Releasing ahead of it in February 2021 is the Sit Down! title Dive, a 1-4 player game from Romain Caterdjian and Anthony Perone that features an entrancing cover by Alexandre Bonvalot. Dive was teased at SPIEL.digital 2020, but it features game components that can't be easily simulated on Tabletopia or other digital game spaces. Here's an overview:
However, to retrieve the stone, they will need to avoid upsetting the sharks that inhabit the ocean...
Dive plays simultaneously for all player divers, who start the game facing a shuffled stack of 36 transparent "ocean" cards. You have your own diver board and a set of five air tokens that are numbered 1-5 on both sides, with a shark on one side of each token.
Dive explores the notion of perception, the ability of the divers to observe the ocean through a deck of transparent cards and to benefit from their observations. At the start of each round, you look into the "waters" before you to see how far you want to dive, with five levels being the maximum you can go (since you have five tokens). You then place the tokens on your board:
—If you think a shark is at a certain level, you need any tokens on this level to be shark side up — and if you goof, calling "shark" when no shark is present or vice versa, then you remove all tokens from your diver board at this level and at deeper levels. You're done for the round.
—If you think a certain level has a sea turtle or a manta ray, you might want to stack tokens on this level because whoever places the highest sum advances 1-2 spaces on the descent board (for a sea turtle) or moves onto the player token directly in below them on the descent board (for a manta ray).
If you've finished evaluating a level for sharks, sea turtles, and manta rays, and anyone still has an air token on their board, you explore the next level. Once no one has any air tokens for the next level, the round ends, and everyone advances on the descent board equal to the number of levels that they successfully dove. Once you reach space #16 on the descent board, you can't use a manta ray to catch up to anyone, and if you fail the shark/no shark question for a level, you don't advance at all during that round, regardless of how many levels you first dove through successfully.
Dive includes rules for solitaire play in which you compete against the village chief, and you can optionally play a competitive game with animal companions that give you a one-time bonus.
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—Space Base: Biodome, Dec. 2020
—Valley of the Kings: Necropolis, Dec. 2020
—Smash Up: Goblins, 2021
—The Captain Is Dead: The Problem with Priggles, 2021
—Cat Lady: Kittens, 2021
AEG is also returning older promotional items to its catalog, such as Trains: Saitama & Texas and Trains: Bay Area & China, which were released at Gen Con 2014 and 2015, and Smash Up: Titans, which was originally available only as part of the Smash Up: Titan Event Kit in 2018.
Given the state of the market right now, with stay-at-home gamers discovering older titles that they've never played before and newer titles not picking up buzz since conventions largely don't exist, it makes sense for AEG to release expansions for its proven sellers.
• One new title that AEG has announced is Sheepy Time, a game for 1-4 player from Neil Kimball, with charming art by newcomer to the game industry Zoé Plane.
Here's an overview of this press-your-luck game due out in Q2 2021:
On a turn in Sheepy Time, you play one of two cards in your hand to move around the circle, potentially activating neat effects, while jumping the fence each time you complete a lap to put yourself in position to earn more points. When refilling your hand, however, if you draw a Nightmare card, you have to activate the Nightmare — and if it crosses your path, your human may be scared awake, which means you'll earn no points this round. How far do you dare push your Zzzs to prove you're the dreamiest sheep of all!