The Big Book of Madness

So far your first year at the Elementary College has been slightly disappointing. They taught you to light a flickering flame at the tip of your finger, but other than that you’ve spent much more time reading books than learning powerful spells as future great wizards like you should.

So when you heard about the Big Book of Madness hidden in the great school library, you couldn’t help but to sneak in and peek in this intriguing tome in spite of your professors’ warnings. When you slowly lift the cover of the terrible book, dozens of dreadful creatures rush out, threatening to destroy the world itself! This was your mistake, and only you can fix it now! Learn from the library to fight back against the monsters, and try not to sink into insanity…

The Big Book of Madness is a challenging co-operative game in which the players are magic students who must act as a team to turn all the pages of the book, then shut it by defeating the terrible monsters they’ve just freed.

Each player has their own element deck that they build during the game and use for several purposes, such as learning or casting a spell, adding a new element to their deck, destroy or healing a curse. Spells allow you to support your playmates, improve your deck, draw cards, etc. — but the monsters from the book fight back. Each comes with terrible curses that are triggered every turn unless you dispel them in time. They will make you discard elements, add madness cards to your deck, or lose spells…

If you manage to turn six pages and defeat all of the monsters, you win the game!

 

 

Marvel Legendary: Secret Wars – Volume 2

As the third big box expansion since Dark City, Legendary: Secret Wars – Volume 2 allows players to play through the Secret Wars storyline within Legendary!

With sixteen all new Heroes, six new Villain groups, four new Masterminds and six new Schemes ready to challenge players like never before! Players can work both with and against other players to defeat the various Battleworlds while laying waste to planet Earth and, for the first time ever, players can now play as the Mastermind against the other players!

The game features playable characters from the Illuminati, Cabal and favorites from alternate universes including Beast, Capt Britain, Spider Gwen, Ruby Summers, Dr. Punisher The Soldier Supreme and many more!

Build your team to battle against the various universes in Battleworld including the X-Men ’92, Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos, Deadpools Secret Secret Wars, and the Masters of Kung Fu!

 

Blood Rage: Mystics of Misgard

Mystics of Misgard adds an entirely new game mode to Blood Rage! Known by many names (Seidmenn, Volva, Visendakona, etc.), and possessed of different powers granted by their connection to the gods, these warrior-shamans will be a boon to any clan able to recruit them! Mystics of Misgard adds 10 shamans, two for each clan, and their highly detailed figures and cards.

 

Blood Rage: Gods of Misgard

This expansion adds an entirely new game mode to Blood Rage! The Gods themselves have stepped into the fray to aid (or harm!) the various clans as their whims dictate. The Gods of Asgard Expansion includes 6 deities from Norse legend, each with their own highly detailed figure and card.

 

Innovation

Accumulate inventions and groundbreaking ideas to develop your civilization and outshine the other players. Tactics, planning, and daring will be your keys to victory!

This game by Carl Chudyk is a journey through innovations from the stone age through modern times. Each player builds a civilization based on various technologies, ideas, and cultural advancements, all represented by cards. Each of these cards has a unique power which will allow further advancement, point scoring, or even attacking other civilizations. Be careful though, as other civilizations may be able to benefit from your ideas as well!

To win, you must score achievements, which you can attain by amassing points or by meeting certain criteria with the innovations you have built. Plan your civilization well, and outmaneuver your opponents, and with some luck you will achieve victory!

 

Innovation: Echoes

What would the world be without watermills, pianos or email? With 105 new Innovations to discover and 5 new achievements to perform, this first expansion for Innovation offers countless new possibilities to refresh and renew your games.

Echoes adds astonishing new mechanisms for an even more thrilling and intense game experience. Master the Echo Effect: Dogmas from the past still resonate in the present! Gather bonuses from special cards to increase your score. Control the future by playing foreshadowing cards that only come into play later in the game!

Only when you master Time itself will you lead your civilization to glory… and victory!

 

Mistfall: Valskyrr

Valskyrr expands Mistfall with a campaign system in different ways. Some of the features can also be used in the classic game variant.

