Tag: Take That

Games with a “Take That” mechanic allows players to take actions that actively hinder an opponent’s progress in-game.

Mission: Red Planet

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Mission: Red Planet

Mission: Red Planet

The year is 1888, and Steampunk technology has advanced at a prodigious rate! Probes have been sent to Mars, and soon astronauts will be manning rockets in order to mine the planet for newly discovered resources. The first is a brand new element, Celerium, that could prove to be a combustible energy source the likes man has never seen. The second is Sylvanite, an incredibly dense material unlike anything found on earth. In addition to these resources, glaciers have been discovered on the planet. Whoever controls these icy masses could work to create a livable atmosphere on Mars

In Mission: Red Planet, players work as mining companies compete to send astronauts to Mars in order to colonize and mine for recently discovered materials. Over the course of 10 rounds, players play one of their special agents every round to help fill the rockets heading to Mars with their own astronauts while simultaneously working to prevent their opponents from doing the same. Once landed, these astronauts must gather to control specific regions of the planet, each yielding one of the three resources: Celerium, Sylvanite, or Ice. After rounds 5 and 8, players gain score tokens for every region where they control the majority of the astronauts. At the end of the game, players score one final time, adding any bonuses received from Discovery Cards and Bonus Cards. The player with the most score tokens at the end controls Mars, and all the riches it can bring!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Area Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20

Lucky’s Misadventures

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Lucky’s Misadventures

Lucky’s Misadventures

Lucky’s Misadventures
“Episode 42: Lost in Oddtopia”

You and your dog Lucky should not have taken that shortcut through the woods that night. How were you to know that you would be taken through a portal to Oddtopia — a surreal world of Tinkerers, Wickeds, and Oddlings? The Great Mechanical Toad reveals the fates to all.

What is your fate? Will you and Lucky find a way home, or will you stay, build your power, and become the Witchard of Oddtopia?

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Lords of Waterdeep

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Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep

Waterdeep, the City of Splendors – the most resplendent jewel in the Forgotten Realms, and a den of political intrigue and shady back-alley dealings. In this game, the players are powerful lords vying for control of this great city. Its treasures and resources are ripe for the taking, and that which cannot be gained through trickery and negotiation must be taken by force!

In Lords of Waterdeep, a strategy board game for 2-5 players, you take on the role of one of the masked Lords of Waterdeep, secret rulers of the city. Through your agents, you recruit adventurers to go on quests on your behalf, earning rewards and increasing your influence over the city. Expand the city by purchasing new buildings that open up new actions on the board, and hinder – or help – the other lords by playing Intrigue cards to enact your carefully laid plans.

During the course of play, you may gain points or resources through completing quests, constructing buildings, playing intrigue cards or having other players utilize the buildings you have constructed. At the end of 8 rounds of play, the player who has accrued the most points wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Hidden Roles
  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.46

Kero

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Kero

Kero

June 2471, and kerosene – KERO – is scarce. Two clans are struggling to survive, exploring New Territories in their tanker trucks. Running out of fuel is a risk each time they leave camp! Fortunately, a local tribe of Tuareks can lend a helping hand…

Kero is a two-player game set in a future unfriendly world, where players will be clan leaders – managing a camp, a tanker truck and 7 Explorers – competing for the same lands. Their ability to win the game will be based on how much kerosene (Jerrycans) they can find and how they use it wisely… Collect as many resources as possible while using as little as possible of the KERO in your tanker-truck to upgrade your camp and claim New Territories! Score the more points (by adding up the points on cards and territories) and become the 2471 Badassest Clan!

The game is played in 3 rounds (ending when a Claim card is revealed), each comprising several turns. Making snap decisions and mistakes under time pressure is part of the game!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Move Through Deck
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.97

Kardashev Scale

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Kardashev Scale

Kardashev Scale

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use.

  • A Type I civilization, also called a Planetary civilization — can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.
  • A Type II civilization, also called a Stellar civilization — can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system.
  • A Type III civilization, also called a Galactic civilization — can use and control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy.

Race your neighboring planets for control of the galaxy by achieving technological and cultural advancements that harness the energy of your people and your planet. Engage in conflict, trade, or research as a means to cultivate your civilization, capture the energy of your home star, and ultimately the energy of the entire galaxy! The most advanced civilization at the end of the game wins!

Each round, you’ll choose one of four actions to perform at a Summit: collecting one of 3 types of resources or purchasing Advancements. In a rock-paper-scissors fashion, you will compare your chosen action to the actions chosen by your left and right neighbors. Win against one or both of them, and you’ll collect 2 of your chosen resources. Tie and you’ll gain 1. Lose, and you gain nothing. If you chose instead to Advance, you won’t get any resources (and your neighbors will each gain 2 of their chosen resource), you will be able to purchase an Advancement card which will give you VPs and allow you to start building your engine. The game ends once one player reaches 25 or more VPs, and the player with the most points is the winner!

Game Mechanics:

  • Civilization
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Hellapagos

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Hellapagos

Hellapagos

Hellapagos is a “co-opetition” game in which players struggle to survive on a desert island and build a raft to escape before a hurricane devastates them. While players need to work together, it’s not likely that everyone will survive this backstabbing negotiation game for up to twelve players.

