Kickstart Your Week! Tiny Epic Carson City Tunhells

Tiny Epic Kingdoms Heroes Call

Tiny Epic Kingdoms Heroes’ Call

Stop! Don’t put your foot there! Ok, step back slowly. That was close, you almost stepped on Tiny Epic Kingdoms, probably the world’s smallest 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) game. It may be small, but it packs an impressive punch. Indeed, the 1st edition of the game was so successful you can no longer find it anywhere! Or maybe that’s just because it’s so small…

Each player will control a fantasy race, and have a territory card featuring areas of forests, plains, mountains and other areas that will provide resources. But players can expand onto other players territory cards, initiating combat or, in a brilliant mechanism, the possibility of a peaceful alliance. Players will both secretly chose how many resources they will commit to the battle, or whether they will sue for peace, then simultaneously reveal. That’s a lovely and tense system reminiscent of the brilliant Cosmic Encounter. But it gets even better! The second time you share a territory with a player, the result of the war (which of course may be peace…) applies to both territories. Alliances can be hard to maintain in Tiny Epic Kingdoms!

Tiny Epic Kingdoms Battle

Back the Kickstarter and you can be getting the 2nd edition printing with some improved tokens and the option for some exclusive races. You can also get the new expansion, Heroes’ Call, adding – you guessed it – heroes! But not just heroes, also a ton of new territory and race cards, with even a new resource type. Plus War Towers, which takes the tower building element of the original game, and gives it a greater purpose on the map in addition to its value in victory points at the end of the game.

I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Tiny Epic Kingdoms. The artwork is a bit simplistic, to my eyes at least, but you’re getting an astonishing amount of variety and a great game for around $20-40, depending on how much you want. Go get it! Just watch where you put your feet…

Epic Kingdoming will continue until July 14th.

Tunhell cover

Tunhell

Tunhell is either French, for Tunnel I’m guessing, or a clever pun combining “Tunnel” and “Hell”. Now, half the page is in French so I’m guessing the former, but the pun would totally work! You see, continuing the theme of small things, you will all be playing as dwarf clans in this game, delving deep into the Earth in search of precious gems and magical artefacts (how did they get down there??), while avoiding your opponents and the ancient monsters that make the tunnels their home.

Tunhell Dwarves

You can recruit dwarves to join your clan from the available cards. These can be warriors, who will defend a tunnel of your choice from its monstrous denizens, or just the other players. This can be countered by the blaster, who clears a tunnel of all the warriors surrounding it, but as you can only play a single dwarf in a turn, it will open up that tunnel for your opponents. The scout lets you get a look at the top few cards. The miner will blindly dig in and reveal them. Canny use of your dwarf cards will be needed to give you the edge in the pursuit for the most riches.

The combination of dwarf types offers some interesting options, from take-that style actions to bluffing and subtle use of the limited information available in the game. One warning: the top of the kickstarter page is all in French, but don’t worry the game and rules are available in English and, indeed, the rest of the page has English translations.

The Tunhelling will continue until July 14th.

 

Carson City Big Box Cover

Carson City Big Box

Now y’all listen up. This is Carson City. We’re gonna make a name for ourselves here, you watch. We’ve got a bit of cash and a few plots of land. It may be nothing much to look at now but just you wait. Soon it’ll be a thrivin’ metropolis, and we’ll be at the top. Now it seems like a few others have similar designs, so make sure your shooters are in fine working order and don’t back down.

Carson City Game

Carson City is a game that is part worker placement, part city building game with a healthy dose of the Wild West thrown in for good measure. Any time players try to go for the same action or piece of territory, a duel will take place with only the winner being able to take that action. At the same time, players need to be careful to obey the city’s planning laws by ensuring their plots get connected to the town by roads, and that there are enough houses to produce income for their properties. An interesting mix!

This Big Box edition celebrates 10 years of Quined Games and offers the original Carson City game, along with its expansions: Gold and Guns, and Horses and Heroes. Now, Quined Games have said that they will not be making this available after the kickstarter, so get on it now if you ever want to. Based on the current pledge total a lot of people have been persuaded so far!

Join the Carson City gold rush by July 15th.

 

Worth a look

 

Scoundrel SocietyScoundrel Society – The con is most definitely on, with up to 5 players trying to pilfer as much loot from the hands of the mark as they can. Every player has a hand of 5 identical action cards, from which everyone simultaneously selects one card. If you have chosen a unique action, you get to take a stronger version of it! I really like this mechanism! The player with the most loot wins, except each item increases the suspicion on your player, and the player with the most suspicion at the end of the game will be arrested, losing the game! Ends July 13th.

 

Wok StarWok Star – The 3rd edition of the cooperative, real time cooking game! Orders will come in thick and fast from demanding customers, you’ll need to get stir frying ingredients quick in order to keep everyone happy! The new edition doesn’t really add anything, but if you want to get hold of the game, now’s your chance as the 2nd edition is almost impossible to get hold of. Ends July 14th.

 

Gangster DiceGangster Dice – The cops are on to you! Better ditch as much evidence as you can and make sure its one of your buddies, not you, that gets thrown in the clinker. Combine rolling dice with card bidding to gain control of special ability tokens that will allow you to manipulate the evidence against you. More dice will help you win these competitions, but you need to get rid of all your dice to win the game! Ends July 16th.

 

Dawn Of The ZedsDawn of the Zeds – Another 3rd edition! Now this one is about zombies, but as a general rule, if a game has sold enough to make a 3rd edition it is worth checking out! This cooperative game sees players defending the idyllic town of Farmingdale from the encroaching horde. The new edition ramps up the component quality substantially, and may even add a player vs player experience, making the zombies a little less mindless. Ends July 18th.

 

Tavern FameTavern Fame – I love the theme to this one. Everyone is a fantasy hero back at the tavern after a hard days adventuring. How hard? Well how big a boast do you think you can get away with? Everyone will be trying to out-do one another, but don’t get caught out on a boast that’s not true! You may have to prove yourself. Of course, if you do manage to recreate your feat you’ll show up your fellow hero and gain one of their listeners! Ends July 19th.

 

 

 

Random Musings

Hyde Maze GameWhat’s more fun than gathering around a table and playing a game? Well… hows about being able to run around a life size one? These life sized games are becoming popular. It started out with zombie escape games featuring hundreds of volunteer extras covering themselves in fake blood and chasing players across fields and assault course. Now on kickstarter is something very new and clever: Hyde. A bioactivated maze game, in which your own heart rate will cause the maze to change and react to you. Designed as a series of rooms, doors will lock and unlock in response to players actions in the room, but maybe even their breathing, body temperature and heart beat. Oh, did I mention that somewhere is a derranged psychopath hunting you? No? Sorry about that! This is an incredibly ambitious project (they’re asking for £50,000) but its from a team with experience in running these kind of events. Its a hugely exciting project but it needs your help urgently! The campaign ends on July 18th.

 

Image credit goes to Board Game Geek users mgcoe, naTEhatfieldGG, burgervinz, Quined Games, SlashDoctor, Fubeca, Action Phase, jruland, Victory Point Games, AllOfTheD.

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