Tag: Grid Movement

Grid Movement is a game mechanic where game pieces move on a predetermined grid in various patterns.

Ivion: The Hound and the Hare

Ivion: The Hound and the Hare

Ivion: The Hound and the Hare

Ivion combines the intensity of a fighting game with the strategy of deck-building card games to create an experience unlike any other. In Ivion, your deck IS your character, and you build it from a variety of classes and specializations. Each character type has numerous cards from which to choose, along with wildly different playstyles. Mix and match them to create your own, unique character!

Upon the field of battle, crush your opponent with various strikes, stabs, slashes, spells, and other mayhem at your disposal. Be careful, though, as they have numerous ways to block, dodge, parry, fizzle, and disrupt your assault. Only one can be the victor, and the battle will be bloody!

In Ivion: The Hound and The Hare, you can battle as the wise and faithful Saint or the deceptive and cunning Illusionist. They can battle one another or any other character in the Ivion line of games.

Game Mechanics:

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

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.67

Ignite: Kickstarter Collection

Ignite: Kickstarter Collection

Ignite: Kickstarter Collection

Many ages have past since the use of magic broke the world. Since then, the races of Oshos have lived in an unstable peace. Yet as memory slips to myth, and myth slips to legend, the “Great Races” once more begin meddling with magic, and the tainted power corrupts the land yet again. Lava swallows up whole villages and a terrible famine spreads. “Lower” nomadic races begin rising up, pillaging and raiding nearby towns for food. Peace is no longer an option. War is here, and only one race can reign supreme.

Ignite is a dueling deckbuilder where players battle miniatures across a variably built board. Each player has 3 units of their chosen race, each with its own asymmetrical race ability.

Each unit has 3 hit points. When your unit takes a point of damage you insert a dagger into the back of the miniature. The player who inflicts the last point of damage keeps the unit as a trophy. Whoever has the most trophies at the end of the game wins.

Each card in your hand can be played for its honor value (allowing you to buy more cards) or for its battle effect (affecting your units and cards). Knowing when to battle and when to invest is incredibly important.

In the middle of the board is the bazaar. While one of your units is here it may sell a card. Selling a card allows you to trash it (removing it permanently from your deck) and gain honor equal to its original cost, allowing you to buy more powerful cards. The bazaar is powerful, but also dangerous as your opponents are often right there next to you.

There are 4 special types of terrain in Ignite and you’ll have to choose how best to use them.

  • Village: Allows you to purchase a card, but a successful attack against you will do additional damage.
  • Forest: Protects you from ranged attacks, but fire attacks will spread through the entire forest.
  • Water: Necessary for certain powerful spells, but freeze and lightning attacks will spread through the entire body of water.
  • Lava: If you are pushed into lava, your unit immediately dies.

In Ignite there is a strength and weakness to everything. Invest too early in powerful magic attacks, and you won’t have any honor to purchase more valuable equipment when you need it. Invest in bows and arrows to gain a range advantage over the enemy, but remember, you can only shoot arrows if you also have a bow in your hand. Prefer getting up close and personal with melee weapons? Just be sure you have mounts available to bring your unit within striking distance.

Ignite comes from our love of deckbuilders. The main complaints against deckbuilders are that they (1) have minimal player interaction, playing a lot like solitaire (2) have an anti-climactic end-game (3) often feel the same after a few games. We built a deckbuilder where negotiation, alliance-making, and begging were legitimate strategies. Where the end of the game is the most exciting part. And where you will never play the same game twice (between the asymmetric race abilities, variably built board, and incredibly varied weapons, items, and spells).

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Negotiation
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 40 – 160 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Ierusalem: Anno Domini

Ierusalem: Anno Domini

Ierusalem: Anno Domini

Jerusalem, spring 33 AD: A crowd gathers at the city gates to welcome Jesus of Nazareth as he prepares to celebrate the Passover seder with his apostles and followers. With a revolutionary message, he has garnered supporters everywhere but also looks of suspicion among religious authorities. The Last Supper will soon be celebrated, and the fate of one of the most influential characters in human history will be sealed.

In Ierusalem: Anno Domini, we represent one of the communities of followers of Jesus of Nazareth who, coming to Jerusalem from nearby towns and villages, want to approach the place of the Last Supper and position ourselves as close as possible to the seats of Jesus and his apostles. The closer we are, the more points we earn at game’s end. We also score for offering tokens and parable tiles we’ve accumulated.

Different locations are shown on the board: the market, the desert, the mountain, the lake, and the temple. After sending our followers to one of these locations, we obtain stones, bread, and fish, as well as denarii or cards that allow us to do more than one action. Among these actions, players can choose between listening to a parable, going to the table, changing seats, or doing a favor, among other things. All this happens while the patience of the Sanhedrin runs out. When this happens, as symbolized by a tile moving in a marker, the endgame is triggered.

