Chip Theory, as always, had lots of premium components on display in their games. The big beasts like Cloudspire, as a sort of tower defense strategy game, had some new expansions and they were showing some of the cool storage components for The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era. However, there are now several games, typically card-based, that are as much of a high-end purchase (although the cards are still the super-premium 100% PVC ones.) There are three new 20 Strong decks, based on Awaken Realms IPs. Nemesis plays up to 3 players as a semi-co-op exploration game. Tainted Grail is the most similar to previous titles, with players going up against four different enemy decks. Etherfields branches off into new territory as a bit of a deckbuilder in a free-form exploration game that preserves some game states between plays. Jump Masters! is a little bit like checkers played with dice, but every die has special powers and can gain and lose health during the game. Dragons of Etchinstone, made by the designer of Gloomhodin’, is a sort of card combat game played entirely in a held hand of cards. In between sizes lies Wreck, a sequel to the area-control game Wroth, now with water areas dividing up the board which can be travelled across via boats. Still plenty of unique player powers, all of which can be used in either the Wroth or Wreck games.

Jump Masters! by Jeff Jacobson, Manny Trembley

Jump Masters! Is a new, lightweight game that is somewhat like a Chinese checkers in that a primary goal is to “jump over” and eliminate the other player’s pieces to score a point. Occupying the middle of the board will also grant a point. The game handles up to 4 players and is played until one player reaches the requisite point total (depending on the number of players.)

Both players have a starting set of dice drafted from a cast of colored options. Dice are placed out on the board with their “1” side up. Dice can move by rolling from one space to an adjacent one, which will increase that die’s level by 1.

As players start to meet on the board they can jump over one another. Jumping over an enemy defeats it, granting you points equal to that die’s maximum health value. However, jumping also subtracts the jumping die’s health by the current value of the jumped die, perhaps leaving it vulnerable. Jumping chains together, just like chess, and so one die can travel quite a ways across the board, gaining health while jumping their own dice and losing health whenever jumping their opponents’.

As with most Chip Theory games, there are lots of different dice each with their own special powers. These are things like defensive, offensive, or movement abilities. Note, even the maximum hit points of a die will vary between different characters. Points for each player are tracked on another neoprene mat, with two player games requiring fewer points to win.

20 Strong – Nemesis, Etherfields, Tainted Grail by Josh J. Carlson, Salem Scott, Logan Giannini – Nemesis

The newest three decks in Chip Theory Games’ 20 Strong lineup come from their collaboration with Awaken Realms: If you’re unfamiliar with the line, these are a line of games, each contained in a deck of cards, that use a base set of 20 dice. The dice are sorted by color. Each die has a chance of rolling a success, with some dice (red, for example) having many more sides with success than others (yellow, for example), etc… There are 3 white dice which usually track a player’s 3 attributes – health, how many rerolls you get in a combat, and how many dice you get to reuse back after a fight. The game also includes a nice magnetic poker chip with tracking numbers (for countdowns) on one side and the other tracking different colors. Normally the combat dice are “used up” after a fight so managing one’s supply of dice as the game progresses is a big part of the overall strategy. These three new games are noticeably different from all the games that have gone before. Most (all?) of the games have the player taking on the role of a hero with special powers. Most expansions will have some way to use heroes from other decks.These consist of rules adjustments and often “generic” hero cards specifically to make up differences between hero powers between games.

Nemesis adapts the sci-fi survival horror universe into the 20 Strong system, focusing on noise management, alien encounters, and ship objective survival. This is the first 20 Strong game to allow multiplayer options – the game can handle 1 to 3 players. Nemesis is the game with this set of three releases that can also be purchased as a core set, ie. with a set of the 20 Strong dice. Speaking of the dice, since there are three players, the set of three dice are no longer tracking attributes, but now represent the individual player pieces as they move about the game “board.”

With multiple players, “using up” dice doesn’t work so well, so the dice are reclaimed at the start of a turn (I believe my notes mean you get all the dice back each turn…) At the start of the game, cards are laid out in a grid and players actually roll to move about the grid, gathering up items (there are four kinds.) As players arrive at locations, cards are face-down. If a player can afford the cost, they may flip the card over to get its benefit.

There’s no direct penalty for taking your time wandering the board, as players move about they trigger “noise” which Each player is given one of several personal objectives/quests at the start of the game.

