Dice Rolling

Another specialist pack expansion for BattleLore focusing on the Scottish Wars.

Contents:

42 new figures:
6 Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders
8 Iron Dwarves Clan Chiefs
16 Iron Dwarves Spear Bearers (previously introduced in the BattleLore: Dwarven Battalion Specialist Pack)
12 Mounted Knights

24 Banners (12 for each camp)
2×2 Cavalry
2×2 Clan Chiefs
2×4 Spear Bearers
2×4 Mounted Knights

8-page Rules Booklet, including Medieval Lore rules and 5 new adventures:
Stirling Bridge
Falkirk
Bannockburn
Dupplin Moor
Neville's Cross

7 Specialist cards (Mounted Knights (2), Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders, Clan Chiefs (2 different), Spear Bearers (2))
3 Unit Summary Cards (Mounted Knights, Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders, Clan Chiefs)
2 Weapon Summary Card (Knight’s Lance, Spear)

Expands:

BattleLore

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. The game is played over five rounds. Each round, the players roll their five personal dice and can perform one action each turn with them. The five main actions are shown on the bottom part of the board:

Get resources with 1-3 dice, depending on the value of the resource (camels, pepper, silk, gold). The first player for each resource gets them for free; the later ones have to pay according to the value shown on the dice.
Take one resource of your choice and two camels. Each player sets the minimum value for the future dice.
Earn money, with any one die netting you five money.
Purchase orders: The value of one die unlocks the orders up to that number (shown on the spaces) and allows to buy one or two of those orders. Orders are refreshed and placed at the beginning of each round. To fulfill an order, players have to spend resources for victory points, other resources, camels, and more.

Travel: Two dice are placed to unlock the distance that can be traveled on the upper part of the board, that is, the map. Here, the traveler piece of each player starts at Venice and can decide between several routes eastward, all the way to Beijing. When a traveler stops at a city, they place a marker there, giving them access to a different additional action for the rest of the game.

After five rounds, the game ends with players receiving victory points for arriving in Beijing, fulfilling the most orders, and having reached the cities on secret city cards that each player gets at the start of the game; these points are added to the VPs gained during the game.

Auf den Spuren von Marco Polo should not be confused with Marco Polo Expedition, which had the same German title.

Beyond the Supernatural™ Two builds on the bones of the classic BTS game to create a modern world of horror and magic unlike any before it.
The supernatural is real. Psychic abilities and the paranormal are real. Magic is real. Yet science and authority figures dismiss them as hysteria, hoaxes and madness. However, special individuals gifted with special abilities or cursed with firsthand encounters find themselves inexorably linked to the paranormal and forced to deal with the consequences.

Some of our heroes are gung-ho psychics and sorcerers who see themselves as humankind's hidden protectors. Others are drawn into the realm of shadows through quirks of fate, or fueled by feelings of revenge. Still others are reluctant heroes and even victims, but all have been touched, in some way, by forces beyond human comprehension - Beyond the Supernatural.

BTS-2 has really come together and will surprise people with its depth of character, background and new direction.
A contemporary horror setting that makes sense and challenges the players.

New P.C.C.s (Psychic Character Classes) include the Firewalker, Night Hunter, Psychic Medium, Diviner, Autistic Psychic Savant, ordinary people and others, all with new and unique abilities.

Many of the characters, psychic abilities and magical powers are unlike any Palladium Books has presented before. Characters and powers that will challenge players and bring a new level of strategy and role-playing to the surface.

Even familiar characters like the Psychic Sensitive, Healer, Nega-Psychic and others are more evolved and unique.

Character background and the world setting is bold, clear and sinister.

I.S.P. (Inner Strength Points) and P.P.E. (Potential Psychic Energy) interact with the characters and the supernatural in new ways.

The secrets of the supernatural, ESP, and magic are revealed.

Victor Lazlo and his lasting legacy: The Lazlo Agency is described.

The world background serves as a guide to adventure.

Interior Art by Ramon Perez, Michael Dubisch, Freddie Williams, Apollo Okamura and others. Cover by John Zeleznik.

Come aboard and sail to Pirate's Cove... the legendary hideaway of thieving pirates and cutthroat buccaneers. The tales of those legendary pirates of old who've fought and survived these mysterious waters still haunt all those who yearn for a life at sea. Armed with a secret map and starting with a modestly outfitted sloop salvaged from last winter's storm, you set sail to Pirate's Cove - your eyes filled with visions of treasure and fame, your lungs filled with the salty air of the High Seas.

Your objective: to battle for the rights to plunder and become the most famed and feared Pirate the world has ever seen. To do so, you will need to navigate shrewdly, fight recklessly and pillage mercilessly. You will gain fame by winning battles; burying gold and treasure; and bragging about your exploits at the Tavern. At the end of twelve months, the pirate with the most fame will be declared the most fearsome Pirate of the High Seas!

