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I am usually sceptical about new versions of classic board games – but I had to admit that Catan New Energies is a great version of the game. It has the basic game mechanics of gathering resources to build roads, cities and towns to get points to win the game. But there are enough added features to make it interesting and different.

Each player has their own box which contains their Towns (settlements), Cities and Roads, event discs, fossil power plants and renewable power plants. This does help speed up set up.

The game plays very much like the original with collecting resources to build more Towns & Cities. Even though some of the resources are called different things in this version – wood, brick, natural fibre (was sheep), food (was wheat) & steel (was ore), the colours and images are almost identical – so we just call them their old names. The extra resource of science does add a nice addition, and it allows you to buy the different power plants. (Science cards are collected when you collect resources from a city. So instead of getting 2 resources for the city, you get 1 and a science card.)

Unlike original Catan – you always start by pulling out a hazard token – once you have 3 of the same type you must instantly complete the consequence of that hazard. They are just a small hinderance or bonus (depending on your local footprint). The amount of hazard tokens pulled is determined by the global footprint: Every time you build a city or town or fossil plant – the global (and your local) footprint goes down. But each time you build a renewable plant – they both go up. The one thing we forgot on our first game was key – if there are no more tokens to pull from the bag – the game ends there and then. And points don’t matter – the winner is the person with the best local footprint. So, buying lots of fossil plants may be cheap – but they could cost you the game!

But – you do want to build plants though as they produce lighting/energy which do a few things. They are similar to the fishes in the Traders and Barbarians expansion – get enough and they are any resource you like or remove a hazard from one of your towns or cities. They can also increase the number of cards you can have in your hand before the robber takes them. This is a very handy bonus for when you just can’t get the cards you need.

All in all, I do think Catan New Energies is a good stand-alone version of Catan. It has all the basic elements to make it a Catan game, but enough added to make it while buying another version of the game. You can order this at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/catan/other-catan-games/catan-new-energies

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First a bit of background on Black Panther, Shuri, she is a princess of Wakanda and was the young sister of T’challa. The Black Panther Name was carried by the Males of the family until the death of her Brother, when with reluctance she took it on. Shuri rediscovered the the plant that gave the user the powers of Black Panther and then took it. she gained more abilities including Super-Strength, Speed, and Agility which she combined with her amazing Scientific Mind and fighting abilities to become a mighty hero.She fought the loss of her Father her Brother and then her Mother to try and keep her anger in check and to stop her heroine self from becoming a monster. She has great leadership abilities, amazing science knowledge and is a mighty fighter.

So how does she play in the game? In her Alter-Ego form, Shuri can exhaust herself to search her deck or discard pile for any “Black Panther” or “Tech” upgrade and play it, reducing its cost by 2. Allowing her to quickly get her core upgrades into play, as well as any other valuable Tech cards in her Justice deck. While in her hero identity she has four “Black Panther” upgrades. These cards, such as Kimoyo Beads and Spider Bites, are a central part of her hero identity, which she can make use of after a basic power.

Her game is more about a consistent, tactical approach as opposed to her brother who in the core game is more about explosive, single-turn damage .

Her ability to trigger her upgrades often and her powerful Alter-Ego ability to find and play key cards make her a very fun and strategic hero to play, and you can order her at https://www.bgextras.co.uk/marvel-champions/marvel-champions-hero-wave-9-agents-of-shield/marvel-champions-the-card-game-black-panther-hero-pack

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The Adventures of Conan expansions pack contains two expansions Queen of the Black Coast and  Nemedian Chronicles

First a bit of background on Silk, she is quite a new Superhero as she first appeared on 1st April 2014 in the amazing Spiderman. She is of Korean American descent and was a love interest of Spider-Mans, her full name is Cindy Moon and she was bitten by the same Spider that had bitten Peter Parker. Her abilities are Superhuman strength, Speed, Agility, Equilibrium, Reflexes. Stamina and Durability. She also has the ability o stick to solid surfaces, she has organic web generation, precog silk-sense, she is an expert in hand to hand combat and has an Eidetic memory.She was a member of Spider-Army, Web-Warriors and the Agents of Atlas. She briefly took on the name Spider-Woman during the spider verse story line of 2022-2023. 

So how does she play in the game? Her best ability is her tuck mechanic that lets her defuse dangeours encounter cards allowing her to turn them into a future card draw in her alter ego, this gives better control of the encounter deck espeically in a solo game. She has a strong defense allowing her to take damage which is useful whether playing solo or multiplayer where someone needs to take the hits. In a multi player deck with other web warriors she can share the benefit of those cards like Web of Life and Destiny. Her main disadvantage is her low damage output which especially in solo can mean she struggles against bosses.

You can order her hero pack at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/marvel-champions/marvel-champions-hero-wave-9-agents-of-shield/marvel-champions-the-card-game-silk-hero-pack