DON'T PANIC! Part One is here. Up next in this series of Most Anticipated Games is Games Arriving from Kickstarter (Part 1 and Part 2)and then finally Games Coming Direct into Retail. Some of these we’ve already discussed in the Podcast (Episode 77) but many were not, mainly because our glorious leadr, Steve said we could only pick four games each.
The rebellion has begun.
So, You've Been Eaten
I’ve been banging this drum since the Essen Podcast. Designed by Scott Almes (Tiny Epic [Insert tiny epic thing here]), with art from Kwanchai Moriya and published by Ludicreations So, You’ve Been Eaten sounds and looks as bizarre as it looks and sounds awesome! It didn’t make it to Essen unfortunately but it will be coming to Kickstarter in the early part of 2020.
This asymmetric 2 player game pits a human miner against a giant space monster, within whose stomach lie the valuable and much-needed crystals. As the miner, your job is to be swallowed whole and get o mining ASAP. As the space creature, you need to try and dissolve this little pest and you’ll do that by developing your immune system and attacking.
As the miner, you score by collecting crystals, as the creature by attacking the miner and both players need to achieve this before “Endgame Condition Number Two” is reached, where the miner is...passed...shall we say.
Dice Theme Park
Launching late 2020 (if we're lucky)
Here, at Collider Towers we all love Dice Hospital from Alley Cat Games, and we all enjoyed the expansion, Community Care, too, we also loved the 90’s video game Theme Park, so there are some very high levels of excitement regarding the “Dice Hospital sequel”: Dice Theme Park. Add to this mixture the designer, Daryl Andrews (Sagrada, Bosk, etc.) and I’m pretty confident in saying this will be another 4 for 4 game.
Your job is to ensure as many visitors as possible enjoy as many rides as possible before they get tired and go home. Obviously, your visitors are represented by dice and you’ll be buoying up their pips in all manner of clever and interesting ways.
This game will be a little heavier than Dice Hospital and will be a great 'next step' for players who enjoyed Dice Hospital but wanted something a little meatier. The art will once again be supplied by Sabrina and it will be done the same style as Dice Hospital making these games a matching set.
The Defence of Procyon III
Steve has had his eye on this game for some time (it was one of his Essen Picks) and 2020 will finally be the year it is realised.
DoP3 is a highly asymmetrical wargame for 4 players. Its 2V2 as aliens attack the planet Procyon and humankind rallies to defend the planet both in space and on the planet’s surface. One player on each team will exclusively deal with the space combat and the other player will manage the land forces. Working in tandem players will have to plan and communicate carefully to win.
Space combat is dealt with on a hex grid system whereas the planet’s surface is a point-to-point movement, each arena of battle has its own separate mechanics and each side has its own differences meaning there will be plenty to keep each player independently engaged and revisiting this game again and again.
Designer, Dávid Turczi had this to say about the game when I asked for some details:
The game has been inspired by many things (the card mechanisms are reminiscent of Gloomhaven, Lincoln, Nights of Fire, Quartermaster General, and Root) but it's a completely unique beast (possibly unlike anything else!)
Of course, being published by Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) expect loads of minis too!
Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles
Launching over the spring BGG
This is another one of Steve's Essen picks and not only does it sound amazing in an utterly bonkers way it could also mark the beginning of a new wave of Legacy style games.
Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles, Episode I and II is a co-designed game/s from.David Turczi, Thomas Vande Ginste & Wolf Planck (Yedo), Viktor Peter & Richard Amann (Trickerion, Cerebria) and Anthony Howgego. This year will see the Kickstarter launch of the first half of an epic story about a luxury cruise liner that crashes on an inhospitable island filled with dinosaurs.
Players take the role of leaders of teams of survivors in a dice drafting/worker placement/coopetitive (not cooperative!) games. The cool thing is that its multiple games in a box (well episode 1 and 2 in this case), where the narrative and mechanics evolve over the course of all four games and where the previous game influences the next. They're each individually playable, individually tested games, that once the series is complete (episode 3 and 4 are planned to be brought on KS a year later) you will be able to play as a 4 game campaign (with a final winner at the end) - but unlike Legacy games, all rules are laid out at the beginning, and is completely replayable.
