Watch your Back: Week April 17 to 23
Happy Easter to everyone celebrating it this week! In case you want some games to back as a holiday treat, here's what's on offer.
***
Assault on Doomrock is a 1-4 player cooperative fantasy adventure game that was first published in 2014. It is now coming back with an Ultimate Edition launching on Gamefound on April 19. This new edition has upgraded components, a new rulebook and twice the amount of content of the original.
Your goal is to go through three rounds of adventure and battle, and kill the final boss. There is a plethora of characters to choose from, from easy to advanced. In the Adventure phase, you explore locations and search for secret tokens. When battle takes place, you set up tokens on the battleground, assign dice to your abilities, and use a deck of cards for the enemies. You may check the Gamefound preview page.
Personal opinion: I have read good things for this game but it doesn't attract me that much. The battle setup is too abstracted for my liking, and I don't get a strong sense of exploration from the location cards. I'm sure it will do great on Gamefound, though.
***
Let's now check a big box miniatures game from Mythic Games: Anastyr is a 1-4 player cooperative fantasy adventure game in which heroes embark on a journey to save the world from Anastyr, the queen of dragons.
Each hero has their own abilities and they may also tame animals they can mount (minis have magnets that attach them to the animal minis). Over the course of the game, you will move across territories and fight any enemies you encounter. Fights are resolved with dice rolls, and heroes can use their abilities by forming combos with their cards. It is launching on Kickstarter on April 19.
Personal opinion: I like the artwork and the minis a lot but I'm a bit hesitant about the gameplay. It seems just okay. The gimmick of the mounted animals doesn't impress me but I'll think about it.
***
Explorers of the Woodlands is another 1-4 player cooperative fantasy adventure game in which animal heroes explore a forest and fight the enemies hiding inside it. You will reveal tiles as you move, and power your actions with dice until you defeat the final boss. It is launching on Kickstarter on April 19.
Personal opinion: I don't mind that the gameplay is simplistic but I would prefer better artwork, given the theme. The animals are reminiscent of Kyle Ferrin's style which is, I guess, what they were going for. The forest tiles all look the same and don't really show a forest. Overall, it seems family-oriented which I'm not interested in.
***
Did anyone say 'cooperative adventure game'? Here's one more for today: Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies is a 1-4 player standalone sequel to Ryan Laukat's 2021 hit, Sleeping Gods.
Distant Skies sounds more manageable for the solo player, as it comes with 5 characters instead of 9 that Sleeping Gods had. The game is set in 1937, as a plane flies through a portal and is transported into a dangerous world filled with strange creatures. It comes with an atlas map book that you play on, and combat is performed by playing your hand of cards. It is launching on Gamefound on April 18, and you may check the preview page.
Personal opinion: This may be my first Laukat game. I'll give it serious thought when it launches.
***
And lastly, we have an economic 1-4 player pick-up-and-deliver game in which you build motorways in Germany. Autobahn covers a period of time from the end of WWII to the present. You are the manager of the state highway system and must build roads, facilitate the transportation of goods, and place petrol stations along the way. Solo rules have not been posted yet. It is launching on Kickstarter on April 19.
Personal opinion: Too euro for me, and I smell a bot coming up for solo.