Watch your Back: Week October 1 to 7
First day of October today, and things run a little slow with just a few new projects launching.
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99 Ninja is a 1-2 player abstract strategy game in which you place semi-transparent cards on a grid, trying to cover samurai images and empty spaces with polyomino shapes.
The cards can be flipped and rotated so that you only cover samurais and empty squares, and not ninjas or daimyo. The game also comes with solo rules. It is launching on Kickstarter on October 2.
Personal opinion: I'm not a big fan of abstract strategy but the game seems to be a good fit for fans of thinky games.
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Now for a couple of expansions: The 1-8 player roll 'n' write game Merchants of Magick is receiving the Dangerous Business expansion on October 3 on Kickstarter. The expansion adds new content and a new solo mode to the game.
On the same day, October 3, on Kickstarter, the 1-5 player tile placement The Night Cage is receiving the Shrieking Hollow expansion which adds a new enemy called The Other. When players fall into the Other's pit, they run the risk of being swallowed.
I'll look at 99 Ninja, though with abstracts I tend to pick and choose the theming, cause it's just something pretty to look at and ninjas/samurai are not it. But it sounds interesting.
I'm not sure about the expansions for Merchants & Magick. It's one of my favorite roll and write (the only one I like better is Dice, Dungeon and Danger), but to me the expansions would only bring in unnecessary convolutions and would go into the way of the fun. So I'll see what they really have to offer. Besides, Rock Manor Games are usually a better deal in retail so I'll probably wait anyway.
The Night Cage is certainly intriguing, but I am just in the lengthy process of re-packing my games in the basement because I had mold issues (I purchased expensive airtight plastic boxes to put them in instead of cardboard boxes), and I'm exhausted. There is an…