Thematic Games

Catacombs is an action/dexterity-based adventure board game. One player controls the Overseer, controlling the monsters of the catacombs; the other player(s) control the four heroes who cooperatively try to defeat the monsters and eventually the Catacomb Lord. Each of the heroes has special abilities that must also be used effectively if they are to prevail.

The main mechanism of Catacombs is for the players to flick wooden discs representing the monsters and the heroes. Contact with an opposing piece inflicts damage, but missiles, spells, and other special abilities can cause other effects. When all of the monsters of a room have been cleared, the heroes can move further into the catacomb. Items and equipment upgrades can be purchased from the Merchant with gold taken from fallen monsters. The Catacomb Lord is the final danger that the heroes must defeat to win the game; conversely, the Overseer wins if all of the heroes are defeated. The game is designed for quick set-up and fast play within 30 to 60 minutes.

From the publisher, Avalon Hill:

Ahoy, Mateys!

That scurvy villain, the Pirate King, has stolen the Sea Hammer - only the pride of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy - and taken to the seas like the dog he is! It’s up to you to commission a brave officer of the Royal Navy to pursue that black-hearted cur, catch him, and turn him into shark bait. But he’s a rascal, that Pirate King, so you’ll need to recruit one of the dregs of the Queen’s dungeons because sometimes it takes a pirate to catch a pirate. Iffn’ you discover where that swab is hiding, you’ll need to beat the Pirate King in a duel or acquire enough gold to buy back the ship. Act with haste because you’re not alone in this hunt. Whoever saves the Sea Hammer first wins the Queen’s undying gratitude - and the game!

Here's a description of the game from Timothy Rose, who saw a presentation on the game at GenCon:

The "S&S" pirate game is a "track" based game (think "Talisman" more than "Monopoly" ). Each player controls two characters, a "hero" and a "scoundrel" type, and the goal is to retrieve the Queen's flagship from the Pirate King. Of course, each character has different ways to do that, either by derring-do and combat or by more underhanded methods (if you have enough gold, you could even BRIBE the Pirate King to get the ship back!). They showed the box design, pretty standard pirate/cutlass stuff, but nice art.

In this game of Gothic adventure, one player takes the role of Dracula while up to four others attempt to stop him by controlling Vampire hunters from the famous Bram Stoker novel.

Dracula has returned, and is determined to control all of Europe by creating an undead empire of Vampires. Dracula uses a deck of location cards to secretly travel through Europe, leaving a trail of encounters and events for the hunters that chase him.

Meanwhile, the hunters attempt to track and destroy Dracula using the limited information available to them - a task easier said than done when their prey has the power to change forms into a wolf or bat, and can even melt away into the mist when confronted.

To save Europe and rid the world of Dracula's foul plague, the hunters must destroy Dracula before he earns enough victory points to win the game... will they have enough wit and bravery to defeat the dark count?

Note: This game is available by request only and requires having a membership to play.
See game associate for details.

"Mousquetaires du Roy" is based on the novel "The three Musketeers" from Alexandre Dumas.

The Musketeers (a team of one to four players) are fighting against Milady to find the Queen's pendants before the end of the game. Meanwhile, they also have to defeat the plots in several places (Le Louvre, La Rochelle...).

A turn begins with Milady playing plots/cards, and secretely programming a destination.

Then, each musketeer (D'artagnan, Portos, Aramis or Athos) has 3/4 actions to perform amongst: move, draw a card, get equipments, exchange cards/equipments, do a challenge in one of his 4 characteristics, perform a fight against one of Richelieu's guards, reinforce La Rochelle... Milady can reveal herself and send Rochefort to fight the Musketeers.

The game also includes rules for an AI-controlled Milady and can therefore be played as a pure coöp.

One against all, all against one.

Essen 2010 release.

In the tabletop game BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia, players will play as either the Founders or the Vox Populi and will build up an army to fight for control of Columbia by taking ground and completing important objectives. At the same time, they'll be using their influence to sway various events that arise. They'll also find themselves having to deal with Booker and Elizabeth who are running around Columbia creating havoc.

Bioshock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia has players combating one another, stealing objectives from one another, assassinating leaders, destroying strongholds, bidding against each other for control of unfolding events and more. The first player/team to 10 victory points wins.

The board game, based in the universe of the Irrational Games-developed video game BioShock Infinite, comes with 52 miniatures, cards, dice and a colorful game board. One of those miniatures – the Handyman – comes with the Premium and Ultimate Songbird editions of the video game, however this item was a promotional element to get news of the game out there and no rules have been implemented for this figure.

For additional assistance with the rules you can see the FAQ located here http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1030558/bioshock-infinite-faq or contact Colby on the Plaid Hat Games website.