Board Game News Brief: December 16, 2015

Posted Wednesday, 16-Dec-2015

Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas, and all through the skies

Tie Fighters were burning and Robbery most high

(and more, in this week’s Board Game News Brief)

 

Contributed by Calvin Wong

 

Take to the Sky(way): Skyway Robbery

Travel the world and steal its stuff! This steampunk heist game casts you and up to 4 friends as rival gangs who are traveling the world on an airship. Steal from the passengers, blackmail the crew, and perform daring raids on locations the airship visits – or perhaps tip off the authorities just as your rivals are planning something daring!

 

 

Self-described as a game of cunning cut-throat high adventure, Skyway Robbery will soon be available at retail.

 

Munchkin: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Just in time for the holiday season, Munchkin: TNBC takes the classic game of dungeoneering and friendship-destruction and adds elements from the beloved Tim Burton film.

 

 

This stand-alone Munchkin variant puts players in the roles of citizens of the various towns in the movie – Christmas town, Halloween town, etc. Your allegiance will affect gameplay, The game is compatible with other Munchkin editions, but does come with different card backs – and an Oogie Boogie dice. Spooky.

 

Elite, dangerous – Imperial Veterans expansion for X-Wing

Star Wars fever is in full swing and while there are no lightsabers, the awesome is strong with this one – Imperial Veterans is the latest medium-box expansion for the popular tabletop miniatures game.

 

 

Featuring 8 pilots and 13 upgrades mainly focused around the TIE Bomber and TIE Defender craft, Imperial Veterans promises plenty of variety for fans of those ships. While the Bombers are heavily-armed space superiority ship, Defenders are elite dogfighters ready to tear apart any rebel scum in their sights.

 

Xenoshyft: Dreadmire to receive Kickstarter in January.

Co-operative science fiction deckbuilding game Xenoshyft is moving to a lush forest planet – but this trip ain’t no holiday. Featuring 8 new Troops, 20 new items and 40 fearsome new enemies, this stand-alone set can be played by itself or combined with the original Xenoshyft base set for even more alien destruction.

 

 

Despite its questionable spelling, Xenoshyft is a quality deckbuilder with highly interactive co-op elements, with players able to assist their friends with grenades, healing, or other such equipment – but being careful to still have enough to deal with their own enemies on their turn.

 

Quick Kickstarters

Cute push-your-luck monster-fighting game Dungeon Busters is a simple co-operative card game – kind of. Players are trying to play cards high enough to take out the monsters – but the player who played the lowest card receives the biggest share of the loot. (presumably the others are too busy fighting).

 

 

This ends up with a push-and-pull situation where each player is trying to play as low a card as they can while still playing a high enough card to beat the monster in the first place – failing to do so means the player who put out the lowest card loses their loot. Risky!

 

Billed as ‘the best of Cyvasse, Chess, and Stratego’, Thrones is a 2 player strategy game with the unit diversity of Cyvasse (Dragons, Trebuchets, Rangers, oh my!), the simple rules of Chess, and the hidden setup of Stratego.

 

 

The game features variable terrain types, special unit abilities, and head to head mindgames between two players as each game sees players learning their opponent’s favored strategies and adjusting their board setup to counter it.

 

And finally, a silly fun party game with a cute name. Featuring adorable art and a unique gameplay mechanism, Bob-A-Long plays like a much milder cross of Cards Against Humanity and Charades.

 

 

Each round, one player is designated the Reader and is trying to fill out the blanks in their Story. Each other player is trying to act out their Item and have the other players guess what it is, thus filling in the aforementioned blanks. Finally, the Reader has to read out their story in a manner designated by the player with the most chosen Item cards – hopping on one leg, or in a pirate accent, perhaps!

Published by BoardGamePrices.com