Tabletopia News

[h3]2 players
15-30 minutes
Card drafting, hand management, scratch that MtG itch[/h3]

Clash of Deck is a two-player, expendable game with many twists, the biggest of which is: you buy a folded, 8-pages booklet and cut the cards off to build your game.

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Released on a monthly basis, the game sees the player summon creatures on each side of two bridges on two different lanes and attack their opponent to try and destroy first their watchtower, and then their castle. To do so they first must dispatch opposing creatures.

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When a player suffers damage, they move their watchtower/castle card from left to right in their hand. If the building reaches the rightmost position, it is destroyed.



Since the number of cards in one's hand is the amount of mana the player gets at the beginning of their turn, and defeated creatures go back into your hand on the rightmost position, knowing which creature to play and which creature to let die is key to managing both your position on the board and your life total.

[h3]2-4 players
45-75 minutes
Pick-up-and-deliver, route building, train capitalism[/h3]

Shinjuku is a strategic network-building and pick-up-and-deliver board game. In Shinjuku, you build stores in Tokyo and the rail lines to connect them so that you can build the most successful shopping/rail conglomerate.

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Every turn, new customers will arrive on the map looking to purchase one of 4 different goods. On your turn, you choose 2 different actions from: (a) Build a store, (b) Expand your rail, (c) Upgrade to a department store, (d) draw cards as Income or (e) Move customers along the rail to stores.

You start with a hand of 4 location cards, and draw a new card each turn. The Build, Upgrade and Move actions require that you play a matching location card from your hand. Cards in your hand that match locations where you have previously built a store are Wild and can be used to match any location.

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The game ends when the last customer is placed (+ one final round) and victory goes to the player that acquires the most sets of customers.

[h3]2-4 players
15-45 minutes
Action programming, dice rolling, howdy doody[/h3]

Cactus Town is an asymmetric action programming game for 2 to 4 players. A highly interactive game of fast-paced chase & escape.

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Sleepy little Cactus Town is going to see some action: you can put yourself the Sheriff’s badge, join a group of dangerous bandits, seek ransom as a bounty hunter or even use the power of seduction being an avenging Can Can dancer. Each party has its own objectives and its own special actions, making this a perfect gateway game for asymmetric gameplay. With a playing time of 10-15 minutes per player, you can swap and play various parties each session.

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Players program their actions with 3 out of 4 action cards each turn. Sounds easy enough, right? But careful, actions alternate between players and action cards are programmed in reverse order, meaning the last card programmed comes up first. Mastering this is a real challenge. Can you out-think your opponents, guess their moves and get in your own. Or will you out-think yourself and create some hilarious chaos?

Each player's characters move through a 5x5 building-card grid, which is set up randomly face down each game. The game includes an advanced version with building effects and several variants, giving you even more replay value.



Are you ready for a duel? Will you plunder for gold? Are you in the mood to dance a Can Can? Going to steal a horse, are you? A lot of things are going to happen in Cactus Town, create your own cinematic Western story!

After half a year of daylight, we must now prepare for the dark season. The roads will be treacherous but they will still need to be braved by a select few in order to keep our cities thriving. In Merchants of the Dark Road, you are one of these brave few merchants that travel the dangerous paths between cities. While the job is perilous, fame and fortune await.

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[h2]1-4 players
60-120 minutes
Rondel, worker placement, impending peril[/h2]

Discover the capital city where most of your actions will take place using a rondel action system. Collect and produce items to add to your caravan, or sell these items to local heroes and hire them to travel with you. Manipulate the market price of items, visit the back alley sellers, or delve a nearby dungeon for magical items to gain the potential for even more coin and notoriety.

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Gather lanterns to ease your passage along the dark roads as you guide your caravan to distant villages. Deliver goods and heroes to the best destinations and gain fame for your bravery! Balance the money you earn with the height of your fame because your final score after a number of game rounds will reflect the lowest of these two values.



After all, what good is a purse full of the coin if the people don’t sing songs about you, and what good is a song with an empty mug of ale?

The oasis-like basin Faiyum was artificially built 3,900 years ago by enlarging the Bahr Yussef channel that connected to the Nile to create a regulated flood plain. During the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, this swampland was slowly changed into farmland under the aegis of pharaohs such as Amenemhet III and Sesostris II. They ordered their advisors to build a system of canals and dikes to reclaim the land surrounded by desert and inhabited by crocodiles to turn it into a granary for Egypt.



Now, during the reign of Amenemhet III, you are the pharaoh's advisors, commanded to harvest goods, build roads, found settlements, and do much more for the good of Faiyum! You are being supplied with the necessary manpower, resources, and money, which means that if another advisor needs to use "your" roads, farms, and other buildings, they may do so since everything you build is owned by the pharaoh. The only thing you will own is the only thing that matters: the respect of the pharaoh.

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[h2]2-5 players
120 minutes
Deck building, hand management, Pharaoh advising[/h2]

Faiyum is a strategic game for enthusiasts of planning games. The basic rules are simple: Play your cards one by one on your personal discard stack. After playing some or all of your cards, you take them back into your hand in "reverse" playing order, so playing cards in the best order is important. Newly purchased cards go directly into your hand, so the timing of getting and playing them is important, too. Each of the individual cards has easy-to-understand actions, but only by creating the best combined "engine" will you be a master advisor of Faiyum.

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This game features a card mechanism reminiscent of deck builders and the market mechanism successfully used in Power Grid. Gain more and more valuable cards, and use the structures built on the game board to your advantage — in other words, for your reputation. In the end, the most cunning advisor who creates the best card combinations will win Faiyum.