Games for Two 17 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make.

This is a game with a persistent and changing world that is ideally played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Playing through a scenario is a cooperative affair where players will fight against automated monsters using an innovative card system to determine the order of play and what a player does on their turn.

Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.

Introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

The world almost ended 71 years ago…

The plague came out of nowhere and ravaged the world. Most died within a week. Nothing could stop it. The world did its best. It wasn’t good enough.

For three generations, we, the last fragments of humanity have lived on the seas, on floating stations called “havens.” Far from the plague, we are able to provide supplies to the mainland to keep them (and us) from succumbing completely.

We’ve managed to keep a network of the largest known cities in the world alive. Things have been tough the past few years. Cities far away from the havens have fallen off our grid…

Tomorrow, a small group of us head out into what’s left of the world. We don’t know what we’ll find.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is an epic cooperative game for 2 to 4 players. Unlike most other games, this one is working against you. What’s more, some of the actions you take in Pandemic Legacy will carry over to future games. No two worlds will ever be alike!

Flip Ships is a cooperative dexterity game in which players take on the roles of brave pilots defending their planet from an onslaught of firepower. Flip your ships to take out the encroaching enemies and to take down the powerful mother ship before it’s too late.

“It was an ambush. That’s the only way to describe it. The mother ship appeared out of nowhere, creating a massive shadow over the city. Within seconds, wave after wave of fighters poured out of it, filling the sky.”

“We’re launching the ships we have ready, but they aren’t much. Our pilots must fight bravely to defend the planet while we ready the rest of the fleet. Explosions fill the sky, and we’ve taken some hits, but we won’t give up. Will you?”

In 1271, 17-year-old Marco Polo started on a journey to China with his father and older brother. After a long and grueling journey that led through Jerusalem and Mesopotamia and over the “Silk Road”, they reached the court of Kublai Khan in 1275.

In The Voyages of Marco Polo, players recreate this journey, with each player having a different character and special power in the game.

Rhino Hero is back on the job! And this time not only does the wobbly skyscraper need to be climbed, but there will also be fierce battles between the four superheroes Rhino Hero, Giraffe Boy, Big E. and Batguin. Who will win the battles and not let themselves be bothered by the mean, hanging spider monkeys?

Enter the vibrant world of Rokugan with Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game, a Living Card Game® of honor and conflict for two players! Drawing on the legacy of AEG’s original Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game, and now reimagined with new mechanics, story, and the Living Card Game distribution model, you are invited to join the Great Clans, uphold the tenets of Bushidō, and fulfill your duty to your daimyō and the Emperor in a world shaped and changed by a dynamic, player-influenced story.

During the game, you take on the leadership of one of the Great Clans which define Rokugani society, and you are cast into conflict against another clan. Your conflicts will decide the future of Rokugan, whether you’re battling with a katana or with cutting words, but the samurai of your clan cannot remain by your side indefinitely—when their destinies are fulfilled, you must find new allies to continue your conflicts. Ultimately, it’s your choice whether you will fight with honor or use unsavory means, but in every game, it is your role to lead your clan to victory.

Built on the core of the award-winning Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island, First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet pits players against the hostile Martian environment and a whole host of new adventures and challenges. The immersion experience is further enhanced with an integrated app that maintains the balance and challenge throughout. Players have the option of taking on the design as a series of separate games, in a custom campaign mode in which each successive game builds on the last.

Sagrada is a dice-drafting game where players compete to build beautiful stained glass windows out of different coloured dice. Each die cannot be laid next to another die of the same colour or showing the same value, so as players continue to lie more dice and build up their window, placement becomes harder and harder.

In addition to trying to build their windows, players look to score points according to variable criteria that could include how many different colours they’re using in each column, or the die values they have placed.

There is no time for peace. No forgiveness. No respite. There is only war.

After more than forty thousand years of war and strife among the stars, Humanity stands on the brink of extinction. Beset on all sides by hostile aliens and threatened from within by traitors, Humanity’s only chance for survival rests with the continuation of the cruel and bloody regime known as the Imperium. Yet few among Mankind’s untold population realise the full truth of their situation. If there is any future at all, it is a grim one…

This is a 280-page hardback, this is the essential book for any fan of Warhammer 40,000 – everything you need to know to collect, build, paint and play with Citadel miniatures.

Gloomhaven

Azul

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

Flip Ships

The Voyages of Marco Polo

Rhino Hero: Super Battle

Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game

First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

Sagrada

Warhammer 40,000 (8th edition)

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