Witness the announcement of Specter Ops from Plaid Hat Games in mid-November 2014. This title, designed by Emerson Matsuuchi, entered the BGG database as a two-player-only design under the name Cipher Ops with Nazca Games as the publisher. Now the title will accommodate 2-5 players, although the heart of its design remains the same as in the original design. Here's an overview of the game's setting and how it plays:
Specter Ops is a sci-fi, stealth ops game of hidden movement that's similar to Scotland Yard. Players are trying to locate/capture a mysterious agent, who keeps track of their sneaking via a private map. The other players take control of unique characters who must use their wits, abilities and technology to help them hunt down this infiltrator. Items like flash grenades, scanners, and the like are at the disposal of this covert agent.
• Continuing in that same vein, I recently featured an overview video of Peter Burley's Kamisado Max in a Spiel 2014 round-up. Katrin Reil from German publisher HUCH! & friends now tells me that the game will also be released in the U.S., most likely in 2015, thanks to a deal with an as-yet-unannounced publisher.
• And with still more in that vein, Sandy Petersen of Petersen Games has noted that in conjunction with Polish publisher Fabryka Gier Historycznych he plans to release an English-language version of Theomachie from the design team of Bylina, Kwapiński and Wasilewski under the name Theomachy. What's more, in this new crowdfunded edition that will be targeted for a Spiel 2015 release, Lovecraftian pantheons will be added to the game, at FGH's suggestion according to Petersen. From an FGH press release:
Drafting prayer cards and power cards allows you to slowly build your might. Using those cards, you send your followers into battles, build temples, and inflict terrible curses on the unfaithful. You face a tough decision in every single hand: Should you put your own power on the line to help your believers win their battles, or should you turn your back on them, sending them to a certain death? If no god yields, hurricanes will face off with deathly plagues, tempests will extinguish walls of fire, and the ranks of the faithful will grow smaller every second.
Once you get rid of your opponent's last prophet, it's time to rest and listen to the cheerful song of your people. You have won the clash of gods.