• Leviathan Wilds
• Designer: Justin Kemppanien
• Publisher: Moon Crab Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 60-90 minutes

As the story goes: “Long ago, the once-gentle leviathans lost their minds and tore the world apart. After generations of hiding and struggle, humanity discovered that the frenzied leviathans can be restored. Climbers willing to take the risk must explore the wilds and work together to remove a series of binding crystals to heal the leviathans roaming the world.”

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Potion Explosion (new)

• Designer: Lorenzo Silva, Andrea Crespi and Stefano Castelli
• Publisher:  Horrible Games
• Players: 2-4
• Ages: 8+
• Time: 30-40 minutes
• Times played: 4, with review copy provided by Flat River Games

Potion Explosion was the big ticket game from Horrible Games at Essen 2015, the highlight being the huge marble dispenser and the beautiful glass marbles that it holds.   The game has been re-released with a upgraded marble dispenser – and I was happy to get to try this game again.  The new version has actually been around for a few years, but I just got a copy from Flat River Games (distributor) to try out.

In this game, players take on the role of wizards that are vying with each other to grab the right ingredients (marbles) from the dispenser to finish potion tiles.   Each player has his own workbench, which is a cardboard cutout with spaces for two of the potion tiles to rest as well as a beaker that can hold three extra marbles.

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Disney Lorcana Gateway

• Designers: Ryan Miller, Steve Warner
• Publisher: Ravensburger
• Players: 2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20-40 minutes per game
• Played with review copies provided by Ravensburger USA
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/46Nm3RH

Disney Lorcana: Gateway uses the same game system as the Disney Lorcana trading card game, but it consists of a fixed set of two 30-card decks designed for the newcomer. This set is playable on its own as a two-player game, with the cards featuring characters, items, songs, and perhaps one other mechanism that players can add into other Disney Lorcana decks after getting comfortable with the basics of play.

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Kinfire Delve: Scorn’s Stockade

• Designer: Kevin Wilson
• Publisher: Incredible Dream
• Players: 1-2 (up to 4 if you have two modules)
• Age: 14+
• Time: 60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Kinfire Delve: Scorn’s Stockade, a tactical and cooperative card game for 1-2 players, you will fight your way through the well deck of challenge cards to reach Scorn, the Master of the Well, and face them in an epic final battle.

Scorn’s Well is made up of four challenge cards, with Scorn himself in the middle. As a challenge is defeated, another takes its place, with 57 challenge cards in total. As you face the challenges of the Well, you may play a skill card from your hand only when it matches the color of the challenge card, e.g., if you’re facing a red challenge card, then you may play only a red skill card. Some cards have two colors, and some are white, that is, wild. If the card you play does not defeat the challenge, you’ll be able to add some progress to it and attempt it again, though you may suffer a penalty for doing so.

Other seekers can provide help by playing one of their own cards as a boost, but beware. Running out of cards nets you an exhaustion card before you can draw a new hand. Exhaustion cards are never good, but some are worse than others.

Defeating a challenge provides you a reward, such as regaining health or delving deeper into the Well, which is represented by discarding unseen challenge cards. Once you’ve made your way to the bottom of the Well, you’ll face Scorn himself. All Seekers share a health pool, and if the pool reaches zero, you’re defeated. This is a game that requires teamwork and persistence as the wells of Atios are unpredictable and quite dangerous.

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Weirdwood Manor

• Designer: Mike Cassie
• Publisher: Greyridge Games
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 13+
• Time: 90-120 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by distributor, Flat River Games

Weirdwood Manor is a cooperative board game that marries great adventure gameplay with some euro-inspired underpinnings, as you and your group of valiant companions battle to protect Weirdwood Manor and its enigmatic ruler, Lady Weirdwood, from an invading Fae Monster and his Clockwork Scarab minions.

The Manor is a mysterious and magical place where rooms and the pathways between them can shift as time progresses.  When you set up the game, you randomize the 11 rooms in the outer ring, the 11 rooms in the middle ring, and the 5 rooms in the inner ring.  Each ring is separated from its neighboring ring with a circular corridor ring-board.  The game has a few extra “Expert” rooms which can be added in when you are more experienced with the game. 

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