While, in general, the spaceship needs to be explored to get up and running again, players are also pursuing those personal goals to decide who wins the game. Note, Nemesis is also the game in this set that can be purchased either as a standard deck or as a core set containing all the dice to play any of the other decks.

Tainted Grail is perhaps the most like some of the 20 Strong decks from before. It is somewhat adjacent to the early 20 Strong deck Solar Sentinels. Set in a gritty Arthurian fantasy it features branching paths and grim encounter decks. In addition to the 3 white die stats (Health, Hand Size, Recovery) players have a hand of combat cards – including one special one depending on the hero chosen. The game requires one to fight through four sets of enemy decks, but a player’s choices are limited – one can only attack enemies that match the current color of the tracking dial. After 8 rounds, the boss fight begins. During the game, players can skip over enemies they don’t like or don’t think they can defeat. However, this comes back to haunt you as they will come back as they are set aside in a Menhir deck (a term from the videogame) and become bonus minions during the boss fight. Defeat the boss and you win.

Etherfields is actually a dungeon crawl boardgame, not a videogame. As a 20 Strong title, it mirrors the original game by providing a fairly free-flowing exploration experience with a bit of deckbuilding mechanics.

The white health die represents the player as they freely wander about the board. Players start each turn with five cards. Each card has 3 numbers in the top left, each color number represents a resource (usually move, explore, or fight) which can be used during the game. Once a player collects enough resources they can go up against the final boss. The game is a bit complex at first because there’s a recommended final boss to use in your first game. What sets this game apart from all the previous 20 Strong games is that changes to cards are PERMANENT, even between games. Every enemy and hero card has an A side and can be flipped over to its B side, completely changing what they represent. This means an item can be an enemy the next game or an item can become an enemy.

Even heroes flip permanently, offering a new option for the next game. In keeping with the exploration theme, even the final boss encountered is decided during game play. It’s suggested that players may want to replay the game multiple times to trigger hidden bosses in the game. Or, you can make your own overarching goal.

Dragons of Etchinstone by Joe Klipfel

Dragons of Etchinstone is a card-based game of adventure played completely within a single deck of cards held in one’s hand. The game starts with choosing a multiple challenge enemy card and a specific enemy dragon. Players then stack a hand of attack heads on top of that. Thus, you have a dragon at the back, covered by a challenge card, covered by your hand of attack cards. One of your attack cards is used to determine which enemy to challenge in a given turn. This could be a combat challenge (fought with fighting icons) or a travel challenge (fought with feet icons.) The challenge card usually lists about four options to encounter, with higher level encounters somewhat balanced in different ways but granting more rewards. If a player defeats a challenge, they get to upgrade their card(s) with experience points.

The double-sided attack cards are also divided in half. Thus, the top, face-up part of the card is its current value. All cards start at level 2 and can be flipped to level 3 and then upgraded again (at a higher experience cost.) Failing to defeat a challenge requires a player to demote their cards down some levels. In an especially poor result, a critical hit may force a player to soak up even more damage. To attack, the player takes the first three cards of the deck and assigns them as the attack, the color, and a boost, although one can forgo the boost if you’re cocky in order to use up fewer cards. If you get a natural match in color between one’s cards, there are also some bonuses to the attack. Enemies are also more or less effective against specific colors. Used cards go back behind the dragon/challenge card and then brought to the front once the player’s attack cards are used up. The challenge card is then flipped and/or rotated, upgrading the challenges one must face. Make it through four challenges, and it’s time to fight the dragon. This is a big pitched battle in two phases. First, a player has to make it through a journey (feet-based) encounter and then an attack-based one. This is done by taking the top 7 cards (fewer if you’ve lost some) and sorting them into two sets of 3 cards and adding their values to meet the threshold. The player then does the same thing against the combat value of the dragon, taking damage from the dragon based on how much damage is dealt. If the player is able to soak up all the incoming damage without running out of cards, it is considered a win.

There are two expansions to the base game that are essentially little foil packs of cards similar in size to a trading-card game booster pack. Dragons of Etchinstone: Northvale essentially contains more cards – more dragons, more regions and four sets of 4 mage cards. One set of mage cards can be brought in to replace four of the regular starting cards. These tend to have more complex effects than you would see on normal attack cards. Yes, you can add in more than one set if you really want to shake things up. Dragons of Etchinstone: Siege is significantly different. It’s a bit of a wild ride of solely combat (no journeys) that has overtones of a tower defense game. Players choose a starting character from several with asymmetric powers.

