Power Plants Fantastic Flora and Sprite Superiority

by Sean Jacquemain

Awizard is only as good as the potions they make, and for really powerful concoctions you need fresh ingredients. Sure, you can go to the arcane markets and pay a fortune for magical plants and herbs, but why not skip the dealers and grow them yourself? The only problem … there’s only one plot of enchanted land and the competition is fierce! You have to share the garden with some fellow wizards, but don’t worry. You have a secret plan. By deploying your faithful sprites you might be able to control the valuable fields and by harvest time, all of that powerful produce can be yours! That’s assuming your competition doesn’t have a similar sneaky plan in place.

fields and either activate that plant for its strong Sprout ability or activate each plant patch it’s touching for their Grow abilities. Sprout abilities are always more powerful; however, you only get one of them. Grow abilities may be weaker, but depending on the layout of the garden, you might be able to chain together a whole bunch of them for dynamic turns. A wise wizard with a keen eye and a green thumb will be able to identify opportunities and take advantage of them.

Each game of Power Plants, from first seeds to final planting, only lasts about 20 minutes. You win a field by controlling the most plant patches, so be sure to deploy your sprites in valuable areas. The bigger time you play. Each species also has an alternate name and set of Sprout and Grow powers. This means even more wild, weird and fun combinations to explore in future matches. Combined with the speedy playtime, you’ll get it to the table again and again.

Plants like the Honeyleaf, Tanglethorn and Deeproot allow you deploy many of your sprites into the garden. Starflower, Emberwood and Frightshade give you the opportunity to earn gems during the game or to place gems in the garden to be claimed later. The Wingbean allows you to change the layout of the garden and the Snapjaw allows you to capture rival sprites.

A BATTLE GAME LIKE NO OTHER Tense and unique area-control where you don’t attack your rivals, you outmaneuver them to be the ercest defender against the relentless Gnome invasion.

SATISFYING ACTION ENGINE PLAY IT AGAIN AND AGAIN

A clever connection puzzle you create for yourself drives your capabilities on the battle eld.

Amazing Components

Hundreds of wooden bits and huge Champion cards with fantastic art!

Dozens of intriguing Champions to recruit and a di erently-evolving seige in each game results in a new challenge every time.

Hack & Slash 2 – Whack & Stash from Steve Jackson Games provides new quests, and maybe some treasure. Add to your fame, or even bend a rule in your favor! Not a standalone game.

Email retailers@sjgames business.voxlink.app

Vox Link is a tabletop gaming community building app designed by gamers, for gamers. Publish and run events, streamline growth, and build your community all in one place.

Might, Valor and Wisdom from Arcane Tinmen provide matte dual sleeves that are perfect for double-faced cards or concealing card backs during gameplay. Now available in green, blue and off-white. arcanetinmen.com smirkanddagger.com/behexed

BEHEXT from Smirk & Dagger is an unconventional deck-building game of magical combat, where your hand of spells is your only defense - and your only currency.

Manchukuo from Penguin and Panda Productions is a worker placement game with a unique twist. Each round consists of a day phase and a night phase. E-commerce store goes live in May.

Pre-orders open now at sales@pandp.productions

Birds of Prey: TOPGUN from Ad Astra Games goes beyond the movies to explain how the Navy Fighter Weapons School really works, with scenarios covering both movies. adastragames.com/products/topgun

Well, the title is somewhat misleading. Penguin & Panda (P&P) was never dead, but it was close. It is hard for me to imagine multiple facets of a company being operated by a single person, especially when the goal for the company was growth. Before my time with P&P, that was the attempt. Since my time with the company, it is easy to see how being solely responsible for such an endeavour can be overwhelming. It is often a matter of scope, and, although it is not the case for every one or every company, in this case, the scope was unrealistic.

Taking on too much too quickly was the first step toward P&P’s destruction. With both Onimaru and Manchukuo outstanding, their fulfilment dates long passed, the fate of the brand was looking more dire by the month. Like any business, there are recurring expenses that are unavoidable. And with virtually zero revenue coming in, it can be a challenge to stay afloat.

Not all was lost. The first step toward recovery was understanding the downward spiral – a series of out-ofcontrol events, each contributing its own detrimental weight to the pile. Adding individuals to the force was essential, and after doing so, tackling the grim aftermath of those events became more manageable. It is good to have numbers when carrying a heavy load. One became three.

We still have holes to fill and areas that need improvement, but our activities are trending upward. Gaining trust from backers and retailers by showing the progress of our games’ completion, as well as the progress of our company’s responsible actions has been our top priority.

Now, P&P is in a healthy place and moving slowly, yet steadily, into the future. With Panda’s production of Manchukuo complete, and as Onimaru’s production with LongPack draws to an end, we are moving forward one step at a time. We are excited to bring you Sentō: Ultimate Arcade Fighter, the next game in the Anime Series, with more Asian-themed titles to come.

In this new life, the immediate goal of P&P is the fulfilment of Onimaru and Manchukuo, and once that is complete, the focus will be on the launch of our upcoming e-commerce platform, as well as our next game, Sentō. We have made the decision to offer retailers and customers our games via the new pandp. productions site exclusively, once live. Our games, for the time being, will not be available through traditional distribution channels. We want to build lasting relationships with trusted retailers as an avenue to bring our games to the world. Our goal is to make you our top priority as we build our catalogue, and build our brand.

