Spies/Secret Agents

After 500 years, two factions emerge from their underground cities into a new world, an Earth reborn from nuclear disaster.

12 highly detailed miniatures represent the two factions which are:

NORAD: military in thinking and origins. Scientists, engineers, add to their strength.

SALEMITES: occultists working with cadavers, bringing the dead to life.

Soon after emerging, these two factions meet - and it is determined that they cannot live together in peace.

Earth Reborn offers nine scenarios that take you through missions of rescue, retrieval, and escort through areas of labs, mansions, towns, and more. Each scenario builds upon the rules of a new chapter: the game system is built like a tutorial. There are core rules to start the game, and each chapter offers 1-3 new rules along with a scenario that uses these new rules.

The game also contains the innovative S.A.G.S. (Scenario Auto Generating System), where 2-4 players can make their own maps and mission objectives for near infinite replayability!

Other features include:

A Tetris-like board construction using polyomino floor tiles.
An order tiles system to give commands to your miniatures.
Interrupt Duels with Bluff, betting command points to interrupt an enemy character and act during another player's turn.
The I.P.S. (Iconographic Phrasing System) that allows almost any effect to occur with icons, totally language independent.
Colored base arcs on miniatures to simplify Line of Sight, shooting, and close combat. It also multiplies characters’ variations and possibilities.
The Search rule, giving a visceral feeling to searching in rooms to find equipment.
A Mission Points track that also serves as a Morale Points track.
Radio Scrambling to mess with your opponents' orders.

A strategic two-player abstract with a heavy deduction element. At the start of the game, neither player knows how their own pieces move. Via performing attempted moves, each player tries to deduce the movement of their own pieces. As you determine how to move your pieces, your goal is to capture the neutral piece, initially located in the center of the board, and deliver it to your opponent's side of the board.

From the new Stronghold Games version, Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War:

The Cold War. A dangerous time for the world. A dangerous time to be a spy... but that is exactly what being a spy is all about. As the shadowy clouds of intrigue and subterfuge settle across the globe you have been called upon by your country to obtain the Top Secret information that will ensure your country's safety and supremacy. But not all is as it seems; your spies are difficult to control on a global scale, and even worse, there's a Double Agent in your midst who threatens the entire mission!

At the start of a game of Confusion, players aren't aware of the talents and skills their own spies possess! Your opponent can see what your spies can do, but you cannot. Your job as a wise leader is to first deduce exactly how each of your spies move, then employ your knowledge by using each spy for maximum effect. But be on alert, because your opponent has placed a double-agent in your team of spies! The first player to take the Top Secret Briefcase from the middle of the board and deliver it to his opponent's capital is the winner.

Can you achieve your goals at the expense of your opponent, or will the entire operation collapse in a sea of Confusion?

Confusion is game #1 in the Stronghold Games "Castle Line".

Each player chooses one of eight characters that spoof popular spy/action-movie characters or actors: James Blonde, Emma Shell, Austin Flowers, Indiana Smith, Jackie Chang, Dirty Larry, Shift, or Arnold Weissenmeiner. They wander around a sort of super-generic indoor area with corridors, rooms, and safes (somebody's HQ? no villains are in evidence), trying to wipe each other out with their character abilities and the weapons and specials they find in the safes. Obviously enough, the last man (or woman, or team) standing wins. Reminiscent of "Frag," but with more complicated mechanisms.

The modular boards are square grids on the same scale as most of Jolly Roger's other games; in fact, the boards for "Orcs at the Gates" and "Maul of America" can be used with this game.

Approximate playing time is totally arbitrary; it will vary depending on the number of players, the size of the playing area, and so forth. Two hours at least matches the standard length of Jolly Roger's timed games.

Online Play

Ludoholic (no longer available)

It is the future, and beneath the flickering glow of the sprawling New Angeles skyline, immense corporations seek every advantage in the burgeoning field of synthetic humanoid technology. On the brink of a revolutionary innovation, CyberSolutions Inc. is poised to become the next global powerhouse, threatening the profits of well-established conglomerates Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki – but unfortunately for CyberSolutions, security at their New Angeles branch has just been compromised.

Set in the dystopian future of Android, Infiltration is a tense card game of futuristic larceny in which two to six players take the roles of thieves, competing to steal valuable secrets from a highly secured corporate facility.

The most vital information lies deep within the complex, but each step inward takes you farther from escape. Worse yet, corporate mercenaries are closing in! How long will you push your luck as you avoid security patrols, surpass rival thieves, and try to download the most data before the building is locked down?

Game description above from the publisher

The layout of the complex is different every game, choosing 6 of the possible 18 first floor cards, 6 of the 18 second floor cards, and 1 of the 3 secret room cards. These rooms are revealed to the players over the course of the game, usually by one of the players entering the room. The rooms contain traps, NPCs, valuable data and items, and even secret exits.

Each turn, players secretly choose actions they will take, then in turn reveal and resolve their actions. Advancing into the complex or retreating towards the exit, downloading valuable data, interfacing with the current room, or using an item are the actions available to players. After the players have had their turn, any active NPCs have a turn, then the proximity dial is increased. Once the dial reaches 99, or all players have left the complex, the game ends. The players who have escaped the complex add up the value of the data they have extracted; the highest value wins!

The Empire must fall. Our mission must succeed. By destroying their key bases, we will shatter Imperial strength and liberate our people. Yet spies have infiltrated our ranks, ready for sabotage. We must unmask them. In five nights we reshape destiny or die trying. We are the Resistance!

The Resistance is a party game of social deduction. It is designed for five to ten players, lasts about 30 minutes, and has no player elimination. The Resistance is inspired by Mafia/Werewolf, yet it is unique in its core mechanics, which increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.

Players are either Resistance Operatives or Imperial Spies. For three to five rounds, they must depend on each other to carry out missions against the Empire. At the same time, they must try to deduce the other players’ identities and gain their trust. Each round begins with discussion. When ready, the Leader entrusts sets of Plans to a certain number of players (possibly including himself/herself). Everyone votes on whether or not to approve the assignment. Once an assignment passes, the chosen players secretly decide to Support or Sabotage the mission. Based on the results, the mission succeeds (Resistance win) or fails (Empire win). When a team wins three missions, they have won the game.

Rule Correction:

For first printing (2010 purchases), the expansion rules should read: "Games of 5-6 players use 7 plot cards, games with 7+ players use all 15 Plot Cards." and "...each Round, the leader draws Plot cards (1 for 5-6 players, 2 for 7-8 players, and 3 for 9-10 players)" - This has been corrected in the subsequent printings.