Tyrants of the Underdark

Tyrants of the Underdark is a territory control game with a deck-building element.

Each player leads a house of Drow in a section of the Underdark below the Sword Coast. The Drow house is represented by a deck of cards, with each card being a minion in that player’s deck. Each minion belongs to one of five aspects of Drow society, and those aspects correspond to different strategies in the game, e.g., malice minions excel at assassinating opponents’ troops, while ambition minions are best at recruiting additional minions and promoting minions to your “inner circle”, which is a special zone that increases their value at the end of the game.

When you set up the game, you create an 80-card deck by shuffling two 40-card half-decks together, with the half-decks being Drow, Dragons, Demons, and Elemental Evil.

A central marketplace has new minions that can be recruited through influence, one of two resources in the game; purchased cards are placed in your discard pile, then shuffled together with other cards in your deck when needed. The other resource is power, which allows you to place troops on the game board, expand your forces across the map of the Underdark, manipulate happenings in the city, and assassinate enemy troops.

Players gain points by controlling sites, recruiting valuable minions, promoting minions to your inner circle, and assassinating troops, and whoever ends the game with the most points wins.

Via Nebula w/Promo Figure (Releases on 7/21)

Promo Figure included with each purchase of Via Nebula (while supplies last)!

Crafters, builders and carriers — your help is needed to dispel the mists of Nebula! The people of the valley will reward you handsomely if you harvest and exploit our many resources, open paths through the mists, and help our settlers build new structures. Cooperate temporarily with other builders in order to create paths and share goods, but do not forget your own objectives. Will you have a statue erected in your honor on the Nebula City plaza?

A game of Via Nebula starts with a board showing a hexagonal grid, some production sites with a few available resources on them (wood, stone, wheat, and pigs), building sites in various areas scattered over the whole board, and a lot of mist.

Turn after turn, players have two actions at their disposal from these options: They may clear the mist of a hex to create new paths of transportation, open new production sites, open a building site in a city, carry resources from any production site to their own building sites, and, of course, achieve a construction. Resources and paths through the mist may be used by all the players. This initially induces a kind of cooperation, but eventually other players will take advantage of your actions!

To achieve a construction, you fulfill a contract on one of your cards. You start the game with two contracts, and four more contracts are available for all players to see and use on a first come, first served basis — and that’s where the cooperation abruptly stops. Additionally, most contracts have special powers that are triggered on completion.

The game ends when a player finishes a fifth building. Opponents each take two final actions, then players score based on the number of cleared hexes and opened production sites and the point value of their contracts, with a bonus for the player who ended the game.

 

Ascension X

Ascension is a deck-building game in which players spend Runes to acquire more powerful cards for their deck. It offers a dynamic play experience where players have to react and adjust their strategy accordingly. Each player starts with a small deck of cards, and uses those cards to acquire more and better cards for their deck, with the goal of earning the most Honor Points by gaining cards and defeating monsters.

The theme for Ascension X: War of Shadows, the tenth set in this game series, is the on-going conflict between Light and Dark forces for control of New Vigil. This conflict plays a direct role in the game as the balance between the two forces can give players additional powers during Night and Day. A new category of Heroes and Constructs are also introduced, and these powerful dual-cost cards require players to spend both types of game resources to purchase them.

Lost in R’yleh

R’lyeh is a terrible and ancient city, risen from the depths of the Pacific by a great curse. There, Cthulhu lies both dead and dreaming, waiting to consume any who venture near.

In Lost in R’lyeh, players are trapped in H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, “The Call of Cthulhu”. From the mysterious discovery of a profane idol, to dreams of a dark cult, to landfall in a cyclopean metropolis and Cthulhu’s horrific emergence, no player can truly win…although the last player to escape will be the ultimate loser for that player will be forever lost in R’lyeh!

In terms of the gameplay, each turn choose to play either event cards and horror cards. Play the largest card sets you can to unlock ever-mightier powers. When the time is right, transition from playing cards from your hand to eliminating your array of escape cards. What’s more, decide each turn whether picking up the whole stack will help you win, even though you’re ultimately trying to get rid of cards.

Celestia

In Celestia, a revamped version of Cloud 9, you board an aircraft with a team of adventurers to perform many trips through the cities of Celestia and recover their wonderful treasures. Your journey will not be safe, but you will attempt to be the richest adventurer by collecting the most precious treasures!

At the beginning of a journey, all players place their pawns within the aircraft; the players start the game with six cards in hand (or eight depending on the number of players). At the beginning of each round, one player is chosen to be the captain of the trip and he rolls 2-4 dice to discover the challenges that they will face: fog, lightning bolts, killer birds, or pirates. He must then play the appropriate cards — a compass, a lightning arrester, a foghorn, or even cannons — to continue on the journey and reach the next city. But before the captain plays the appropriate cards, each player must decide whether to stay within the aircraft:

• If you exit, you’re guaranteed the victory points that come from exploring the current city.
• If you stay on board, you hope to make it to the next city in order to catch more precious treasures. If the captain can’t overcome the challenge, though, everyone comes crashing down empty-handed and you’ll need to begin a new trip with all passengers on board.

