Meople News: A Fortune in Tree Pearls

Libellud

Dixit: 10th Anniversary (Libellud)
Dixit: 10th Anniversary (Libellud)

Has it been ten years already? This year is Dixit‘s anniversary, and we’ll get to celebrate it with a new 84 card expansion for the beautiful communication and guessing game. The artists from all prior expansions have been invited back to contribute to Dixit: 10th Anniversary and the result is as beautiful as Dixit ever was. (via Asmodee Germany)

Z-Man Games

Pandemic goes to war. In Pandemic games we’ve already build wells and rails in Spain and dykes in the Netherlands. The newest one proves once more just how adaptable the game engine is. This time, we’ll defend Rome against invading barbarians. Part of that job will be sending the Roman legions into battle with a dice driven battle system. However, defending the Empire by force is not sustainable, ultimately you need to forge alliances with the barbarian tribes. Pandemic‘s familiar set collection mechanism comes into play to forge those alliances. Pandemic: Fall of Rome will be yet another all new Pandemic experience. Maybe we can get a Legacy edition of this one?

Galakta

If you thought that a story couldn’t be more dramatic than the story of survival in a besieged city told in This War Of Mine, then you’re in for a shock. The latest preview for expansion Tales from the Ruined City talks about three new scenarios. In one, an attempted murder occurs in your midst and everyone is a suspect. During a blizzard. In the second, you must hide a group of refugees from the invaders. The third is a story of love in the ruins.

Starling Games

Our cute forest animals barely had time to build new villages in worker placement game Everdell when the first expansion is already on Kickstarter. To trade with the underwater town of Pearlbrook you send your only possible ambassador, the amphibious frog. He can visit destinations in and trade with citizens of Pearlbrook. You may collect valuable pearls to pay for unique adornments and impressive wonders for your city. In mechanical terms, you get new types of cards, a new resource, new worker locations and new ways to score points. AND…. and…. dare I say it? Meepxolotls. Axolotl meeples. Say it with me: axolotl meeples.

Alderac

Smash Up! Oops, You Did It Again (Alderac)
Smash Up! Oops, You Did It Again (Alderac)

And still we’re smashing on! New Smash Up! expansion Oops, You Did It Again brings Vikings, Cowboys, Ancient Egyptians and Samurai. Vikings steal from their victims, because that’s what vikings do. The Egyptians do what they do best and bury things: they play cards face down on a base that have an effect when they’re revealed. Cowboys and Samurai can start duels, a one-on-one fight between two minions, with a price for the winner. That will make for fun, new deck combinations.

Real-time card drafting sounds like an odd concept, but that’s the mechanisms of Magical Treehouse, the latest game Alderac are bringing over from Japan. The basic outline is a drafting game, but the first player to pick his card gets a valuable magical biscuit. You can also interrupt the real time part of the game by yelling STOP to cast a spell from your hand. That sounds like a light, silly game, but next comes the thinking part. With the cards you drafted you build treehouses in your village, some of which let you send your familiars to the forest to gather ingredients, others let you brew potions or score points for the ones you brewed. Magical Treehouse an overall peculiar mix of things. We’ll have to play it to find out if it works.

Gamelyn Games

I remember when Tiny Epic Quest had meeples that could hold shields and weapons in their meeple hands, and I was like… WOW! Now I know that was only the beginning. Tiny Epic Mechs has that, plus it has power armor for your meeples. That’s right, your meeples become mech pilots!!! Oh, yeah, I should mention there’s a game in the package, too. Tiny Epic Mechs is an arena battle game for up to four players, and it’s fought with action programming. Each player programs four actions, then their meeples follow those orders, no matter what happens in between.

2F-Spiele / Stronghold Games

Fast Forward: Fortune (2F-Spiele / Stronghold Games)
Fast Forward: Fortune (2F-Spiele / Stronghold Games)

Friedemann Friese’s Fast Forward family of games keeps going. This year we’ll only get one new game in it, and that will be Fortune. This game will use the Fast Forward system where you learn the rules while you play to give you a slot machine. You don’t play for money, just to have more points than the other players. With Fortune being a Fast Forward game you can be sure there’ll be bigger surprises than a triple jackpot in the deck.

Plaid Hat Games

We know the rules for Plaid Hat’s Guardians from previous previews. Time to meet the heroes. There will be ten heroes in the base game, we’re getting introductions to two of them for now. Astra is a sniper with some serious potential to slow down your opponent. Grave is a necromancer that whittles your opponent’s heroes down. Neither sounds fun to be on the receiving end.

This week’s featured photo shows one of the four gates of Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Korea. The fortress was constructed in the 18th century and has an unusual origin: King Jeongjo had the fortress constructed around his father’s tomb. The photo was taken and kindly shared by Xiquinho Silva. Thanks, Xiquinho! (47492-Suwon, Xiquinho Silva, CC-BY, resized and cropped)

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