Tag: Action Points

Action Points are a mechanic typically used in turn-based games. Players receive a number of action points and use those points to perform different actions on their turns. This is a common mechanic in games.

Survive: Space Attack!

Survive: Space Attack!

Survive: Space Attack!

Welcome to the height of technology and comfort, the Space Station Atlantis! All the comfort of a five star hotel, mixed with the adventure of space travel. The station is filled with staff, entertainers and guests trying to enjoy their out-of-this-world vacation. But all of a sudden, the Atlantis comes under attack by aliens!

After getting the guests to safety, the crew rushes to escape. Some will find space on the limited escape pods, others will board fighters and attempt to destroy the aliens. The unlucky ones will have to trust in their space suits and float for it. But with the alien Warriors, Spawns, and Queens patrolling the space around the station, it will not be an easy trip!

Who will be able to jump to safety?

Survive: Space Attack! utilizes similar base mechanics to the best-selling game Survive: Escape From Atlantis! designed by Julian Courtland-Smith. However, Survive: Space Attack! has been reimagined and redesigned by Brian, Sydney, and Geoff Englestein, the designers of Space Cadets and Space Cadets: Dice Duel and the expansions for these games.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.13

Summoner Wars

Summoner Wars

Summoner Wars

Summoner Wars puts you in the role of a powerful summoner in control of a unique army, dedicated to taking control of the war-torn planet of Itharia. Display your tactical prowess by summoning units to your gates, outmaneuvering your opponent, and cutting down the enemy summoner to claim victory. Be wary though! The enemy will take advantage of every opportunity they find to destroy you and your army.

Countless units, a wide variety of spells and abilities, and the option to build your own decks, all make for a game sure to entertain, play after play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 40 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.48

Sub Terra

Sub Terra

Sub Terra

A 1-6 player cooperative game of terrifying cave escape. Players take the role of amateur cavers attempting to escape an unexplored network of subterranean tunnels, before the lights flicker out or the darker things beneath the Earth catch up to them…

In Sub Terra players spend their turn exploring and revealing the tunnel system around them, attempting to survive the various perils of the cave, from floods and cave ins to gas leaks and scree. Players each have a role which gives them specialist abilities, such as an Engineer with dynamite to blast a new route or a Scout to find a route more easily.

New tiles are placed from a randomised stack of cave features, which determines whether you’ll be hit with a dead end or a range of new options.

At the end of each turn, players face the reality of their situation, with a hazard card drawn to determine what danger causes them damage or cuts off their way out of the horror below.

These cards are finite, and when they run out, your torches flicker and the air feels tight, and your chance of survival diminishes quickly.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Push Your Luck
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.14

Star Wars The Clone Wars

Star Wars The Clone Wars

Star Wars The Clone Wars

Traverse a galaxy where iconic Jedi heroes utilize the familiar gameplay mechanisms of the Pandemic series in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Planets under siege populate the game board as players take on the role of legendary Jedi traveling from battle to battle, teaming up and fighting off the Separatist threat. Battle droids attack on sight, and a planet invaded by too many will fall under a blockade, hindering Jedi from liberating it from the enemy or accomplishing missions.

Players must work together to confront the onslaught of droids by moving into their spaces and engaging them in combat, utilizing dice and squad cards to deal damage and push back the threat. In between battles, players move from planet to planet, battling more droids, crushing blockades, completing missions to turn the tide of war, and facing off against iconic villains.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.22

Spy Club

Spy Club

Spy Club

“We could start a Spy Club,” suggested Beatrice. “You know — search for clues and try to find mysteries to solve!”

In Spy Club, players work together as young detectives to solve neighborhood mysteries. It includes a replayable campaign format, with variable unlocking content, for playing a series of 5 games connected together to tell a larger story. Throughout the campaign, you’ll unlock new modules with additional rules and story elements. With 40 new modules and 174 cards in the campaign deck, you can reset everything and play multiple campaigns — with a different story and gameplay experience emerging each time.

In the standard game, each player has double-sided clue cards in front of them. On your turn, you use actions to flip, draw, and trade clue cards, gain ideas, and confirm clue cards as evidence. Confirm 5 clues of the same type to solve part of the case. As you discover more and more of the solution, a story starts to emerge: your Neighbor stole something from the ice cream shop, but what? And why? To crack the case, you must find the solution to all 5 parts before the suspect escapes or you run out of clues.

