In cele ce urmeaza am sa va vorbesc despre 2 expansiuni la doua jocuri bine vazute de catre publicul jucator...
1. Hansa Teutonica: East Expansion
Una dintre revelatiile de la Essen 2009 primeste prima expansiune, care aduce o noua harta de joc, precum si carti cu idealuri ascunse pentru jucatori.
BGN wrote:Hansa Teutonica: East Expansion includes a new game board and nine cards. The cards provide players with hidden goals to shoot for during the game, while the game board transports the action of the original game into a new arena with four bonus markers waiting to be claimed along with ocean trade routes, among other changes.
Noua harta are urmatoarea infatisare:
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2. Carson City: A New Beginning
Considerat a fi un Caylus pozitionat in Vestul Salbatic si in perioada goanei dupa aur, Carson City va primii in cadrul Essen 2010 o a doua expansiune (dupa Carson City: Indians de la Essen 2009), expansiune care le va permite jucatorilor sa-si aranjeze dupa bunul plac resursele de inceput (cowboy-ii, revolverele, drumurile si banii). In plus, vor mai fi adaugate jocului si alte noi obiecte, dar despre acestea nu am mai multe detalii...
3. Dominant Species
Si pentru a nu va oferii doar aceste doua stiri foarte succinte, am sa plusez cu detalii despre un joc lansat tocmai recent de catre GMT Games si care il are ca creator pe nimeni altul decat Chad Jansen, taticul Combat Commander.
dominantspecies.jpg
Voi prezenta mai departe rezumatul facut de Francis K. Lalumiere pentru BGN...
Each player takes control of an animal class (insect, arachnid, amphibian, reptile, bird, or mammal) and tries – through adaptation, migration, or outright competition – to dominate their habitat and thrive in an ever-changing environment.
The game is played on a big hex grid that starts out empty except for the six hexes in the center of the map that are occupied by terrain tiles: mountain, savannah, desert, forest, jungle, wetland and the menacing tundra. Elements (in the form of little cardboard discs) are placed on tile corners, making it possible for a single element to touch (and thus affect) up to three different hex tiles.
Animal species are represented by cubes on the hexagonal tiles – but before you throw them to the four winds and exhort them to Reproduce! be aware that species fare much better when they're sitting on tiles with elements that match their own. See, each animal class comes with a little display board that not only summarizes every action you can take in the game, but also displays the elements your animal needs to thrive. Some of those elements are built-in – printed on the display – but others will need to be acquired along the way.
The game's main concept is that of dominance. On a given tile, an animal is considered dominant when it matches more elements than any other animal present, where a match is a correspondence between an element on the animal display and elements on the tile it occupies.
So in a contest between reptile (with two sun elements printed on its display) and amphibian (with three water elements printed on its display) sitting on a tile that sports a water element disc and a sun element disc, amphibian will dominate (three matches against two).
Such dominance is planned and executed through clever use of the Action Display, where players program their actions for any given turn. Each player is handed a number of cylindrical markers that they place (in initiative order) on any free action space on the Action Display. Once every marker has been placed, the Action Display is resolved, one action after the other.
Without going too deep into the rules, available actions (or consequences through lack of action) are as follows:
INITIATIVE: Change the initiative order (to play earlier).
ADAPTATION: Add an element to your animal display.
REGRESSION: Lose a specific element from your animal display.
ABUNDANCE: Add an element to the board (on a tile corner).
WASTELAND: Remove specific elements that touch a tundra tile.
DEPLETION: Remove one specific element from anywhere on the board.
GLACIATION: Add a tundra tile to the board (with several effects, such as earning bonus points and returning a bunch of species – wooden cubes – to their owners).
SPECIATION: Add species to the board in a particular pattern.
WANDERLUST: Add a terrain tile to the board (thus expanding the playing space, i.e. "earth").
MIGRATION: Move your species around.
COMPETITION: Eliminate opposing species in certain situations.
DOMINATION: Score selected tiles (based on the relative number of species on each).
Players can't do everything on any given turn; selecting where each action marker will be placed is one of the agonizing aspects of the game. Plan correctly, and you shall live. If not – well, there's always the next game.
Dominant Species also features a deck of 26 dominance cards, each one packing a powerful effect (good or bad, depending on what side of the table one is sitting). Five of them are laid out face up on the board; each time a tile is score via a Domination action, whoever is dominant on that tile gets to choose one card and execute it.
At the end of every turn, played dominance cards are replaced. When someone plays the Ice Age card (always set up at the bottom of the deck), tiles are scored one last time and the game ends. Highest VP total takes the evolutionary cake.
Dominant Species is an excellent, meaty game that requires an entire evening to play through. For some this will be a fatal flaw; for others, a coveted special feature.
There is a simple way to shorten the game, though: Remove some of the dominance cards from the deck. Since the game ends once the entire deck has been played through, a thinner deck will mean a shorter playing time. Yes, the absence of a few cards might create a slight unbalance (I'm mainly thinking about Intelligence and Parasitism, both of which grant an additional action cylinder to certain animals), but their showing up late in the game also screws the players concerned. To be as fair as possible, if I decided to trim the deck by removing a handful of cards at random, I'd probably make sure that these two are either both in or both out.
Reading the rules will give you the impression that checking for dominance (which changes constantly and more times than you'll be able to count during a game) will be a bore. It does get repetitive, but it becomes second nature after very little time, so don't let dominance scare you.
Another first impression to put aside: When you first read the dominance cards, you'll get the feeling that some of them are really overpowered. This is not the case. After just a couple of plays, it'll become apparent that each card can be devastating if played at the right time (just as each of them can also have next to no effect, if played at the wrong time.)
And a final word about the number of players. I was afraid the standard two-player game would be merely an adequate learning tool, but it turns out to be a vicious and tense affair. Don't let those seven actions per player and wide open Action Board deceive you. And if you get into a six-player game, be prepared for a truly epic adventure!
Now go out there and dominate.
P.S. Toate informatiile au ca proveninte pe Board Game News (BGN).