Games for Two 27 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Dungeon Petz

“What this town needs is a pet store.” No one knows which imp said it, but every imp recognized the idea was pure genius: “A pet shop for dungeon lords? What a great idea! Yeah, and no one else is doing it! No competition! We’ll be rich!”

And now you have just opened the first pet shop in town. Right next door to the other first pet shop in town. Across the street from two more.

Buy baby monsters! Feed them and watch them grow! Clean their cages!

Yes, running a pet store is exciting for an imp. But it can also be mentally challenging: What is the smartest way to win the upcoming exhibition? Which pet is best suited for your dungeon lord customer? How strong a cage do you need, and if you guess wrong, how many family members will be maimed?

Win or lose, you are sure to enjoy the grand opening of Dungeon Petz.

A medieval city destined for greatness, immense power and importance beckons you. There is only one problem: it isn’t built yet. This vacuum presents the perfect opportunity for you. You must wisely spend your gold, bluff, intimidate and outmaneuver your rivals as you seek to build and control this new city.

Citadels is a game of nobles, intrigue, and cities for 2-8 players, playable in 20-60 minutes. The current printing of Citadels includes the Dark City expansion detailed elsewhere – look for the purple logo on your box lid if you’re not sure if your copy includes the Dark City.

Wu-Feng, the Lord of Nine Hells, has discovered the village hiding the funeral urn containing his ashes. Four Taoist priests protect the village, as hordes of ghosts and demons descend on the town to reclaim the remains of their evil overlord. Can you hold out against the forces of eternal darkness, or will Wu-Feng recover his ashes and destroy everything in his path?

In Ghost Stories, the players work together as the Taoist priests attempting to turn back the tide of evil and save the doomed village. With mystical powers and ancient martial arts, the heroes will battle wave after wave of ghosts and demons until Wu-Feng himself rises to claim his remains. Working together is your only hope, as the ghosts increase in number and force the Taoist priests to sacrifice resources, time and even their very lives in this desperate battle against the hordes of Hell.

Ghost Stories is a cooperative game for one to four players. With modular playing tiles and a randomized deck of ghastly foes, no two games will be alike. The cards and tiles boast fantastic illustrations inspired by kung-fu legends, and a variety of excellent plastic playing pieces will draw you into the game. Gather your forces and battle the Lord of Nine Hells in the ultimate battle of good versus evil!

In D-Day Dice, players are Allied soldiers trying to organize improvised units for an attack against a machine gun nest. Each player starts the game with a unit of a few soldiers and nothing else. As the game progresses, he will roll dice to collect resources and advance on the beach, sector by sector, as his unit grows stronger and deadlier. He will succeed… or die trying!

D-Day Dice will get you right there on the beach. You will experience the fear of getting killed by enemy fire, the anguish of losing your men, and the thrill of surmounting seemingly impossible odds to accomplish your mission. And since this is a cooperative game, all players are on the same side, fighting like brothers (and sisters) in arms! This game can be played by anyone (you don’t have to be familiar with World War II) and has been enjoyed by families and wargamers alike.

Magic: The Gathering MTG also known as Magic is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield.

First published in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game produced and it continues to thrive, with approximately twenty million players as of 2015. Magic can be played by two or more players in various formats, the most common of which uses a deck of 60+ cards, containing no more than 4 of a single card with the exception of basic land cards, either in person with printed cards or using a deck of virtual cards through the Internet-based Magic: The Gathering Online, on a smartphone or tablet, or other programs.

Each game represents a battle between wizards known as “planeswalkers”, who employ spells, artifacts, and creatures depicted on individual Magic cards to defeat their opponents. Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the gameplay of Magic bears little similarity to pencil-and-paper adventure games, while having substantially more cards and more complex rules than many other card games.

New cards are released on a regular basis through expansion sets. An organized tournament system played at an international level and a worldwide community of professional Magic players has developed, as well as a substantial secondary market for Magic cards. Certain Magic cards can be valuable due to their rarity and utility in game play, with prices ranging from a few cents to thousands of dollars.

In Kingsburg, players are Lords sent from the King to administer frontier territories.

The game takes place over five years, a total of 20 turns. In every year, there are 3 production seasons for collecting resources, building structures, and training troops. Every fourth turn is the winter, in which all the players must fight an invading army. Each player must face the invaders, so this is not a cooperative game.

The resources to build structures and train troops are collected by influencing the advisers in the King’s Council. Players place their influence dice on members of the Council. The player with the lowest influence dice sum will be the first one to choose where to spend his/her influence; this acts as a way of balancing poor dice rolling. Even with a very unlucky roll, a clever player can still come out from the Council with a good number of resources and/or soldiers.

