Watch your Back: Week April 10 to 16 (Part 2)
Let's continue with Part 2 of our overview and another 5 games. Here is Part 1.
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The Paradox Initiative is a 1-4 player competitive card drafting and set collection game in which scientists try to gather and match particles to build their Paradox Engine. In each round, you will draft Past, Present, and Future cards and manipulate tokens in a grid with the aim of repairing the cards you drafted.
Elf Creek Games haven't shared enough info about this new edition, but it will probably be similar to the original Paradox game. There will be a solo mode but they haven't said if it is against an AI. It is launching on Kickstarter on April 12.
Personal opinion: The token grid reminds me a bit of Bullet which means Zerbique will love it. It looks more suited to multiplayer than solo, though.
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Next, we have the new edition of Don't Let It Die: a 1-4 player cooperative card game in which you play as a Neanderthal trying to learn the secrets of fire and survive. The previous edition had pixel art but the upcoming edition features all-new artwork.
You will choose your characters, each with different abilities, and perform actions during the Day Phase such as collecting resources and crafting items. In the Night Phase, you resolve event cards, either beneficial or disastrous. Your goal is to unlock stages on the fire knowledge tree until you complete them all. It is launching on Kickstarter on April 12.
Personal opinion: I'm glad to see this receiving proper artwork, I don't like pixels. It looks like a decent game, I'll check it out when it launches.
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Birds of a Feather is also coming back with a new edition, this time called Birds of a Feather: Western North America. It is a set collection game in which you are a bird watcher trying to see the most birds. The solo mode is a Ricky Royal design, and it's a beat-your-own-score.
You start with a hand of 13 cards, and play one each round, adding two from the main deck. You score the bird you played plus any other birds that happen to live in the same natural habitat. The birds linger for one more round and then get discarded. The game continues in this manner until your run out of cards and proceed to scoring. It is launching on Kickstarter on April 12.
Personal opinion: The question here is, do I need this as a relaxing game? It looks nice and calming, and that would be the only reason I might be tempted to get it. Plus the small box.
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The Great Wall by Awaken Realms is coming back with a reprint campaign on Gamefound on April 15. This is a 1-4 player worker placement game in which you are building the Great Wall of China. In the solo and co-op modes you are facing the Mongol hordes and also the Reed clan AI. Awaken Realms say they have rewritten the rulebook and added expansions.
Personal opinion: I certainly don't need another behemoth box by Awaken Realms, and this game doesn't seem to lend itself to solo play that well. Lovely minis though, as always.
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And lastly, Zerbique told me about a roll 'n' write PnP called Fortress of Terror. It is a single player game launching on Kickstarter on April 12. The game pits you in a series of mazes in which you will collect relics and proceed until you find and fight the evil Bram.
Personal opinion: I'm not the biggest fan of roll 'n' writes, so I'll pass.
Well, Don't Let It Die is live and they also have a solo bundle pledge level that includes Get to da Checkpoint. Time to check it out.
Clearly the people I know are unrepresentative of the boardgaming community. I haven't heard anything positive about The Great Wall – indeed, I haven't heard anything abouot it at all apart from places like this that try to list everything – and yet here it clearly did well enough to get a reprint and expansions.
On Tuesday 12 April Cryptozoid will launch some DC Deck-Building Game 10th Anniversary stuff. I have no idea what, but I don't own the game yet, so I hope there will be a way to start with this deck builder included in the campaign as well.
Athena's personal opinion: I don't like super-heroes, just the tights. I'll skip this one.
Aaargh... I almost want it all!!!
Athena knows me well when she says I'm extremely interested in The Paradox Initiative. I'm glad for the reprint and the added solo mode, and my only regret is that the art looks much less fun and quirky than the original. I'm also surprised that, for a game featuring so many board game artists, they shared so little art so far.
Birds of a Feather is typically the kind of game I want: nature theme, small box, proven solitaire suitability. If it ends up being affordable, there are good chances for me to back it.
I had hesitated to back Don't Let It Die when it first appeared on KS. I'm glad to see…
Since ya don't like 'pixels' (I got my fill of those decades ago 🙂), ya probably won't like this Solo game.
Image Source: BGG
The birdies (of a feather) do look relaxing.