When it comes to the card game that many people love to play, AEG (Alderac Entertainment Group) is a name that cannot be avoided. They started out as a game magazine, and in 2009 AEG officially entered the board game market after launching the famous DBG game "Thunder Stone".
For more than ten years, AEG quality continues, the groundbreaking DBG game "Nightfall", the fast-paced card battle game "Big Kill Quartet" is still alive and well, and the popular card game "Ten" some time ago also has an AEG version, it can be said that in terms of card games, they are always not disappointed. AEG will be equally prolific in 2022, so let's briefly introduce it.
1. "The Trail of the Dark Sea"
English name: Dead Reckoning
Suitable number of people: 1-4 people, the best 3 people
Game Type: Pirate Adventure, Card Maker, 4X
The "Card Crafting System," a feature that some board game veterans are familiar with, is closely related to AEG, a publisher, and to John D. Clair, the designer.
This system uses the deck that is usually used as a protective card as a game accessory, and the card that is the base needs to be stuffed into the deck before the game starts, and during the game, the player will insert a variety of transparent plastic cards into the deck in various ways to change the content of this card (the process is a bit like a sticker), full of imagination.
In 2021, AEG's "Dark Sea Trail" crowdfunded on KS inherited and optimized this mechanism, and the final crowdfunding amount exceeded $1.5 million, breaking AEG's crowdfunding record.
In the game, the player is a group of pirates galloping on the sea, exploring unknown seas, robbing each other of resources, and ultimately accumulating the most wealth. With the help of the card making system, the game perfectly contains all the 4X elements, but the severity is not so high, and the gameplay is intuitive.
In order to have a richer naval combat experience for players, "Dark Sea Trail" introduced the concept of battle dice to make it interesting. When a battle occurs, players get battle blocks based on their combat abilities and then throw them into the dice tower. The outlet of the dice tower is divided into several areas, and after the block is rolled out, the effect is settled according to its location. This makes the result of the battle roughly correlated with the comparison of combat strength, and at the same time, it also brings a lot of variables to the battle.
In addition, the game has also followed the trend and added a story mode, and the amount of content is quite rich. Originally planned for publication in 2021, it has been postponed to 2022. Some time ago, the Chinese version of "Dark Sea Trace" has been successfully pre-sold in the new collection, and it is possible that the Chinese and British versions will be shipped synchronously.
2. "Mi Bao and the Monster"
Meeples & Monsters
Suitable number of people: 2-4 people
Game Type: German Strategy, Theme American
The game was also crowdfunded in 2021 and is currently being extended to 22 years. In the game, the quiet city of Rowan is surrounded by dangerous monsters, and players need to strengthen the city and train warriors, priests, knights, and mages to defend Rowan.
During their turn, players draw Mibao from their pockets and use these Mibao to use various actions on the map, such as upgrading Mibao, adding new Mibao, fighting, investigating, or upgrading towns, and these actions will also give the player more choices. The player's various actions in the game may provide points, and the player with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
The gameplay is very solid, and if it can be cleverly designed, it should be a solid work.
3. "Wormhole"
English name: Wormholes
Suitable number of people: 1-5 people
Game type: space sci-fi, wormhole construction
It's a space-set delivery game designed by Little Town designer Peter McPherson and will be available in the third quarter of 2022.
In the game, wormholes have finally become a technology that everyone can use. They allow ships to bend from one point to another and open up countless possibilities for commerce and travel. Players as capitalists can make a lot of money by building a powerful network of wormholes. After building roads, railways, canals, and airports, players can finally dig wormholes.
Inspired by The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (a mission-driven space travel science fiction novel), the core of the gameplay is to place wormholes and connect planets to jump through the universe.
Players collect passengers from various planets and send each passenger to the location they want to reach. Of course, once a player has built a wormhole between different points in the galaxy, the traffic pattern may also be very different, and the facilities built by one player may be used by other players.
4. "Rolling Tall Building"
Rolling Heights
Game Type: City Building
This is another game from John D. Clair, but this time he didn't use a card creation system, but the concept was still very creative.
The game is set in 1920, where players operate as building developers in a rapidly expanding city. Each turn, the player takes out their own worker Mibao and throws it on the table. If a worker is standing, it means that he is working mentally, and the player receives two cubes for building; if it is face up, the player receives a cube; if it is facing up, it means that he is touching the fish and the player gets nothing.
There are a considerable number of building blocks in the game, as well as various privileges and abilities that everyone is very familiar with, but the detailed information has not yet been made public, and it is expected to be launched on February 8 KS crowdfunding, and interested players can learn more about it at that time.
5. Merchant Explorers Guild
The Guild of Merchant Explorers
This is a flop building game that works a bit like dice, but doesn't use pen and paper. The game has a terrain deck where players need to display most of the cards in this stack one by one. Depending on the terrain shown on the card, each player will place blocks connected to their city or other cubes on their territory. This allows players to complete areas on their own territory, cross the ocean to new lands, and build new cities on the map.
In the game, players can explore overturned ships to find treasure to gain special placement abilities, while making connections between different locations can earn points. At the end of the round, all blocks are removed from the map, leaving only the built city, which means that if the player does not build a new city, they will be trapped in the same place.
The concept of the game is very concise, but from the game layout and gameplay can see a lot of possibilities, if you use it may end up will be a pretty good light strategy. It is expected to go on sale in the third quarter of 2022.
6. Space Base: The Mystery of Proxima Centauri
英文名：《Space Base: The Mysteries of Terra Proxima》
Suitable number of people: 2-5 people
This is the second in the well-known Light Strategy Space Base narrative expansion series, and the game contains a series of new content that uses stories to connect together. After this part of the story is played, its content can also be added to the normal game, bringing new cards and play scenes to the game. Compared with the inherited version, this method of story expansion is actually more widely applicable. The expansion is expected to roll out in the second quarter of 2022.
In addition to the games mentioned above, there are some games on AEG's 2022 plan list that don't have much public information at the moment. For example, Ready Set Bet, a party-to-horse racing game; This Old Wallpaper, a game that restores the house through wallpaper; and the 10th Anniversary Set of Massacre, which will be released in the fourth quarter of 2022. There are many interesting projects, if you are interested in the work may wish to pay attention to it in advance.