A few very big games have come in, so I have a little bit of unboxing to do with these games. The two big ones being Chronicles of Drunagor from Creative Games Studio and ISS Vanguard from Awaken Realms. Both of these are epic campaign games, but I also have Mask of the Pharaoh from Hasbro as well which I picked up. I give a reason why I grabbed this littler game and why it’s part of the unboxing.

The Games

Mask of the Pharaoh

Mask of the Pharaoh is an outlier compared to the other games that I have on the list for unboxing. It isn’t a big and epic game. In fact, the box is quite small. But there is one thing that made me want to buy it. And that is that it uses an app. But it isn’t just that it uses an app, but how it uses the app.

Originally a game called Mask of Anubis coming out in 2016, it was picked up by Hasbro as Mask of the Pharaoh. The game uses an app, not as something to assist the game but as a core piece to the game. One person is navigating and looking around a tomb via the app. They give directions to the other players how to set it up. This is just novel for a board game, so I wanted to try it. Chronicles of Crime uses an app in a similar way, and I want to try it as well.

ISS Vanguard

Now onto the bigger games. ISS Vanguard is certainly that. I didn’t get everything you could in wave one, and I’m okay with that. Everything I didn’t get is not as important for game play. I received the core box, the miniatures, which look cool but also not important and the Personnel Files.

ISS Vanguard is an epic space adventure game. That premise is a signal was sent to Eartha and hidden within the DNA of humanity. It is discovered and uncoded. That leads humanity on a mission using and alien ship to find these coordinates. There, well, that is where the game begins.

There is a lot going on in the game. From exploring planets, flying to different solar systems, and unraveling the mystery. I like that you don’t play as a specific character, but as a specific part of the crew. You might be recon or engineering or security, but you get to pick. I also enjoy that you encounter a planet, but you also encounter things as you maintain your ship or upgrade your landing vessels.

Chronicles of Drunagor

Final game getting unboxed is Chronicles of Drunagor. Chronicles of Drunagor didn’t show up as recently, it has been on my shelf for a little bit. But it is one that I’m going to be playing soon for Malts and Meeples. In fact, it should get started next week. I just need your help figuring out who to play. See the section below to vote.

But Chronicles of Drunagor is an epic fantasy game where you build out 3D maps, unlock doors, fight monsters, and level up the characters. Two things stand out to me as really interesting in this game. The first being darkness. The idea of the darkness is that it pushes you forward in the dungeon. As you explore and fight, darkness is filling in behind you. So you can’t take too long, because if you do, it catches you and bad things happen.

And then the character game play. The game uses a cube system for what you are doing. You play with certain powers, which certain color of cubes needed to activate those various powers. For example, I might have a healing power that needs a yellow cube. I can only activate that if there isn’t already a yellow cube on there and I have a yellow cube. So it is a puzzle of when to activate things, when to not, or when to spend a turn to pull back cubes. But when I do that, I lose access to an ability and I pick which. Seems like an amazing puzzle to me.

Picking a Chronicles of Drunagor Character

Like I said, this is the game I’m playing next on Malts and Meeples. There are 12 different classes and 23 different characters. Help me pick two classes.

Upcoming Streams

So, next week, I will not be streaming on Monday. A week off from my Top 100 games because, well, next Monday is Halloween. So I am going to be busy with that. And then probably relaxing or editing podcast after that. But the following Monday, November 7th, at 8:30 PM, join me for a stream of 40 through 31 in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition.

And then of course, on Wednesday, it is diving into the dungeons of the Chronicles of Drunagor. I likely will play the tutorial scenario first to learn the game. So that might be on camera, or I might try and play that myself so I can delve into the bigger campaign with you all. To be determined with that. But 8 PM on Wednesday for that stream.

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