Heavy Games 17 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Letters from Whitechapel

Get ready to enter the poor and dreary Whitechapel district in London 1888 – the scene of the mysterious Jack the Ripper murders – with its crowded and smelly alleys, hawkers, shouting merchants, dirty children covered in rags who run through the crowd and beg for money, and prostitutes – called “the wretched” – on every street corner.

The board game Letters from Whitechapel, which plays in 90-150 minutes, takes the players right there. One player plays Jack the Ripper, and his goal is to take five victims before being caught. The other players are police detectives who must cooperate to catch Jack the Ripper before the end of the game. The game board represents the Whitechapel area at the time of Jack the Ripper and is marked with 199 numbered circles linked together by dotted lines. During play, Jack the Ripper, the Policemen, and the Wretched are moved along the dotted lines that represent Whitechapel’s streets. Jack the Ripper moves stealthily between numbered circles, while policemen move on their patrols between crossings, and the Wretched wander alone between the numbered circles.

“Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle.” – John F. Kennedy

In 1945, unlikely allies toppled Hitler’s war machine, while humanity’s most devastating weapons forced the Japanese Empire to its knees in a storm of fire. Where once there stood many great powers, there now stood only two – the United States and the Soviet Union. The world had scant months to collectively sigh in relief before a new conflict threatened. Unlike the titanic struggles of the preceding decades, this conflict would be waged not primarily by soldiers and tanks, but by spies and politicians, scientists and intellectuals, artists and traitors. Twilight Struggle is a two-player game simulating the 45 year dance of intrigue, prestige, and occasional flares of warfare between the USSR and the USA. The entire world is the stage on which these two titans fight. The game begins amidst the ruins of Europe as the two new superpowers scramble over the wreckage of WWII and ends in 1989, when only the United States remained standing.

Twilight Struggle inherits its fundamental systems from the card-driven classics We the People and Hannibal. It is a quick-playing, low-complexity game in that same tradition. The game map is a world map of the period, whereon players move units and exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower.

Twilight Struggle’s Event cards add detail and flavor to the game. They cover a vast array of historical happenings: the Arab-Israeli conflicts, Vietnam, the peace movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and other such incidents that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Subsystems capture the prestige-laden Space Race as well as nuclear tensions, with the possibility of game-ending nuclear war. Can you, as the U.S. President or Soviet Premier, lead your nation to victory? Play Twilight Struggle and find out.

Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation 1517-1555 is the first game in over 25 years to cover the political and religious conflicts of early 16th Century Europe. Few realize that the greatest feats of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ignatius Loyola, Henry VIII, Charles V, Francis I, Suleiman the Magnificent, Ferdinand Magellan, Hernando Cortes, and Nicolaus Copernicus all fall within this narrow 40-year period of history. This game covers all the action of the period using a unique card-driven game system that models both the political and religious conflicts of the period on a single point-to-point map.

There are six main powers in the game, each with a unique path to victory :

The Ottomans
The Habsburgs
The English
The Valois Dynasty of France
The Papacy
The Protestants

Here I Stand is the first card-driven game to prominently feature secret deal-making. A true six-sided diplomatic struggle, the game places a heavy emphasis on successful alliance-building through negotiations that occur away from the table during the pre-turn Diplomacy Phase. Set during the period in which Niccolò Machiavelli published his masterpiece “The Prince,” backstabbing is always possible, especially because the card deck is loaded with event and response cards that can be played by any power to disrupt the plans of the powers in the lead.

Here I Stand integrates religion, politics, economics and diplomacy in a card-driven design. Games vary in length from 3-4 hours for a tournament scenario up to full campaign games that run about twice the time. Rules to play games with 3, 4, or 5 players are also included. The 3-player game is just as well balanced as the standard 6-player configuration, taking advantage of the natural alliances of the period.

BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia board game, based on the critically acclaimed BioShock Infinite video game, allows players to explore the world of BioShock Infinite–the atmosphere, the characters, the city of Columbia itself, and even contours of the game’s plot–from a tantalizing new perspective as the leaders of the Founders and Vox Populi factions.

Set during the same series of events as the video game, players take on the role of the Founders and Vox Populi factions, desperately seeking to seize control of Columbia. Gain points from staking your claim to the city’s territories and accomlishing other goals, all the while fighting your opponents and Booker while trying to influence Elizabeth and commanding an army of detailed miniatures as well as the Songbird and Airship!

In BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia, each player uses their unique deck of cards to influence world events, build their army, fight off Booker, zoom around the city on the Sky-Line, and claw their way to ultimate control of Columbia.

