Immortal 8 is a civilization drafting game for 3 to 8 players ages 14+, with an estimated time of 8 minutes per player.

In the game, players are immortals who desire to build and develop their civilization to become the most powerful one. At the beginning of the game, each player receives a secret immortal card which tells them how to score a large part of their victory points.
During the two rounds of the game, they play a maximum total of five cards (three during the first round and two during the second) by drafting them. A round of Immortal 8 is divided into three phases :

1) Living Draft: Each player drafts five cards (four cards during the second round) and can play a maximum of three cards (two during the second round). The players gain bonuses from played cards and gold coins from cards they drafted but did not play.
2) Kingdom: Starting with the first player, each player takes all actions at once before the next player takes their turn. In any order, the active player can activate all cards in their player area, only one wonder, and opponent's buildings by paying the trading cost.
3) Supremacy: The player with the most military tokens gains a supremacy token, then the player with the most science tokens gains a supremacy token.
At the end of the Supremacy phase of the second round, the game ends and players gain
VPs this way:

• Immortal scoring
• Wonder token majority
• Supremacy tokens
• Diamonds
• Culture points
• VP tokens
• ​
  

The player with the most VPs wins!

There are many thing in a design that make a board game the best experience of your life. Whether it be the theme, the mechanisms, the ambiance generated at the table or just the nice artwork. This is one of those games that hits everything for me and has me so excited. Not only as I have close contact with the company and worked in part with them.

I remember having the same sensation when their first game came out and was disappointing, like so many other backers with the final product. But Monolith have shown me and assured me the corrections they are making with this game also to their previous titles. But lets talk about the game at hand.

​What is this game...

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is the latest game coming from Monolith Editions on February 27th 2018. Again, a Kickstarter only project, to remove the middle men who would otherwise bump up the price in retail. As what happened with Conan.

In the game, players will be playing as a team of Gotham's Heroes against one other player, who will be playing as a major Villain, trying to enact a dastardly plan. These plans come directly from the comic books that the game is based on. So there will be no Bat-nipples or even Bat-shark repellent. 

Game play plays out like most games of this ilk, heroes preform their actions, villain preforms theirs. But the dynamics of the game are vastly different. Instead of having the rudimentary two actions, normally a move and attack, there are more choices. This is in part due to the "THS" (tactical homeostatic system) that adds an organic feel to the game. As each Hero has an allocated amount of energy that they can spend to preform actions. Energy management is important. If you have no energy, you can not preform actions. Therefore leaving you with a conundrum of "do I plough my way through" or "measure out my actions" or "rest and recover more energy for the next rounds."

Each action can be allocated as much energy as you wish, up to the level cap. For example, you could spend one energy to punch an adverser, giving you one dice of the coloured dice aliened with you character. The different coloured dice represent the force of that action. If you are good at melee attacks, it will be a red die with lots of success marked on it. But if your die is yellow, it is weaker and therefore you may want to use two or maybe three energy in this one attack. Having items, like claws or a sword will bolster the number of dice you roll. And you don't have to do one attack. If you have the energy and have not passed the maximum capacity of energy for that action, you can attack again...

As long as you have energy and spaces to use it, you can preform multiple actions on your turn.

But spending all your energy will leave you open for attack. Saving a bit could save your skin if a near by enemy takes a swing at you. If you are wearing armor, you get an automatic defense roll. If not, you will need energy to dodge a bullet or a punch.
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​This doesn't mean that the die rule the game, as you can manipulate you chances with them by re-rolling. Not only is it a special ability of a character or weapon, there is the possibility to re-roll any die on your whim. But this takes a toll as it requires an energy to re-roll any die. Like I said, managing your energy management is important.

With some many things you can do on your turn, you'd think that decisions you make are hard to nail down. But with the team working together, covering each other or going alone will impromptu a response from you character in a natural manner. In fact, the game system feels very organic as players can act in any order they wish:
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Batman jumps down. Throws a Batarang. Misses. Red Hood shoot same target. Hits. Clears space. Batman continues moving. Meets Catwoman. Catwoman fights. Takes down target. Batman occupies another while Catwoman defuses bomb.

​Because our one Villain player will be controlling a hoard of characters and troops, they will have the upper-hand at the start of the game, for enacting their plans. Again, with energy, they will activate a unit or one sole character. But in another fashion.

Each unit and character will have a tile that sits in a line, called the river that sits in their "Villain Command Board." The tile to the left always costs one energy to activate it, where as the others cost two or more, depending how far along they are in the river. Once activated, that character or many characters if in a unit, can then preform a move and an action. Shooting and punching or maybe setting up a bomb...what ever the scenario dictates. Then after that tile has finished preforming, it is removed from it's position and placed to the far right on this river. Meaning, if you wanted to use the characters on that tile again to move and do an actions, the cost would be much more than before. Sad, eh? But the benefit is now, every other tile now costs one less energy to activate, as they all slide to the left, filling in any holes.
​

Although limited by the number of tiles activated each turn, there is the possibility of calling for back up, bringing more of your thugs and goons in to play. Also special powers can be activated or story central events can take place.

So, this back an forth between the Heroes and the Villain will go on until either the Villain has successfully activated their plan or it is thwart but the Heroes. And this will play out differently each time as the battlefield is an open terrain. Every time I have watched a game, it plays out differently like parallel universes. Sometime Bat's is the overall hero, preforming magical feats. Sometimes it's Catwoman or Red Hood or a combination of any two characters. Other times it's the Villain that pulls out some amazing strategies. Or making a comeback after suffering a crushing blow at the beginning of the game. Meaning replay-ability is something that should keep you hooked to the game.  As you will also be able to change out some of the Heroes in a scenario, or even their starting gear.

