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From publisher blurb:
An expansion for FLASHING BLADES to allow characters to adventure in the New World and at sea in the Caribbean (or elsewhere). Included herein are complete rules for the creation of colonial characters, new skills and backgrounds for the New World, a complete background to the New World and the colonial bureaucracy, colonial military campaigns, and even the position of the clergy in the Americas. Also included are complete rules for shipbuilding, ship types, sea travel and trade, and ship-to-ship combat. Additional sections provide a complete background to the world of pirates and privateers.
This book is rounded out by a complete mini-campaign set amidst the pirates of the Spanish Main. Herein can be found:
SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER: An introductory adventure involving French-born characters sent from France to the New world on a perilous mission of importance for their monarch.
PIKE’S TROVE: An adventure wherein the pieces of a treasure map come together to lead to both riches and dangers.
GUEDE-JE-ROUGE: An adventure of rescue involving the beautiful daughter of a Colonial Governor and a voodoo curse.
PORTOBELO: An adventure of intrigue and espionage in a Spanish city on the Spanish Main wherein await potential rewards and perilous encounters.
- high production value
- familiar framework with expansion potential
- hospitality/rolling rights expansion
- hotel management (Grand Austria Hotel framework)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- rolling right — rolling right mechanism mentioned as common frame
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- everything I've seen about this game is just really clever
- this feels more of like always kind of old older games of like the mix of everything potentially but like a lighter version of that
- it's absolutely glorious
- the table presence looks really cool
References (from this video)
- Excellent roll-and-right implementation
- Plays very fast
- Smart simplification of a larger game
- Offers many strategic choices
- Can feel like a struggle with meager gains
- Too short for some players (e.g., the reviewer's wife)
- Easy to spread yourself too thin
- Running hotels
- Austria, hotels
- Grand Austria Hotel
- Allesim
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice Drafting — Players draft dice to activate actions, with fewer dice available for subsequent players.
- Objective Fulfillment — Players work towards completing objectives for scoring.
- Roll and Write — Players roll dice and mark corresponding actions on their personal sheet.
- Tableau Building — Players hire staff and prepare rooms to attract visitors and score points.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's a very small box. Doesn't take up much shelf space.
- but it definitely hits above its weight.
- this is not one that makes you insanely powerful and you know just kind of like you know you know does uh you know power inflation, power creep like so many expansions I'm seeing these days that just like kind of fundamentally upset the balance of the original game.
- Minos is a long beast of a game.
- I would not play Emberleaf without this expansion. It is excellent. It's a simple little tweak, but it's a mustave.
- It turns the whole game cooperative, which I got to say I love.
- And I just got to say folks, it is freaking brilliant.
- The Networks Prime Time is the Networks with all the rough edges shaved off
- it becomes so laidback and chillax
- But this game does that better than any other Machioro inspired game, including Machi Koro itself ever has. It destroys all of them, including Space Base.
- it is by far the coolest implementation of a victory point track that the board game industry has ever seen. It is literally the best of class of all time.
- This is an expansion that just makes um, Evenf Fall, a very hard name to remember, Evenfall, deeper and richer.
- Every year, like clockwork, the publishers come out with a new brilliant expansion, and every year it's my number one thing of that month, and System Overload is no different.
- it introduces a new idea and you can see it there on the screen. If you look over in the bottom right of the screen on the boss I'm fighting, there's a die there. Don't worry, you never roll that dice. That die is your intensity marker.
- Evenfall was in my top 10 for the year. It came out a few years ago. I think it's absolutely amazing.
- It is so deep and it's so rich because it borrows an idea from one of my all-time faves, Allesium.
- The best one are these cute Everybody gets this cute little cat that's a little wooden cat that literally hangs off of a wooden hat of one of your little wooden witches and it's the cutest thing you've ever seen.
- it comes with new mages that somehow come up with completely new and interesting ideas that we still have never seen before.
- This is a simple little set of rules that really creates a new and interesting dynamic shifting element that is just a lot of fun.
- It's the best thing I played in the month of May. Aon's end system overload.