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• Pyramid solitaire now has a thematic cousin in Sans Alliés (or, if your French is poor like mine, just "Sansa", like the Game of Thrones character) from Past Go Gaming, the publishing imprint of designer Geoffrey Greer. As the title implies, this is for one player only, an armchair general bent grim-browed over a table, planning a campaign to strike at the heart of a genericized enemy nation using ground, air, and sea attacks. The simple graphic design and top-down perspective are clever nods to the stylistic approach of grand-strategy wargames. (KS link)
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• The sheer mass of terrible attempts at party games that make their way to the KS platform is a bit of an in-joke amongst our veteran readers, so it's always a breath of fresh air to see a game like Monikers pop up amid the dreck. This time, creators Alex Hague and Justin Vickers are back to fund the Something Something expansion, which adds eleventy-one more cards. As with all the best party games, the cards are the canvas, and the players are the painters. (KS link)
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• Carebears, look away, because Kharnage is a game of savagery. Humans, orcs, dwarves, goblins, and pigs — all scrabbling in the mire. This title, from Devil Pig Games and a pair of designers who go only by Yann and Clem, holds the distinction of being the only game I'm aware of that has "breaking the table" as an actual victory condition. Ostensibly, this is just a brutal game of king-of-the-hill, but its real value may be as a fiery crucible to test the mettle of (what you thought were) your strongest friendships. (KS link)
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• The token microgame in this round-up, Sub Rosa: Spies for Hire, is no token inclusion at all, but I wanted to make the pun because it's a game with five cards and 28 tokens. (Please clap.) Designer Robin David is sporting that dreaded "First Created" moniker, but he has previously published games via print-on-demand sites, so this isn't his first rodeo. Microgames usually involve bluffing and bidding, and Sub Rosa is no exception, with most of the game happening above the table. (KS link)
• The folks at Dice Hate Me Games enjoy the meta element of creating games with themes to match their mechanisms — literally. Thus was birthed its recent design contest and, eventually, the "Meta Games II" KS project featuring three games: Traitor Mechanic: The Traitor Mechanic Game (Christopher Badell and Peter C. Hayward), Time Management: The Time Management Game (Nat Levan), and Trick-Taking: The Trick-Taking Game (Tovarich Pizann and Bob West). Given the jokey tone of the endeavor, launching on April 1 was a logical move. (KS link)
• We often hear about movies stuck in development hell (The Dark Tower, anyone?), but not usually board games. However, Dr. Gordon Hamilton's Santorini has been waiting more than three decades to see proper publication. Pure strategy games like this one are rare these days; perhaps that's why Roxley Games saw fit to make this its third release. The game now sports a Greek mythology veneer — beautifully rendered in cutesy glory by illustration team Mr. Cuddington — to go along with the pantheon of special powers. (KS link)
Editor's note: Please don't post links to other Kickstarter projects in the comments section. Write to me via the email address in the header, and I'll consider them for inclusion in a future crowdfunding round-up. Thanks! —WEM
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