Kickstart Your Week! Quantum Magnets


 

 

NinaAndPinta

 

Niña and Pinta

 

In game you’ll be playing as Christopher Columbus… and so will your friend, and so will your other friend! And you’ll each be sending your three ships, the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, and erm, the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, to the New World, and the New World… and the other New World. No, I’ve not had a stroke, this is the first Quantum game from the Ragnar Brothers, and takes you between dimensions to 3 similar yet different versions of the new world…

 

Nina And Pinta Board

 

Just like the real Chris Columbus, you’ll be heading out to the new world with ships filled with settlers and returning to the old world laden with gold and other goods. You’ll be building towns and eventually cities, and fighting off the other nations for control… except now there are three new worlds to vie for, each with different terrain to explore and benefits to control. Once cities start to be formed, each of the three world’s will chose a discipline to specialise in, science, the arts or military strength, affecting that world’s development.

It is an interesting concept, bringing firmly to mind legends and stories of the Bermuda Triangle. These are 3 worlds only a short step apart, and these influences are carried through to the game mechanics. For example, to build a town you must have settled three different terrain types in a single new world, or the same region in all three worlds. Hardly a huge mechanic, but a clever nod to the theme. All in all, it makes for an intriguing twist on the classic 4X gameplay.

 

Set sail on Niña and Pinta by December 16th.

 

Magination

 

Magination

 

F***ing magnets, how do they work!? A question we’ve all been asking ourselves ever since we first played with those magical chunks of metal. Well Magination don’t have the answer, but they do have a shed load of brightly coloured magnets for you to play with! Just look at this GIF! So damn awesome!

Magination offers a pile of their brightly coloured magnets, and rules for a few different games you could play with them right out the box. For example, that GIF is a possible end result of “magTension”, a game of placing the individual round magnets inside a ring. Having two or more magnets jump together will lose you the game. As we all know, powerful magnets can behave pretty crazily! There’s also “magCurling”, where a banana shaped magnet is used to fire a smaller magnet at a target across the table. The examples are all simple dexterity games, exploiting the often difficult to predict behaviour of magnets. Here’s another one:

MagThrowIm

Magination have created a toolbox for creativity, rather than a single game, so it’s a bit of an unusual one for this article. However, unusual is what we live for! They want to encourage you to create your own games, and to publish them on their website. So in some ways, this “game”, or rather, game system will be reliant on the community. Perhaps this makes the kickstarter more of a risk for us but really, you want to be focussing on the tools you’ll be getting, and the hilarious fun you could have with them in short bursts. If you are a creative person, you could really have some fun with this!

 

Get your Magination in gear before December 18th!

 

Other Great Games

 

[row][one_third]Hirp[/one_third][two_third]HIRÞ – The materials you work with are important. For example, I’m still not entirely sure how to pronounce the name of this intriguing 2 player game, about warring Viking tribes, but that’s why I work in text! Likewise, HIRÞ is constructed from materials that true Vikings would have used, giving you a tangible connection to the game you are playing. That game is a strategic abstract, focussing on control of the board centre or defeating the opposing leader. Ends Dec 14th.[/two_third][/row]

 

 

[row][one_third]65[/one_third][two_third]’65 – A card driven hex and counter war game set during the early battles of the Vietnam War. Players have a hand of cards that determines the possible actions they can perform with their units that turn, from movement, to shooting but also responding to the movement of your enemies, making every movement you make fraught with tension. Ends Dec 17th.[/two_third][/row]

 

 

[row][one_third]Cibola Woodlands[/one_third][two_third]Cibola & Woodlands – A beautifully illustrated pair of card games getting 2nd editions. Cibola is a 2-player (now with a 2v2 team game option) in which players race to find keys to unlock the 7 golden statues spread across the world… or at least in a line across the table in front of you. Woodlands features a battle between forest mammals, and is a trick taking and set collecting game, in which winning tricks forces you to discard from the sets you are collecting in hand. Ends Dec 17th.[/two_third][/row]

 

 

[row][one_third]Wongamania[/one_third][two_third]Wongamania: Banana Economy – An economic themed card game with extra Kaiju monsters, all illustrated by Singapore’s top satirical cartoonist. The core of the game is about buying and selling stocks while the economy ticks around through periods of growth and recession, affecting when it’s best to buy and when it’s best to sell. Global events and personal attacks will also make life difficult and the game features the interesting element whereby a player can choose when to play the endgame scoring card. Ends Dec 18th.[/two_third][/row]

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