RobRegalMusic

RobRegalMusic

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Contest of 3 years

Every year, I tell myself that Christmas also rhymes with the anniversary of the blog. 2 parties in one, it's royal! It is, in addition, the time of the year that I prefer, so it is not so surprising.

And to celebrate the 3 years of the blog, Philibert (the only, the unique, the undeniable partner of the blog) join me in offering you not one but

The store (online or hard) offers, for those who do not know, thousands of board games modern (or old) that will make you crazy, blessed, mischievous, quick and quick! Oh yeah all that, at the same time, or not …

There will be two winners drawn who will be able to take advantage of their voucher in the online store of Philibert.

How to participate ? It's simple :

To get 1 chance (mandatory): you must indicate in comment what you would buy if you win the voucher Philibert (do not forget the links / URL to that everyone can enjoy !!!) For a Second chance (Optional) : he HAD follow me on Twitter or Facebook (indicate, in your comment, your username or name on these networks ==> any new follower or non subscriber will not be counted)

[robregalmusic]

The Black Pearl extension

I told you !! Abyss made a cardboard !! A big box even! Because Abyss is out of order !! But if you missed it, it's just coming back before Christmas in shop. Life is well done nan?

With this success, the Bombyx-Cathala-Chevallier-Collette Team was not going to stop there. The extension (already announced will be released next August for GenCon, a year after the base game and will be in our stores in September. 

The extension will be called Black Pearl and who better than its authors to tell us about it:

"ABYSS - Black Pearl is an extension focusing on .... Black Pearls !! (But where are they going to look for all this ...). Indeed, a new family of allies makes its appearance: multicolored allies very useful to accelerate your recruitment of lords. But at a cost: To benefit from the support of these new allies, it will be necessary to receive Black Pearls ... dirty money ... Corruption in a way, and these black pearls will give you points of malus at the end of the game. Unless ... you are taking advantage of the powers of a new Guild: Smugglers. They are masters in the art of using their black pearls (in whitening Or giving them to the opponents like so many poisoned gifts). But they also have other resources ... Finally, this extension will allow you to explore a new type of Location: the Wrecks. Places full of riches, but dangerous. Very dangerous. More than ever, knowing how to stop your exploration at the right time will be crucial. In short, to win, it will take review its strategies to make the most of all these new possibilities. "

This extension will contain:

2 lords more by guild (10) 8 new lords smugglers 1 new type of allies multicolored about twenty cards « wrecks »Working with 4 new places: Wrecks 4 new places therefore, + 1 which brings IPs and diversifies existing places 3 sentries (in the stack lords) with 3 tokens to reserve an ally, a lord, or a stack of the board. The mechanisms are ready, the extension is set, illustration work by Xavier Collette can then begin.

"For the extension Abyss, the idea is to make it clear that apart from a greater variety of Lords and places, it brings new strategies, while keeping the rules intact. The game comes out even richer, varied, twisting. " For having played a few times, this extension brings a real revival of the sensations of play while maintaining the same mechanisms. The sentinels allow to reserve a lord or a stack so to predict! Something that was not feasible in the basic game. But black pearls and multicolored allies are really the heart of this extension. This brings both flexibility to acquire the lords, but a lot of vice. It is a pleasure to sell these negative points to other players. A kind of time bomb which one must get rid of before the end of the game. We also find the mechanics of stop or with the maps and places wrecks : new places available that can potentially yield a lot of influence points.

In short, the very good we are already waiting for ... August? It's far, nah? ^^ Other info in the universe of Abyss: The artbook may be here for Cannes !! It will be the size of ... the box of the game !! He is in the process of modeling. It will include illus and sketches of Xavier Collette as well as texts of the authors of the game and also of authors of news (here is the list of the participants: Thomas Hervet, David Calvo, Mathieu Gaborit, Rozenn).

Unfortunately not yet info on the marketing of the bust of Abyss. And that's it for this third article on Abyss !! Here the first, and there the second. When we love…

[robregalmusic]

Conan - Kickstarter in January

I had the chance to meet Fred Henry few years ago. At the time, he had just released the futuristic racing game " Rush & Crush Which I still play from time to time today. In discussing with him on a specialized forum we noticed that we were going to the same shop "hard". So, we met a few times and always with the same pleasure (and a lot of coffee!). I have to say that Fred Henry is a person who naturally clears a contagious enthusiasm when he talks about his passion: designing board games. Moreover, although multiplying the playful blockbusters (timeline and the builders lately), our man has remained particularly humble. For proof, while I had an idea of ​​proto, he gave me an appointment for us to discuss and to make a part together. Like that, because he had the time and it made him happy to give me a hand! If that's not passion?

