Imperial Settlers is a new game from Portal Publishing by Ignacy Trzewiczek.  Apparently it re-implements State 51; however, I read the rules to Imperial Settlers and have played State 51 once some time ago, and Imperial Settlers appeals to me a lot more.  (Imperial Settlers was released at GenCon earlier this year, but is a Spiel release too.)

Each player is trying to make the most successful civilisation by using cards to increase their abilities and generate resources.  After 5 rounds, the player with the most Victory Points (VPs) wins – VPs can be earned during the game, as well as for locations they have at the end of the game.

Each player’s faction is slightly different and has its own set of cards, but all players can also use cards from a common deck too.  Each player gets a faction board which helps align their cards into rows of the 3 types of cards (Production, Feature, Action) – player’s own faction cards are placed to the left of their board and common cards to the right.  Each card has a colour in its lower-right to show what type of card it is too.

Each player has several cards in their hand and can pay the cost to build/place these cards so they can use their effects during their turns.  Instead of being used as a location, faction cards can become ‘deals’ which means they get tucked under the very top of the player’s faction board with just their edge protruding to show what resources these cards generate each round.

At the start of each round, players draw 1 of their faction cards and then gain 2 common cards by selecting them from a limited amount (s0 there will be some element of balancing taking items useful to you over taking ones that your opponents want.)  Then, players gain the resources/tokens/workers/cards/VPs that their locations, deals and abilities generate. Read the rest of this entry »

Theseus is a really interesting, tactical game – you can read my review here.  Bots is an expansion that adds a new faction to pick from.  Apart from that, I haven’t seen any other details about it at the moment.  However, I like the main game Theseus so I’m interested in an expansion for it.

Portal Games have a pre-order page for Spiel on their site which can be reached using this shortlink: bga.me/portal14

For more Spiel 2014 previews, check out my Spiel 2014 Previews page which lists the games on my radar with links to their previews too.

James.

Legacy (or Legacy: Testament of Duke de Crecy to give it its full name) is a very innovative game where players try to create the most successful 18th century family starting with a single family member.  Each round, players use their actions so that the current generation can get married, have children, buy mansions, start business ventures, arrange marriages for their children, etc.  After a fixed number of rounds, the children grow up, any arranged marriages take place, and they become the current generation.  Players then use actions for this new generation to get married, have children, etc.  After the 3rd generation’s actions, the game ends and the player with the most points (Honour) wins.

Each player has an income track which earns cash each round, and a prestige track which earns Honour each generation.  Players also earn Honour for having children, fulfilling objectives on their Patron card, fulfilling missions, as well as from friends marrying into the family, acquiring titles, etc.  Plus, players must constantly manage their cash and friends – Friends are cards in a player’s hand each showing their sex, nationality, occupation, benefit when married into your family, and marriage cost (some generate cash as they come with a dowry).  Read the rest of this entry »

Theseus is a sci-fi game set on a space station where the different factions (soldiers, scientists, aliens and greys) are trying to take control.  The setting and photos may give the impression it’s a complicated game, but it’s actually a eurogame that is relatively quick and contains some good tactical play.

THE GAME
Players take turns moving their units around different locations (sectors) on the space station.  Each sector is a separate board piece and these are arranged in a circle: one sector for each player’s faction, plus one each for the Corridors, Control Room and Tech Bay.  Each sector has 4 rooms (in the circular area) as well as several spaces for action cards (the oblong areas) which players will place during the game.  Each player has their own unique deck of action cards.  These first enter the game by being placed next to sectors (called ‘pending’ cards) which may get to be placed (‘installed’) on a sector later.

On their turn, a player must move one of their 3 units a number of sectors clockwise equal to the number of units currently on the unit’s starting sector, i.e. if there are 2 units on a sector, then a unit moved from there moves 2 sectors clockwise.  A moved unit is placed in one of the 4 rooms (arranged in a 2 x 2 grid) on the sector they move to.  Some rooms have walls between them which block combat.  If all 4 rooms are full, the arriving player ejects one of the units there into space and takes their position.  If a unit’s move means all the rooms in the sector are now full, all units belonging to the player whose turn it is attack other units in that sector.  (Only soldiers start with combat ability; whereas, other factions’ units need upgrading first.) Read the rest of this entry »

Theseus is a sci-fi game set on a space station where the different factions (soldiers, scientists, aliens and greys) are trying to take control.  They do this by either reducing a faction to zero life points, and the scientists and grey can win by collecting 20 data points.

Players take turns moving their units around different locations (sectors) on the space station and playing cards.  Each sector is a separate board piece which are arranged in a circle: one sector for each player’s faction, plus one each for the corridors, control room and tech bay.  Each sector has spaces for cards (that players will be placed during the game) as well as 4 rooms.

On their turn, a player moves one of their units a number of sectors clockwise equal to the number of units currently on their unit’s starting sector (which reminds me of the movement system in Finca – and that’s a good thing).  After their move, a unit is placed in one of the new sector’s 4 rooms (arranged in a 2 x 2 grid).  Some rooms have walls between them which affects combat.  If all 4 rooms are full, the arriving player ejects a unit into space and takes their position.  (Already I can see some humourously nasty screwage of other players.)  If a unit’s move means all the rooms in a sector are now full, combat occurs in that sector and all units attack anyone they can based on who they can see and what combat ability they have.  (Only soldiers have combat ability to start; whereas, other factions’ units need upgrading first.) Read the rest of this entry »

Legacy: Testament of Duke de Crecy is a game where players create a family tree and try to create the family with the most honour.  The game looks innovative as players grow their family tree by placing cards in a tree-hierarchy.  Each player starts with a couple who can have children who then get married, have children, buy mansions, and so on.  In each round, the gameplay is focused on the latest generation of family members.  So, children born from a generation in one round grow-up and become the focus of the actions of the next round, having their own children, etc.

The heart of the gameplay is a worker-placement game.  Players place action markers on their own personal actions (marry, have children, socialise, ask friends for money) and on action areas on the main board which any one player can use but these are first-come, first-served (acquire title, hire fertility doctor, buy mansion, initiate venture, undertake mission, and contribute to community).

Having children is important but these children also need to marry so they can have children too.  When a family member marries, the player places one of the friend cards from their hand to create the couple, receives a dowry (or pays for the wedding), executes any effects of the new family member (like gaining income, friends, etc.) and then places a child beneath them too.  (Yes, these newlyweds don’t hang around.)  You can even arrange marriages before the children grow-up. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island’ is a co-operative game where players are on a desert island and must fight for their survival whilst trying to achieve a goal (depending upon the scenario being played).

Good co-operative games need two very important  components.  First, the players need to be given interesting/difficult choices so they feel they have input and are playing the game, not merely a passenger.  Second, the game must create some  random elements (like events) which aren’t too random that they don’t make sense or are overpowered, but also aren’t too predictable or small that they don’t make any difference.  Back in the 80’s, Games Workshop released a solo-play game called Chainsaw Warrior which I always hold up as an example of how a game where you play against the game can be done badly.  A card deck determined random events but you had little choice and was so random that you could just look through the deck  and see if the card order meant you’s almost certainly win or lose. Read the rest of this entry »