During the journey, each adventurer can try to pull out of the game with fabulous objects (a jetpack, astronomy glasses, etc.) or by changing the trip (modifying the travel or abandoning an explorer in the city). As soon as a player earns treasure worth at least fifty points, the game ends and this player wins.

ManaSurge

ManaSurge is a competitive magical card game in which dueling wizards fight for possession of the mystical World Crystal, a valued relic among magic users that grants immense power to whichever wizard wields it. You are one of the many wizards who have come to claim the stone, but gaining control of the stone won’t be an easy task.

This free-for-all magical showdown pits 3-5 wizards against each other over a series of rounds. Each round is a magical duel between all the wizards, which includes six different types of magic: Blades, Fireball, Frost Wave, Lightning, Quake and Metamagic. These magic types will aid wizards in their duel.

Players take turns casting an initial spell that will set the rule for the round, set the rank other players must beat, and earn them a potential Shard (VP). Players then take turns playing cards of equal or higher rank from their hands to the table; if they match the spell suit, they place a Shard on that card. The round ends when a player can no longer play a valid card from their hand. The player that could not play a card returns any Shards on their played cards back to the center, then takes card damage equal to the amount of Shards that are still on cards. All other players then take the Shards on cards they played to their Victory Pool. The player who played the last card gets a bonus Shard.

When a player takes damage, they draw cards from the deck equal to the amount of damage and place them face down in front of them. If they ever accumulate 5+ damage, they immediately discard their hand and a Shard, then take their damage cards in to their hand.

The game ends when one player has 10 or 12 Shards (depending on whether you have five or three/four players).

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a game of deduction and deception for 4-12 players that plays in about 20 minutes.

In the game, players take on the roles of investigators attempting to solve a murder case – but there’s a twist. The killer is one of the investigators! Each player’s role and team are randomly assigned at the start of play and include the unique roles of Forensic Scientist, Witness, Investigator, Murderer, and Accomplice. While the Investigators attempt to deduce the truth, the murderer’s team must deceive and mislead. This is a battle of wits!

The Forensic Scientist has the solution but can express the clues only using special scene tiles while the investigators (and the murderer) attempt to interpret the evidence. In order to succeed, the investigators must not only deduce the truth from the clues of the Forensic Scientist, they must also see through the misdirection being injected into the equation by the Murderer and Accomplice!

Find out who among you can cut through deception to find the truth and who is capable of getting away with murder!

Roles

Forensic Scientist x1
As the game master, the Forensic Scientist holds the solution to the crime. They are responsible for assisting the Investigators in identifying the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder.” When an Investigator does that successfully, the crime is solved and the Forensic Scientist and the Investigators win the game.

During the game, the Forensic Scientist is NOT allowed to hint to the solution with words, gestures, or eyes.

Murderer x1
When the crime takes place, the Murderer chooses 1 Clue card and 1 Means card as the solution to the crime. These will be the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder” respectively.

The Murderer tries to hide their role and look for a scapegoat. Even if they are identified, the Murderer still wins the game if no one correctly identifies both the “Key Evidence” and the “Means of Murder”.

Investigators x8
To solve the crime, the Investigators must analyze the hints given by the Forensic Scientist. As long as one of the Investigators correctly identifies both the “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder,” the Murderer is arrested and the Investigators win the game (as does the Forensic Scientist).

Bear in mind that the Murderer (and sometimes Accomplice) is among the Investigators! The innocent Investigators must make a vigorous effort to defend themselves from false accusation.

Accomplice x1
The Accomplice is an optional role for games with six or more players. The Accomplice knows who the Murderer is, as well as the solution to the crime. The Accomplice and Murderer both win if the Murderer gets away with his crime.

Witness x1
The Witness is an optional role when playing with six or more players.* The Witness is an Investigator who has witnessed the culprits leaving the crime scene. They have no way of knowing which is the Murderer and which is the Accomplice and they do not know how the crime was committed.

If the Murderer is arrested but can identify the Witness, the Witness is considered to be killed, allowing the Murderer and the Accomplice to get away with murder and win the game.

Ogre: Objective 218

In 2085 A.D., armored warfare is faster and deadlier than ever!

Supertanks, GEVs, and infantry slug it out to defend supply lines and keep pressure on your enemy in Ogre: Objective 218, a two-player game based on The Battle for Hill 218in which players fight to control a hill by occupying bases on the opposite sides of it.

