New Game Round-up: Become a Power Ranger, Trade with Caravans, and Develop a Colorful City

New Game Round-up: Become a Power Ranger, Trade with Caravans, and Develop a Colorful City
Board Game: Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid
• Publishers teased a variety of future releases and crowdfunding projects at Gen Con 2018, with Renegade Game Studios showing off some of the miniatures that could be included in Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid, albeit with painted figures that won't be shipped painted and that might not appear in this format in the published version. The hazards of marketing a Kickstarted game, I suppose.


From gallery of W Eric Martin


I'm not of the Power Rangers era, so I can't say much about the setting of this game design from Jonathan Ying other than what the publisher notes in its press release: In this game up to five players become Power Rangers to battle the forces of darkness using martial arts, teamwork, and giant assault vehicles (known as zords) to save Angel Grove from Rita Repulsa's evil army of monsters in real time. This is what it's like to get old, I suppose. Not only do you miss out on the thing itself, but now you miss out on nostalgia for that thing, too. Renegade's KS project for the game (link) has collected a quarter-million dollars so far, so plenty of other people are game to relive the past.

Board Game: Passing Through Petra
• At Gen Con 2018, Renegade also teased J. Alex Kevern's Passing Through Petra, a tile-laying game that will debut at SPIEL '18 in October. An overview of the setting and gameplay:

Quote:
At the intersection of the most well-traveled trade routes in the old world lies a city within rose-colored cliffs. A place where caravans miles long enter the city, through a narrow canyon called “the Siq.” Inside, traders from faraway lands find shelter and a place to trade their wares among the stunning buildings carved into towering red rocks. This is Petra, and never before or since has there been a city quite like it.

In Passing Through Petra, you are a powerful citizen growing your settlement and your reputation. As caravans pass through the canyons, you'll welcome traders into your market and facilitate trade with those looking to get their hands on valuable wares. Use these transactions to spread your influence and gain unique benefits to grow your economic engine. Spread your influence the quickest to become the most powerful leader in Petra!
From gallery of Photodump
• A title announced at Gen Con 2018, but not visible anywhere as far as I know, was Machi Koro Legacy, with legacy king Rob Daviau spurring this project into being, JR Honeycutt leading the design of the game, and original Machi Koro designer Masao Suganuma overseeing the whole thing. Pandasaurus Games plans to release this game in Q2 2019, and for now the company is content to tease its contents, which is kind of de rigueur for legacy designs anyway:

Quote:
Machi Koro Legacy features the same gameplay as Machi Koro. You are still rolling dice, you are still collecting income, and you are still racing to build landmarks — but then you unlock the [censored] and you start earning a little extra income by [censored], and then you start to explore the [censored] and you have to make a choice between [censored] and [censored]. Even if you aren't in contention to win a given game, you still have [censored] to set up exciting [censored] for the next one. And then the [paragraph deleted]...

Machi Koro Legacy features a ten-game series that tells a complete story set in the world of Machi Koro in which player choices create a unique gameplay experience.
Board Game: Passtally
• Another title coming from Pandasaurus Games in Q2 2019 is a new edition of Masaki Suga's passtally, which debuted at Tokyo Game Market in May 2018 from analog lunchbox. In this game for 2-3 players, you take two actions on a turn – either adding a tile to the board or moving one of your scoring markers, with either action being repeatable — then you score for any paths that exist between your two pairs of scoring markers. Paths score for the number of tiles that they pass through, with the points for each tile being determined by how high it is in the structure.

Gameplay in passtally is both super simple and very thinky. You can easily do either of the possible actions, but trying to figure out what's best to do while not setting up the next player can be extremely challenging. Here's an overview video of the gameplay that BGG recorded while at Game Market:

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