New Game Round-up: Gen Con 2014 — Japanese Arcatypes, French Barbarians, U.S. High Command & Alien Invaders

Arcatype is a combination of elements from strategy card games coupled with tactical-based unit placement on a hexagonal map with a number of capture points for players to fight over.

Each turn, a player can summon a unit from his party onto the battlefield, evolve a unit already on the battlefield, move and attack with any units on the battlefield, or use a powerful spell card from the Arcana deck. Arcana cards are based on the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot, and each card has a powerful spell effect that you can play at any time to help turn the battle in your favor.

Conan: The Legend, based on the Conan universe by Robert E. Howard, is a scenario-based semi-cooperative asymmetric miniatures board game. One player is the Opponent, playing the Opposition forces, and the other players (1 to 4) play Conan and his companions: Shevatas the thief, Hadrathus the Priest/Sorcerer, Belit the pirate queen, Valeria the warrior, etc. The game is based purely on Robert E. Howard's novels and short stories (and not the movies or other non-Howardian material). The publisher has hired Patrice Louinet, a Howard expert, to make sure the art and the scenarios are compatible with Howard's vision.

Each game is a scenario, played on a map. There will be several maps — Pict Village, Underground temple, Tavern, Pirate ship, etc. — and each map can have several scenarios set on it. The game is fast, one hour approximately. It's possible to play several scenarios in a campaign, but you can also play each scenario individually. There will be a dozen playable scenarios in the base box.

At the beginning of a scenario, players choose their team (Conan and two or three other heroes). The Opponent gathers all the miniatures (picts, Necromancer, skeleton warriors, monsters, etc.), tokens, cards from the chosen scenario. The game usually plays in a limited number of turns (ten, for instance). Each scenario can have very different objectives: find the princess captured by picts and hidden in a hut and leave the camp before the pict hunters return; find the magical key to open a sealed door, steal the jewel and leave; kill the Necromancer by the end of turn 10; survive by the end of turn 10; escape the prison; etc.

During their turn, the heroes can activate or rest. If they activate, they can spend their "energy gems" to do all sorts of actions: move, fight (melee or distance), defend, pick a lock, reroll, etc. If they rest, they can move a lot of gems from their "spent" box to their "available" box. When they take an action, they throw a number of dice equal to the gems they put in their action. There are three different kinds of dice: yellow (the weaker dice), orange (medium) and red (strong), each character having a color based on their specialty: Conan throws red dice in combat while the Sorcerer throws yellow dice in combat; the thief throws red dice in Manipulation actions, while Conan throws orange dice; etc. Each player can have equipment cards (armor, magic potions, weapons, etc.) which give them bonuses on their dice rolls.

The Opponent plays differently. He uses a board with eight slidable tiles, plus his own Energy gems. Each tile corresponds to one unit (1 to 3 miniatures) on the game mat, and all of the miniature abilities are written on this tile (movement, armor, attack, special abilities). The tile position on the board corresponds to the numbers 1-8. The Opponent has a pool of energy gems and each time he activates one unit, he needs to spend a number of gems corresponding to the tile placement: tile #1 costs 1 energy gem, tile #2 costs 2 gems, etc. Whatever tile the Opponent chooses to activate, he spends the corresponding energy cost, then takes the tile out and moves it to the end of the sliding track: If he wants to activate this unit again, it will cost him 8 gems. The Opponent can activate two tiles, and he regains only a certain number of gems each turn (depending on the scenario).

In a typical scenario, the heroes need to accomplish something and the Opponent wins if the heroes fail to reach their objective — but in some scenarios, the Opponent has his own objectives and the Heroes win if they prevent him from accomplishing his goal.

The year is 2020. The world hovers on the brink of annihilation. Preceded by a devastating orbital attack, a warlike alien race known as the Hydra has besieged the planet, their invasion force carried on enormous drop ships that dwarf city blocks and rain devastation from above. The Hydra’s ultimate goal is to eradicate the last survivors of their ancient nemesis, the Ghin, an alien race that has taken refuge on Earth. Humanity is caught in the apocalyptic crossfire. As widespread panic grips the populace, governments topple, economies crumble, and order dissolves. In these desperate days, mankind’s only hope lies with the Ghin and one of their most brilliant minds: Dr. Cronos, a being as guilty of atrocities against humanity as those who hunt him.

LEVEL 7 [INVASION] is a standalone semi-cooperative game of global strategy set in the LEVEL 7 universe that follows the events of LEVEL 7 [ESCAPE], LEVEL 7 [ESCAPE]: Lockdown, and LEVEL 7 [OMEGA PROTOCOL]. As the planet is battered by the Hydra's relentless assault, you'll control Earth's desperation-forged coalitions in an effort to turn back the invasion. But soldiers aren't enough. You and your allies must manage your resources carefully to combat the threats of hysteria, famine, and population loss as well. Endure long enough, and you might buy the time for Dr. Cronos to develop the advanced weaponry required to defeat the invading Hydra. The survival of the human race depends on your next move!

As the fires of war engulf western Immoren, the call for great leaders has never been stronger. The Retribution of Scyrah and the Convergence of Cyriss muster their forces to wage war on a new scale. Mercenary armies of the Highborn Covenant and Four Star Syndicate sell their services to the highest bidder, while also pursuing their own larger agendas. Take command of these four new factions in their battle for dominion over the Iron Kingdoms! Will you lead your faction to victory, or be crushed by the military might of your rivals?

The Warmachine: High Command – Faith & Fortune core set introduces four new factions: Retribution of Scyrah, Convergence of Cyriss, Highborn Covenant, and Four Star Syndicate. This core set is a standalone deck-building card game with everything 2–4 players need to play and can be customized with expansion releases for the included factions. Leverage your resources, rally your armies, and dominate your foes to set your banner above all of western Immoren!