Runescape

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Board Games - Runescape is a board game based on a populat video game.

From the publisher:

Grab your capes and party hats, ’cause we’re going to Gielinor! RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg is a cooperative campaign board game inspired by the record-breaking video game universe with over 280 million registered users worldwide.

Gather your group of 1-5 players and step into a sometimes epic, often irreverent fantasy world where your goal is simple: Become the wealthiest, most skilled, best-geared adventurer there is! Or, just enough of all three to succeed together. Or spend the whole time collecting eggs and let your friends do all the work. It’s cooperative, after all! (Still, who doesn’t enjoy a little friendly competition?)

Either way, Gielinor needs capable folk to help its inhabitants and keep monsters and nefarious cults at bay, and that’s where your group steps in. One minute you’re slaying a vampyre that’s been terrorising a village. The next, you’re helping Gertrude find her beloved cat!

Like chapters in a book, your tabletop adventure is split into campaigns, each one inspired by an iconic boss quest from the video games. Campaigns are made up of two phases:

First is the exploration phase, where you’ll explore the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin from above on a game board styled like a fast-travel map. Every location gives you different things to do — whether that’s gathering and sharing resources, levelling up skills, or drawing from the exploration deck for that region to see what unexpected thing you’ll need to handle next!

Don’t get too distracted, though: The exploration phase has set quests you’ll need to complete to keep your group moving forward. Spend too long gathering cabbages or engaging in goblin diplomacy, and the escalation track will rise, making the world around you more dangerous until you finally take on the boss…

…in the boss phase! Here, you’ll zoom in for face-to-face fights on dedicated game boards that bring the bosses — and their environments — to life!

The story woven through the campaigns will immerse you in the fantasy world of RuneScape, while the optional side quests, exploration decks, vault deck, and event deck will change your experience each time you play. And because it’s an open world, you can play your way!

Ignite - Backstabbing Skirmish Game

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Board Games - Ignite is a unique board game that tracks wounds via daggers in the backs of the models.

From the publisher:

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 inIgniteand 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).

Redwood - A Game of Picture Taking

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Board Games - Redwood is a unique spatial awareness game in which you are a photographer trying to capture the perfect picture of wildlife.

From the publisher:

Redwood is a game of movement estimations and angle of view where players have to take pictures of wild animals to compose the most beautiful panorama. The game is for 1 to 4 players, ages 10+ and the games last about 45-60 min.

During their turn, each player will have to choose between different movements and their angle of view (materialized by real plastic elements) to catch the animals in the picture (without disturbing them).

Collecting animals and decorative elements earn victory points.

During the game, new conditions for earning points will appear.

The game ends after 5 turns and players will be rewarded if they meet certain conditions to earn more points.

Pest - Fighting the Plague

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Board Games - Pest features some really cool Plague Doctor miniatures.

Description from publisher:

Our once great Empire was struck by a devastating plague… will you answer the call to save it?

Once standing tall and great, we now need to rediscover and rebuild our fallen cities. There are still survivors among the ruins – we must take them in our care and cure them. In order to stay ahead of the plague, we must implement new inventions and technologies. Our influence will expand as we rebuild, but the plague will still lurk in the shadows, ready to strike when we least expect it. Once it does, it will be difficult to adapt, but we will survive. In addition to the procurement of important resources, our imperative will be to get the plague under control.

In Pest, players slip into the roles of leaders of the ruling houses of a once great empire that was struck by a cataclysmic plague. The plague has left much of the empire in ruins, so now it is up to the players to restore it to its former glory.

Pest is played in 6 rounds. Each round before players take their turn, a plague card will be revealed which shows how the plague will spread in that round. On their turn, players will be able to select among many actions on their player board using a unique action selection system. Thus, players will be able to move their containment team on the board, quarantine and cure infected people, rebuild, assign workers, harvest for resources, and more.

