Watch your Back: Week November 27 to December 3
The closer we get to the festive season, the less crowded crowdfunding platforms will be. There are still a few games scheduled for next week though, so let's take a look.
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Hellbringer is a 1-4 player cooperative dungeon crawl game in which one or more heroes delve into a dungeon to slay the monsters within.
In this card and dice-driven game, you play cards from your hand depending on your action points in order to locate enemies on the board, and then roll dice to attack them. If you kill a monster, you add the monster card to your tableau thus gaining more perception: this allows you to see new enemies and progress to the next stage. It is launching on Kickstarter on November 30.
Personal opinion: This looks like a good solo crawler. Zerbique told me he is excited about it, so I'll take a closer look when it goes live.
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One Earth is a 1-5 player tableau building game in which you are trying to save the planet from ecological disaster while also making quality of life advancements for your citizens.
In the solo mode, you play against the military general AI. After you select your character card, you will use your funds to purchase project, tech, or climate policy cards. Your goal is to score the most points by also making sure global emissions don't reach the maximum. It is launching on Gamefound on November 29.
Personal opinion: Nothing here for me.
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Shake That City is a 1-4 player city building game in which you shake cubes inside a container and then place tiles in your city grid depending on the cubes that came out of the container.
On every turn, you will shake and reveal a 3x3 pattern of cubes that come out of the container. Then, you select a cube colour and place the matching tiles on your tableau. Tiles represent houses, factories, shops and parks, and each building scores depending on its placement in the grid. Solo rules haven't been revealed yet but it looks like a BYOS. It is launching on Kickstarter on November 29.
Personal opinion: The shaker makes it look like a fun game but I wouldn't buy it just for solo.
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GOLDblivion is a 1-4 player deck building game in which you are trying to gather the most gold and be crowned king of the territory.
In the solo mode, you play against an AI opponent which rolls a die and executes actions accordingly. On your turn, you either spend cards from your hand to gain gold or spend your gold to buy cards from the market. It is launching on Kickstarter on December 1.
Personal opinion: The theme doesn't interest me but I've always wanted to give a chance to the designer's first game, Goblivion.
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Now, for my convenience, I will list the other soloable games that have been announced for this week but completely lack information on the solo mode. If they can't be bothered, why should we?
Pole Position launches on Kickstarter on November 28.
Runar launches on Kickstarter on November 29.
Air Postal launches on Kickstarter on November 29.
Homeworld Fleet Command launches on Kickstarter on November 29.
And Ducks in Tow: The Bugs & Slugs expansion relaunches on Kickstarter on November 29.
Hellbringer had to cancel (absolutely no traction) and will be relaunching in March. I haven't had the time to research it to be honest...
It does look like a fun game at first glance, I would need to check the mechanics to see if there is more than rolling dice to beat values, but anyway it sure feels pricey for what you get (about 80€ everything accounted for, for 240 cards, forty dice, and the player boards; but Legacy of Dragonholt is about the same price and comes with nothing but frail booklets so... ).
So, as Athena said, I'll check Hellbringer; I'm always in for a card-driven dungeon crawler. I think I own most of them.
I'll also likely back the Ducks in Tow expansion because a) I own the base game and b) they will offer a free update pack for components that weren't quite right in the first edition (that's what people have been saying, not I). But first, I'll have to try how the game plays. I got it out of the basement and read the rules a few weeks ago, but then a work storm struck my home, and I haven't been able to play anything ever since. The solo mode pits you against the kind of AI I can…
I'll shorten it again, cause nobody cares what I don't care about. Hellbringer I'll look into, short dungeon crawler seems interesting, but I don't have that high hopes. Mainly because of the very dark graphic design and theme and seeing that the cards have quite a bit of text. But who knows, maybe it'll wow me. Probably not though. Otherwise it's a big pass.
Stealth solo/co-op SAS - Rogue Regiment will also go live on Tuesday 29 November. I still have got the flu and have not read the rulebook yet. Just mentioning it because it's published by Word Forge Games (D-Day Dice, Pocket Landship).
Good news - you can get Goblivion: Storm Edition in the GOLDblivion KS! I already own Goblivion (and Dinoblivion, and they're both in my top 20 solo games), but I'll be backing for everything because I want the new stuff!