Overland Gamer
  • Home
  • Blog
  • The Podcast
  • Contact
  • Shad0fx
  • Game Dev Projects
  • Fallout: Dawson

Board Game Spotlight: Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis

3/11/2020

0 Comments

 

Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis
Publisher: Japanime Games

​Players: 2-4 | Play Time: 60-90 Minutes | Ages 12+

Picture

Overview

Picture
Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis is a deck building game where the players are fighting against an enemy deck in order to gain 20 energy. Players begin play with a prototype mech and “Mysterious figure” pilot. Each mech and pilot have a melee attack stat, ranged attack stat, and durability stat. For convenience the game comes with a nice player board, dice, and an energy tracker. 

Players start off with the same cards in their deck. Players can generate resources by placing cards face down. Using these resources to purchase cards, upgrade your mech, and play tactic cards. Buying new cards gives you access to new abilities. Upgrading your mech may change your melee, ranged, or durability stats. Unlike other deck builder's you don’t spend the resources you gain, you simply have to have enough to use the cards. 

Players can then choose to face the enemy deck. The player chooses an attack stat in order to face the challenge. They draw the top card of the enemy deck reveals your challenge. Encounter events that come up which may affect you or your opponents. The enemy deck may reveal an enemy. Each enemy has a melee attack stat, ranged attack stat, and durability stat similar to the mechs. If a player has more attack value than the defense value of the enemy revealed. The enemy attacks back using the same stat that the player chose. If you deal more damage to the enemy creature than it’s durability you defeat the enemy and it goes into your play area for the enemy. If an enemy has an energy value then you move your energy tracker up by the value. If you fail to defeat the enemy it gets slid under the enemy deck to be encountered later. 
If the enemy hits you with more damage than your mech has in durability then your mech becomes disabled. Depending on the type of mech you have will determine how to repair it at the start of your next turn. 

During the final phase of a players turn they will discard resources and cards in hands. They will draw a new hand of 5 cards or more depending on the tactics or upgrades you have. If you have 4 or more energy you can upgrade your mysterious figure pilot into a named pilot. If you have 8 or more energy you can upgrade your mech into a named mech.

Picture

Example Turn

Here’s an example turn.
I check the state of my mech, repair as necessary. I have a hand of 5 cards. I put 3 cards face down to generate 3 resources. I can then buy one card worth 3 or less from the general supply and put it into my hand. I can then play one upgrade onto my mech that costs 3 or less. If the upgrade affects my melee, ranged or durability stat, I change the dice facing those stats to their new count. I can then play any tactics cards that cost 3 or less to play. The tactics cards could be to gain extra purchasing power, look at the enemy cards. That’s my main phase. 
I then choose to face the enemy deck with a ranged attack. My ranged ability is 7, my durability is 9 because of my base mech and upgrades. I flip the first card of the enemy deck over. It is a vril ranger. It’s ranged ability is 1 and its durability is a 4. I defeat it and it doesn’t do enough damage to me to defeat me. The enemy goes into my energy pool. I increase my energy token by 2. I discard my energy cards and any cards I have left in my hand. I draw back up to my hand limit. I don’t have enough to upgrade my pilot or mech so it goes to the next players turn.

​
Picture

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this game. It seems fairly balanced. The game can be difficult at first when going after the enemy deck. There are a lot of low enemies but there are some that are really high in durability value that will take a lot of combos of cards and upgrades to be able to defeat.
As far as we could tell there’s no way to actually lose the game. Which is kind of off balance to me. It’s a competitive race to the finish over a cooperative game. So I kind of get the appeal of no true defeat for players.
I really appreciated the player boards for tracking attack values, defense values, and energy count. The 3 colored D20 dice are a nice addition to it as well. It would have been nice to have a turn structure or a small area to tell how to repair your mech if it’s been defeated. We had to reference the book a few times to make sure we were doing things right.
The game doesn’t take up a lot of space on the table. We played with 2 players, I could see how 4 players might get tricky. The game limits the number of upgrades you can have on your mechs to 6. That helps to keep the table space down. Some of the enemies have abilities that trigger while in the players enemy storage space. Having those cards split up so you can see the ability is helpful. 

The art style has a strong anime vibe to it. The mechs are similar to the gundam style mechs. The cards are all very thematic. Even the villain cards all have a similar feel to them. 

It has one expansion that shows available for pre-order on Japanime’s site. It also has an organizational play mat that we have that gives a nice footprint to the game

Find out more

Board Game Geek - 
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267036/core-connection-rise-atlantis
Japanime Games -
https://japanimegames.com/collections/core-connection

Core Connection: Rise of Atlantis
Publisher: Japanime Games
Designer: Ken Rose
Project Director: Hideshi Komatsu
Illustrators: Nanatise7, Osiori, Yumolism, Reji, KarashiCracker, Jiki, Magariya, Tachibana, Inami 
​
​Players: 2-4 | Play Time: 60-90 Minutes | Ages 12+

Overland Gamer

What are your thoughts? Is this a game that you might enjoy bringing to your table? Be sure to follow Overland Gamer on Facebook and tell us some of the games you enjoy! 

The Podcast episode for this can be found ​over on Anchor.FM or on Spotify
0 Comments

Overland Gamer The Podcast - Kickstarter Brief Podcast Notes KS003

3/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Welcome to Overland Gamer the Podcast.

Find the episode here on Anchor.FM

Also available on Spotify

Overland Gamer is a podcast combining two of my hobbies, travel, and gaming. It is my hope to grow this podcast as I share my adventures. We'll showcase some kickstarters, share game reviews and game playthroughs. We'll have location briefs and travel blogs. We'll talk about travel destinations, game development, writer's life, interviews and much more.
So lets get going shall we?