The Machine
Launching in 2020...at some point
(not actual artwork, this is the rather brilliant dieselpunk artist: Alejandro Burdisio)
From Magic Maze designer, Kasper Lapp, The Machine is a worker placement and negotiation game for 4-8 players set in the world of Ludicreations belting game Crisis. This is a one-versus-many game where players will be building the machine that will ultimately replace them under the direction of the Manager. Along the way, they will be trying to sabotage the machine and trying to resist (there is an in-game Union...I wonder if this game will come to Kickstarter?) the management. While the players are doing this the manager is awarding penalties and warnings to and also trying to coax one player (a normal worker) to their side.
Given how deep, rich and brilliant Crisis is we are really keen to see this game for ourselves.
Dark Ages
Launching in January/February BGG
What would you say to a Euro-style 4X civilisation building game from designers Adam Kwapiński (Lords of Hellas, InBetween, and Nemesis) and Andrei Novac (Exodus: Proxima Centauri, Venice) published by Board & Dice?
If your thought process wasn't along the lines of: “Hell yes!”, “Take my money!”, or "Sold!" just skip to the next game on this list as what follows is essential text drooling (but less gross).
You'll collect resources, build homes, workshops and defences, you'll raise troops, explore, expand and exploit across either Western or Central Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Interestingly, this game has two completely separate versions, literally two different boxes complete with different boards, different forces, and miniatures but the same rules meaning you can combine the two sets to create a massive map of Europe to wage war over.
Oh, and the solo mode was designed by Big Davy T.
Holi: Festival of Colours
Launching in March
Holi: Festival of Colours is the next main release from Floodgate Games and from what we know of it so far it will sit perfectly alongside the likes of Sagrada and Bosk. Based on the actual Holi festival where people run around throwing pouches of paint powder and smearing brightly coloured paint over themselves, each other, buildings...pretty much anything at all as part of a celebration of love, life and good over evil.
The game takes place over a 3D tower where players will move their meeple/pawn around a level before throwing their paint in an attempt to cover as much as possible. Paint patterns are decided upon by a personal and general supply of cards and your aim is simply to cover as much of the board in your colour. There are loads of opportunities for Dickery as you can cover your opponent in paint or cover important pick-ups too, anything to get your colour into another players supply will cause negative points at the end of the game.
In Too Deep
Launching in March/April BGG
Even if this game wasn't being produced by the incredible team at Burnt Island Games (Endeavor: Age of Sail, and In the Hall of the Mountain King) the theme and what we know of the mechanics has got me really looking forward to this one.
Set slightly in the future, this game has players as undercover cops trying to bust a crime syndicate. To do this they'll have to take ever more risky, more exhilarating jobs but also make key arrests at the same time without blowing their cover. Meanwhile, the syndicate is trying to get away with...well, murder, I guess, among other crimes but may well also be trying to seduce one or more cops to a life of actual crime.
Despite the shared goals the game is completely competitive and there will always be one winner, but the tension in this game will come from whether or not the winner is a clean cop or dirty.
Ankh: Gods of Egypt
Launching...in 2020 BGG
This is the third and final piece of Eric Lang’s Ancient’s trilogy after Blood Rage and Rising Sun. Whereas Blood Rage was his contemporary reimagining of Risk, and Rising Sun was Diplomacy Ankh is a creation unto itself.
From what we know so far about it, Ankh, will have a shorter playtime and generally feel a little zippier to play and most interestingly, players don’t control units on the board directly, instead, they are manipulated as a secondary action/side effect of a God's actions.
Naturally, being a CMON game the miniatures look incredible too.
The thing that has me most interested in this game, however, is how CMON will run the Kickstarter campaign, as the announcement of this game at Origins, whilst the Trudvang Legends campaign was live caused the latter to lose backers by the bucket load. This really highlighted the CMON Kickstarter process and it will be interesting to see if and how the campaign for this game changes.
Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun
Launching over the spring BGG
Described to me as “the usual euro awesomeness with lots of unusual twists”. So, what does that mean? Well, let’s start with saying that this is a dice drafting game from Daniele Tascini and David Turczi. You’ll be looking to expand the Temple of Amun-Ra (now known as Karnak), keeping the people of Egypt happy, build houses, mines, farms, erect statues to the Gods, obey the wild decrees of the Pharaoh and every now and then your soul is weighed too.
Ancient Egypt was a blast!
You’ll do all of this through dice drafting and placement, but the key consideration here is the shadow of the Obelisk (Tekhenu), this not only changes the effectiveness of the dice drafted but their effectiveness and the cost to your soul.
If you like heavy euro dice placement games this is 100% for you.
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