Orichalcum

• Designers: Bruno Cathala & Johannes Goupy
• Publisher: Pandasaurus (Catch Up)
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 12+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Pandasaurus

Says the publisher: “Orichalcum is a tense and fast-pace strategy game – similar to a short 4X. Each player has their own Island board to explore and develop. On each turn, they choose a set of one Exploration tile and one Action : recruit hoplites, produce precious orichalcum (a legendary metal from Greek mythology), construct buildings granting powerful bonuses, or try to get rid of Monsters infesting your island (and preventing you to build new building). To prevail, you will need to erect majestic temples, forge orichalcum tokens or win the favors of titans (by creating areas of their favorite landscapes. The first to get to 5 victory points while clearing their Island of all Monsters wins the game.”

Orichalcum is a race… against your opponents. Whoever will be first to have collected 5 Victory points above their board and eliminated all the Creatures on their island will be the winner! There are three ways to earn victory points: draw the attention of Titans, erect Temples and forge precious Orichalcum medallions – that legendary metal that only the Atlanteans know how to extract.

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Paper App Dungeon

• Designer: Tom Brinton
• Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
• Players: 1
• Age: 8+
• Time: 15-20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

A solo dungeon delve game where you adventure through a series of printed dungeons with you hero with the aid of a pencil and a die.  Encounter monsters, obstacles, and collect coins. Venture far and deep in this solo dungeon delve, roll and write, adventure.

The basics:

Each book is unique, because:
Each page is randomly generated
Play wherever, whenever

Gameplay is simple but entertaining: you roll a 6-sided die to determine how far you’ll move each turn. Then pick a direction, draw a line, and interact with anything on that line, be it a monster (ouch!) some treasure (nice!) or a teleporter (cool!).   

Customize your character, roll your way through each floor, and get items at the shops sprinkled throughout the game. There’s even a page in the back to track stats like how many times you died — so if you die, don’t worry! It’s all part of the adventure.

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Distilled

• Designer: Dave Beck
• Publisher: Paverson Games
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 14+
• Time: 30min/player
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Distilled is a highly thematic strategy card game about crafting spirits in a distillery, with resource management and push-your-luck elements. In the game, you have inherited a distillery and are hoping to someday achieve the title of master distiller through purchasing goods, building up your distillery, and creating the world’s most renowned spirits. Use cards to purchase new ingredients and invest in upgrades to your distillery, all while eventually distilling the spirit and sending it to the warehouse. Once in the warehouse, age your spirit to enhance its flavor and bottle it to sell it for major profits! Achieve the title of Master Distiller by having the most victory points at the end of the game. Points are obtained by distilling and selling spirits.

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Flip Circus

• Designer: Julien Gerard
• Publisher: IELLO
• Players: 2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by distributor, Flat River Games

In Flip Circus, the artists amaze the crowd as they move about the stage, but you have a larger goal in mind: using their special powers — and your recollection of which artists are where on each side of the tokens — to line up three artists of the same type. Do that, and you collect their portrait from the poster.

Collect three of the five portraits and you win — or maybe you’ll find the five clowns to let you honk your way to the victory circle…

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Adventure Party: The Role-Playing Party Game

• Designer: David Smith and Travis Winstead
• Publisher: Smirk & Dagger Games
• Players: 3-8
• Age: 14+
• Time: 20-60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Adventure Party delivers a robust role-playing experience that can be enjoyed within 2 minutes of explanation. In this cooperative guessing game, 3-6 players take the roles of adventurers in a classic fantasy role-playing world, facing monsters and attempting heroic deeds. Over the course of 3 Adventure scenarios, the party will work together and collectively attempt to score the most Experience Points possible. Players will take turns, rolling their 20-sided die in secret. Based on how well or poorly they rolled, they will describe what their character does; first outlining their plans and then describing the outcome of their actions. The goal of which is to provide enough detail so that the GM for that turn can GUESS the number they rolled as closely as possible, earning the entire party Experience Points.

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