booyakajuice

Revive

2023-12-27T14:51:41-05:00

Vendor: Aporta Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 96.95

Designer	Helge Meissner Eilif Svensson Anna Wermlund Kristian Amundsen Østby
Publisher	Aporta Games
Players	1-4
Playtime	90-120 mins
Suggested Age	14 and up
Expansion	Revive: Call of the Abyss
Additional Info	332772/revive http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/332772/revive/forums/63

Revive civilization, 5000 years after everything was destroyed. Lead your tribe and explore the frozen earth. Harness its resources. Recruit surface survivors to your cause. Build factories with powerful machines. And populate ancient sites to relearn your tribe's forgotten technologies.
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Revive is a game for 1-4 players with asymmetric player powers, highly variable setup, and no fighting or direct conflict. Playing through the 5-part campaign unlocks additional contents, and once all contents have been unlocked, the game can be replayed indefinitely.
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At the beginning of the game, each player gets a set of citizen cards, a tribe board, as well as a huge dual-layer player board. The tribe board shows your unique tribe ability and the ancient technologies that you may relearn during the game. The dual-layer player board is where you place your custom machines and upgrade your card slots.

A main goal of the game is to reach and populate the large ancient sites. These ancient locations are randomized, and as they are important sources of victory points, they will shape your strategy differently each game.

On your turn you take two actions:

Play a card (its effect is determined by which card slot you use)
Explore (reveal an area tile and recruit a new citizen card)
Populate (populate an ancient location to learn a new technology)
Build factory (the adjacent terrains determine which machine tracks you advance)

In addition you may use power to activate any number of your machines, modifying your actions.

Instead of taking two actions you may Hibernate. This will circulate your cards, moving your played cards to your resting area, and releasing the cards in your resting area back to you. In addition you regain your used power, so that you may activate your machines again.

The multi-use cards play an important role: Each card shows a resource ability (on the top) and a special ability (on the lower part). Playing a card in one of your top slots activates the resource action; In a lower slot you activate the special ability. You may install slot modules in the card slots, and these are activated whenever you play a card matching its color. It is possible to find combinations that lets you chain cards, triggering several slot modules and abilities in one action.

Building factories harness the power of the surrounding terrains, advancing your marker on one of three machine tracks. This may unlock machines that can be activated, using energy.

Reaching certain milestones lets you take an artifact from the main board. Each artifact boosts one of the three scoring categories on your personal scoring card.

The game ends when all artifacts have been taken, and the player with the most points wins.

Revive: Call of the Abyss

2023-09-05T09:39:46-04:00

Vendor: Aporta Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 51.95

Designer	Helge Meissner Eilif Svensson Anna Wermlund Kristian Amundsen Østby
Publisher	Aporta Games
Players	1-4
Playtime	60-90 mins
Suggested Age	14 and up
Expansion For	Revive
Additional Info	385685/revive-call-abyss http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385685/revive-call-abyss/forums/63

"The glacial meltwater forms giant lakes. And from minuscule spores that have resided in the deeper layers of the ice, a new life form emerges. And the lakes become home to the Scyphoz.

The Scyphoz harbor vast knowledge and wisdom. We will settle near their lakes to learn from them. We will bend to their will to honor them. Complete the journeys they prepare for us. We will serve and be gifted.

That is the call of the abyss." —Nàdair

The Revive: Call of the Abyss expansion introduces the mysterious life form Scyphoz, which lives in the giant lakes that are formed by meltwater from the glaciers. By building near lakes, you gain devotion points, which let you access the new and powerful Scyphoz cards. You can also use the switch action to initiate journeys, sending out your citizen on missions to gain more devotion points.

Aside from 16 Scyphoz cards, 18 journey cards, 3 lakes, and the devotion track, this expansion contains 15 new machine tokens, 9 slot modules, 9 new citizen cards, and four new tribes, with all of the content (other then the Cordycephians tribe) being compatible with solo play. The four new tribe boards feature only an advanced side, and each has its own unique rules, advanced abilities, and technologies:

The KAIROS have two modes — day and night — and their abilities depend on the current mode. Switching between the two modes at the right time is crucial to this tribe's success.

The GIB'WARKS has access to powerful gadgets that boost their switch actions, and they may unlock more gadgets for even more flexibility. Their tribe ability lets them reset their switch, which is powerful because the switch action is even more important now that it lets you initiate journeys.

The OSTARIUS build huge gates which they can switch on and off, either helping or hindering other players. Gates require quite some space, but if placed well, OSTARIUS may temporarily block off parts of the game board, possibly securing them for themselves.

The CORDYCEPHIANS leech other players, taking advantage of their cards, their buildings, and even their technologies. The CORDYCEPHIANS must therefore adapt their strategy to the opponents they are facing.

—description from the publisher

Rebel Nox

2019-05-02T16:58:36-04:00

Vendor: Aporta Games
Type: Board Games
Price: 22.95

Designers	Helge Meissner Eilif Svensson Anna Wermlund Kristian Amundsen Østby
Publisher	Aporta Games
Players	4-6
Playtime	20-30 mins
Suggested Age	12 and up
Additional Info	250878/rebel-nox http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/250878/rebel-nox/forums/63

Rebel nox is a highly tactical team-based card game with shifting alliances and a hint of social deduction. It is a stand-alone game set in the world of Capital Lux.

The world of Lux is in uproar and rebels and loyalist fight for control of the capital. Who is on your side? Will your team gather enough followers to seize power? And who is true to your cause when it looks lost?

With the cards dealt at the beginning of the game, players are assigned to either the Rebel team or the Loyalist team. The two teams fight for control over locations that alter the rules in that particular fight, and provide influence to the winner. Play your cards tactically to establish who is on your team, take control of locations and make sure your team has the most influence at the end of the round. But as cards change hands, allegiances can change, so who can you really trust? Perhaps you secretly switched team yourself?

The near endless combinations of locations and card distribution make for a vast number of unique situations and tactical challenges, ensuring no two games will ever feel the same.

Game flow:
At the beginning of each round, 6 locations are placed in the middle of the table and each player is dealt 9 cards. If you were dealt a rebel card, you announce that you are on the rebel team - if you do not have a rebel card, you are on the loyalist team.

The player who was dealt the "rebel commander" chooses a location for the first fight, and leads by playing the first card.

The game then plays like a trick taking game, but with some important differences: certain cards will alter who wins the location (assassins take out the highest card, making the second highest card win instead), flags increases the value of the current location (play them when you think a team mate will win), and infiltrators make cards switch hands (for every infiltrator symbol played, the player who played the lowest card must draw one card from the hand of the winning player). With tactical card play you can both influence who wins the location and how much it is worth. But as cards switches hands, you may not be sure who is on which team.

After all 6 locations have been won, players reveal which side they are on (if you have a rebel card, you are on the rebel team; if not, you are on the loyalist team). Players now collect followers for their controlled influence, and all players on the team that controls the most influence are awarded bonus followers. If one team has managed to gather a required number of followers, they win the game. If not, another round must be played.

-description from designer