To start with, Ares Games extends its Euro game line with Odyssey: Wrath of Poseidon from Leo Colovini, who also designed or co-designed the other two titles in that line (Incognito and Aztlán). I'm a huge Colovini fan for reasons that I'll expound upon once I finally post an overview of Hot Tin Roof — the short version: his simple designs allow for confusion, cleverness, complexity and catastrophe — so I'm curious to see how he'll pull this one off. Here's an overview of the setting and goal:
In Odyssey: Wrath of Poseidon, one player takes the role of Poseidon, God of the Sea, while the other 1-4 players become navigators in search of the Sacred Island. Gameplay takes place on two copies of the same game board that are separated by the game box so that they are not visible to one another. The Poseidon player throws powerful storms against the Navigators, driving them off-course and confounding them so that they cannot reach the Sacred Island in time. Only Poseidon knows the real position of the ships as indicated on his copy of the game board.
The navigators must sail through endless storms, blind to all around them, trying to gather clues to their whereabouts to stay on course. They also track the position of their ships on the game board, but the positions indicated are only a best guess — and they can become increasingly inaccurate as the game progresses.
The navigators must use their wits to stay on course and reach the Sacred Island before the end of the game, while Poseidon wins by preventing them from reaching their destination.
Each turn, the captain chooses a destination for the ship, a target that it will attack. Once the ship is attacking, the players (more or less!) co-operate to defeat their victim, then they divide the treasure amongst themselves — but your gold is never secure until you bury it on Treasure Island.
As you carry out the attack, unrest is always brewing in the kettle. Each time the captain makes a choice, it's possible for one of the other players to call "Mutiny" and try to overthrow him to become the new captain. And when the mutiny begins, you need to decide how to use your cards during the mutiny and the looming battle. How much will you co-operate when you assault an enemy, and what will you keep to yourself to prepare for when the next mutiny starts?
As is fitting for a pirate, your greatest desire is for gold, and you'll do anything to reach your goal. In the end, whoever collects the most gold becomes the richest pirate in Tortuga!
• The final future Ares Games release for now is a co-publication with Gremlin Project, an Italian board game design studio that previously collaborated with Ares Games on the giant cooperative battle game Galaxy Defenders. The two designers of that game and its impending expansions — Simone Romano and Nunzio Surace — are also the designers of Sword & Sorcery, the only description of which I have for now is "a cooperative board game based on a mystic fantasy universe". Needless to say, more details will come in the future.
Or maybe they won't. Maybe this is all you'll ever hear of the game before it shows up on a shelf unexpectedly and looks all swordy and sorcery-y to your unsuspecting eyes. We'll see...