Each adviser on the King’s Council will award different resources or allocate soldiers, victory points, and other advantages to the player who was able to influence him/her for the current turn.

At the end of five years, the player who best developed his assigned territory and most pleased the King through the Council is the winner.

Many alternate strategies are possible to win: will you go for the military way, disregarding economic and prestige buildings, or will you aim to complete the big Cathedral to please the King? Will you use the Merchant’s Guild to gain more influence in the Council, or will you go for balanced development?

The year is 1926, and it is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers dance till dawn in smoke-filled speakeasies drinking alcohol supplied by rum runners and the mob. It’s a celebration to end all celebrations in the aftermath of the war to end all wars.

Yet a dark shadow grows in the city of Arkham. Alien entities known as Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness beyond space and time, writhing at the gates between worlds. These gates have begun to open and must be closed before the Ancient Ones make our world their ruined domination.

Only a handful of investigators stand against the Arkham Horror. Will they Prevail?

Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure game themed around H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Players choose from 16 Investigators and take to the streets of Arkham. Before the game, one of the eight Ancient Ones is chosen and it’s up to the Investigators to prevent it from breaking into our world. During the course of the game, players will upgrade their characters by acquiring skills, allies, items, weapons, and spells. It’s up to the players to clean out the streets of Arkham by fighting many different types of monsters, but their main goal is to close portals to other dimensions that are opening up around town. With too many portals open the Ancient One awakens and the players only have one last chance to save the world. Defeat the Ancient One in combat!

World War II has left the world in upheaval, and many nations’ futures are filled with uncertainty. The USA and the USSR are the only Superpowers who can lead the world toward a better future.

Cold War: CIA vs. KGB puts you in charge of a spy network during the post-war era. Your purpose: to “persuade” foreign governments to embrace the “proper” ideology, by any means necessary. Manipulate local factions of influence to get your coup d’etat up and running. Double-cross and eliminate your opponent’s leaders. Gain prestige for your side by winning the Space Race, dominating the Olympic Games, or ensuring that one of your countrymen wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this decades-long conflict, victory will go to the side with the resources, conviction, and commitment necessary to ensure that their world view shapes the future.

A Few Acres of Snow is a two-player, deck-building game about the French and British conflict in North America.

The card-play contains a focus on a deck-building mechanic similar to Dominion, each card will have multiple uses like card-driven game. The players have to choose only one aspect of the card to use when it is played. Each space captured by a player will add another card to the capturing player’s deck.

From the box description:

A war fought at the edge of two mighty empires. For over one hundred and fifty years Britain and France were locked in a struggle for domination of North America. Thousands of miles from their homes, settlers and soldiers were faced with impenetrable forests, unpredictable American tribes, and formidable distances. Despite these obstacles they were able to engage in bitter warfare, with the British ultimately taking the prize of Quebec. A Few Acres of Snow is a two-player game that allows you to recreate this contest. You can change the course of history by your decisions.

A Few Acres of Snow takes an innovative approach to the subject, using cards to represent locations and manpower. As the game progresses you add to your selection of cards, increasing the range of actions available to you. There are many strategies to be explored. How quickly should you build up your forces, do you employ Native Americans, what energy should be expended on your economy?

The game is about more than just fighting – you must successfully colonize the land to have a chance.

In Quarriors, each player plays as a Quarrior competing for Glory in the eyes of Quiana, the Empress of Quaridia. Each player starts with an identical set of 12 dice in their dice bag. At the start of the game, Creature and Spell dice (Quarry) are dealt at random to form “the Wilds” in the center of the table. As play progresses, players roll their dice to attempt to summon Creatures, cast Spells, and harness the magical power of Quiddity (the in-game resource) to capture Quarry from the Wilds to add to their repertoire and into their dice bag. Players draw and roll 6 dice a turn from their bag, making that controlling bag composition is key to victory.Quarriors is a fast-paced game where players must strategically balance their choices each turn. Do I use my Quiddity to summon Creatures in the hopes of scoring Glory or should I spend it all to capture more powerful Quarry from the Wilds? Players must outmaneuver their opponent’s through strategic Spell use, the acquisition of powerful Quarry, and ultimately, by striking down opponent’s Creature in combat. If your Creatures survive until your next turn, you will score Glory points and move closer to victory!

Dungeon Petz

Citadels

Ghost Stories

D-Day Dice

Magic: The Gathering

Kingsburg

Arkham Horror

Cold War: CIA vs KGB

A Few Acres of Snow

Quarriors!

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