It’s convention season again! That can only mean one thing. A ton of new games. The Origins Game Fair is held over June 12th to 16th in Columbus, Ohio and we are going to take a look at the best new games that are being demoed there and are not for sale yet. These games don’t have release dates yet but are due between the end of 2019 and early 2020. Plenty of time to save those pennies!
Dwellings of Eldervale
Dwellings of Eldervale is an epic worker placement game set in a once lost magical world. Giant elemental monsters roam while dragons, wizards and warriors battle for dominance over 8 elemental realms. Players control unique factions seeking to adventure, battle, grow in power and ultimately dwell Eldervale, shaping it to their vision.
Dwellings of Eldervale blends worker placement, area control, engine building and unique worker units. Players take turns placing a worker in Eldervale or regrouping and activating their tableau of adventure cards. Action spaces include realms key to power: a summoning portal, an ancient mill, the lost fortress, deep dungeons, and a crumbling mage tower and the elemental lands of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Order and Chaos! Magic cards grant spells, quests and prophecies to players.
In the end, the players with the most elemental dominance among the multiple paths to victory will reign over Eldervale.
By now you will all know we are suckers for worker placement games. Combine this with area control and you have a winner. The art is looking good and Breaking Games usually deliver the goods. Want!
Sanctum
Sanctum is an epic adventure competitive game for 2-4 players that is inspired by the hack & slash genre and converted into a modern board game. As one of the heroes, you embark upon a quest to rid the land of a demonic invasion, fighting your way through countless enemies and gearing up to face the Lord of Demons himself. In the process of venturing deeper into the land, ever so much closer to the Demon Lord, the heroes have to improve their equipment and adapt their combat tactics to face the increasing difficulty of combat.
Dice rolling is the order of the day here and what can be seen as a simple mechanic is turned into something special here as the dice you roll is determined by what equipment your character has equipped! Pretty interesting!
High Rise
A game of Construction and Corruption from the designer of The Networks! Yes!
From the publisher:
High Rise is a strategic city-building game with a bit of corruption. You can get bonuses on your actions by gaining Corruption, but the game will periodically penalize the most corrupt players, and everyone loses VP for Corruption at the end of the game.
You’ll perform all your actions — like collecting resources, constructing buildings, and repaying favours — on a one-way track. Like other one-way track games, you can go as far as you’d like, but you’ll only get another turn when everyone else passes you. You gain 1 VP per floor for each building you construct. Tenants offer powerful actions that change each game. You can collect a tenant power by landing on its space or constructing a building on its card.
The round ends after everyone makes a lap around the one-way track. Players score bonus points for tallest buildings in each neighbourhood and the game. You’ll play 2 rounds in the Standard Game (about 90-120 minutes for 3-4 players) and 3 rounds (about 2.5 hours) in the Full game. After the appropriate number of rounds, players lose points for Corruption, and the player with most VP wins.
We are pretty fond of The Networks here so this is a must try at least!
Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist
Oohhh…
A One-Versus-Many, asymmetric game that casts one player as John McClane and the rest as the thieves who are co-operating to rob the place clean! The game is only slightly based on the events of the film which is a little disappointing and to be honest it all looks a little cheap and simple. Hopefully, it will deliver the goods! “Ho-ho-ho, now I have a machine gun…”
Court of the Dead: Mourners Call
One of the most anticipated games of the year, Court of the Dead is due around August of this year, so it’s not long to wait!
From the publisher:
You are a Mourner — an allegiant of Death — dedicated to realizing his noble ambition to end the celestial war and restore balance to the universe. However, Death’s purpose includes your own ulterior motives. You and your fellow Mourners must unite and rise, or fall together. But only one Mourner will achieve their particular vision of the Underworld united. Your task will not be easy. While the Underworld is united in its purpose, it is divided in its strategy to achieve that aim. There are three factions in the Land of the Dead: Bone, Flesh, Spirit. Each is a unique path to rise up against Heaven and Hell.
You will need to strategically manipulate your influence within these factions, their strongholds and guilds, and within the Court of the Dead if you wish to achieve your ends. But beware: The power within mortal souls — known as Etherea — is a perilous substance. Use it carelessly, and you risk invoking the Dreadsgrip – a destructive force within every Mourner that consumes all it touches, including its former master. Failing to satiate the celestials’ war need, or triggering the Dreadsgrip, has dire consequences for all Mourners. Are you strong enough to achieve your own ambitions and be the champion for the uniting force for which all Mourners Call?
We are very much in for this one. The theme. The art. It’s all just so very good. Let’s hope we can snag a copy when it’s released.