In the game, players must maintain supply lines and destroy enemy units to advance on the enemy home base, while ensuring that their own base is not taken. Air strikes can aid your assault or help defend your base, but spend them wisely as you only have two. The Ogre in Ogre: Objective 218 is a new card that takes two hits to destroy, costs an entire turn to play, and hits hard while having a few drawbacks.

Mysterium: Hidden Signs

They thought the secret of Warwick mansion had been solved and the spirit had found peace, but now new signs have emerged that were previously hidden. New suspects, places, and objects that do not fit into the picture — and the presence of the ghost is strong once again.

In Mysterium: Hidden Signs, the spiritualists must return to the old mansion and investigate these disturbing visions. Will they understand all the instructions this time and give the ghost its final rest?

 

Aquarium

Aquarium offers high player interaction as the other players can – and will – use their action cards to alter the available fish that you can buy and the price that you have to pay for them.

Each player starts with a set of nine action cards and $15. The deck is shuffled, then set up with three or four “Feeding time!” cards shuffled into the deck at various points. On a turn, a player first turns up a card from the deck if the market is empty (as it is as the start of the game). Then the player looks at the fish and plant cards in the market and decides whether to pass or try to buy them. If he passes, he takes $2 from the bank and adds the top card to the market; if he wants to buy, all other players get to influence what’s on the market and what the cards cost.

First, each other player chooses one of their five action cards for use in phase 1 of a buy. These cards force the active player to add, remove or swap a card from the market or simply allow the card player to make a fish swap of his own! (Players can also pass, with all action cards but the “pass” being set aside.) Second, each other player chooses one of their five action cards for use in phase 2 of a buy. These cards add or subtract 1 from the cost of the market, or double or halve the cost of the market. In the latter case, the player of the card receives money from the active player instead of those coins going to the bank.

Once the goods and the cost are set, the active player chooses to buy all the fish and plants on offer or none of them. The cost is equal to the sum of the card values, plus or minus any modifications, then doubled or halved as appropriate. All purchased cards go into a player’s personal aquarium. If a player has two identical fish, he can move them to a separate breeding tank where they will earn him 1-3 coins each turn.

Each time a “Feeding time!” card is revealed, players reveal one “food cost” card at random, then pay money equal to that cost times the number of stars on fish and plants in their aquariums. Any fish not fed starve and float away to the big toilet bowl in the sky. Each plant in an aquarium reduces the food cost by one.

After the final “Feeding time!”, players count the stars on their non-breeding fish, then receive bonuses for collecting all colored fish of the same size, all three sizes of fish of the same color and different varieties of plants. The player with the most stars wins.

Here, fishy, fishy, fishy…

Bring Your Own Book

Your old favorite book is now your new favorite game! In Bring Your Own Book, players take turns drawing prompts from the deck, then race to find the best phrase in their own book that satisfies the prompt. What’s the tastiest “name for a candy bar” in that history textbook you’re reading for school? How quickly can you find “lyrics from a country western song” in your dog-training guide? What kind of “advice for graduating seniors” will appear in your anthology of limericks?

In more detail, everyone has their own book and sits in a circle. The cards are placed face down, and the starting player has a one-minute timer. The starting player takes the top card off the deck, picks a prompt, and reads it aloud. Everyone except the Picker searches their book for text to match the prompt, sequential text of any length: a single word, half of a sentence, a whole sentence, multiple sentences, etc.

The first Seeker to find matching text announces “I’ve got it” and starts the timer. When the timer runs out (or every Seeker announces “I’ve got it”), each Seeker reads what they’ve found. Seekers who didn’t find text in time open to a random page and read a random sentence from it. The Picker chooses their favorite submission and awards the card to that Reader. After each round, the person to the left of the last Picker starts the next round. Once any player holds three cards, everyone passes their book to the player on their left. This happens any time a player reaches three cards during the game. Thus, it can happen as many times as there are players.

The game proceeds until one player has collected the required number of cards and wins: with 5-7 players the first to 4 cards win; with 3-4 players the first to 5 cards win.

Warhammer Quest: Witch Hunter and Troll Slayer

There were rumors that Schompf’s citizens had been burning heretics to rid their town of an unexplained illness. According to the rumors, the purge had not proven successful, and the illness persisted. The Witch Hunter tapped the pistol at her side. Clearly, more heretics would have to burn…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of two new hero packs for Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game!

The troubles in Schompf have lured many of the Old World’s most recognizable heroes deep into the maw of a deadly series of mysteries. At times, some of these heroes have returned from their subterranean adventures to share tales of labyrinthine caverns and ferocious battles. They have been assaulted by Ratmen and Orcs. They’ve stumbled into traps. Many have fallen.