The feel of the game is a combination of real team building and heavy tactical positioning. With a intuitive, organic game-play.  And so far, for me, a sensation of being a Hero or Villain in Gotham. Just like the comic books. 

Money...When we get it, the first think we do is give it away. Either passively or actively (bills & board game shopping). But very rarely do we want to bank it somewhere that we can't touch it. In Blockchain, you'll be doing all of that.
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Each player is going to start with 10 coins from 5 different currency's (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Peercoin). And these coins are in your pocket, waiting to be used. How? Well you'll be paying these coins to the other players to allow you to preform actions. As well as exchanging them, using the "Currency Exchange Ring" to get more coins, or the coins you need, from the other players. Eventually, banking these coins in a deep dark place that no one can touch. Your "Cold Storage."  When you have 10 of each currency there, you'll win the game.
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Game play comes from a deck of cards. On a players turn, they will be drawing up to the hand size on 5 cards. Once this is done, they have the chance to pay to activate a server card that they have played on a previous turn. This is a choice that the player will have to weigh up, due to the fact that, to pay for the activation, you need to give these coins to another player. Choosing the correct currency to give them, that will be easy to get back or not benefit them will have you double guessing yourself. And in doing so, you will then have permanent actions you can preform every round...But ONLY if you pay.
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​Then comes the players action phase. This is not just an action phase for the active player, but also for the other players too. The can "Hack." More on this later.

A players actions phase allows them to play one "Block" cards and one "Server" card from their hand. A "Server" card has no effect on this round as it needs to be payed for to activate. So you just place it, threateningly in front of yourself. Waiting for the moment you possibly activate it at the start of your next turn. A "Block" card has the same type of actions marked on it, but unlike the an inactivated "Server," you can use it now. They can let you draw more cards into your hand, trade coins with other players, play extra "Block" cards and most importantly, store your money into that deep dark place.
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Now, you may not want to give large amounts of coins away to other players. Nor let them transfer the coins in the pocket to the safe zone, where they could win the game. This is were the "Hack" cards come in. These "take that" cards will block transfers, smash other players "Servers" and change the exchange rates of the currency's. Anyone can play these cards on any players action phase. Throwing chaos into your well calculated plans, destroying the chance to win on this turn. Just like in real life...

...Your saving up for that new bathroom and then, while shopping, someone crashes their car into yours. Meaning you now have to buy a new car, pushing that dream bathroom back a year...sigh!
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Here is a video with a full rules explanation.

Kickstarter time again. And this one is from a very well known designer.  Christophe Boelinger. The mind behind Dungeon Twister and Archipelago. This time, he is bringing us a game that sees players mining a distant planet for it's rare and wonderful resources. The this is, the more you mine, the more the planet fights back.
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​Did you ever see the day that you control an evil, money inspired corporation? Well that day is here. The game will have you exploring an unknown planet MYC.14.250, only to discover that not only is the oil, steel and a rare metal that could possibly used in the creation of a certain super human's shield. But also this is home to a strange fungi, that when eaten cures you of what ever ails you. And without side effects.

Building factory's and business centers on the planet seem like the best things to do. Generating demand and supply to build up your empire. Al the while you do this, the planet decays. And it's natural reaction is to fight back...
Earthquake. Tornado's. Even eruptions bust from the now fragile ground. Taking the lives of your science team and shattering your buildings to dust. 

This is a "dog eat dog" time. Sometimes the only way to get ahead is to take advantage of the circumstances. An empty oil mine becomes yours. Cause the stock market to crash, driving the price of steel to an all time low. Build a building that emits a counter vibration against earthquakes, but don't activate it, destroying your opponents many complexes. ​

​Players are going to be drawing cards every turn and adding them to their docked ships. These cards will be "action" cards, that will do damage to a target ship. In one's, two's and three's..."That's not a lot of damage", you say.

That's where the "control" cards come into play. These can also be loaded onto the ships to increase your attack. They will either multiply the "action" cards, give conditions for the use of the "action" cards or set a programmed pattern en route for the "action" cards. These will give different attacks to your enemies, hopefully eliminating them. Making you the soul survivor, winning the game.

Or  you could collect all 7 of the Potato Kings, also winning you the game. Every time you have a King in you hand, you place it in front of you. The other players have to show their respects and salute you. Being the slowest to do so will cost you two of you potato crew, as they defect to the side of the Potato King. Kings can be found, stolen and  collected throughout the game.
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Have you a thing for tower defense games?
Have you a thing for portals?
Have you a thing for Kickstarting games?

Then let me introduce Andoria Battlefields, a 2 to 4 player dice rolling , combat game that see's players defending their land while using monster from another dimension to attack the other players.
In this video, I show you how to play in a 2 player game (all alone) thought the power of play-through camera... Detailing some of the moves and attacks of the different creatures. Take a look and see if this is a game for you. But hurry, the Kickstarter ends on the 1st of October 2017

Cover me is the latest game from Jumping Turtle Game that features a unique theme that meshes magnificently with the mechanisms. On Kickstarter until the 25th of August 2017.

Set up - 1:59
How to play - 6:23
1st Impressions - 13:18

This video shows you the prototype and the rules of the game.
If you wish to check out and help support this project, goto:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/549587749/cover-me-1?ref=user_menu