The game has 12 turns and at the start of every turn, each pirate must decide (secretly) which of the 6 islands they will visit. All players reveal their navigation directions simultaneously and then the turn is resolved. If any two or more pirates end up at the same island, Combat ensues.

Combat resolution is determined by the strengths of your ship and the results of cannon fire (dice). The goal of combat is to scare away rival pirates so that you are the only pirate left at the island. If you stay in combat too long, your ship will suffer and make subsequent turns more difficult, so there is a fine balance of when to stay and fight and when to let the bigger ship have its booty. If you flee from combat, you end up at Pirate's Cove where you receive a small compensation for the turn. Once all conflicts are resolved, then the bounty for each island is given out.

Each island (except Pirate's Cove and Treasure Island) offer various amounts of Fame, Gold, Treasure or Tavern cards. The bounty is skewed so that some Islands are clearly better choices than others, so it can force you to decide (or bluff) if you think you can take the island should other pirates go after the same bounty. Once you have your bounty, you can purchase upgrades for your ship. Each Island offers a different ship component. The four parts of your ship are: Sails (determines speed and initiative in combat), Hull (how much treasure you can carry), Crew (needed to man the cannons), and Cannons. (The lower number of Crew and Cannons determines how many dice you roll in combat).

There is also an island with a Pub that offers useful strategy cards to help you in all aspects of the game. The last island is treasure island which offers no real bounty other than the chance to bury treasures that you have in the hull of your ship. Buried treasure is converted to Fame (which is the ultimate goal of the game).

Other random elements of the game include the dreaded Legendary Pirates who are highly dangerous ships that patrol the islands in order. One of 5 different Legendary Pirates (which include famous names like Blackbeard and The Flying Dutchman) is drawn at the beginning of every game, and stays until defeated. If you end up at the same island as one of them, you had better have a strong ship and helpful allies or they will blast you with their powerful cannons. However, if you can manage to sink their ships, you can score a good amount of fame! But beware, once you defeat him/her a new Legendary Pirate will appear to wreck havoc in the islands.

At the very end of the game, there is a chance for everyone to tell "tall tales" about themselves to increase their final fame standings. These tall tale cards are gained at the pub and offer yet another fun "pirate" mechanic. In all, Pirate's Cove offers you the chance to truly play like a pirate where you can fight and plunder your way to victory.

You are humanity's last hope.

In XCOM: The Board Game, you and up to three friends assume the roles of the leaders of the elite, international organization known as XCOM. It is your job to defend humanity, quell the rising panic, and turn back the alien invasion.

Where the world's militaries have failed to stand against the alien invaders, you must succeed. To do so, you must make strategic use of the resources available to you. You must launch Interceptors to shoot down alien UFOs, assign soldiers to key missions, research alien technology, and use that technology to defend your base — all while trying to keep the world from collapsing just long enough that you can coordinate one final mission to repel the invaders for good.

One of the more notable aspects of XCOM: The Board Game is the way that it incorporates a free and innovative digital app into the core of its gameplay. This digital companion will be available both as a downloadable app and as an online tool.

The app's primary function is to coordinate the escalating alien invasion, randomly selecting from one of five different invasion plans. Each invasion plan represents a general outline that the alien commanders will use to coordinate the arrival of new UFOs, plan strikes against your base, and respond to your successes or failures as it seeks to conquer Earth. The app manages all of these tasks and heightens the game's tension as it forces you to respond in real-time. Then, after you move quickly to coordinate your response, you engage the enemy in the untimed resolution phase and feed the results to the app. Based upon these results, the app launches the invasion's next strikes.

Additionally, the app teaches you the rules, controls the information that your satellites provide you, and tracks the progress of your resistance efforts, even as it allows you to enjoy the game at any of three levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, or Hard.

The use of this app does more than simply streamline your play experience and track your turns in real-time; it also permits a uniquely dynamic turn structure. While the variety of game phases remains the same from round to round, the order in which you and your friends must play through them may change, as may the number of a given phase. As a result, while you'll want to know where UFOs appear before you deploy your Interceptors, the alien invaders may be able to disrupt your satellite intel and force you to deploy your Interceptors on patrol with limited or no knowledge of the UFOs current whereabouts. Similarly, you may be forced to think about the costs of resolving the world’s crises before you know how many troops you’ll need to commit to your base defense.

The effect of the app is to immerse you deep into the dramatic tension at the core of XCOM: The Board Game, and it ensures that the game presents a challenging and cooperative (or solo) experience like no other. Just like the XCOM department heads that you represent, you'll need to keep cool heads in order to prevail.

Source: Publisher