Kickstart Your Week! Animal Traders and Space Flight Simulators

Dale of Merchants: The Guild of Extraordinary Traders

Caw! Cries the parrot. Look at all these goods! With their lovely illustrations and their values and their rules. I like the look of that accordion, maybe I’ll buy – Woah! Damn cameleons grabbing stuff from afar with those tongues of theirs. Wait, get your hands out of my deck you thieving raccoon! And what are you laughing at, Cheetah! Hmm… maybe I’m not ready for the Dale of Merchants!

In this unique deck builder, players will be trying to stock the best stall in order to impress and be admitted to the Guild of Extraordinary Traders. Initially, you will have a store full of junk, but you will be able to use that to buy new cards from the market, cards offering you new and interesting abilities if you choose to use them, but maybe you only want them for their value? Because unlike normal deck builders, you will also be removing cards permanently from your hand/deck to fill out your stall. It is by filling your stall with a full set of goods that you can win the game, so you are always challenged with choices. When to use a cards ability verses it’s buying power, or its use in your stall. When to stop buying cards from the market and when to focus on cutting cards from your deck to build your stall. Then it gets worse! By which I of course mean better. Because some cards, when activated, give you extra actions in addition to their effect. Can you build a deck that allows you to chain these together? More lovely strategy.

One of the more annoying elements of deck builders are those turns where you draw a hand of rubbish from your deck and can’t do anything this go. Of course, such turns are entirely your own fault, you built your deck after all! But they are frustrating to experience. In another change to the deck building formula, Dale of Merchants doesn’t have you discard your hand at the end of your turn. Instead, you keep any unused cards, giving you much more control over future turns and adding a great piece of hand management into the game.

As you would expect from a deck builder, the selection of cards will vary every game. You start by picking 3 of the 6 animal themed decks, each with different styles of play. The raccoons like stealing, the ocelots are lucky, the pandas are able to get the best stuff from the market. This gives you 20 different experiences right off the bat, and I’m sure there’s scope in the future for new species to join the Dale. All in all, this is offers a really nice variant on the classic deck builder, with some fantastic art and a nice theme. Absolutely worth checking out!

 

The Dale of Merchants market will close July 31^st.

 

High Frontier

Take a step back from the flaunted inter-galactic warfare of many modern space games and try something a bit more gritty, a bit more realistic. In fact, why not try the “most realistic simulation of rocket travel ever published”? In this month where NASA have sent a probe hurtling past Pluto in the furthest reaches of our solar system, take a journey of at the head of your own space faring corporation.

Explore the solar system, develop new technologies, set up industrial bases and factories on the planets, moons and asteroids of the solar system. Through this, you can start developing your economy, producing the water you need to fuel your spaceships and extend your company’s reach. No longer reliant on Earth for water you’ll be free to reach for the outer solar system, even set up colonies.

The game portrays space travel in incredible detail. Every technology card you develop incorporates details of the science behind it, because it can. Lifting off planets is hard, and you face the heavy radiation of the van Allen belts. But this realism comes at a price. This game is complex… incredibly complex. Just look at this board.

Every hex is an asteroid, moon or planet to visit. Every line a path between orbits to travel along. And of course with a game like this, comes a rule set to match. This is most certainly not for the feint of heart! Yet, this is the 3^rd edition. Originally released in 1999, the game has gained a legion of fans that have already raised over $100,000 dollars for this Kickstarter. If you want a meatier game, something to really get you to appreciate the challenges faced by NASA and the incredible achievement represented by sending just one little probe to Pluto, check this game out.

 

The High Frontier will flyby August 1^st.

 

Worth a Look

 

14 Days – In this part RPG, part board game, all you need to do is to complete the tasks of your day-to-day life; go to work, manage relationships and squeeze in some time for hobbies. Except every day you might be struck by a debilitating migraine, making the next 14 days an impossible balancing act of not excelling but merely mitigating the damage of your illness. It’s a game of damage limitation, and a chance to gain a greater appreciation for what it’s like to live with chronic pain. Ends July 28^th.

 

Cargo: Dead in the Water – A pick up and deliver game set in the mid-Atlantic. Fundamentally simple to understand, the complexity enters from needing to carefully consider your routes across the map. Come to close to an enemy ship and card based combat ensues. A nice, gateway level game. Ends July 29^th.

 

Foragers – Another pick up and deliver game, this time set way back in the stone age. You are transporting fish, meat and fruit to trade, but interestingly that food may spoil if you don’t deliver it quickly enough. Also has an interesting action placement mechanism. The tile art is a bit rough at best, but an interesting if simple game. Ends July 29^th.

 

Rivals: Masters of the Deep – A 2 player miniatures combat game set in the underwater realm of the Lurk. Played out on a randomly generated by poorly illustrated hex grid but featuring some lovely looking steampunk miniatures. Need to watch out while fighting that the local sealife doesn’t get involved in eating your troops! Ends July 31^st.

 

Police Precinct – A semi-cooperative game where players are trying to solve a brutal murder, keep the street thugs under control and identify the betrayer in their midst. A typical social deduction game in the vein of Shadows Over Camelot, Police Precinct is getting a 2^nd edition and an upgrade kit for holders of the original, with new artwork and new characters to play as. Ends July 31^st.

 

Third Age: Eternal – Build a deck of anthropomorphic animals, weapons and magic spells then battle your opponent in the ruins of human civilization. Interesting dual resource mechanic that requires you to sacrifice your own health and energy to perform actions and play cards. However, the Kickstarter is really struggling right now, and it’s not clear why to me. Ends August 2^nd.

 

Image credit goes to Board Game Geek users Liuhuparta, Taibi, Mad T, mr_molesky, drfinn, Common Man Games and RealJob.