The great scientists, inventors, artists, politicians, spiritual leaders, philosophers and generals come to life!

Categories

Euro, Card Game, Direct Conflict, Historical

Overview

Road to Enlightenment gives you control of the great leaders, minds and personalities from the Age of Enlightenment in an epic struggle to become the most admired and powerful nation in Europe. Your nation will strive to expand on the continent and in overseas colonies, become a leader in culture and innovation, and contribute to the Europe-wide struggle of Catholicism's struggle for supremacy over other faiths.

134 luminaries from European history are brought to life with ratings in seven different categories: Politics, Military, Religion, Ideas, Science, Art and Wealth. Each person also has a unique Action, Enhancement or Response that captures an important contribution they made during their life for your benefit. These famous people work on behalf of your leader and nation.

Your leader has unique strengths, weaknesses and abilities creating an asymmetrical game that makes you consider the real-life challenges they faced. Based on the success and creations of your people, your monarch attempts to maximize your nation's influence and prestige in the view of the world and put you first on the Road to Enlightenment.

Gameplay

The objective is to use Military to expand, Religion and Politics to steer The Battle for Christendom toward your preferred religion, Ideas and Science to drive Innovation, and Art and Wealth to expand your culture. Whichever leader executes the best combination of influence in these myriad ways will be viewed as the most prestigious monarch, and thus the winner.

After a quick setup each player selects from one of the available leaders, formulates a basic strategy, and draws their initial luminaries. Players then plan ahead for their two actions each turn, secretly committing cards for what they are going to do. One by one each player reveals and executes their first action, then when their turn comes around again the second. Each action brings a cornucopia of possibilities: will you choose to build up your military and project force? Use wealth to build up a treasury for maximum flexibility? Attempt to move up the various influence tracks in order to distinguish yourself? Every popular player strategy - the rush, the boom and the turtle - are supported by the system and its unique "king of the hill" mechanisms.

Turn after turn, you add and lose luminaries, shifting your tactics to adjust to the broader European situation. Winning demands interacting, negotiating and actively playing with your opponents. Trying to employ a "multi-player solitaire" strategy will almost certainly let a more cooperatively-minded player climb to the top of the heap. So even if you want to be a "builder" not a "fighter", don't lose sight of how other players are doing and use your negotiation skills to undermine them!

As the game concludes the playerwith the most prestige wins, having their nation furthest on the Road to Enlightenment. For everyone else, it's simply time to start another game!

Road to Enlightenment is available for pre-order; purchase this fun and richly historical game from Conquistador Games today!

An effortless computer game-like experience with museum-quality pre-painted 1:144 scale miniatures right on your table.

Categories

Wargame, Miniatures, Card Assisted, WW2 Tactical

Overview

Pocket Armies: Red Storm combines the best of miniature gaming with the best of board gaming to create a fast-playing, rewardingly deep tactical battle system with museum-quality vehicle miniatures that brings the speed and power of a turn-based computer game right to your gaming table. Easy to learn for the casual gamer and difficult to master for the Grognard, pushing gorgeous tanks around the board has never been this much fun!

Red Storm is the first entry in the Pocket Armies series. Featuring 20 scenarios chronicling the ascent of the Red Army during World War 2 - from the turning point at Stalingrad to the Korsun Pocket - Red Storm puts gorgeous T-34s, Panthers, Tigers and many more high-quality pre-painted miniatures at your disposal, along with various infantry units, to achieve your objectives and outfight your opponent. You also have a wide range of purchasable assets to buff your units - such as tactical bombers, flamethrowers, and special ammo - and you have unprecedented tactical flexibility and power. Throw in random events that enhance battlefield realism with thrilling unpredictability and you have a unique playing experience.

Gameplay

Pick one of our 20 designed scenarios, or create your own. Each side starts with their assigned units, a variety of vehicles and infantry. Plan your strategy, set up your units and buy asset cards to customize your force. Each unit has a corresponding block - or vehicle miniature if you add them to your game - and a unit card that puts all of the game-critical information in one place. At the start of each turn you get one event card for each of your units, a card that will only be revealed when your unit is put into action. Buy your assets, set your orders and then the battle begins.

