals and she'll put you in charge of her trading fleet — one of the biggest in the quadrant. You'll need to get them before your enemy gets them first. What are you waiting for? Get shipping!

Genuinely one of my absolute favorite solo games, this little title punches far above its 18-card weight. With a clever cycling system of cards, meaning that you can sort of see what could be happening soon - with just enough chaos sprinkled in to ruin those best-laid plans at the worst possible time - this game feels like it should be endlessly replayable. Sprinkle in some of those easy-to-integrate expansions and this is a solo game that you very well could be playing quite a few times without it growing stale. I cannot recommend this one strongly enough.