Join our retailer list for news about upcoming pre-orders and sales, as well as exclusive offers that you will not want to miss. For more information, you may inquire with me at info@pandp.productions, and for sales, you may contact us at sales@pandp.production.

Manchukuo placesyouinatroubled�me,whereyouarearespectedteacherandSifuinaManchukuoantown. Underthewatchfuleyeoftheoccupyinggarrison,youmustfighttokeepyourwayoflifealive,leadyour studentstohelpyourcommunity,andcon�nuetosecretlyprac�ceyourarts.

Onlyoneschool'sstylewillemergefromthesetroubled�mesas themostprominent...willitbeyours? sales@pandp.productions players

1-4 ages 14+ min 60-120

Onimaru isafullycoopera�vegamewhereyouandyouralliestakeuparmstodefendavillageagainst otherworldlyinvaders. Customizeyourherowithcountlessbuildingop�ons. Youwillwinthegameifyouare abletodestroythethreevillainousOni.However,ifyoufailtodosoin�me,theGatewillremainopenforever, andallofJapanwillsuccumbtotheshadow!

Additionalaccessories, ArtCardSleeves,and PromoPacksavailable.

Limitedquantities.

Onimaru HeroesFromFarawayLands Expansion

LegendaryFoes Expansion

1-4 ages 14+ min 60-90 players

by Steve Conn, Communications Coordinator, Penguin & Panda Productions

Let’s face it, we have all imagined who we would be and what we would look like as a skilled samurai or a cunning ninja. The hero building engine in Onimaru lets you have fun creating your hero the way you want. And frankly, it is what makes Onimaru a special game for all.

Your Hero has a variety of special abilities and skills. These make up the ways you can interact with components of the game, including dice, Hordelings, and Oni. Every Hero has the same number of ability options available to them, via tray slots, but the abilities you choose will be different. There are a countless number of building combinations! Your Player Tray will house every tile/deck that make up your Hero’s arsenal.

The first thing you will want to choose is the identity of your Hero, which is featured on their Player Board. Player Boards feature Hero art, as well as some important information. Hero Boards indicate the Hero’s combat proficiencies with two Mastery Dice. The Mastery Dice shown will always accompany that Hero. The Dice Allocation Spaces in this same section are of the same type as the Mastery Dice, as well as the Counterattack Type. Your Hero Board also features the number of wounds you can suffer before being defeated, as well as the Skill Disc cost for unlocking skills.

Your Hero will have an innate ability called a talent. Talents are free-to-use abilities with no cost, and usually with no limit. In some cases, talents are passive and require no upkeep. Others may need more attention to maintain.

The most essential abilities in combat to every Hero are their techniques. Each technique is accompanied with an affiliated deck of Yūsha Cards, indicated by the matching Kanji symbol on each. Techniques are powerful manoeuvres learned by your Hero, and can be improved over the course of the battle. Both of your techniques can be upgraded with up to three matching Yūsha Cards, increasing their effectiveness with the abilities on the cards’ sides.

The Lotus Ability on Yūsha Cards are powerful one-time effects that may be used during battle. This ability from either topmost card can be used by allocating dice and/or honor to the Yūsha allocation spaces on your Hero Board.

Each Hero will have access to a set of skills; one Lotus Skill and two Koi Skills. Like each Yūsha Card’s Lotus ability, Lotus Skills are non-recurring one-time abilities, while Koi Skills are ongoing abilities that are always open to you once unlocked. Each skill must be unlocked before their effects become available to you. A Skill is unlocked when honor is spent to move a Skill Disc from the left side of your Player Tray to the right side of the tray, placing it in the slot next to the skill you wish to unlock. Heroes have two Skill Discs in which to unlock skills throughout the game, therefore giving you potential access to two of the three skills in your tray.

Creating your own Hero in Onimaru and then fighting alongside your friends and family is a wonderful experience. It allows you to tailor to your playing style, as well as giving you the agency to make your Hero who you want them to be. The tactile experience of building out your player tray and manipulating its held components is just a bonus, and one that I love.

Starship Captains from Czech Games embarks on an exciting voyage through the depths of space in this euro-style action selection and engine building game for 1–4 players.

czechgames.com/en/ starship-captains/ boardgamegeek.com/ boardgame/358738/terraformingmars-ares-expedition-crisis firesidegames.com/retailers/ bladerunner-rpg.com www.pegasusna.com gf9games.com/aliens

In Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition: Crisis from Indie Game Studios, players are working together to keep Mars habitable after a natural disaster has landed the planet in crisis.

Castle Panic: Crowns and Quests from Fireside Games is the newest expansion, featuring 12 characters and 18 quests. Each quest changes up the objective, making each new play a unique adventure.

Dorfromantik the Board Game from Pegasus NA allows one to six players to work together to build a beautiful landscape; however, they must focus on fulfilling task tiles to achieve the highest score possible.

Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps from Gale Force Nine brings the return of the bestselling bug hunt. Lead Marines through the base, searching for survivors, tackling the threat and trying to evacuate.