At GAMA Trade Show (Las Vegas, March 19th-20th), Ares presented two novelties in the 2005 pipeline: Jolly Roger, our first card game, and Odyssey - Wrath of Poseidon, a new title in the Euro game line, both due to release next Summer.
Jolly Roger - The game of Piracy & Mutiny: first card game published by Ares.
Jolly Roger – The game of Piracy & Mutiny is a cardgame of pillage, plunder, and mutinies. Fun, rowdy, fast and easy to learn, the game can be played for 4 to 10 players. You and the other players are the crew of a pirate ship. As appropriate for a pirate, your greatest desire is gold, and you will do anything to reach your goal.
Every turn, the Captain chooses a destination for the ship. When the ship attacks, players will (more or less!) co-operate to win, playing Crew cards from their hands to win the battle and take the prize. Treasure gained is shared between all pirates, but your gold is never secure until you bury it at Treasure Island...
Unrest is always brewing, though – each time the Captain makes an important choice, it is possible for one of the other players to call "Mutiny!" to try to overthrow him and become the new Captain. And when the mutiny begins, you’ll need to decide how to use your cards during the Mutiny and the looming battle. How much will you co-operate when you assault an enemy, and what will you keep to yourself, to be ready when the next mutiny starts?
The players’ final goal is to collect the highest amount of gold and become the richest pirate in Tortuga!
With Jolly Roger, Ares Games debuts in the Card Game category. The game has been designed by Frederic Moyersoen, author of Saboteur and Nuns on the Run, and illustrated by the talented Loïc Billiau (Glen More,Cherokee, Auf die Nüsse).
Odyssey - Wrath of Poseidon, an Euro and deduction game.
The other novelty previewed at GAMA was Odyssey - Wrath of Poseidon, an Euro and deduction game for two to five players. The war is over, and the Greek ships are trying to sail back to their homeland after a long absence. They need to reach the Sacred Island to make offerings and prayers to the gods, but the irascible Poseidon will use all his powers to prevent them from getting there.
In Odyssey, one player takes the role of Poseidon, God of the Sea, while the others become Navigators in search of the Sacred Island. The game is played over two copies of the same board, separated using the box so that they are not visible to each other. The Poseidon player throw powerful storms against the Navigators, driving them off-course and confounding them, so they cannot reach the Sacred Island in time. Only Poseidon knows the real position of the ships, indicated on his copy of the game board.
The Navigator players sail through endless storms, blind to all around them, trying to gather clues to their whereabouts to stay on course. They also keep track of the position of the ships on the board, but the positions indicated there are only their best guess, and they can become very inaccurate as the game goes forward. The Navigators must reach the Sacred Island before the end of the game to win, using their wits to stay on course, while Poseidon wins by preventing the other players to reach their destination.
The author of Odyssey – Wrath of Poseidon is Leo Colovini, the game designer of Cartagena, Clans, Aztlán and Inkognito (with Alex Randolph). The game is illustrated by Francesco Mattioli (Micro Monster, Sails of Glory and Dino Race).
Jolly Roger and Odyssey are due out at GenCon 2015.
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