New Games This Week 10/21/10

Invasion From Outer Space - Flying Frog Productions - $59.95
Invasion From Outer Space, The Martian Game is a fast-paced game of fiendish Martians, Big Top Heroes, and SciFi Movie Action. Players take on the role of either the Carnival Heroes, using their special talents and working together to fight off the Martian Invasion; or as the invaders themselves, waves of Martian Soldiers and Flying Saucers, blasting Humans with Ray Guns and unleashing their vile alien technologies upon the Earth.
Featuring a modular game board, eight Carnival Heroes to choose from (such as the Fire Breather, Strongman, or Jo Jo, the dancing Bear), an army of Martians to start the invasion (including Martian Champions such as the dreaded Zard Beast), and several different Scenarios to play that drastically change the game; Invasion From Outer Space is designed to create a cinematic feel as the story and game unfolds.
Also, as Invasion From Outer Space is built using the Last Night on Earth game engine, the two games are fully compatible. With ease, players can now have their Martians invade the small town of Woodinvale, Zombies attack the Carnival, or even play a massive game with up to three independent factions (Heroes, Zombies, and Martians). The possibilities are endless.
So drop those roasted peanuts, strap on your jumpsuit, and step into the spotlight...the Martians are Coming and the Invasion From Outer Space has begun!

Forever Young - Twilight Creations -$34.99
Forever Young brings the excitement of life as a vampire to your gaming table. Each player plays the head of a vampire family struggling to maintain control among his minions and human protectors. Beware, your opponents are aiming to convert your servants and... Well, let’s just say they have something a little more 'unkind' in mind for your humans.
Forever Young is a light strategy game that involves secretly placing your vampires and humans, hiding weapons and items and trying to discover where your opponents have hidden theirs. Each beautifully produced and illustrated game has everything needed to play for 2 to 6 players.

Comuni – Tenki Games - $50.00
In the 12th Century, in the north of Italy, there were strong cities, ruled by themselves with their own territories and army and each one with own characteristics. They were called COMUNI. The relationship among them was a more or less a pacific coexistence but the cultural, military and Economic competition was always very high.
In this game each player rules a particular COMUNE and has to increase the wealth of the city. To do this he must build structures that are the core of the Economic, Military, Cultural and Religious life.
At the same time all the player must be aware of the invasion that can come from outside and if necessary must be able to collaborate to defeat them.
Comuni is a game of strategy, more suitable for the experienced players.
The core of the game is trying to acquire "projects of buildings" (cards) that can be automatically transformed in buildings and protection walls (and subsequent upgrades).
The acquisition of the projects is made through a bidding system.
The buildings can be of four types (Economic, Military Cultural and Religious) that give different resources. The resources give different advantages during the game in the bidding phase, when you transform projects into buildings etc....
The projects cards are divided in four different decks, at the end of each of them, an invasion comes, each time stronger. The invasion hits all players and during the invasion each player must defend his city. The players also can (and have an incentive to) collaborate to fight the aggression together.
At the end of the four invasions the game ends.
The key element of this game is the ability to plan a successful strategy predicting what will be the situation several turns in advance. Game is balanced, with no luck and no dice.

Tadaaam – Repos Productions – 39.99
Tadaaam! is a revision and repackaging by Cédrick Caumont and Thomas Provoost of the earlier Monstermaler. The most obvious change is that Tadaaam! comes in a big box (Monstermaler was just a pad of paper), with cards to suggest people, and now also objects and animals, that players independently draw right and left halves of with pens on wipe-clean boards to make one recognisable picture. The pictures are then revealed and the players guess what those they didn't draw are intended to be.
Along with revisions to the basic rules there are now easy, normal, difficult and character categories of things to draw and a spinner which adds one of six additional challenges to drawing: with the ear on the table, blind under the table, with the "wrong" hand, without the thumb, et cetera…