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Crescent Moon
150m - 180m
2 - 5 Players
Ages 14+
Hand management games are games with cards in them that reward players for playing the cards in certain sequences or groups. The optimal sequence/grouping may vary, depending on board position, cards held and cards played by opponents. Managing your hand means gaining the most value out of available cards under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in the game, further obfuscating an "optimal" sequence.
Hand Management
Play occurs upon a modular board that is composed of multiple pieces, often tiles or cards. In many games, board placement is randomized, leading to different possibilities for strategy and exploration.Some games in this category have multiple boards which are not used simultaneously, preserving table space. Unused boards remain out of play until they are required.
Modular Board
Variable Player Powers is a mechanic that grants different abilities and/or paths to victory to the players.
Variable Player Powers
55.00
€
30 day low:
Out of stock
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Kickstarter – Gamefound
Board Games
Strategy
Family and Children
Party
Adult
Thematic
Ελληνικα Παιχνιδια
LCG
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
The Lord of The Rings: The Card Game
RPGs
D & D
Pathfinder
Gamebooks
Others
Accessories
Game Mats
Bags
Dice
Sleeves
Sapphire Sleeves
Paladin Sleeves
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Novels – Books
Plunder boxes
Marvel: Crisis Protocol
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danielwahlen
Crescent Moon is a fully asymmetric area control game set in the deserts and oases of the Caliphate. The beautiful wooden pieces pop in this compact and slick production. The Sultan is master of the card market, the Caliph seeks to build castles and palaces, the Warlord aims to destroy them, the Nomads offer mercenaries for hire, and the Murshid use their political cunning to influence the game. Not only does each player have their own unique abilities, but they also all have differing ways to score victory points, which leads into my major criticism of the game. This degree of asymmetry sucks out all the tension of the game for me. It feels like everyone is sort of playing their own game, fulfilling their own personal goals, and not really competing directly for the win. This bogs the game down into a slog and creates a real disconnect between the players. For me this lessens the communal experience of playing board games and is why I think I’ve settled on vastly preferring emergent asymmetry—where all players start relatively the same and gradually diverge in powers due to their choices like in Kemet or to a lesser extent, Cthulhu Wars. What both of those examples also have are shared goals that players are competing over that inherently create tension, drama, and lots of fun as players jostle against each other. Crescent Moon left me feeling rather empty and disappointed—the fun of my Nomad faction comes through negotiation, but the other players often weren’t incentivized to interact with me. In fact the incentives throughout the game felt very fragile for everyone—encouraging players to play a certain way that felt very constricting and didn’t reward exploration. Furthermore the game is a bear to teach (despite the individual rules being fairly straightforward) and the playtime is quite long (even the short game takes around 3 hours). Ultimately I would much rather play Cthulhu Wars or Pax Viking and the other players said they preferred Root or Dune.
Big B
Beautiful game in concept, execution, and presentation. A territory control game where there's a lot of incentive to ally and help each other in symbiotic relationships--until someone gets too far ahead and everyone else starts to work against them. This fits into the category of high asymmetrical games where every player has a different role that involves many special abilities and different scoring objectives. There's a lot to try to keep in mind, and while there player aids are great at suggesting how to play to one's strengths, they don't point out how other players are going to score. Obviously some of that is figured out in table talk, but it realistically it's going to take multiple games to really get a handle on it. The short 3 year games are good for learning, but 4 years feels more optimal once everyone has a handle on the game flow. Between that and the strict player count that might be why it hasn't gotten much buzz in board game outlets. But this feels like a game that will still stand out years from now.
Croquet
Pro - Asymmetric characters - low downtime (you are always involved, the decisions of the others have weight for you) - Artwork is great - good quality game material - high strategic depth - high replay value (different maps + characters) - unique game design - very high player interaction Neutral - Game duration 3h (+1h rules) - expert game+ Contra - less accessible - difficult to explain - full potential with 5 players