Hey PI-Fans,

If you’re feeling somewhat ‘liberated’ of late, don’t worry. As board game retailers with a somewhat complicated supply chain, so are we. Maybe play a game or two to take your mind off things. You’re still here, your friends are still here. Go have fun with your friends. Doesn’t have to be games. Go meet up. Watch a movie. Or just hang out. Spread some positivity.

This too shall pass.

Taking a break from that side of the world, we’ve loaded up a table full of offerings from the South Korean publisher Mandoo Games, which features a spread of family, party and ‘gamer’ style games, all ready for your table.

On top of new titles like Capybara n Capybara, in with the shipment has come a slab of expansions for their every popular Kushi Express, Vale of Eternity and Catch Sketch. 

There’s more coming as we work on unloading the boxes from the shipment, and hopefully things will work out for the better during this trying time.

 

  • Kenneth, PI Manager (and stressed about the impact of tariffs on global board game prices)

 

 The Vale of Eternity: Artifacts, an expansion for The Vale of Eternity, adds 28 creature cards with new effects to the deck, as well as artifacts that players draft during the hunting phase at the start of each round.

In more detail, at the start of a round reveal twice as many creatures as players in the usual way, then starting with the first player, each player drafts an artifact without their marker on it by placing their marker on that artifact. (In effect, you can’t draft the same artifact you had the previous round.) Some artifacts have instant effects you use immediately, others give you a permanent effect that entire round, and others grant you an action that you can use once on a turn. After drafting artifacts, players draft creature cards in the usual way.

When using artifacts, the victory threshold for the game is now 80 points instead of 60, although the game still ends after ten rounds regardless of the score.

The Vale of Eternity: Artifacts Expansion (Requires The Vale of Eternity to function)
2-4 Players, 40-60 mins, Ages 14+

 

Catch Sketch: Magic Hat  is a new expansion to Catch Sketch, you’re about to become a magician with a magic hat and a magic wand.

Each turn the first person to grab the wand token can become a magician and perform the trick! The Magician gets to use erase segments from other players Catch Sketch boards, making it harder to guess the words from the erased pictures.

Will you be able to successfully deduce what other players are drawing, or will the Magician player causing others to lose a chunk of their board render their artwork meaningless?

Catch Sketch: Magic Hat Expansion (Requires Catch Sketch to function)
3-6 Players, 20 mins, Ages 8+

 

Capybaras love to eat pumpkins. You’ll need the help of the baby monkey walking above to pick up the pumpkins that the capybaras like to eat. You, the players, play as capybara bosses, aiming to line up your capybaras well to earn lots of pumpkins!

In Capybara, you will form a line of capybaras to score Pumpkin cards. You will move the baby monkey above the row of capybaras to carry out different actions. You gain Capybara cards by moving the baby monkey forward to the left, gaining capybaras for the number of spaces moved.

You can also score Pumpkin cards by forming a row of capybaras that meet the Pumpkin scoring conditions, moving the monkey to the left to score them.

Capybara n’ Capybara 
2-4 Players, 30 mins, Ages 8+

 

The battle between Kushi chefs continues with a new ingredient added to the challenge – Green Onion!

Want to spice up your Kushi Express game? The Kushi Express Grandmaster expansion lets up to 6 players join in, and throws in a new “Green Onion”ingredient and a batch of new recipes for some extra flavor!

Plus, there are new order cards for even more fun! And just when you thought the game was over, a tournament will crown the ultimate Grandmaster. Don’t miss out!

Kushi Express Grandmaster Expansion (Requires Kushi Express to function)
2-6 Players, 15 mins, Ages 6+