Watch your Back: Week April 29 - May 5
Seven soloable games that we know of will launch this week. Usually we don't know half of what's happening, so prepare to be overwhelmed. There will be lots of reprints, but fortunately some new ones as well, from mini games to huge boxes, some empty, some filled to the brim.
Tuesday
Canvas (1-5 players) Big Box, new cards and reprints. In this game you collect art cards, combine them in layers to form a painting, and then score icons. Now you can buy a chest of drawers for it with token trays, a deck box, dividers and all. You can customize the artwork on the box by putting a sleeve on it, kind of like you do in the game with the cards. Will launch on Kickstarter.
Fractured Sky (1-5 players): Rift Expansion, plus a kickstarter-exclusive reprint of the base game. We found this short description: "It introduces new types of starfalls that give all the players more information about what the other players are trying to do, both enhancing and helping to avoid conflict (whichever you prefer)", not sure what this means for the solobot or what it would prefer. Will launch on Kickstarter.
Kinfire Council (2-6 players) may or may not have a solo mode. But earlier games in the same setting will be reprinted as well and those are soloable: cooperative campaign game Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall (1-4 players) and cooperative press-your-luck card game Kinfire Delve (1-2 players). This all will launch on Kickstarter.
Wednesday
Cooperative adventure card game Long Dark Sea (1-4 players) combines deck-building and resource management. Go exploring in a SF setting with your pirate crew, trying to find ancient relics. Will launch on Gamefound.
Micro Midgard (1-2 players), the new game by Ben Downton (Micro Dojo) is set in Norse mythology. Go questing, gain resources and craft relics before Ragnarok comes. Will launch on Kickstarter. A mini-expansion will be available as well.
Thursday
Cruel Frost is the final chapter for open-world adventure game Euthia (1-4 players), and you guessed it, all previous content will be reprinted as well. Save the lands from the Spider Queen’s icy reign or die trying. Then get resurrected. Will launch on Kickstarter.
Vital Lacerda teams up with João Quintela Martins once again (after Bot Factory) for worker placement game House of Fado (1-4 players). Manage your restaurant, attract customers, and contract musicians, to gain prestige. Will launch on Kickstarter.
Personal opinion
I'm still somewhat interested in Euthia, but it's too late to catch up. I'm not ready for another mortgage. I was lukewarm on Bot Factory when I played it, and I think just one Lacerda in my collection is enough (I've got Kanban EV), so no House of Fado for me.
I wil however absolutely check Long Dark Sea, as both setting and mechanics sound right up my alley. And I guess I should find out a bit more about Micro Midgard. So wake me up on Wednesday.
Missed a week? Just check our overview of crowdfunding campaigns that are currently live.
I decided, for once, to stop being a completionist and be content with my core pledge for Euthia. I think the expansion added too much stuff and fluff including an army of needless minis, which was thankfully absent from the first title. I wish they had kept the modified solo experience from Crawling Shadows as a separate add-on, but no, SFG was of a different mind about it.
So, I'm not looking forward to this additional expansion. It really comes too soon when people are already buried under gigantic heaps of contents. I guess that's the same point: sell them more before they realize they are getting tired of it. That said, I have read in the forums people already…
I can confirm Kinfire: Council will be soloable but you need to add the Winds of Change expansion. I specifically subscribed to the $1 newsletter to get that info!
I'm still tempted by the base game but, nope, too big, too expensive. And I already pre-ordered the three little dungeon delve titles in retail. That was six months ago!