However, the main element of the game is the cards. Each card has a symbol corresponding to one of five key locations in the game. As we play them, we form combinations that allow us to bring the apostles to the table of the Last Supper. The optimal placement of our followers around Jesus and the apostles will also be done through the management of letters, as well as various resources at our disposal.

Behind a very immersive theme, Ierusalem: Anno Domini will not disappoint lovers of good challenges. Players have a wide range of possibilities at their fingertips and multiple ways to earn points. Preparing the best strategies to get the most out of your followers will be one of the keys to victory. Devout gamers don’t need to look further: Here is your game!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Gird Coverage
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.10

Honey Buzz

Honey Buzz

Honey Buzz

The bees have discovered economics. The queens believe that if they sell honey to the bears, badgers, and woodland creatures, they will find peace and prosperity. Spring has arrived and it’s time to build the hive, find nectar, make honey, and, for the first time ever, set up shop.

Honey Buzz is a worker bee placement game where players expand a personal beehive by drafting various honeycomb tiles that grant actions that are triggered throughout the game. Each tile represents a different action. Whenever a tile is laid so that it completes a certain pattern, a ring of actions is triggered in whatever order the player chooses. A tile drafted on turn one could be triggered up to three times at any point during the game. It all depends on how the player places their beeples (bee+meeple) and builds their hive. After all, in the honey business, efficiency is queen.

As you continually expand your hive, you’ll forage for nectar and pollen, make honey, sell different varieties at the bear market, host honey tastings, and attend to the queen and her court. There’s only so much nectar to go around, and finding it won’t be easy. Players will have to scout out the nectar field and pay attention to other players searches to try to deduce the location of the nectar they need for themselves.

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Grid Movement
  • Memory
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.75

Heroes Wanted: The Stuff of Legend

Heroes Wanted: The Stuff of Legend

Heroes Wanted: The Stuff of Legend

THIS JUST IN…

A dark cloud looms over Zeta City, one that speaks with a forked tongue and tells of ill omens and other generally bad stuff. In the wake of the retirement of Fastodon, the World’s Fastest Mammoth, all manner of foul evil has emerged to wreak havoc. From sinister deities once relegated to myth to arcane menaces who have hovered at the fringes of our mundane world, all have been waiting for just such an opportunity and now return with visions of conquest. After all, one less Champion means one less obstacle in the way of their nefarious machinations. But hope is not lost! As we have learned in recent news, ambitious heroes eager to prove their mettle are patrolling the rooftops and alleys. Among them are practitioners of the mystic arts and noble gods from great pantheons, each able to face the rising tide of villainy for the sake of all that is good and right. A day of decisive battle is descending upon Zeta City, and from it shall emerge…

The Stuff of Legend!

Heroes Wanted: The Stuff of Legend expands the Heroes Wanted universe as Supernatural and Mythic heroes join the fray, while mechanisms such as feats and curses introduce all-new tactics and the price for using them. All that along with even more heroes, villains, Quirks, and two new scenarios will add even more variety and complexity to your Heroes Wanted experience. So, are you ready to step up and be more than just a hero and become a legend?

RIGHT WRONGS. UPHOLD JUSTICE. BECOME A LEGEND.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Heroes Wanted

Heroes Wanted

Heroes Wanted

As soon as you saw the ad in today’s Tribune, the certainty flooded over you. At last, this is your chance, the reason for all your training! All that work waterproofing your utility belt and practicing your one-liners will finally pay off. You call into work sick, feed the cat, and turn on your police scanner, waiting nervously for the first call–or at least, the call that’s close enough for you to get there first. You’ll stop at nothing to join your heroes, The Champions of Zeta City, and woe to any wannabe crime fighters who stand in your way!

Heroes Wanted is a tactical board game for 1-5 superhero hopefuls, attempting to fulfill their dreams of becoming a member of Zeta City’s exclusive crime fighting super team: The Champions of Zeta City. Each time you play, you will create a unique superhero comprised of two hero cards. You will then choose a scenario and face a different villain (or villains), but the objective remains the same: gain as much fame as possible by KO’ing minions, completing headlines, and thwarting the villain. At the end of each game, the superhero with the most fame is the winner and joins the prestigious ranks of The Champions of Zeta City.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.61

Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories is a cooperative game in which the players protect the village from incarnations of the lord of hell – Wu-Feng – and his legions of ghosts before they haunt a town and recover the ashes that will allow him to return to life. Each Player represents a Taoist monk working together with the others to fight off waves of ghosts.

