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.

Spy Club

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

The Search for Planet X

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The Search for Planet X

The Search for Planet X

At the edge of our solar system, a dark planet may lurk. In 2015, astronomers estimated a large distant planet could explain the unique orbits of dwarf planets and other objects. Since then, astronomers have been scanning the sky, hoping to find this planet.

In The Search for Planet X, players take on the role of astronomers who use observations and logical deductions to search for this hypothetical planet. Each game, the companion app randomly selects an arrangement of objects and a location for Planet X following predefined logic rules.

Each round, as the earth travels around the sun, players use the app to perform scans and attend conferences. As they gain information about the location of the objects, they mark that information on their deduction sheets. As players learn the locations of the various objects, they can start publishing theories, which is how players score points.

As more and more objects are found, players narrow down the possible locations for Planet X. Once a player believes they know its location and the objects on either side of it, they use the app to conduct a search. The game ends when a player successfully locates Planet X, and all players have a final chance to score some additional points.

The Search for Planet X captures the thrill of discovery, the puzzle-y nature of astronomical investigation, and the competition inherent in the scientific process. Can you be the first to find Planet X?

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deduction
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Puzzle

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.35

Saloon Tycoon

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Saloon Tycoon

Saloon Tycoon

Players are Saloon owners in an old west gold rush town. They’ve purchased lots on the four corners of the main crossroads and need to expand their small establishments into thriving businesses. Their goal is to create massive centers for commerce and entertainment in the wilds of the West. To boost their success, they’ll need to attract the wealthy and famous citizens of the town while keeping away the less savory characters.

This is a building and tile placement game where the purpose of the game is to build the best saloon. The game is played by each player taking a board and then taking turns going clockwise from the first player earning gold, taking an action, building and collecting bonuses.

The player with the most reputation points at the end of the game wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Open Drafting
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Resident Evil 3

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Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 3

Based on the original video game, Resident Evil 3: The Board Game is a cooperative survival horror game for 1-4 players that can be experienced either through individual, one-shot scenarios, or as a 19+ hour campaign with an overarching storyline.

Taking control of iconic characters like Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira, players will attempt to escape Raccoon City in the midst of a T-virus outbreak.

All the while, the city danger level will be on the rise, the number of undead monsters will increase, and every decision will be crucial.

To survive, players must carefully manage resources, make intelligent and meaningful decisions, and be wary of curveballs thrown by the tension deck—a mechanic carried over from the RE2 board game which will surprise players with unexpected threats to replicate the terrifying suspense of the video game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20

Reign of Cthulhu

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Reign of Cthulhu

Reign of Cthulhu

Beings of ancient evil, known as Old Ones, are threatening to break out of their cosmic prison and awake into the world. Everything you know and love could be destroyed by chaos and madness. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity.

In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, you’ll experience the classic Pandemic gameplay with an horrific twist that’ll have you face twelve Old Ones, each threatening the world with their unique powers. As players take on the roles of investigators attempting to seal a series of portals before monsters of unspeakable horror pour into our world there is, of course, a high risk of the investigators losing their own minds.

Instead of curing diseases like in the original Pandemic, players seal portals and shut down cults in the classic New England fictional towns of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity and the evil that lurks beneath your feet…

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Managment
  • Set Collection
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16