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Writer's pictureAthena

Watch your Back: Week November 20 to 26

Two thirds of the ST crew are currently bedridden. I have Covid, JW has a bad case of the flu. Crowdfunding news don't wait for us to recover, however, so forgive me while I cough and sneeze my way through them...


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Let's start with Cube Monster: a 1-4 player engine building game in which you are racing to the top of a mountain trying to appease the monster that lives there by feeding it cubes.


You will be drawing cubes from a bag, activating buildings on your player board and sacrificing cubes to climb up the mountain. The monster needs to be fed cubes as well: if you complete a line of cubes on the monster tableau, it wakes up and either grants you rewards or destroys your buildings. The game is launching on Kickstarter on November 21.

Image source: BGG

Personal opinion: It seems better multiplayer.


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Then we have Elden Ring: The Board Game. This is a 1-4 player cooperative deck building adventure game inspired by the video game by the same name.


The game uses hex tiles which the heroes explore and interact with NPCs on, as well as quest books on which battles take place. As you progress, you will read the accompanying story bits which may also give you side quests to carry out. When heroes descend in a dungeon, their quest books are joined together so they can help each other out. It is launching on Kickstarter on November 22.

Image source: Steamforged Games website

Personal opinion: I am one of the few (?) people who strongly dislike spiral notebooks in games. I prefer map tiles instead. This game has both which means it takes up a lot of table space. I really like the artwork and the enemies though. I'll take a look when it launches.


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The 1-2 player card game Clash of Decks returns to Kickstarter on November 22 with Season 3 which includes 4 standalone expansions and a mobile app game.


This is a card-driven duel in which you form an army of units and face the army of your opponent. In the solo mode, you draw cards from the AI opponent's deck and attack them as you would in a 2 player game.

Image source: BGG

Personal opinion: Even though Clash of Deck was dirt cheap when it first launched, somehow it didn't convince me it was a good solo game. The AI seemed too random. Maybe Zerbique can tell us more but I don't see me backing.


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Moving on to Tiny Epic Crimes: a 1-4 player deduction game in which you are trying to crack murder cases. It can be played competitively, cooperatively, or solo.


You will be going around the city trying to gather evidence and eliminate suspects. Before time runs out, you have to make a guess at who the murderer is to win. It is launching on Kickstarter on November 22.

Image source: Gamelyn Games Facebook

Personal opinion: So far, clever as they may be, Scott Almes' games have never been fun enough for me. This one sounds promising though, I'll take a look at a playthrough video.


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World Stitchers is a 1-4 player competitive tile laying game in which animal spirits are stitching together parts of land to form a new world.


Each player places down a tile from their hand, and then adds energy tokens on the tile and the land tiles that connect with it and match the same type of land. Each player also places a spirit meeple on their land which they can move across the tiles, as long as they can spend tiles from their hand as stamina. The game can be played solo against an AI with its own deck of cards. It is launching on Kickstarter on November 22.

Image source: BGG

Personal opinion: Nothing for me here. Perhaps Zerbique will be interested, since this is by Pepijn van Loon (the designer of Heroes of Tenefyr).


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Last announcement for today is for two solo expansions launching in the same Gamefound campaign on November 23: the solo mode expansion for Icaion and the solo mode expansion for Mysthea. Both feature the signature of David Turczi.

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7 Comments


rasserposten
Nov 20, 2022

I hope you get better soon, both of you!


Not much for me this week. I'm sure I would be interested in Elden Ring if I had 400 dollars to spare...

I might look at the Mysthea solo expansion. I got the game from the kickstarter some years ago, but it has just been sitting on my shelf since then...

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Tina
Tina
Nov 20, 2022

Get well soon, Athena and JW!

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Zerbique
Zerbique
Nov 20, 2022
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Thanks for gathering enough strength to make the post this week Athena!


Cube Monster looks overproduced. Easy pass.


Elden Ring has 2500 cards and 500 tokens if you want the whole adventure. It also costs $430. No way.


I didn't like Clash of Decks. Indeed the AI feels too random. More concerning to me, I felt that there was some kind of feedback loop: once you have "cleaned" the enemy lanes, it's very difficult for them to set foot again. The mana mechanics is not enough to counterbalance this. But maybe I approach it wrong. I have sent one of the five copies to JW I had ordered at the time, maybe he can tell us more about it.


Tiny…


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SnowDragonka
SnowDragonka
Nov 20, 2022
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Replying to

Boardgames are on pause for me, so I won't make a separate post, just a reaction to Mr. Zerbique's detailed post.


First of all, all of the people struggling with any health issues, take care of yourselves and get better soon.


I'm with Athena on the ring books, I don't like them. It's one reason I was so hesitant about Quirky Circuits and now the original is OOP. I much prefer tiles. There's no reason the tiles can't have personality of their own, Machina Arcana showed me that.


And the only game I'm partly interested in is World Stitchers. Tile laying, puzzle, two buzzwords that always get me interested... but AI solo doesn't inspire me, so it will probably be…

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Wouter Cordewiner
Wouter Cordewiner
Nov 20, 2022

Athena, JW, I hope you get well soon. 💛

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The Master Of Sinanju
The Master Of Sinanju
Nov 20, 2022
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Get Well Soon........😀

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