Legacy Feats: A new deck of special Feats that can be purchased by any Hero. Use these abilities to sharpen your keen edge or supply your Hero with a little bit of what is not usually their forte.

Setting Cards: As your Hero Develops, so do the Mists. The expansion pack comes with a small deck of cards that will randomize ways in which each subsequent Quest will become harder, as the relentless Mists, aware of your presence, will push back, trying to stop your advance.

Elite Enemies: The Valskyrr will also come with an alternative version of one type of Enemy from each of the three groups (Wildlanders, Borderlanders and Undead). When introduced by a Setting, these will succeed the Regular Enemies in their respective decks, making the most basic footman of your Enemy a greater challenge to face.

Epic Villains: Just like the Regular Enemies, some of the biggest and baddest evildoers will receive an upgrade. The expansion will provide you with a final battle that will truly feel like a worthy conclusion to an epic tale.

 

Spyfall

• Spyfall is a party game unlike any other, one in which you get to be a spy and try to understand what’s going on around you. It’s really simple!

  Spyfall is played over several rounds, and at the start of each round all players receive cards showing the same location — a casino, a traveling circus, a pirate ship, or even a space station — except that one player receives a card that says “Spy” instead of the location. Players then start asking each other questions — “Why are you dressed so strangely?” or “When was the last time we got a payday?” or anything else you can come up with — trying to guess who among them is the spy. The spy doesn’t know where he is, so he has to listen carefully. When it’s his time to answer, he’d better create a good story!

  At any time during a round, one player may accuse another of being a spy. If all other players agree with the accusation, the round ends and the accused player has to reveal his identity. If the spy is uncovered, all other players score points. However, the spy can himself end a round by announcing that he understands what the secret location is; if his guess is correct, only the spy scores points.

  After a few rounds of guessing, suspicion and bluffing, the game ends and whoever has scored the most points is victorious!

 

Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King’s Quest

Over a thousand years ago, Valandor, the greatest known hero fell in battle, fighting to protect the lives of those around him. From shore to shore, all owe thanks to his wondrous legacy. Now, sacred sites across the land have been defiled and plundered by the disgraced wizard Mortibris, who along with his vile undead minions will stop at nothing to obtain the secrets of Valandor’s power. Only the bravest heroes dare oppose him. Thrown together from the far corners of the realm, they step boldly into the depths, ready to face whatever foul evil awaits them…

Hero, your quest begins here!

Embark on a fantasy adventure for up to five players with Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King’s Quest. With highly detailed game-pieces and learn-as-you-play rules, this set contains everything you need to transform your tabletop into a deep and immersive world of heroes and monsters. Play a single game in just 30 minutes, or combine the carefully composed adventures for countless hours of classic quest gameplay. When the fate of the world hangs in the balance, which part will you play in the epic Dungeon Saga?

-Epic, story-driven campaign
-Classic quest atmosphere
-Easy rules you can learn as you play
-Characters that develop as the adventure unfolds
-Beautifully illustrated 3D dungeons with doors, barrels, bookcases and more!
-26 detailed and fully assembled miniatures in coloured plastic
-Evocative ‘ancient tome’ packaging in a protective sleeve

One player takes the part of the evil dungeon overlord with the forces of evil at his command, and the others divide the mighty heroes between them. Each hero has strengths and weaknesses and teamwork is the key: The mighty barbarian can slaughter many foes at a time, yet he is lightly armoured and vulnerable to strong enemies. The Dwarf, on the other hand, is steadier as his thick armour can resist most attacks. The Elf is not as skilled a fighter as either of these, instead preferring to stay at a distance where her finely-honed archery skills can best be used. Finally, there is the wizard -the others may laugh at his lack of fighting skill, yet it is often his magic that carries the day. If the others can keep him alive, that is.

This core set will be supported with a raft of expansion products as time goes on, adding new challenges and game modes to your Dungeon Saga. The first of these will be Adventurer’s Companion which will add an AI system for solo and fully co-operative play, the ability to create unique characters from scratch using any model in your collection, the tools you need to design your own dungeons and much more!