The players, using teamwork, will have to exorcise the ghosts that appear during the course of the game. At the beginning of his turn, a player brings a ghost into play and places it on a free spot, and more than one can come in at the same time. The ghosts all have abilities of their own – some affecting the Taoists and their powers, some causing the active player to roll the curse die for a random effect, and others haunting the villager tiles and blocking that tile’s special action. On his turn, a Taoist can move on a tile in order to exorcise adjacent ghosts or to benefit from the villager living on the tile, providing it is not haunted. Each tile of the village allows the players to benefit from a different bonus. With the cemetery, for example, Taoists can bring a dead Taoist back to life, while the herbalist allows to recover spent Tao tokens, etc. It will also be possible to get traps or move ghosts or unhaunt other village tiles.

To exorcise a ghost, the Taoist rolls three Tao dice with different colors: red, blue, green, yellow, black, and white. If the result of the roll matches the color(s) of the ghost or incarnation of Wu-Feng, the exorcism succeeds. The white result is a wild color that can be used as any color. For example, to exorcise a green ghost with 3 resistance, you need to roll three green, three white, or a combination of both. If your die rolls fall short, you can also use Tao tokens that match the color in addition to your roll. You may choose to use these after your roll. Taoists gain these tokens by using certain village tiles or by exorcising certain ghosts. One of the Taoists has a power that allows him to receive such a token once per turn.

To win, the players must defeat the incarnation of Wu-Feng, a boss who arrives at the end of the game. There are also harder difficulty levels that add more incarnations of Wu-Feng, in which to win, you must defeat all of them.

There are many more ways to lose, however. The players lose if three of the village’s tiles are haunted, if the draw pile is emptied while the incarnation of Wu-Feng is still in play, or if all the priests are dead.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Move Through Deck

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.90

Dreadball

Dreadball

Dreadball

DreadBall Second Edition is the fast-paced futuristic sports board game set in the galaxy’s most hi-tech arenas.

Choose from the agile Ninth Moon Tree Sharks or the unstoppable Draconis All-Stars from the core box set before taking to the pitch and going for glory.

Expand your team collection with the mystical Matsudo Tectonics or the aggressive New Eden Revenants Cyborgs with these two team expansions.

Outwit your rival coach with tactical set pieces, push your luck with daring plays, or just smash your opponent to the ground with brutal tackles. When the game begins, anything goes…

Play out of the box – no assembly, colored plastic teams.

Includes plastic counters, dice, cards the rule book and an incredible fold out board.

Contains all core rules and two pre-built teams. The Robots and Yndij are ready to go for quick-start play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.87

Direwild

Direwild

Direwild

Direwild is a fully co-operative, tactical, dungeon-crawling deck-builder. There is no dungeon master; it is purely the players vs. the game. Players assume the role of animists, heroes that can summon creatures both great and small (represented in the cards you build your deck with), then combine those creatures in unique ways. With the creatures’ help, the animists strive to work as a team to defeat the evil forces of Karn. Karn was once a great animist himself, but was corrupted by his lust for greater power. Throughout the game, Karn tries to hunt the heroes and defeat them before they can grow strong enough to face him in the final showdown. The game is split into three chapters, with a “game save” mechanism to allow for the packing and saving of the game between game nights.

The game also includes treasure, magic, unlockable upgrades, boss fights, a large pool of minions to randomly face each playthrough, over 130 creatures, and ten unique heroes!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.91

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

In Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition), one player takes on the role of the treacherous overlord, and up to four other players take on the roles of courageous heroes. During each game, the heroes embark on quests and venture into dangerous caves, ancient ruins, dark dungeons, and cursed forests to battle monsters, earn riches, and attempt to stop the overlord from carrying out his vile plot.

With danger lurking in every shadow, combat is a necessity. For such times, Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) uses a unique dice-based system. Players build their dice pools according to their character’s abilities and weapons, and each die in the pool contributes to an attack in different ways. Surges, special symbols that appear on most dice, also let you trigger special effects to make the most of your attacks. And with the horrors awaiting you beneath the surface, you’ll need every advantage you can take…

Featuring double-sided modular board pieces, countless hero and skill combinations, and an immersive story-driven campaign, Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) transports heroes to a vibrant fantasy realm where they must stand together against an ancient evil.

Compared to the first edition of Descent: Journeys in the Dark, this game features:

  • Simpler rules for determining line of sight
  • Faster setup of each encounter
  • Defense dice to mitigate the tendency to “math out” attacks
  • Shorter quests with plenty of natural stopping points
  • Cards that list necessary statistics, conditions, and effects
  • A new mechanism for controlling the overlord powers
  • Enhanced hero selection and creation process
  • Experience system to allow for hero growth and development
  • Out-of-the-box campaign system

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.21