Publisher: Valley Games

Gone Cardboard

Upcoming and recently released games. Go to Gone Cardboard for a full listing of release dates.

Game Announcement

Liberté, Egalité, Play Someday

Liberté (Valley Games)

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2001 yes
— October 2010 no
Players: 
3-6
Ages: 
12+
Playing time: 
90 minutes
Price: 
$60
Language: 
Dutch
Language: 
English
Language: 
French
Language: 
German
Language: 
Italian
Language: 
Spanish

In early July 2010, I tweeted a note about the new version of Martin Wallace's Liberté being listed by a U.S. distributor, which suggested the game would be released sometime in the near future. (Wallace's own Warfrog Games first published the design in 2001.) Publisher Valley Games made the official announcement of the game on July 14 – Bastille Day, appropriately enough – and here's the description from the publisher:

In Liberté, players shape the political landscape of revolutionary France. They compete in provincial elections to gain votes in the government and opposition which in turn award victory points. Successfully leading the army in battle and winning the election in key provinces will also score victory points.

The game is played over four turns with each turn consisting of multiple action rounds. The most common action is to play a card to stack faction blocks in the provinces. Special cards may be played to weaken rivals. Players may also participate in the battle and recruit the best General, among other options. Players can retain some cards in their personal display. These cards can then be replayed (advanced) to resolve ties. If not used by the end of the turn, they return to the player’s hand, available for the next turn.

After the action rounds, the election is resolved in each province. The three factions competing for the new government are the Moderates (blue), the Royalists (white), and the Radicals (red). The player with the largest stack in a province controls that vote. Ties are very common, however, so players may advance their held cards to gain the advantage.

Game Announcement

Rosenberg's Bargain Hunter – On the Valley Games Schedule

Bargain Hunter

Game name: 
Designer: 
— September 2010 no
Players: 
3-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$17
Language: 
English
Language: 
German
Language: 
French
Language: 
Dutch
Language: 
Spanish
Language: 
Italian
Language: 
Chinese

In August 2007, I posted a news item announcing the return of Uwe Rosenberg's fantastic card game Schnäppchen Jagd from then relative newcomer Canadian publisher Valley Games. Now Valley Games has finally announced a release date for the renamed Bargain Hunter: September 2010.

For those not familiar with the game, here's a summary from that 2007 Boardgame News post:

Schnäppchen Jagd is a trick-taking game that's standard in some ways and unusual in many others. In each trick, each player plays one card to the table, following suit if possible, and the high card wins the trick and leads. That’s the end of the normal stuff.

As for the unusual, the deck has two cards of each suit/rank combination, and if you play an identical card in a trick, you can announce that it's higher or lower than the card already played. More interestingly, trump is determined each trick. If the second player in a trick can't follow suit, that player can name the suit that he does play trump for that trick; if he passes, the third player (if throwing off a third suit) can name that suit trump. Your goal is to collect cards of a particular rank, preferably in large groups, as you score one rank of cards after each round and two ranks after the final round.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Bargain Hunter – card images

Game Announcement

Fight Pests and Opponents in Bugs

Bugs

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Players: 
3-6
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
30 minutes
Price: 
$13
Language: 
English
Language: 
French
Language: 
German
Language: 
Italian
Language: 
Spanish
Language: 
Chinese

Canadian publisher Valley Games has announced an August 2010 release date for Keith Meyers' Bugs, noting that the game is already at the printer.

At first glance, Bugs is reminiscent of Reiner Knizia's Escalation (BGN review) in that players take turns adding single cards or multiple identical cards to a central pile with the goal of taking as few cards as possible in each round.

As for how the games differ, while the cards in Escalation are distributed across a rough bell curve – lots of 6s and 7s, few 2s and 13s – the card distribution in Bugs takes a cue from The Great Dalmuti: nine 1s, eight 2s, and so on to one 9. When playing onto an existing swarm of cards, a player can lay down cards matching the value previously played – for example, adding a 4 to one or more 4s played on the previous turn – or playing higher valued cards that sum to more than the current bug total.

Bugs – one of each card

A bigger difference between the two games is that when a player chooses not to play or cannot play, she picks up all the cards in the swarm and adds them to her hand. Thus, she'll have more possibilities for what to play down the road. In addition, if a player has the lead, she can discard all cards of a single value from the game if she has all of them in her hand.

A few action cards mix up the otherwise straight numbers game, such as an exterminator that drops the swarm total back to zero and a wild bug that can be paired with any type of insect.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Game Announcement

Crows

Crows

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
45 minutes

Use your shiny objects to attract crows and win!

Game Announcement

Master Builder Coming Again from Valley Games

Master Builder

Game name: 
Designer: 
Designer: 
— September 2010 no
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
60 minutes
Price: 
$55
Language: 
English
Language: 
German

Canadian publisher Valley Games released Wolfgang Kramer and Hartmut Witt's Master Builder at Spiel 2008 in English and German – but the game never materialized on store shelves after that date. Now Valley Games has announced that the second printing of Master Builder will be available in September 2010, with enchanced artwork compared to the initial print run. Here's a summary of the game play from the publisher:

You are a great master builder in the Middle Ages. You employ master craftsmen, foremen, tradesmen and apprentices. You bid on building contracts and with your workforce construct buildings. Upon completing each building you receive money so you can pay wages and possibly take on extra workers. Unforeseen events such as town fairs, fires and higher wages in other cities can make managing your projects very difficult. Also, not all workers are as committed to their jobs as others and some may just not show up for work simply because they were out late the evening before. All this could result in you having to deal with higher costs, late completions of your building projects or the need to dismiss workers.

In the course of the game beautiful buildings will be created and at the end a medieval city will stand in the middle of the table – complete with city walls, fortified towers, city gates, houses and a town hall.

Master Builder – display

Your aim is to become the greatest and most famous master builder of the Middle Ages. Of course, your opponents will have the same aim so a lively contest will develop for supremacy in the building trade. The winner will be the player who has the most money at the end of the game.

Game Announcement

Keep the Animals Safe in Two By Two

Two By Two

Game name: 
Designer: 
— August 2010 no
Players: 
2-4
Ages: 
8+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$40
Language: 
English

Canadian publisher Valley Games will release Rob Bartel's Two By Two sometime in 2010. Here's a brief game description from the publisher:

This is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two.

The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning!

Two By Two – game board

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.