fighting

A group of monsters is traversing the perils of the castle conquering guard after guard, collecting treasurers along the way, as kings set new rules. You and your fellow players are these monsters in Mighty Monsters (first announced as Heroes' Gold).

The game is played in rounds equal to the number of players, except that in a three- or four-player game the number of rounds is doubled. Each round has three phases — Placement, Resolution, and Cleanup/Setup — and is controlled by a king who sets a special rule for the round.

Players can choose from six races of monsters; each player receives a unique set of five monster cards in their chosen race with strength ranging from 1-5 and healing costs ranging from 0-2. To conquer the king and therefore conquer the castle and gain the treasure, players in turn order may place an available monster from their hand on any empty guard space in the castle.

Once the placement phase is over, guard cards are revealed one at a time and resolved, working your way towards the king.

From the publisher's website:

Once again, our unfortunate friends find themselves foreigners trapped within the frightful Fortress Furor of the fanged Prince Fieso who would, with felicity, see them flounder and faint. These fine fighters could feasibly face their finish in this forbidding fortification, whose fearsome floors even now flow frighteningly from beneath their feet as the famished Furunkulus forages the fringes, fixing to feast on the foreigners’ flesh. Forthwith, must our fighters fashion their flight from this foulest of fates! But what’s this? By the light of their fallow and flickering flares, our friends find the depths fraught with the most furious of fiends and the fiercest of freaks! With fleet feet, the fearless foreigners follow these ferocious fellows through the fortress, with its multifarious footpaths and their frustrating forks, forging fervently forward toward freedom and fame. Our fighters must not falter from whatever feud or fracas would foil their function: to finally furnish the forlorn Faerie Fabula her freedom from feckless Fieso’s fists!

Theme
Formidable Foes is a light-hearted dungeon crawl. The players all take the role of heroes competing with each other to amass the greatest hoard of treasure. They do this by exploring the dungeon and fighting monsters.

Goal
The goal is to collect as much gold as possible. The winner is the richest player.

Gameplay
On each turn, a player either moves twice; moves once and fights a monster; or collects 'power tokens' which allow a player to improve their dice rolls in subsequent turns. In the early part of the game, the monsters are fairly weak and easily defeated. Defeating a monster increases a character's 'wisdom' which allows them to fight and defeat ever-harder monsters. Fighting monsters involves rolling a dice and then adding power tokens to improve the roll if required.

In Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, a two-player expandable card game, players take on the roles of Phoenixborns, demi-gods and protectors of this world. These characters are the great saviors of their civilizations. Before they came into existence, the humans were plagued by monsters like chimeras that took away their lands and forced them to live in walled-off cities. When the Phoenixborns came, they fought off the chimeras and freed the lands for humans to take over once again.

But the time of peace was short-lived. A prophecy arose that if one Phoenixborn was able to absorb enough Ashes of others, they would ascend into full gods and take mastery over this world. This, as well as humans' greed for land, fueled the War of Ashes. The great cities now fight among each other, each one of them with a Phoenixborn at its helm, and you will decide who will rise and who will fall to ashes.

—description from the publisher

THE GAMEPLAY

Street Masters is a 1-4 player cooperative miniatures board game inspired by classic fighting video games. Featuring over 65 highly detailed miniatures, unique decks for fighters & enemies, custom dice, and lightning-fast gameplay, Street Masters lets players match up powerful fighters against villainous organizations in a wide array of exciting scenarios. Designed by Adam Sadler and Brady Sadler, the game offers modular and elegant gameplay set in a unique and exciting world of brutal combat.

THE STORY

Warriors from around the world, known for their legendary fighting abilities and skills, receive mysterious invitations to participate in a martial arts tournament. During the tournament, the organization surrounding it reveals their true identity — The Kingdom — and their purpose to recruit fighters to join their militia or enslave those against them. While several of these warriors made it out in time, many were never heard from again.

Five years later, a government project called "Street Masters" initiates in order to counter-act the war against The Kingdom, now having divided and seized control over the world by several of its factions. Those who join the Street Masters project must work together to take down each faction, crippling parts of The Kingdom before they're able to launch their end game.

THE GREAT RETURN
​Over generations and generations the ancient woodland of Børe prospered and grew. The world was bestowed with great spirit, which lifted the animals of the land to new heights. Unfortunately, over the years these clans lost touch with the spirit of the land and faction warring developed. The Foxen Kingdom of Skulk Hollow in the South, The spiritual Red Pandas of Cupboard in the North, the Mischievous Mice of Multon in the West, and the colony of Blackheart Bunnies in the East. As skirmishes started breaking out across the continent, lives lost, there was a monstrous shake and then The Great Return. No one quite knows why, but the Guardians have risen - but not the kind, life-giving Guardians of spiritual legend. Dark, ferocious, versions that are now attacking all the kingdoms of the land.

OBJECTIVE
In Skulk Hollow, two players take the roles of either a towering behemoth of a Guardian trying to eliminate the clans of foxes who have been causing havoc on the countryside, or a band of foxen heroes out to vanquish the evil beast that has been terrorizing the land and reunite the four kingdoms of Børe.

The Guardian wins the game by either eliminating the Foxen King, or by gaining enough Tribute.

The Foxen Heroes wins the game by eliminating the Guardian.

GAMEPLAY
Skulk Hollow is a 2-player, asymetric, tactical combat game. Player use action cards to move their units, summon, and use special abilities. Taking down a guardian requires the Foxen player to leap onto the Guardian player board and take out different parts of the character.