In the aftermath of his stunning triumph at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee decided to carry the war to the North in the hopes that a victory on Northern soil would win the war for the Confederacy. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was as close in numbers to its antagonist, the Army of the Potomac, as it had ever been, and that army was in a leadership crisis that would result in a new commander, George Meade, being appointed in the middle of the campaign.

Only two days after Meade’s taking command, a Union cavalry division outside of the town of Gettysburg came under attack by Confederate infantry. The engaged commanders of both sides called for reinforcements, and without orders from either Lee or Meade, more and more units from both armies rushed to the scene. Without anyone having planned or intended it, the decisive battle of the campaign, and perhaps the war, was underway.

The Guns of Gettysburg recreates that historic battle. Derived from the system used in the acclaimed Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon’s Triumph, the game, still in development, will retain the striking appearance, simple rules, and fast play of its predecessors. The system will, however, have numerous changes to reflect differences between the Napoleonic and American Civil War periods and also the special characteristics of the battle of Gettysburg.

Gearworld: The Borderlands is a game of negotiation, conquest, and construction in which two to four players compete to gain the favor of the Sky People for their tribe of scavengers in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Based on the classic board game Borderlands designed by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge and Peter Olotka, players must negotiate trades and alliances, conquer their rivals’ territory, and gather resources in a race to build the skyworks to win the favor of those who live in the World Above!

Gearworld: The Borderlands includes a game board with beautiful, detailed artwork, 220 tokens, and 100 plastic figures in four different colors.

Terra Mystica is a strategy game with a simple game principle and very little luck involved: You govern one of 14 factions trying to transform the landscape on the game board in your favor in order to build your structures. On the one hand, proximity to other players limits your options for further expansion, on the other hand though, it provides some benefits during the game This conflict is the source of Terra Mystica’s appeal.

Structures may be upgraded to provide even more resources, like workers, priests, money, and power . Build temples to gain more influence in the four cults of fire, earth, water, and air . Build your stronghold to activate your group’s special ability. Expand and build new dwellings to have a lot of workers at hand. Or make sure to have a constant flow of money by building trading houses.

The 14 artfully designed factions, each having unique special abilities, as well as the exchangeable bonus cards allow for a large number of possible game plays that constantly keep this game entertaining!

With the kind support of Uwe Rosenberg during the development of the game mechanisms.

Including an English rulebook and no language dependent game components.

Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar presents a new game mechanism: dynamic worker placement. Players representing different Mayan tribes place their workers on giant connected gears, and as the gears rotate they take the workers to different action spots.

During a turn, players can either (a) place one or more workers on the lowest visible spot of the gears or (b) pick up one or more workers. When placing workers, they must pay corn, which is used as a currency in the game. When they pick up a worker, they perform certain actions depending on the position of the worker. Actions located “later” on the gears are more valuable, so it’s wise to let the time work for you – but players cannot skip their turn; if they have all their workers on the gears, they have to pick some up.

The game ends after one full revolution of the central Tzolkin gear. There are many paths to victory. Pleasing the gods by placing crystal skulls in deep caves or building many temples are just two of those many paths…

Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery is an exciting game of twisted schemes and bloody combats inspired by the hit STARZ Original series. Players assume the role of the Dominus of a great house competing for influence in the era of ancient Rome. Players vie for dominance through careful diplomacy, cunning intrigues and the glory of the Arena. Undermine the machinations of rivals, leverage your wealth for advantage at market and pit your gladiators in bloody contest all with the goal of seeing your house rise to supremacy.

“This station is now the ultimate power in the universe.” –Admiral Motti, Star Wars: A New Hope.

The Imperial fleet sifts through the galaxy for signs of the Rebel Alliance’s hidden base, hoping to obliterate it with one powerful blast from their newly constructed Death Star. As the Empire’s imposing Star Destroyers draw near, the Rebels realize there is no time to spare, so they mobilize for a desperate attack. Squadrons of starfighters launch into space. Their pilots know that many of them may soon make the ultimate sacrifice for galactic freedom…

The characters, starships, and situations of the original Star Wars trilogy come to life in Star Wars: The Card Game™. A game by award-winning designer Eric M. Lang, Star Wars: The Card Game is a head-to-head Living Card Game® of tactical combat, and strategic planning that allows two players to wage cinematic battles between the light and dark sides of the Force.

Letters from Whitechapel

Twilight Struggle

Here I Stand

BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia

The Guns of Gettysburg

Gearworld: The Borderlands

Terra Mystica

Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar

Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery

Star Wars: The Card Game

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