It's New Game Friday David Wiley (Cardboard Clash) is here to tell us about the new games.
Here’s what is new this week:
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Space Privateer Command
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Heritage Farm
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GRIMLORE Profane Truths - Case File #20: Ethan Caldwell
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Verdant Arizona
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YUBIBO
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Battle Pages: Kingdom of Chandar, Marching Order 1
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Power Creep: Danni - Uptown 2100
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Dangerous Space: Kwadill, Diffuse Mission
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FantasyForm: Burned Away Expansion
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Space Privateer Command
You have inherited from your late-father a rust-bucket ship dubbed The Yabby, and have decided to do some privateer work in the outer rim. Start by building up your reputation, stumble into privateer jobs as a Merchant, be a Mercenary, or a Pirate, and make your living in the outer rim of the DU.Rian System!
Travel through the system, making trades and fending off attacks as you work to complete your chosen mission for the game session. With great artwork, and neat-sounding combat system, and some interesting mechanics you might find this game is exactly to your liking as a solo game. There’s several missions to choose from, including an optional mode that cranks your requirements to 11 with the hopes that you can do just about everything before you get destroyed or go broke. Be sure to check this one out.
Heritage Farm
No one can quite tell you why our ancestors started Chicken, Fox, and Corn farm on this side of the river, nor why their ancestors started one on the other side. But it’s a tradition! We sell our goods in the markets connected to their farms and they sell theirs in the markets connected to ours. Problem is, you can’t leave a fox alone with a chicken, nor a chicken alone with the corn! Trickier still, our boats only have room for one farmer and one good at a time (again, tradition!). Win this game by getting 2 sets of chicken, fox, and corn to the market before your opponent does!
An interesting game that surely pulls inspiration from old logic puzzles of how to get things across a river without them being eaten. So, of course, this seems to lean in a little to the silliness of the situation and why these would remain in place now (tradition) rather than changing over time, etc. It seems like a fun way to have a contest against someone to be more efficient with your moves while challenging your logic skills along the way.
GRIMLORE Profane Truths - Case File #20: Ethan Caldwell
Ethan Caldwell, 42, is a cryptozoologist driven by science and haunted folklore. Known for debunking legends across North America, his obsession with the Hodag stems from childhood tales and a family tragedy - his uncle vanished in the Rhinelander woods during a 1962 logging accident. Armed with high-tech field tools and an anthropologist’s eye, Ethan balanced skepticism with wonder. Returning to Rhinelander, he hopes to finally uncover the truth. But as memories twist and forest paths lead nowhere, Ethan realizes this hunt isn’t just about a creature - it’s about what the forest remembers of him - and what it may want him to become.
Ethan certainly does come with some good gear that you can unlock to provide some assistance along the way. Whether you rely on his trusty machete, his kevlar vest, or the voidbound chronicle to help you succeed, you’ve got what you need to make progress. I love how the opponents here all have special things that happen if they trigger from a 5, which means that’s the one number you never want to roll. Something tells me you’re going to see some unreasonable frequency of 5’s rolling when you most need to avoid them…
Verdant Arizona
Welcome to Verdant Arizona! IN this game, two players are each owners of rival botanical gardens who wish to create the best cactus displays. When a new shipment of cacti come into the city’s flower markets, both players must race to gather the best cactus samples and then find the most elegant way to display them. Unfortunately, budget cuts in the Parks Department mean players must travel around the flower markets in the same car!
I love the attempt at a thematic explanation here for this one, too, as to why both players use the same car. Couldn’t you just picture rival companies forced to share the vehicle, trying to outhaggle and outmaneuver the other while traveling together? But that’s far from the coolest thing going in this game, which will have you working to gather and place your cacti in the most effective manner over the course of the game. If you enjoy spatial puzzles and having your plans ruined (or boosted unintentionally!) by an opponent, you’ll definitely want to check this one out!
YUBIBO
Connecting hands via fingers and sticks? A whole new kind of balance game!
An interesting little game where you can get players of all ages involved, balancing sticks and balls between players’ hands. With a deck of cards that indicates a color (player) and a finger the stick attaches to, you are working together to get all of your sticks in the air using just one of each players’ hands (keeping the other free to draw cards, etc.) and without having sticks supporting other sticks, etc. Is your game group able to complete the challenge? Only one way to find out…
Battle Pages: Kingdom of Chandar, Marching Order 1
Traders in secrets and spices, the inhabitants also enjoy a good song or story.
Let’s chat about the new hero here this week! Lancine does some pretty cool things that you’re going to like when working on your defenses! For starters, she targets any diagonal space, which can complement a Barbarian or two in the area to provide some strong protection. But even better than that is her ability which allows you to reroll up to 3 of the Evil Dice after they roll initially. Doesn’t that sound like a really, really useful thing? Well, depending on the reroll results, I suppose. After all, you could go from looking at the frying pan and end up in the fire instead…
Power Creep: Danni - Uptown 2100
So many years into the new world, with water rising in some locations and fires burning in others.
We have an exciting new hero, which means all the new things. And while I really like the new threat with these Roving Punks, they are pretty standard fare for the game. The Creep track, until now, has followed a pattern where there was always a trigger dealing with Radiation. Not this time! Now you must first deal with losing a complete structure and any unused items within it, but then the next milestone has you upgrade a Roving Pink to a leader - making them trigger more and deal more damage. Ouch!
Dangerous Space: Kwadill, Diffuse Mission
Private Gin has always been fascinated by the latest weapons and gear. The kwandorian’s current favorite is the tri-blaster.
Kwadill certainly does enjoy his gear! With characters coming back around from a year ago, sometimes you forget just how exciting some of them can be to get to the table and I would wager he’s going to be the favorite for at least a few people. He comes with good upgrade paths on everything, and some really interesting threats that interact with items/boosters. And hey, if you’re new to Dangerous Space then this wouldn’t be a bad one to pick up alongside a core set for the game to see why this has been a staple game experience for nearly 18 months and still going…
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
FantasyForm: Burned Away Expansion
Smoke billows in the distance as volcanic activity surges. The coming eruption is a source of potentially unlimited power…if you can wield it more effectively than your rival.
If you haven’t tried out FantasyForm yet, the excellent follow-up game from the designer of SpaceShipped, then you’re missing out on a real gem of a solo game. Cards flow through various areas, having different effects and interactions based upon where the card is currently located, and all of it serving to help provide tense decisions as you attempt to defeat your rival. This expansion includes 6 cards that can shuffle right in, bringing about two new forms that you can upgrade into. Shuffle this on into your base game and find out why Lucas Gentry is one of my favorite Button Shy designers!
Check out the new Button Shy releases here:
https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Game of the Week: Glass Garden on sale for just $2!
Terrariums are works of living art, lush worlds cradled within glass walls. Use care to cultivate and protector your fragile environment.
An interesting little solo game where you’re moving around plants within a Terrarium, seeking to get them to grow into Succulents, trigger light within your jars, and minimize the damage being done by the critter contained within. It might be tempting to move plants to the bottom to let them grow, as the critters ignore them there, but you’re going to need to move them back up if possible in order to maximize your points scored at the end of the game. Plan out your moves wisely, as you only get nine turns to puzzle out how to become a Master Gardener.
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week