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In this week's news round-up; the fifth season of Pandemic Survival has been confirmed by Z-Man Games, whilst there are collaborations between Renegade and Dire Wolf Digital, and between Van Ryder Games and Awaken Games.
Pandemic is Back
Nope, there has not been another Pandemic announced but instead the fifth Season of Pandemic Survival has been announced by Z-Man Games. Pandemic Survival takes the classic base game of Pandemic and standardises the roles played and the initial infected cities and the infection deck. This is to give all the players the same starting point during the season and the tournament.
This is the fifth year that Z-Man Games have run this tournament and as per previous years players will be competing for various prizes and the Pandemic Survival World Championship. The ultimate Champion wins a trip to any city on the Pandemic board. The competition this year has changes to the previous competitions in that all players must bring their own copy of the base game, however the decks will be pre-stacked and sorted for a quick set-up.
Lets hope that they clear our all the infection first otherwise it could make for an unpleasant trip.
Teaming Up
Renegade Game Studios and Dire Wolf Digital, the duo behind Clank! and Clank! In! Space! have announced their latest project, Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne. It combines deck-building and strategy card battles with fast paced gameplay as players attack, block and summon creatures in back and forth combat. Dire Wolf Digital designed Eternal, a popular CCG on iOS, Android and Steam.
In a similar manner to games like Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering, players will collect cards, construct digital decks and use these decks to battle against other players. Players can also use various cards to summon units and cast spells. Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne takes place in the same world as uses the art from the digital game. Whereas in previous years it has been board games going digital there is an increasing trend of digital games becoming board games. Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne is set to release in August 2019, in time for GenCon.
Another Partnership
Van Ryder Games have announced that they will be partnering with Awaken Realms Lite to bring English versions of their games to retailers across the globe. Awaken Realms are well known for their hugely thematic, miniatures and fantastic component quality big hits such as Lords of Hellas, Tainted Grail and Nemesis. Awaken Realms Lite is a subsidiary of Awaken Realms and specialises in games with fewer components and lower price tags, the first games planned for English release will Siege Storm: Siege Mode and Bees: The Secret Kingdom.
Siege Storm is a competitive card battle game that has the feel of a CCG but without the additional costs involved. Whereas, Bees is a family weight rules light resource collection game. Both games are for different audiences and are two very different games. It will be interesting to see what is next from Awaken Realms Lite and the future titles they will be producing.
A New Card Game from Bezier Games
Bezier Games have announced Silver, the first in a series of card games by Ted Alspach, that can be played as a standalone game or combined with other games in the series. It is set to debut at GenCon, with store release in September.
Silver is a werewolf themed game where each player manages their own village, with five villagers who are hounded by werewolves. Each player is dealt villager cards face-down. These villager cards will show a resident with a unique ability and the number of werewolves that they attract. Each player will take a peak at two of their cards and on each turn a player will choose a villager to replace or activates a villagers ability. Abilities include view face-down cards, trade neighbouring villagers, protect cards and whole load more.
Play continues this way until one player thinks they have the safest village i.e. the village with the lowest number on their villagers cards. The player can then call for a vote. If the player is correct they score zero points with all other players scoring points equal the villagers value. If the player is incorrect they score the points for all their villagers plus an additional 10. The player with the lowest number of points earns a silver medallion. After four rounds the player with the lowest points wins.
Silver Bullet is a similar game to Silver, but features 14 new residents and specials abilities. It can be played as a stand alone game or combined with Silver by swapping out some of the base game cards with those from Silver Bullet.
Further games are planned for the series and will offer more residents, additional special abilities and endless combinations and replay-ability.
Trick Shots
A game for all the ice hockey fans out there. Trick Shot is a fast paced ice hockey game with a balance of luck, strategy and plastic miniatures. Each player, or team, has a goalie, a centre, two wingmen and two defensemen with each position having a different size and speed characteristic. Each team also has four strategy cards to change up some of the rules of and gameplay.
Players will maneuver their team across the ice (which is a grid-styled ice hockey rink) rolling dice to pass, shoot, score, steal and check. Stamina can be spent to re-roll dice if an action is unsuccessful, however once all your stamina tokens are spent a player will need to spend a whole turn to refresh their line and gain stamina. The game is currently on Kickstarter and is due to finish 30 May, with the game being delivered to backers March 2020.