Heavy 6 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Three Kingdoms Redux

The Han Dynasty, founded in 206 BC, ruled the central plains and much of modern day China for nearly four hundred years. However, by late second century, court politics and poor governance has left it in rapid decline. The government was dominated by corrupt eunuchs and officials who levied heavy taxes on the peasants, resulting in public discontent. This culminated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao in 184 AD during the reign of Emperor Ling (168-189 AD).

In Underwater Cities, which takes about 30-45 minutes per player, players represent the most powerful brains in the world, brains nominated due to the overpopulation of Earth to establish the best and most livable underwater areas possible.

The main principle of the game is card placement. Three colored cards are placed along the edge of the main board into 3 x 5 slots, which are also colored. Ideally players can place cards into slots of the same color. Then they can take both actions and advantages: the action depicted in the slot on the main board and also the advantage of the card. Actions and advantages can allow players to intake raw materials; to build and upgrade city domes, tunnels and production buildings such as farms, desalination devices and laboratories in their personal underwater area; to move their marker on the initiative track (which is important for player order in the next turn); to activate the player’s “A-cards”; and to collect cards, both special ones and basic ones that allow for better decision possibilities during gameplay.

All of the nearly 220 cards — whether special or basic — are divided into four types according to the way and time of use. Underwater areas are planned to be double-sided, giving players many opportunities to achieve VPs and finally win.

The first large expansion for A Feast for Odin, The Norwegians includes four new islands (Isle of Man, Isle of Skye, Islay, Outer Hebrides) with Irish coastal viking-settlements on the backside (Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Limerick), where people from Norway came to stay through the winter (longphort), to trade at, and to settle nearby. This offers new strategies and new puzzle-tiles like horse (6VP, 2×5 spaces)/pregnant horse/leather(green)/vadmal(blue) and pigs (1 VP, breed every round; 2×3 – 1 = 5 spaces)/herbal (orange)/ antler (green)/tools (blue). The game has a third box for the tiles and offers the four old islands too (renewed little different VPs and new graphic-aspects of mini-expansion islands Lofoten/Orkneys/Tierra del Fuego).

A finely brewed sequel to the original featuring new industries, new mechanics, and new strategies for you to discover.
~ Birmingham Features ~

Dynamic board setup makes each game unfold completely differently
Core rules stay true to the original
New canal/rail scoring creates tactics in where you place them
3 new industry types include Breweries, Potteries and Manufactured goods
New actions, mechanics and strategies to discover

In Arkwright, 2 to 4 players lead enterprises and try to develop and run them profitably over several decades. It is important to invest in your own company and ensure that the value of its shares rises. The player with the most valuable portfolio of their shares wins the game.

In the beginning, workers are required to run the factories. However, their expensive wages (£2 – £5) make machines (£1) very desirable. To increase a factory’s production of goods, you may hire more workers or improve the technological level of your factory.

You determine the price of your goods for each of your factories. To enhance the chances of selling your goods to serve the demand in England, you can improve the technological level of your factories, increase the quality of your goods, and partake in distribution activities. The higher these factors are, the more successful you will be. However, the higher your prices, the less appealing your goods become.

War of the Ring is the greatest board game based on THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ ever created! WAR OF THE RING is a grand strategy board game that allows its players to immerse themselves in the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien’s and experience its epic action, dramatic conflict, and memorable characters.
As the Free Peoples player you command the proud hosts of the most important kingdoms of the Third Age. From the horse-lords of Rohan to the soldiers of Gondor and the Elven lords of Rivendell, you lead the defense of the last free realms of Middle-earth. Face the evil minions of Sauron on the field of battle in a desperate attempt to delay their onslaught, while you lead the Fellowship of the Ring in the Quest for Mount Doom.

As the Shadow player you lead the hordes of the Dark Lord and his most powerful minions as they try to bring darkness to Middle-earth. Legions of Orcs, Trolls, Wolfriders and the dreadful Ringwraiths await your command. Hunt the Ring-bearer and bring the precious Ring to his Master, or crush your enemies with your unstoppable armies.

This is your chance to forge the destiny of an age…

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant is a singularly unique trading and negotiation game for 4-9 players. Over the course of the game, each race must trade and negotiate with the rest to acquire the resources necessary to fund their economy and allow it to produce goods for the next turn. While technically a competitive game, Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant has a uniquely cooperative feel during the trading phase as no race has the ability to thrive on its own. Trade well, and you’ll develop technologies and colonize planets to form a civilization that is the envy of the galaxy.

Gaia Project is a new game in the line of Terra Mystica. As in the original Terra Mystica, fourteen different factions live on seven different kinds of planets, and each faction is bound to their own home planets, so to develop and grow, they must terraform neighboring planets into their home environments in competition with the other groups. In addition, Gaia planets can be used by all factions for colonization, and Transdimensional planets can be changed into Gaia planets.

All factions can improve their skills in six different areas of development — Terraforming, Navigation, Artificial Intelligence, Gaiaforming, Economy, Research — leading to advanced technology and special bonuses. To do all of that, each group has special skills and abilities.

The playing area is made of ten sectors, allowing a variable set-up and thus an even bigger replay value than its predecessor Terra Mystica. A two-player game is hosted on seven sectors.

Deep below the nightmarish, polluted hive cities of Necromunda, in the twisted, dark tunnels of the Underhives, rival gangs fight to the bitter end for personal power, survival and the honour of their Houses.

Designed for 2 players, this is a game of tactics, skill and absolute ruthlessness, set on the iconic hive world of Necromunda. Players choose 1 of the 2 included gangs in the box, and fight brutal skirmishes on the game board using everything at their disposal – ducking behind barricades to survive withering hails of gunfire before popping up and shooting back, placing and overriding traps, using the decrepit, crumbling corridors of the Underhives to unleash precise strikes before scurrying back into the dark. Survival in the Underhives is a difficult and desperate business, where violence is often the only option.

Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make.

This is a game with a persistent and changing world that is ideally played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Playing through a scenario is a cooperative affair where players will fight against automated monsters using an innovative card system to determine the order of play and what a player does on their turn.

Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.

Three Kingdoms Redux

Underwater Cities

A Feast for Odin: The Norwegians

Brass: Birmingham

Arkwright

War of the Ring (2nd edition)

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant

Gaia Project

Necromunda: Underhive

Gloomhaven

Feeds