By the way, talking about passion, Fred Henry, with the support of his friends from Monolith, has decided to take a new step in its creative ambition: Bring the modern board game on the rails of great Hollywood productions ! And for that, what better than to appeal to a character as charismatic as muscular: The Legendary Conan the Barbarian! Indeed, after TimeLine and the builders who hold each in a small metal box, this is probably the world's most ambitious production of board games in terms of content: " Conan: Hyborian Quest ".

The 1era production of Monolith so is a game for 2 to 5 players where one of the participants will embody Overlord : the villain of the game (if Conan can be called "nice" et) and the others embody the Legendary hero and his stooges. This is obviously an entertainment based on scenarios each taking place in the abundant universe imagined by Robert E. Howard. It will be a question of facing enemies dice... but reducing Fred Henry's latest creation to just that would be very unfair.

Indeed, the game presents some originality well felt like the order of the turn for example: in fact, in addition to the common tray on which the game is played, each player on the Conan team must manage his own individual tray on which is notably the management of the tired of his character. In turn, the players of this team move their figurines and interact as they wish and that WITHOUT pre-defined order! Thus, the players act as many times as they wish on the main board and in the order that they agree together: a player can interrupt his current action to resume later during the same turn. Obviously, all this will not be free. A player "gesticulating" a little too much will see his fatigue gauge dive dangerously and penalize him for the next turn. The teammates will have to synchronize at best to limit the effects of fatigue for the next round. Once the team feels they have done enough, they hand over to the Overlord player. This one will have to spend energy to sow a maximum of pitfalls on the way of the Heroes. He will manage individual units or in groups. These will cost more or less expensive to activate depending on whether they were used extensively or not in the previous round. The Overlord has a global vision of the enemies he can activate while the other players reflect on the scale of the single character they embody. This makes it possible to have two visions radically different from the same part and ensures by the same a certain renewal in the re-playability of each scenario.

As recently explained Fred Henry on the Nolife channel during Extra Life, the design of Conan is so expensive that if the game was to be distributed in a conventional way, it would come in shop around 250 euros! At such a price, it is the "loser / loser" to use his expression: the boxes would not sell and resellers would end up with stock on their hands. As the team of Monolith is determined to propose a extraordinary game, it does not want a price too prohibitive stifles the project so ambitious hence the need to directly connect with the public of the game via a crowdfunding. It must be said that to offer the best material possible, Monolith did not skimp on the means: she contacted the world's best designers and sculptors in order to re-transcribe Conan's universe as faithfully as possible ... It must be emphasized that it is not less 25 people working on this project (against 6 to 8 for a usual board game). The least that can be said is that the 1st visuals of the game are beautiful to cry and prove, if need be, how much the project has been largely prepared upstream. The gameplay has also been very widely tested since it is not less than 400 different players (!!!) who have devoted themselves to the version « prototype Of the game in order to refine the flow of the games.

It must be said that once the game is published, its box will probably be among the heaviest ever produced! So think:

130 figures (unpainted / 32 mm / plastic) particularly well worked, 3 trays recto / verso different maps (The Tavern, The Pirate Ship, The Swamps, The Undergrounds, The Picte Village and the Fortress), of the individual trays, 12 scenarios, 1 plastic tray to embody the Overlord, engraved and personalized dice, of the gems,

... not to mention that all the encrypted information mentioned at the moment does not take into account the possible Stretches Goals that would be unlocked during the campaign on Kick-starter (who talked about 3D furniture to add to the maps? 😉).

This one is already announced Pharaonic : Indeed, the investments are such that under 1,000,000 dollars raised (yes, there are six "0"!), Fred Henry would consider that the campaign would be a semi-failure. The goal is not so crazy when we know that the extensions of another game of figurines - Zombicide seasons 2 and 3 have each exceeded the 2,000,000 dollars collected (yes, there are still six " 0!) Via this same principle of financing.

