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• Alderac Entertainment Group is bringing Richard James' card game Straw back to market in Q3 2013.
• Not sure how I missed this earlier, but Mayfair Games released Steam: Map Expansion #3 in March 2013, with Morgan Dontanville providing the designs. Steam: Map Expansion #3 covers a lot of ground on the included double-sided game board. One side, titled "Westward Ho!", features the western two-thirds of the United States and is for 4-6 players. The other side features Singapore, with a "subway construction and city planning" competition for two players on one of the four game board panels, and Japan and Hokkaido on the other three panels. Hokkaido can be played on its own as a game for two players, or it can be combined with the rest of Japan to have a map appropriate for 3-4 players.
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• Bryan Johnson's Island Fortress was years in the making due to two publishers backing out from contracts to publish the game (under its previous title Huang Di). Johnson's long path to publication is detailed on The Cardboard Republic, and the write-up includes an overview of an Island Fortress prequel: "It's due to be a standalone game, but the gameplay bears similarities to Island Fortress. In it, the penal colony is in its early days, and the workers are mining the jade that becomes the currency in the second game. He's reluctant to put a timeline on it, but he hopes to have it on Kickstarter by the end of 2013."
Quote:
In Shadow Agent, inspired by video games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid, the players take on the role of shadow agents from a non-specified secret agency, with the goal of infiltrating an enemy location (base or mansion) to accomplish a certain mission. The agents must not be seen or heard by the numerous guards walking around the location, so they must hide among the shadows, hide behind walls and furniture, and hit the enemies from behind, being silent the whole time.
At the start of the game, each player chooses up to five items to help with the current mission. Each turn, the active player rolls the action dice and performs two of the rolled actions, which can be Move, Shoot, Melee Attack and Heal. In addition, one die can be replaced by a free action, which range from using an enemy as a meatshield, to interacting with locations, to hiding the corpse of a dead guard.
After a player performs his two actions, the guards – which come in three types: green, yellow and red – are activated. For each type of guard, one player rolls a die twice, with all the guards of this type then performing the rolled actions in order. Actions range from moving 1-4 areas, to shooting, to calling for help (which will spawn other guards). In more detail:
• Green guards move, shoot, and spawn other guards at an average rate.
• Yellow guards shoot and spawn other guards a lot.
• Red guards shoot a lot and move very quickly.
As soon as an alarm sounds due to a guard spotting a dead guard's corpse, all guards are activated with the red die, so things become much tougher for the player agents.
At the start of the game, each player chooses up to five items to help with the current mission. Each turn, the active player rolls the action dice and performs two of the rolled actions, which can be Move, Shoot, Melee Attack and Heal. In addition, one die can be replaced by a free action, which range from using an enemy as a meatshield, to interacting with locations, to hiding the corpse of a dead guard.
After a player performs his two actions, the guards – which come in three types: green, yellow and red – are activated. For each type of guard, one player rolls a die twice, with all the guards of this type then performing the rolled actions in order. Actions range from moving 1-4 areas, to shooting, to calling for help (which will spawn other guards). In more detail:
• Green guards move, shoot, and spawn other guards at an average rate.
• Yellow guards shoot and spawn other guards a lot.
• Red guards shoot a lot and move very quickly.
As soon as an alarm sounds due to a guard spotting a dead guard's corpse, all guards are activated with the red die, so things become much tougher for the player agents.
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