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:
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Surplus of Sloths
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Brewfest Buzz
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GRIMLORE Case File #11: Lillian Marston, Professor
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Dangerous Space: Dee, Deliver Mission
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Power Creep: Brent, The Docks, 2095
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Surplus of Sloths
OH NO! Sloths are falling into the river and need rescue! Players can only grab one sloth per turn with the other sloths falling into the surplus net at the bottom. At the end, players with the largest run of each sloth type in the surplus net get those sloths and score the points.
Please note: This is a low ink print and play for a game currently on crowdfunding here: https://weirdgiraffegames.com/Sloths31
If you like drafting and scoring in unique ways, you won’t want to miss this one. You’ll be drafting from a river of cards, trying to make runs of cards in a suit to earn the right to collect those matching suit sloths that were discarded earlier. The caveat? Only those discarded sloths will score points for you, making it so you walk a fine line of trying to position yourself with enough sequential cards in enough suits to get the cards needed to score the points to win. If you like short, clever card games, this should be right up your alley.
Brewfest Buzz
As a craft beerlover, nothing excites you more than a local brewfest. You have the opportunity to sample various beer styles from several breweries all in one place. The drawback: you only have a few hours and need to pace yourself so that you don’t drink too much and feel awful later. You will need to be smart to maximize your experience.
If you like games where you race around a board, trying to balance two resources effectively while maximizing your scoring opportunities, then you’ll like this one even if you don’t get excited about the theme itself. You’re moving from stall-to-stall, balancing your buzz and your dehydration levels while sampling in the most effective way possible to score points. You get three trips around the festival and must make the most of every stop along the way if you want to win!
GRIMLORE Case File #11: Lillian Marston, Professor
Lillian Marston is a 34-year-old linguist and anthropologist raised in Providence, Rhode Island. Fascinated by ancient myths since childhood, she pursued academic excellence, earning a reputation for her groundbreaking work on cryptic languages. Her introverted nature masks a fierce determination, and her resourcefulness has helped her navigate perilous digs and harsh terrains. Haunted by the death of her father, an adventurer lost at sea, Lillian seeks answers about the unknown.
You know a character is a big deal when they can carry around the Necronomicon as part of their equipment toolkit. She’s going to need all the help she can get to deal with the Warlocks throughout and to overcome the Tidal Herald. Both have some nasty tricks up their sleeves, forcing the player to make some tough decisions about where to suffer losses as they try to venture through this week’s case. If you love GRIMLORE, and I hope you do, this one is definitely a fun installment to play through.
Dangerous Space: Dee, Deliver Mission
Dee lost part of her leg when a rescue mission went sideways. The grateful family financed her unique drone backpack which earned the cadet her apt callsign.
Here’s a mission where Dee’s uniquely powerful movement values can be really helpful, letting her fly right through the mission while minimizing the damage taken as best as she can. That’s important since the Kit you are trying to deliver causes you to take additional damage every time you get any damage, and you can assign damage to the kit instead. Which you’re going to eventually need to do, as you’re going to be bleeding damage if you get tangled up with one of those Adapting Specimen.
Power Creep: Brent, The Docks, 2095
Scarcity has pushed settlers to invent and improvise to meet their needs…and to protect them!
If you though spores were just a threat in the Last of Us franchise, think again. While flashlight and gas mask are optional here, you’ll need to prepare well in order to help Brent navigate through the Docks. Those spores can be nasty, dealing damage when you mark a different number adjacent to it. That’s going to give you a chance at having a tough choice on how to use doubles - do you snag an item, or mark them by these spores to finish them off while minimizing your own loss of health?
Game of the Week: Active Hero on sale for just $7!
As a player in Active Hero you take on the role of a vigilante cleaning up the crime in your city. To do so, you’ll train your body and equip your gear. By completing daily exercises you will earn bonuses and basic skills. Use these skills and bonuses to complete daily missions.
A different sort of game than you might be used to - this one helps motivate you to get moving a bit, with daily exercises that are doable throughout the day in spurts of only a few minutes, and completely without gym equipment, allowing you to fit it into even a busy daily schedule. If you’ve been looking for that extra motivation to stay fit - whether due to the holidays and all the eating that comes from it, or for other reasons - there’s plenty of fun to find through Active Hero, since you’ll use your daily results to take down baddies and level up your character.
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
A Nice Cuppa: Something Sweet Expansion
It’s impossible to relax when you’re hungry. Grab a sugary snack while you’re waiting for your tea.
An interesting expansion, which adds a small deck of Confection cards that you can make use of. You’ll probably want to do so most of the time, as these one-time abilities let you do things like Swapping the #1 tea card, flipping a focused Tea card to its unfocused side, and more. However, there’s a cost to doing so…you draw and use one of these instead of the free swap of an adjacent Tea card at the end of a round. However, there’s also a strong reason to do them: you lose a point for each card remaining in the deck at the end of the game! So take the good with the bad, knowing you’ll probably trigger these at least a few times to minimize your lowering of the final score.
A Nice Cuppa: Pets Expansion
Pets can be great companions, but they have minds of their own. Work around your attention-seeking pet as you prepare your tea.
An interesting change to the gameplay, this will see you trying to juggle the restrictions placed by the pets on the cards below and diagonally adjacent to the pet during the gameplay. If you thought the game already provided some good puzzles to work through, this expansion takes that and cranks things to 11. Because each pet moves when possible, and they move in different ways, there’s some really interesting situations to try and juggle as you play using this expansion.
Check out the new Button Shy releases here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Battle Pages Sheet 1 Deep Dive now live on YouTube
With each sheet's release Jason & Jason will take a closer look at what makes each sheet's enemies a unique challenge. They'll also discuss new heroes, warriors and structures as they're released. So if you're looking for a little edge in your gameplay or just want to hear the designers talk behind the scenes, this video series is for you.
See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!