As their house influence grows, players will be able to play more actions, generate more resources, and house more people. This will bring forth new technological advancements which are much needed to get the plague under control.

The game ends after the 6 round is over and players count their final amount of Renown (victory points). The player with the most Renown is the winner and declared the savior of the empire!

The Isofarian Guard

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Board Games – Narrative solo games can be pretty intense, The Isofarian Guard lives up to this it’s a massive box with miniatures and quest books. The miniatures are unique as each one has two models joined together.

From the publisher:
The Isofarian Guard is a solo/co-op narrative driven adventure board game for 1-2 players.

Welcome to Isofar, a wild land severe in its beauty. The Isofarian people take great pride in their ability to flourish among the hostile wildlife and cruel elements of their mountainous home. As a member of the Isofarian guard, life is never dull. You try to keep the peace among your fellow Isofarians (a never-ending job), as well as deal with constant threats from the aggressive Falmund Empire to the south.

But now, the old patterns are shifting. New forces are at work that will challenge the very underpinnings of reality. You will guide eight different Isofarian Guards throughout 5 interweaving campaigns as they deal with a power that threatens not only Isofar, but the entire world.

In The Isofarian Guard, you will travel throughout the cities and wildernesses of Isofar on a beautifully illustrated world map, fight off enemies using a unique and highly customizable battle system, and use your wits to talk your way out of sticky situations. As you forge important alliances, opportunities will arise for you to craft stronger gear, gain new powers, and step into the destiny you were called to.

Hybris - Greek Gods

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Board Games – Hybris: Disordered Cosmos is a worker placement game that combines Greek Myth with a Digital Utopia.

From the publisher:
Hybris is a boardgame of worker placement, opportunity and development. For 2 – 4 players for game session around 120 minutes. A solo mode will be included during the Kickstarter campaign.

Primodials Gods have fallen. Hunted, captured and tortured by their children, Chronos and his congeners are nothing but remnants of an ancient world. Era of Olympians has just begun. After aeons of fightings, a new order is established. Zeus, his brothers and sisters took the dominion of the heavens and the mortals world. Now they are trying to organize themselves to share the remaining realms and know who will be the new ruler.

But Olympians are not yet real gods, they must evolve, activate the spark that will turn them into a true god even if their current strength is colossal. Moreover, they must establish their domination in the realm of mortals, and to do this, use the essence of their father: the Aegis. This energy comes directly from the Primordials themselves who are captured and chained in the underworld. With this energy, Olympians can meet the expectations of the largest cities in Ancient Greece by deploying the most beautiful and promising technologies.

Play your god to build technologies, accomplishing quest, fight heroes, upgrade your Divinity Sparkle and win the game by unlocking all your Divine Enhancements or by victory points in the 6th Age turn.

Anno Domino 1666 - Expansion

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Board Games – 1666 is a skirmish board game where player battle using a variety of factions. These two are one of the expansions for the game.

From the publisher:
It is the year of our Lord 1666. Emperor Leopold is dead. The election looms. European monarchs send their envoys to Vienna to participate. But the struggle for the Empire's future takes place not only at the noble courts. In Vienna's slums and alleys swashbucklers, musketeers and thugs wage a secret war on behalf of their powerful superiors.

Anno Domini 1666 is a tactical adventure miniatures game in which two players pit their bands against each other in order to achieve specific goals defined by a scenario. The game takes place on boards depicting 17th-century Vienna with a grid overlay. Dice rolls are replaced by cards either played from a player's hand, or drawn blindly from a deck. A scenario's objectives may include defeating the opponents in combat, but also stealing a valuable object or breaking out a hostage, among others.

The theme and characters of the game are based on real-world history, historical novels (such as Three Musketeers) but also feature magic, alchemy, wizards and fantastical creatures. The participating factions are the Poles, the French, the Ottomans and the evil sect Broken Cross. They can get help from the Vienna locals (thugs, urchins, merchants) and famous mercenaries. The process of building a band is fast and streamlined thanks to a draft system.