A Game of Thrones: The Card Game-Taking the Black

Under the wounded pride, Will could sense something else in the older man. You could taste it; a nervous tension that came perilous close to fear.
–George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

 Taking the Black is the first Chapter Pack in the Westeros cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition!

As A Song of Ice and Fire begins, King Robert Baratheon rides north to visit his old friend Eddard Stark in Winterfell. Westeros is at peace. But this deceptive calm will not long remain. Already, the seeds of unrest are growing with the ambitions of House Lannister, with the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen to a Dothraki khal, with the apparent murder of the Hand, Jon Arryn. Conflict between the Great Houses looms on the horizon as the high lords and ladies of Westeros begin to play their game of thrones. 

You can take your place at the very beginning of the story with Taking the Black, the first Chapter Pack in the Westeros cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. As part of the Westeros cycle, Taking the Black explores the first chapters of A Game of Thrones with iconic characters like Renly Baratheon, the Hound, and Maester Luwin entering the game for the first time. In Taking the Black, each faction begins its journey through A Game of Thrones towards the Iron Throne!

For more on Taking the Black and the entire Westeros cycle, we turn to the designer of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, Nate French.

Nate French on the Westeros Cycle

The Westeros cycle (that title is an homage to the first CCG base set) is the first expansion to the second edition of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, and we tried to draw heavily from the events of the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire. Naturally, this doesn’t mean that everything in these Chapter Packs is tied to the first book, but wherever possible, we turned to the beginning of the series for inspiration. (Don’t worry Martell and Greyjoy fans – those factions weren’t prominently featured in the book, but all factions get equal treatment in the cycle.) 

As this is the first cycle, our primary design goal was to expand the possibilities of the Core Set without adding additional rules to the game. At a very basic level, there are two types of cards that you’ll find in the Westeros cycle: cards that easily slot into a core deck, and cards that pull a player’s understanding of a core theme in a new direction. 

Another important design goal of the set was to rapidly increase the number of plot cards in the environment. Constructing and piloting a plot deck is one of the most enjoyable aspects of A Game of Thrones, and we felt that investing heavily in new plot cards would rapidly increase the strategic scope of the game. This cycle introduces eighteen new plots to the game, including a loyal plot for each faction. Each of these loyal plots – like For the Watch! – supports its faction’s core strategies, inviting players to further embrace each faction’s unique playstyle.

Working on this set and the young, second edition card pool was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing these cards influence the early metagame.

Join the Watch

Recently, we previewed the Night’s Watch faction in the second edition of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. More than any other faction, the Night’s Watch relies on defense. The Wall (Core Set, 137) grants additional power when you oppose every challenge, and powerful characters like Old Bear Mormont (Core Set, 126) can bring other Night’s Watch characters into play, provided you haven’t lost a challenge as the defending player.

The exception to the Watch’s focus on defense are its Rangers. They walk the lands beyond the Wall, gathering information and scouting for possible threats to the Watch. In the prologue of A Game of Thrones, the first characters you encounter belong to the Night’s Watch, so it only makes sense that the first character you see in Taking the Black is one of these Night’s Watch Rangers: Will (Taking the Black, 1). Will bears both the military and intrigue challenge icons, as well as two important keywords. Stealth allows Will to choose an opponent’s character who cannot defend the challenge, and insight invites you to draw a card if you win the challenge. 

This combination of challenge icons and keywords can be formidable, especially for only four gold, but Will is not without drawbacks. The Rangers of the Watch accomplish nothing if enemies still get past the Wall. Because of this, Will also bears a Forced Reaction: “After you lose an unopposed challenge, sacrifice a Ranger character you control.” In other words, as long as you have a defender to oppose every challenge, Will is free to sneak by your opponent’s characters and learn their plans. As soon as enemies  begin to slip by you, however, Will can quickly become a liability that must be sacrificed for the greater good.

Will isn’t the only card the Night’s Watch gains in Taking the Black. These defenders of Westeros also gain an event that allows you to gather new recruits wherever you find them. You can swell your hand with new brothers for the Night’s Watch by playing The Watch Has Need (Taking the Black, 2). Playing this event allows you to name a trait: either Ranger, Steward, or Builder. Then, you may search a number of cards from the top of your deck equal to your plot’s reserve value, and add all cards that bear the named trait to you hand.