Still, the town of Schompf lies at the edge of a tide of evils that, if left unchecked, threatens to surge aboveground and crash upon all in its path. Fortunately, with the Witch Hunter Expansion Pack and Troll Slayer Expansion Pack, you and your friends can now delve into the dark and cleanse the caverns with two new heroes, each of which adds an all-new play style to your games and a new dynamic to your group.

Witch Hunter Expansion Pack

“The test is simple: if he does not burn, he is a witch. If he does burn, then he was an innocent.”
–Matthias Krieger

Witch Hunters will travel far and wide to hunt down and destroy the forces of evil. Their pursuit is utterly relentless, and they will do whatever they must in order to eliminate the evils they encounter—even if that means they suffer a few innocent casualties.

The Witch Hunter Expansion Pack allows you to enjoy your Old World dungeon adventures as one of these grim and resolved holy warriors. You’ll find everything you need to add the Witch Hunter to your games of Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game, including three hero cards, eight actions, and three items. Taken as a whole, these emphasize the Witch Hunter’s unfaltering dedication to her mission and lead toward a unique play style built around her unwavering pursuit of evil.

This new play style is a bit more nuanced than those found in the base game, challenging you to plan your actions several rounds in advance. Like Pronounce Judgment and Reload,  each of the Witch Hunter’s actions grant bonuses based on the number of other action cards the Witch Hunter has already exhausted. Accordingly, you’ll need to consider not just which action is most effective at the moment you want to use it, but which secondary benefit will be most beneficial in one or two rounds.

Meanwhile, even though it’s said that the Witch Hunter’s two greatest weapons are her pious devotion and suspicious nature, her Dual Pistols aren’t bad either. Given the Witch Hunter’s ability to perform Ranged attacks and to target multiple enemies if she attacks after exhausting one or more other action cards, the fact that her Dual Pistols deal an extra damage to each enemy that suffers at least one damage means they could allow the Witch Hunter to deal as many as four extra points of damage—divided between four targets. It’s not remotely an improbable scenario, etiher, but it’s one that if you play a Witch Hunter you must choose to work toward.

Troll Slayer Expansion Pack

“Let my orange crest stand testament to my shame. Let all foes behold it and know fear, for I have none remaining.”
–Kurgi Balginson

If the Witch Hunter’s nuanced and layered play style sounds like too much for a given night, there’s always the Troll Slayer. These savage Dwarf fighters seek glorious death in battle to make up for some great shame in their past. As a result, they routinely seek combat with the most dangerous monsters they can find.

There’s nothing subtle about the Troll Slayer Expansion Pack. It’s just a giant heap of fearless, axe-wielding, battlecry-screaming, death-dealing Dwarf. The Troll Slayer’s three hero cards, eight actions, and three legendary gear cards are all aimed squarely at leaping into the thick of combat, unarmored, and cutting down your foes.

Meanwhile, to say that the Troll Slayer isn’t subtle doesn’t mean that you won’t still have plenty of choices to make while you play one. After all, you’re taking on the role of a fighter who likes to charge to the front lines completely unarmored. Thus, without armor to serve as your defense, you need to get greater bang for your offense. Fortunately, as with Dragon Slayer and Stand Aside, every single one of your action cards offers a nice reward for engaging and confronting your enemies.

Then, since you’re bound to be engaged with enemies as often as possible, you’ll likely be glad to find Me Father’s Axe as soon as possible—in order to shorten the amount of time it takes to hack those foes into pieces. Even then, you’ll still have a hand free, and you’ll almost certainly want to get that one on Me Father’s Other Axe.  Equipped with both axes and an Ancestral Charm,  your Troll Slayer will be well and truly outfitted to charge forward at every turn, no matter what dangers he may uncover.

New Adventures in the Old World

Whether you return to Schompf or fight your way through the unending caverns of the Lost in the Dark scenario, the new play styles permitted by the Witch Hunter Expansion Pack and Troll Slayer Expansion Pack ensure that you and your friends will enjoy games worthy of legend. Just be sure to pack your axe and pistols; the Old World contains more than enough danger for everyone…

The Witch Hunter Expansion Pack and Troll Slayer Expansion Pack are available now!

 

Guildhall Fantasy: Alliance

Do you have a thirst for adventure? Is your middle name danger? Do you just like treasure? Form a party of adventurers to help you be victorious!  The more members of each class you have, the  greater the bonus they’ll give you—but be careful; your opponents might try to poach your  party members!

In Guildhall: Fantasy, 2-4 players compete to create the perfect party by recruiting adventurers into their guildhall chapters. Collect sets of cards with unique abilities to control the table, and  complete a full chapter to claim victory cards.  Will you go for points quickly, or build up your  special powers? Which will lead to ultimate  victory? Only you know!

The three releases in the Guildhall Fantasy line are all stand-alone games that can be played individually. You can also combine the cards from any of the Guildhall Fantasy releases and play them together. The three releases are not expansions, they’re combinable.