After becoming shipwrecked, your group of castaways finds themselves on a desert island. At first, the surroundings seem like paradise, but life soon proves difficult. Water and food are scarce. It’s doubtful whether everyone can survive this diet. There is only one solution: Construct a large raft together. But don’t waste any time, because the clouds on the horizon suggest the arrival of a dangerous hurricane! At the end of the game, the players who manage to leave the island in time will win (assuming anyone survives that long!).

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Cooperative
  • Negotiation
  • Party Game
  • Player Elimination
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 12 Players
  • 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Guildhall: Job Faire

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Guildhall: Job Faire

Guildhall: Job Faire

The not-so-Dark Ages is blowing up! Skilled workers clamor to get into your Guildhouse. Organize them into chapters and put them to work. Each additional worker you add to a chapter provides a bigger bonus to the workers you play in the future – but look out as your opponents might steal your valuable workers for their own chapters!

In Guildhall: Job Faire, 2–4 players compete to create a prosperous kingdom by recruiting skilled laborers into their guild chapters. Collect sets of cards with unique abilities. Use completed sets to claim victory cards. But will you go for points or use a special power? Which will lead to ultimate victory?

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.18

The Grimm Forest

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The Grimm Forest

The Grimm Forest

Welcome to The Grimm Forest, where family members of the legendary Three Little Pigs are having an epic house building competition. But this is no ordinary competition as all the most famous Fairy Tale characters will be looking on and occasionally lending a hand.

Who will benefit most from the cunning of Robin Hood, the beauty of Snow White, the bountiful gifts of the Golden Goose or the dark witchcraft of the Evil Queen?

Using only their wits, a handful of sharp steel tools, and a few stacks of resources gathered at great risk from fields, brickyards, and even the dark and deadly Grimm Forest itself, each player must compete to be the first to build 3 Houses and gain the title of Royal Builder.

Players are encouraged to use any of the devious tricks they have read about in the many books of Fables found throughout the land. Some will have their plans wrecked by that villain of old, the Big Bad Wolf, while others will gain bricks, straw, and wood by the cart load.

Who will brave the dangers, avoid foul monsters, and bring home the victory? There is only one way to find out… get ready to venture into …The Grimm Forest!

Grimm Forest is a 2-4 player strategic game of Hidden Movement, Resource Gathering, and House Building. It is a medium weight game that plays in approximately 45-60 minutes.

During the game, players will play cards secretly to move to various Location boards where they attempt to gather resources. Using their deduction skills and a hand full of Fable cards, players attempt to guess each other’s plans and make the most of their actions while disrupting the other player’s plans.

After resources are collected during the Gather Phase, players will enter a Building Phase where they can use those resources to build Wood, Straw, or Brick Houses. Whenever a player builds a Wall Section on one of their houses, a helpful Friend from the nearby forest comes to lend a hand. Players may choose to accept the help of that Friend, but occasionally it makes more sense to send that Friend to a different player, sometimes discarding their current Friend in the process.

With 16 unique Fable cards and 12 powerful Friend cards, gathering resources in the Grimm Forest can be a difficult and challenging endeavor.

Work hard, deduce correctly, avoid the treachery of the other builders and the sharp teeth of the lurking monsters, and you just might have a chance!

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.92

Goblin Firework Fight

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Goblin Firework Fight

Goblin Firework Fight

Goblins have come to the town of Sandpoint, intent upon stealing their fireworks for an upcoming festival. Do you have the goblin grit to pillage your way to victory and emerge from the town with the most fireworks?

The game is played over a number of rounds. Each round, every goblin takes a turn pulling a loot token from the town’s treasure pile. These tokens might represent useful tools or valuable treasure like fireworks, dogslicers (goblin knives), or shields. Unfortunately, the tribe’s most fearsome beast, a pig called Squealy Nord, is also hiding in the treasure, bringing mayhem and chaos to any who draw his token from the pile. You never know what you might get.

Fighty goblins can choose dogslicers and just steal from their neighbors instead of raiding the village. Smart goblins will take some shields to defend themselves from their peers. Crafty goblins with leadership qualities may choose instead to take the badge of leadership, the Pickle Token, signifying for all their prominence and importance as well as the right to pick first next time.

After 10 rounds and one last free for all opportunity to steal from each other on the way back home, one goblin is declared the “bestest goblin of the raid” and basks in glory and the admiration of their peers. Until the next raid…

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Party Game
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon Deck-Building Game

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Revisit the world of Epic Spell Wars. Mercilessly attack your foes and kill them over, and over, ah-and over! Take advantage of your wizard’s special ability tile and familiar card that only you can buy!

It’s an all-out battle to the death for the Annihilageddon trophy in the crazy world of Epic Spell Wars! While fully compatible with other Cerberus Engine releases, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon Deck-Building Game features a whole new world of mayhem…literally.

Mayhem Events, Familiars, Past Champions, Wizards, Spells, Creatures, Treasure, and Wild Magic. It all adds up to an Epic Spell Wars experience unlike anything you’ve seen before. And fans of the series have seen a lot. Yeesh.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.08