In many ways, playing The Watch Has Need can help you shore up any weaknesses in the strengths of the Night’s Watch. Each of the three branches of the Night’s Watch – Rangers, Stewards, and Builders – loosely corresponds to the three challenge icons: military, intrigue, and power. Because of this, if you desperately need more characters with the intrigue icon, you may name Steward, whereas if you’re short on military icons, you may choose Ranger. It’s also important to consider the reserve of your plot when you play the card. Counting Coppers (Core Set, 10) allows you to search ten cards for your recruits, but offers little gold to play them. A Feast for Crows (Core Set, 2), on the other hand, only allows you to search four cards, but gives you enough gold to play even the most expensive characters.

Say Your Vows

Taking the Black begins the Westeros cycle’s journey through the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire with powerful new cards for every faction. You range the lands beyond the Wall with Will and the Night’s Watch, journey to the Dothraki city of Vaes Dothrak, or sit the Seastone Chair with the Lord Reavers of House Greyjoy. Begin the story of A Game of Thrones anew with the first Chapter Pack for the second edition!

Warhammer 40,000: Conquest-Decree of Ruin

Star Wars: The Card Game-Solo’s Command

“It’s only a few guards. This shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
–Han Solo, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Solo’s Command is the first Force Pack in the Endor cycle for Star Wars: The Card Game!

Star Wars: The Card Game focuses on some of the most memorable scenes in Return of the Jedi with the introduction of the Endor cycle. The Empire constructs its second Death Star above the forest moon of Endor, protected by a ground-based shield generator. In response to this devastating threat, the Rebel Alliance plans a two-pronged attack – a small strike team will eliminate the shield generator while the massed power of the Rebel fleet mounts an overwhelming assault to destroy the Death Star. 

What the Rebel Alliance does not know is that the Emperor has lured them all into a trap. The Imperial fleet is ready for battle, the shield generator is protected by a legion of the Empire’s finest troops, and worst of all, the new Death Star’s superlaser is fully operational. As Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca descend to the surface of Endor to begin their desperate mission, you can relive this epic story and retell it yourself with the packs of the Endor cycle, beginning with Solo’s Command! 

A New Mission for Your Troops

From the beginning of Star Wars: The Card Game, objectives have played a key role for both sides. The light side must destroy three objectives to achieve victory and while the dark side can advance the Death Star dial slowly over time, the dial advances much faster when you destroy objectives. Destroying objectives not only brings you closer to victory, it deprives your opponent of powerful effects that could turn the tide of battle. Still, the objectives you attack are mostly determined by your opponent – he chose which objectives to include in his deck and he chooses the objectives that start in play. 

Solo’s Command and the other packs of the Endor cycle introduce a new card type to the game – mission cards. Mission cards are shuffled into your command deck at the beginning of the game, but during your deployment, you can pay their deployment cost to play them as objectives under your opponent’s control. You can attack these mission cards like any other objective and use cards like Target of Opportunity (Draw Their Fire, 170) or Rebel Assault (Core Set, 108) to damage them.

Assassination Contract is an example of a mission card, played as an objective under your opponent’s control.

These missions are under your opponent’s control, but they won’t be doing much to help him. Missions count as destroyed objectives when you destroy them and they offer powerful benefits as soon as they’re destroyed. For example, you may pay a resource to put Assassination Contract (Solo’s Command, 928) into play under the light side’s control. Once you successfully destroy Assassination Contract, you’ll advance the Death Star dial accordingly and per the mission’s Reaction, you’ll also destroy each enemy unit that doesn’t match its controller’s affiliation card. Over the course of the Endor cycle, both sides will receive new missions, including the mission that brings General Solo and his strike team to the surface of Endor in Solo’s Command.

Shield Generator Assault

Under the leadership of Han Solo, a team of elite Rebel commandos with Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa descend to the forest moon of Endor to destroy the ground-based shield generator that protects the Empire’s Death Star. In Solo’s Command, you can lead this powerful strike team on missions against enemy objectives. 