From the Seige expansion…

They also have structure cards in their deck to help defend their tower. The expansion also contains a “villain mode” called Return to Etchinstone where one can play as the monsters.

Wreck by Manny Trembley

Wreck is a new title that follows behind the area control game, Wroth. In Wreck, each player is granted a faction, each with very unique, asymmetrical powers.

Each power will have minions to place on the board as well as a few special dice which often serve as special minions. The goal is to put minions and dice on the board to score points by having the majority of pieces in an area. At the start of the round, dice are rolled to show possible actions and players take turns drafting them. These include movement, gaining credit/resources, placing units on the board, attacking, etc… After the draft, players take turns using the actions on their dice to affect the board. Wreck presents a new option where players are put on boats, move boats, and/or unload from boats. This is the main way to put out more pieces on the board. Note, pieces in a boat can attack other boats or people on land, often better than pieces attacking each other on land. After all players have used their dice the board is scored.

First, each region is scored in order. The regions that are controlled (not tied) will also grant a special ability, these are taken in region order so that could affect who gets to use the special power in an area later in the round. If no one has the requisite points for victory, the round starts over again with another roll of the dice and the draft starts again. As mentioned, the player factions are very different. In my game,I was a pirate guy, able to shoot people at range with cannons and had a pirate captain which earned me points just by being present on the board. Another player had dice that would prevent you from attacking or moving into their area, and a third person was actually a bunch of ghosts. When placing their people and there were opponent pieces on the board, they could pay to possess enemy pieces and make them their own.

There are six (two of which are expansions) factions in Wreck but Wreck factions can be played in the Wroth game, and vice-versa for a total of 12 different player options.

Cloudspire – The Graft, Keel, Harbinger, Shada (Adam Carlson, Josh J. Carlson, Salem Scott, Josh Wielgus, Logan Giannini, Ryan Howard)

Cloudspire is a tower defence style game with lots of special player powers. Each player has a home base which is connected to a specific path across the board. Players send out their standard troops who slowly walk along that path, hopefully smashing into the opponent’s base on the other side. Of course, your opponent is doing the same. Each player has 3 or 4 hero pieces which are more independent and can range all around the board attacking the basic enemies or fighting each other. Meanwhile, players also have the option of building and upgrading towers along the path. These will “shoot” at creatures marching past their turret. Players are also seeking to build structures on resource nodes, which provide players with Command Points to pay for their troops, heroes, towers, and upgrades. Earlier this year Cloudspire fulfilled its last crowdfunded campaign, bringing an end to expansions and completing the game. This newest campaign had four releases, bringing three new factions to play.

The Harbinger expansion is not a new faction. It contains more of all the non-faction “stuff” like cards, terrain, market chips, and more solo and co-op scenarios. The Graft are parasitic creatures that infect things and can even move their hero base. The Shada are very elemental-focused, interacting with terrain and combining minions. Their units are powerful but tend to be costly. Finally, the Keel has pretty good movement, able to fly around the map and have strong spire (turrent) upgrades.

The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era (cast of many)

Finally, we have the huge adventure game, The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era. Not much content was being shown at the show, although there are several expansions coming down the pike. Heroes of Tamriel adds in more options for heroes, with new races, classes, and skill lines. Summerset and Elsweyr are two new regions to explore, with their own classes and skill lines. The last expansion is Fur and Fang, which brings in a new sort of mechanic that lets players transform into werewolves or vampires. Each grant advantages but also some drawbacks. What was on display are the new options for storing the game. There’s a giant box, complete with a magnetic “key” used to pull out the drawers, to contain everything. Included in that are special trays that can “save” your game between sessions. (The trays included in the original game were set up so that they only worked to “save” your character at the end of each adventure (out of 3 per campaign.) That’s fine, as long as you have enough time to play through a whole adventure (2-4 hours) without stopping. For those more on a budget there are a couple boxes,matching the base game’s art and style, to store the overflow of content that no longer fits in the base box.

I’m not into the huge storage option (although its too bad one can’t order just the new mid-adventure storage trays) but what really caught my eye are the over-the-top hero Deluxe Adventurer Inventory books. These are folders made of synthetic leather, with pockets full of space to store all the cards relating to your character. There is space for one’s class, race, skill card explanations, as well as their inventory. These things are so unnecessary but have such table presence I did break down and order some. I’m going to entirely justify the expense because the tome (calling it a booklet seems to crass) will actually save some table space, often at a premium with this game.