Watch Your Back: Week October 9 to 15
Let's continue our stroll through the crowdfunding alleys of October with the projects that have been scheduled to launch next week.
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First, we have In The Heart Of Darkness: a 1-4 player cooperative survival horror game in which players are trying to defeat the evil forces that inhabit the island of Mora.
You select at least two characters, each with different stats, and then use your action points to move across the map, attack the creatures and use the various objects you may have in your possession. Fights and skill tests are resolved by rolling a set of custom dice. It is launching on Kickstarter on October 10.
Personal opinion: I generally like this sort of Arkham Horror-esque games, so I'll take a look when it goes live. It doesn't stand out that much, judging by the trailer video, but I'm curious to learn more.
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Moving on to Wander: LaCluck's Revenge: a 1-5 player cooperative campaign game in which you are trying to fight the ghosts of pirates that haunt Barnacle Bay.
When you successfully face a ghost, you gather loot and level up your hero. Attacks are resolved by dice rolls. This is a sequel game to Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay, and it will launch on Kickstarter on October 10.
Personal opinion: Cartoony anthropomorphic animal pirates. Meh.
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Then we have two new installments in the series of DVG's solitaire Leader wargames: Eagle Leader and Fulcrum Leader.
They both build on the gameplay introduced by Hornet Leader by adjusting the mechanisms to fit the NATO and Soviet airforces during the Cold War period. You will play through a set of fictional missions by preparing your crew and your aircraft to face the opposing forces. It is launching on Kickstarter on October 11.
Personal opinion: I used to own Sherman Leader but didn't keep it for long. These games certainly have their merits, especially in how thematic they are. At some point, however, I felt that Sherman gave me all it could give and I wouldn't miss it if I gave it away which is what in fact happened.
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Life of the Amazonia is a 1-4 player bag building game in which you create a jungle habitat.
You will be drawing resource tokens from a bag in order to perform actions, and placing animal meeples in your jungle depending on the type of terrain they can live in. Animals give points if they are well-placed, and the player with the most thriving jungle wins the game. In the solo mode, you are competing against the Black Comet AI, and a solo campaign mode is in the works. It is launching on Kickstarter on October 12.
Personal opinion: Sure, the animeeples are cute but the AI isn't.
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We'll finish off this post with Project EOS Rise. I had mentioned this game about a month ago and I'm not sure what happened, perhaps they postponed the launch? Most likely.
This is a 1-4 player cooperative sci-fi worker and dice placement game in which you are searching for the Paradise Planet, fighting aliens and smuggling cargo along the way. To play solo, you will need to command all four characters. You will be placing meeples on various action spaces to take the corresponding actions, and attacking ships by rolling dice and combining their symbols. It is launching on Kickstarter on October 15.
Personal opinion: I took a look at an instructional video and must admit I was bored.
Deep Madness will also get a reprint campaign on October 11, alongside a new expansion, Madness Reborn. This is a minis-heavy dungeon crawler-like game in which you explore a deep sea mining site filled with horrific creatures. The draft page is already live.
And to get a closer look at the creatures:
Well seems like another quiet week in my backing habits.
In the Heart of Darkness sounds interesting (though it doesn't help the game that there's a movie, a video game and another boardgame of similar/same name), but looking at the pictures doesn't inspire interest in me. And I expect it to be quite big game.
Wander I know many people are interested in, but similar to Athena, antropomorphic animal pirates... meh.
The Leader series once interested me due to its solo focus, but in time I figured that I don't like war themes, I just like looking at planes. So nothing there for me.
Life of the Amazonia is the closest from the selection to something I would be thinking…