Kilforth - Fully Painted

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Board Games – Kilforth is a fantasy card game that produced a set of miniatures for the characters featured in it.

From the publisher:
Gloom of Kilforth is a card game of high fantasy with a Gothic edge, playable in 1-3 hours, where 1-4 players, working individually or together, must take their humble adventurers on a journey through a dark world of magic and peril. They will visit strange places, stranger people and overcome powerful enemies in their mission to discover mysterious artefacts and mystical Spells. Players follow their Hero’s tale from modest beginnings through an epic story to an exciting climactic battle for the fate of the world. Gloom of Kilforth takes about 45 minutes per player to play.

Cultist Storm - Fully Painted

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Board Games - Cultist Storm is set in the Cthulu Mythos, as a Co-Op game you work together to close portals before the cultist are able to summon a Great Old One.

Each round of Cultistorm consists of 6 phases where players combat cultists and try to close 5 portals. The game is lost if any of the following happens:
● Any investigator goes insane.
● Any Great Old One reaches a location card.
● The number of cultists exceeds the cultist threshold.
● The investigators do not manage to seal all the locations before they defeat every Great Old One
after the activation of the Final Act card.

The Lion Returns

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Warhammer 40,000 – The Lion came back at the end of 9th Edition during the Arks of Omen books, he didn’t make a huge splash at the time and in 10th Edition his rules are pretty solid in the index so it’s odd you don’t hear more about him. With Dark Angels set to get a full tenth edition codex soon he may make a bigger splash soon.

Magnus the Red

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Warhammer 40,000 - Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Sons.

Gargoyles - Fully Painted

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Board Games - Gargoyles was part of the Disney Afternoon in the 1990’s it was a pretty cool cartoon that was supposed to be appeal to a more male demographic like the films the studio released in the time period (Altantis, Treasure Planet etc) it didn’t really work as intended but the films and shows of this time have a pretty solid cult following.

Battle for Eternia - Wrath of Snake Mountain

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Board Games - I don’t think I ever owned any of the Snake Men from the Masters of the Universe, they came out toward the end of the series and I think I had changed my focus to G.I. Joe and video games by then.I remember them from the TV Show and the various commercials.

Monster Hunter - Fully Painted

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Board Games - Monster Hunter is a franchise know mostly for the Capcom video game series, there is also a film set in the universe. Now there is also a board game that allows you to battle giant monsters in a Co-Op style board game.

After you successfully hunt down a monster you’re able to craft gear and improve your stuff before you head out to track down bigger game. It sounds like a pretty faithful translation of the core game concepts and the monster miniatures are really nice. The details on the hunters are a little soft but my kids have played several of the video games and were impressed with the armor sets so I guess they’re pretty accurate.

Vampire The Masquerade

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Board Games - Vampire The Masquerade is typically associated with LARPing however they recently came out with a narrative board game. Check it out here.

Masters of the Universe - Battle for Eternia

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Board Games - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe were a huge influence on my childhood. I had opted to pass on backing this kickstarter just because I’m trying to be more selective due to limited space to store these big box games. Honestly I was a little sad about missing it. Luckily it’s back for a second printing and available on Gamefound.

I was happy to get a chance to paint these for someone else and they brought back fond memories of the Master of the Universe from my childhood.

Thousand Sons - Additions

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Warhammer 40,000 - It seems a 40k army is never truly complete. As is evidenced by this Thousand Sons force.

Marvel Crisis Protocol - Starter Force

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Marvel Crisis Protocol - Starter Force

Marvel Crisis Protocol – MCP is one of the better games that has come out in recent years, not only does it feature my favorite Marvel characters, but the game is super flexible and fun. While there are benefits to playing an affiliation with a leader, you’re not locked into that choice. If you wanted to you could just buy the characters you like and play with them as your team. Granted this might not be the best choice it is still perfectly viable.

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