The objective set begins with Shield Generator Assault (Solo’s Command, 906), an objective that allows you to turn your opponent’s attacks back against him. After your turn begins, you may trigger Shield Generator Assault to move a damage from one Endor objective to any other Endor objective. Best of all, this ability has no restrictions on targeted players, which means you can move damage from your own Endor objectives to your opponent’s Endor objectives. Alternatively, you may move damage from one of your opponent’s objectives to push another objective closer to destruction, or spread damage among your own objectives to make them harder to destroy.  

Even if your opponent has no Endor objectives in his deck, you can ensure that you have a target for Shield Generator Assault by playing Ground Support (Solo’s Command, 910) as an Endor objective under your opponent’s control. Ground Support is one of the new mission cards introduced in the Endor cycle and destroying it counts as destroying one of the three objectives you must destroy to win the game. What’s more, after you complete the Ground Support mission, you can deal one damage to every enemy unit and objective, potentially destroying multiple units and making future attacks easier.

With the Endor shield generator and other crucial emplacements under Rebel attack, the dark side will naturally want to use most of its strength to defend the most dangerous attacks. But you can use the wiles of Han Solo (Solo’s Command, 907) to ensure that any attack must be adequately defended. Han Solo is a dangerous combatant on his own, boasting powerful combat icons and the elite keyword, but his most dangerous ability is his Reaction. After Han Solo is focused to strike as an attacker, you can choose another enemy objective and immediately engage that objective instead! The applications of this  ability are nearly limitless – it forces your opponent to defend every engagement as if it were declared against his most vulnerable objective. You may even use Han Solo to engage an objective that you’ve already attacked, essentially giving you two attacks against one objective in a single conflict phase. 

Under normal circumstances, you’ll only be able to use Han Solo once per conflict phase, because he’ll be focused once he strikes against an objective. You can use Han Solo’s powerful ability even more with the aid of the two SpecForce Pathfinders (Solo’s Command, 908) included in this objective set. These units allow you to damage one of your Endor objectives to remove a focus token from the SpecForce Pathfinder or Han Solo, effectively giving Han more opportunities to run rings around the forces of the dark side. Damaging your Endor objectives even gives you more fuel for Shield Generator Assault!

You won’t always have Han Solo to spearhead your assaults, but you can still change plans on the fly with a new fate card: Secret Objective (Solo’s Command, 909). Secret Objective is one of three new fate cards introduced in the Endor cycle, and it offers a potent ability to your attackers. When Secret Objective resolves, you may choose any enemy objective that you haven’t yet engaged this phase and become engaged with that objective instead of your current target! Since Secret Objective also contributes three Force icons to your edge total, you’ll even have a good chance of having the edge as you attack your true target.

The Sanctuary Moon 

As the Endor cycle moves through the events of Return of the Jedi, every affiliation receives powerful new cards. Three new fate cards add new tension to every edge battle and neutral affiliation objective sets return for both the dark side and the light side. Alongside the new version of Han Solo shown above, you’ll find new versions of iconic characters and vehicles like Executor, Home One, Lobot, Admiral Ackbar, and Emperor Palpatine.

In addition to these new and powerful characters, you’ll find plenty of other cards to lead you through the climax of Return of the Jedi. You may take a Stolen AT-ST and use it to attack your opponent’s objectives, or you may initiate a Jamming Protocol to cancel enemy events. You can fight with the Ewoks and the Homeland Defender , or promote one of your Scum and Villainy units to become Head of Security . You may even tempt your foes with the Lure of the Dark Side and take control of a powerful unit like Luke Skywalker (Core Set, 92) or Qu Rahn (Draw Their Fire, 723)!

Take Command

Journey to the surface of the forest moon and prepare to relive some of the most iconic sequences of Star Wars. From the battle between Ewoks and troopers on the forest floor, to the massive fleets clashing around the second Death Star, to Luke Skywalker confronting his destiny in the Emperor’s throne room, you can reenter the Star Wars saga with Solo’s Command and the other Force Packs of the Endor cycle.