Although the KickStarter stages are still under study as I write these lines, it will probably be necessary count 150 dollars (approximately 120,00 euros) to recover one of the famous boxes full to crack. A real budget, certainly, but the report quality / quantity / price will still be very much in favor of the contributor. The KickStarter will be the only way to get this famous box as presented on this site. Indeed, an edition for the shops will be well planned but not common measure with the operation of the KS. The game will be cut into one basic box probably sold around 80 euros (containing "only" 1 main board, around 4 scenarios and about 40 figurines) and several extensions sold separately to find the content of the box offered via the KS. So it's up to you to see if you have to crack for this game now, later or never but know that it is already announced as one of the future references in his field. Personally, my choice has been made for a long time and I can announce that this year, my Christmas gift will be ordered on January 5th! 😉

[robregalmusic]

The legacy of Yi

The legacy of Yi

Successor of the memorable Koryo in the range Moonster Games, category card games content but sturdy, Choson landed a heritage Therefore.

Yes Koryo had brilliantly erected a beam of convergent playful qualities(short parts, strong replayability, some control, consistent depth, oiled mechanics) Choson had to bring a different experience to support the comparison at least, transcend it at best.

The Choson dynasty

Gary Kim managed to anchor Choson, gameplay and design, in a distant Korean historical context for us Europeans. While his game is not a game of civilization where immersion is hyper-important, but for aesthetes, the effort is appreciable. Running from 1392 to 1910, the dynasty witnessed a true Renaissance at different levels: cultural, religious adinistrative ... Thus, to cite an example, the first hydraulic clocks, printing presses were born in the early hours of this dynasty. When we see the new illustrations used in Choson, we appreciate not only the artistic quality (that's subjective) but also the fact that it fits and is justified historically (that's objective)! The characters are more bad ass, the elements evoke the wheels, the industry ...a real success (I also think of the first metal collector player token). In real life, the sovereign power of Choson relied on 55 vassals, all present at the royal council. The game Choson therefore has ...55 cards. Boum.

If we add that the General Yi(card # 1 of the game) first King of the dynasty, imposed new rules, restored Confucianism (it does not laugh that -ism there) and relegated Buddhism to the confines of the Kingdom, it is hoped that thematically the game will be more nagging, more assertive, less diplomatic. And again Gary Kim renews and upsets its system, from a game of courtiers / diplomats to a real clash of war generals. Interaction, timid and muffled in Koryo, is at the center of debates in Choson. The table of each player evolves drastically in the game, the fiefs fall or move, while historically the kings of Choson tear each other apart, murder, plot and succeed one another.

Hangeul Alphabet

How to translate this new language into gameplay? Gary Kim gets involved by exploding the possible actions. There where Koryo proposed basic action (2 if most of the 5), Choson allows four:

Play x cards of the same type

Play a card x and a card there

Playing a card and an event

Play three event cards

Many more potential therefore, without losing the player either. The game remains dry and nervous. Event cards are the main novelty of the alphabet Choson. Because cards of value 1 to 8 now have a symbol below their number, and not just a symbol that triggers with the majority. These events are:

the lobby (cards 1, 3 and 6)

the lobby allows you to exchange 2 characters, at others or at home

the gun (cards 2 and 8)

the gun is used to kill a character, no matter which, in another player

the sword (cards 4, 5 and 7)

the sword can kill a character in another player, but in a range of -1 to + 1. Example: the 4 can kill a 3, a 4 or a 5

Events become one of the mainstays of the gameplay, especially since some powers of majority allow to make them fight (I combote, you combotes, we combotons) to fructify them in victory points. They generate a strong interaction between the players (where Koryo punished them with -1 difficult to assume), fit well with the theme, and even if this generated chaos removes a little the feeling of control that we had with Koryoin my parts (about fifteen) he has never been a source of blatant imbalance. At the same time, a game lasts 10 minutes, a bad draw round 8 it happens, and the game does not take that on that.

Without revealing all the powers and small curiosities of the characters, you should know that there is some answer, modifiers victory points and that even the first player token is important ... Just go for a nice power: card # 1, General Yi gives you a shield, which you put on a family to protect it. This shield also acts as a cosmic scale and grants you the benefit of the majority in case of a tie. Well. But if you do not protect Yi himself, nothing prevents an opponent from lobbying him, recovering Yi and his shield. Or just bump him up. Nicely ...

The country of the fresh morning

Gary Kim and Moonster Games succeed with Choson to transfigure an already huge game, giving it punks and warlike. The result is translated into fun around the table, whether with experienced or casual players. Choson remains accessible, and keeps the depth of Koryo while moving it to a new era. Even more successful graphically, very well done thematically, and a sobriety foolproof in the design (about 60 cards, ten chips, small box, 15 euros), it's a real gamer game, very re-playable, who honors and respects his predecessor (patting him with a sword on his cheek) (look down at Yi)