The combat system resolves odds of hitting, suppression, casualties, and detailed vehicle damage - all with a single dice roll. The ONLY dice modifiers are for terrain: no tedious to-hit calculations before every shot. It's as simple as counting the range in hexes, looking up the firepower on your unit card, and applying the pre-printed terrain modifier from the map, then rolling the dice. Your opponent compares that to his defense and applies the result found directly on his card. There is an incredible amount of detail on each card but ALL the number crunching is done for you! It sounds too good to be true but you really need to see it in action to believe it! All you have to do is trust your plan and roll the dice. The focus is on developing real life tactics, not gaming the system.

Pocket Armies: Red Storm is not a perfect information game. Neither player knows how broken and suppressed units will perform or the impact of vehicle damage until they are activated. Blocks store the orders for each unit and create uncertainty as to the exact disposition of your opponent. Hidden units and random events mean no plan survives contact with the enemy. But don't expect gamey situations like waiting for cards to be able to activate units or your opponent playing cards as if from the Hand of God. Every event has been scrutinized to ensure players cannot influence the battlefield situation in ways that defy logic. It's all about detail, realism and fast action.

Pre-order this fun, deep wargame from Conquistador Games today!

The Next Superpower is a conflict simulation set in the near future where six world powers struggle to save their people and culture in the face of imminent world calamity.

Categories

Euro, Card Game, Conflict Simulation, Near Future

Overview

It is a few years in the future and the nations of the world concur with the opinion of an unprecedented number of leading scientists: a combination of overpopulation, environmental change and resource depletion has put the human species at imminent and dire risk. Something needs to be done - but what? Some advocate massive global depopulation. Others suggest completely overhauling the global energy agenda. Still others think the situation is hopeless. From this chaos the leading powers of the world devolve into a state of war.

You control one of six powers - the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation, China, India or the Arab Caliphate - attempting to exploit the chaos for the glory of your people and their future. Can you balance your military ambitions with diplomatic agreements and an energy policy that doesn't destroy the very world you are fighting to control. Military, terror, biological, nuclear and cyber warfare are all at your disposal as you wage the The Next Superpower.

Gameplay

The objective is to expand your nation, destroy your enemies and manage your economic and energy policies in order to become the next world superpower. You can be ruthless, conquering other parts of the world to fuel your own growth and/or decimate foreign populations that are putting pressure on the Earth. You can be diplomatic, by exerting influence on other parts of the world and be given control of the land and people by smaller, terrified governments. All the while you must avoid further polluting the planet or taking biological or nuclear damage that will spoil your lands and harm your people.

After the game is set up and you select a power to control it is time to set your production strategy, which will have impact for you over the rest of the game. Fossil fuels will give you the most resources to attack others with but will pollute your lands and further destabilize the world condition. Nuclear is a fairly powerful energy source with little pollution but might be targeted during an attack - with potentially catastrophic results. Green energy is safe and environmentally friendly but much weaker than the other types.

Turns are straightforward and put the emphasis on thinking, negotiating and executing as opposed to trying to play rules or the system. First, you collect new resources based on your energy policy and apply pollution if necessary. Then you pick your nation's action for the turn. Using an attack action allows you to attack another territory with military or terror capabilities. Or you can turn your hackers loose and try to get control of cyberspace in order to realize future bonuses. Using a diplomatic action allows you to exert influence with neutrals parts of the world, or undermine your opponents with resource manipulation or sewing unrest. Using an infrastructure action allows you to further gear up your production apparatus, or clean up pollution or biological/nuclear damage back home.

After choosing your action it is time for the most important part of The Next Superpower: negotiation. The game will ultimately be won and lost by the alliances you can make, and the mistrust you can plant in other players. Making and breaking offensive and defensive coalitions is vital to your success. More often than not, the player best able to manipulate their opponents will end up victorious in The Next Superpower.

Last but certainly not least each player resolves their action for the turn. This is when you watch the world literally change before your eyes, where the fate of nations hangs in the balance. This process of turns continues until either one nation has risen to supremacy or the combatants have so devastated the planet that there is no future for anyone. The stakes couldn't be any higher!

Pre-order this engrossing, thought-provoking game from Conquistador Games today!