(car Start)

We took a bit of a break to re-evaluate how we’re going to go forward. We’ll be changing things up a bit and we hope you enjoy the new format coming up. We plan on doing shorter shows with a more focused content.




Todays Kickstarter Brief we will take a look at current kickstarters that have caught our attention. 
Recorded March 1, 2020

Scattered Nexus
Extortion bringing people together to argue
Hunker a game of woodland friendship under falling snow
Cheer Up! The big D expansion
Empire of the Stars
Cindr
The Ming Voyages and The March of Progress
Goetia: Nine Kings of Solomon
CardWeaver 

(Anchor.FM spot) 

Today’s kickstarters are inspired by the fine folks at Indie Game Alliance. Indie Game Alliance is a great resource for board game developers to get your game out there in the eyes and hands of those who want to play games. 

Scattered Nexus - 
  • 17 days - 1-4 player game - 30-120 minutes (Board Game Geek) - ages 10+
  • A battle style card game based on a growing list of indie comics. Features a coop and competitive mode
  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slimstudio/scattered-nexus?ref=IndieGameAllies
  • https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297807/scattered-nexus


Extortion, bringing people together to argue!
  • 24 days to go - 3-8 player game - From Broken Archer game - 
  • Convince other players that you make the best President by talking them into voting for you. Debate specific topics that come up. Example “A zombie outbreak has begun across the country. How do you respond?”


  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/extortion/extortion-bringing-people-together-to-argue?ref=IndieGameAllies

  • http://www.brokenarcher.com/home.html

HUNKER: a game of woodland friendship under the falling snow
  • 22 days to go - 2-4 players - 50-75 minute game (Board Game Geek) - ages 9+
  • from Aaron Franco 
  • Players will optimize their actions to explore, forage for food, build shelters. Players gain points by foraging for and stashing away food, playing friendship cards, and hunkering down before weather events. Some cards provide mini objectives to pursue. 
  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paperwilds/hunker-a-game-of-woodland-friendship-under-the-falling-snow?ref=IndieGameAllies

Cheer Up! - The Big D Pack Expansion 
  • 31 days to go - 4-8 players - 30 minute play time (Board game geek) - age 17+ - From Cheer Up Games. 
  • Four expansions and 300 new cards for Cheer Up! 
  • Cheer Up is a party game where players use adjective, noun, and verb cards to answer questions in the best way possible. Typical judge and vote game where the judge will turn over a question card, other players draw cards. Players use the cards drawn to answer the question the funniest, best, or worst way possible. Judge picks the best. 
  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cheerup/cheer-up-the-big-d-pack-expansion?ref=IndieGameAllies
  • https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256507/cheer
Empire of the Stars - 4X Board Game
  • 12 days to go - 2-4 players - 60-90 minutes (board game geek) - age 10+ from CrossCut Games
  • Fast paced empire building game of exploration, conflict and struggle for dominance. 
  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872048165/empire-of-the-stars-4x-board-game?ref=IndieGameAllies
  • https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279581/empire-stars

(Matts Book Intro) 

(Escape from the Con)

Cindr - A press your luck game about dating amazing dragons… without getting burned. 
  • 4 days left. 
  • Publisher - Smirk and Laughter Games
  • Designer - Harold Mikolaitis, Benjamin Walker
  • 2-4 players 
  • 30-40 minute
  • Age 14+
  • Cindr is a 'push your luck' dice game about dating awesome dragons without getting burned. On your turn, you will roll the dating dice up to three times, once for each stage of your date. Try to roll as many Hearts as possible, and avoid Fires to find that special dragon partner! The game ends when one player earns 21 love points, having found joy and fulfillment to win! 
  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smirkanddagger/cindr?ref=IndieGameAllies
  • https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295478/cindr

Goetia: Nine Kings of Solomon
  • 17 days to go - 2-4 players - 80-160 minutes - ages 13 +
  • A dark euro worker placement, resource management game following some novel based mythology. 
  • https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/demonicgames/goetia-re-launch-in-february?ref=IndieGameAllies
  • https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267333/goetia-nine-kings-solomon


The Ming Voyages and The March of Progress
  • 14 days to go - 
  • 2 games in one kickstarter
    The Ming Voyages: A game of treasure and conquest for 1 or 2 players. 
  • The March of Progress - A 2 player strategic micro wargame. 
  • Both games have 30-45 minutes. Ages 12+

CardWeaver - 
  • 1-4 players - 30-60 minute - Ages 13+ - from ODAM publishing
  • One vs all deckbuilding card game based on the world of The Shared Dream
  • Up to 3 players team up against another player. Buying cards and competing in a 1 vs all. 
  •  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/odampublishing/cardweaver?ref=IndieGameAllies
  • https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297530/cardweaver



Gruff: Whispers of Madness
  • 1-4 players - 20-45 minutes - ages 11+ - from Brent Crutchfield and Studio Woe
  • Tactical card game where players duel to the death with custom teams of eldritch monster goats - 



Again, thank you for listening. 
Remember
Be kind to one another.
Always know where your towel is,
And be kind rewind. 

Overland Gamer is produced by Joe DeMarco. Sounds recorded by Joe DeMarco. Escape from the Con is written by Joe DeMarco. 
See you next time. 
 
Car shutting down

​
0 Comments

    Shad0fx

    Joe DeMarco (Shad0fx) is a father, writer, game designer, and podcaster. 

    Find out more
    Tweet #GCGamersConnect

    Archives

    March 2022
    November 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019

    Categories

    All
    Blog
    Board Game Spotlight
    Game Review
    Podcast
    Shad0fx
    Tabletop Game Review
    Tabletop RPG

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.