You can always play a single, standalone game of Spy Club, but the campaign mode is the recommended way to play:

  • Each game plays in 45 minutes, and each campaign consists of 5 games.
  • Some elements from each game carry forward and affect future games, with new rules and story elements are unlocked each play.
  • The sequence of content isn’t scripted, so each campaign will unfold differently.
  • Everything can be fully reset and replayed.
  • You only unlock a small portion of the total content in one campaign (just 4 of the 40 modules), so you can play multiple campaigns and continue unlocking new content each time!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deduction
  • Memory
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16

The Spill

The Spill

The Spill

Offshore rig, DeepWell•4, has blown out and the rupture is spilling crude oil into the ocean at an alarming rate! Your response team must work together, using your individual talents to avert an ecological disaster, one which threatens to contaminate marine life and devastate the ecosystem. The situation is dire and escalating by the minute, so there is no time to waste.

  1. Contain the oil flowing from the rig
  2. Remove what oil you can from the waters
  3. Rescue the marine animals

The world is watching. The fate of the coast is in your hands!

This fully cooperative game, for 1-4 players, features a 4-way dice tower as the oil rig, which randomly drops oil dice onto the four quadrants of the game board. In this respect, the game is a reverse tower defense game, as players sail the perimeter trying to push back and contain the oil, remove dice from the water and save the sea life.

Communal resource cards are chosen by the team before the game begins and are then powered for use by either removing 3 oil dice from the game or saving a full set of 6 marine creatures.

Weather dice complicate matters adding new challenges for the round that restrict movement, drop more dice or increase the cost of operations.

It takes coordination and teamwork to win, as new oil dice are dropped at the beginning of every turn and the number of oil dice dropped increases over the course of the game.

If the team can accomplish all three objectives on their WIN Condition card and remedy any potential losing conditions on the board by the end of a given turn – they win. Otherwise, the game will end when the 60 dice from the bag are exhausted, or they are unable to correct one of the three losing conditions.

Contain the Oil. Save the Sea Life.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 50 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem

Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem

Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem

Based on the hit TV series, in Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem players take the role of rival gangs out to control territory, accumulate contraband and reap the monetary rewards of illegal enterprise.

With each turn gangs must attempt to control a range of sites by assigning gang members and resources to claiming, defending and fighting for money, contraband and guns. However, other players can challenge the right for territory, which will lead to conflict! Negotiate, threaten and ally with rival gangs when it serves your needs, but be wary of the inevitable knife in the back. This game is about making and breaking alliances, and only the gang with the most money at the end of six rounds wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Negotiation
  • Take That
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.56

Sonora

Sonora

Sonora

You have entered the Sonoran Desert, a place of vast beauty. Technicolor sunsets pop out over vistas revealing deep canyons, trickling tributaries, and ancient pueblo cliff dwellings. Immerse yourself in the secrets of the desert in a flick-and-write game in which cunning and dexterity meet.

In Sonora, players flick wooden discs onto a game board representative of different vibrant landscapes across the Sonoran sands. Each area encompasses a different unique game, so skillful aim is required to play in the region of a player’s choosing and score points on your dry-erase sheet! But watch out for other players eager to bump discs to score points for themselves.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Dexterity
  • Networker Building
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.32

Sniper Elite

Sniper Elite

Sniper Elite

Sniper Elite: The Board Game is a hidden movement game based on the iconic video game series.

In the game, one player takes the role of the sniper, who is trying to make their way past the German guards by stealth or violence. Up to three other players control squads of German soldiers, striking a balance between defending their objectives and hunting the sniper.

Sniper Elite features a bag-manipulation element. The sniper draws chits from a bag to target the defenders, though canny defense can decrease the sniper’s likelihood of making their shot…

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Chit-Pull System
  • Hidden Movement
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 70 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.42

Skulk Hollow

Skulk Hollow

Skulk Hollow

​Over generations and generations the ancient woodland of Børe prospered and grew. The world was bestowed with great spirit, which lifted the animals of the land to new heights. Unfortunately, over the years these clans lost touch with the spirit of the land and faction warring developed. The Foxen Kingdom of Skulk Hollow in the South, The spiritual Red Pandas of Cupboard in the North, the Mischievous Mice of Multon in the West, and the colony of Blackheart Bunnies in the East. As skirmishes started breaking out across the continent, lives lost, there was a monstrous shake and then The Great Return. No one quite knows why, but the Guardians have risen – but not the kind, life-giving Guardians of spiritual legend. Dark, ferocious, versions that are now attacking all the kingdoms of the land.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.26