If your game night needs a loud, quick opener before the big box comes out, Omens is angling for the job. Hachette Boardgames has put its new team card game on preorder, and it takes the calm imagery of tarot and turns it into a race to dump your hand before the other side does.
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Find events near youOmens is designed by Maxime Rambourg, the French designer behind the cooperative spell-casting favourite The Big Book of Madness and the frantic time-loop game The Loop. This is a lighter, meaner affair. Two teams face off, and on your turn you play cards to win tricks and shed them from your hand. Each card matters for its number, its colour suit and its special conditions, so a fortune that looks helpful can just as easily jam you up. The first team to get a single player down to one card wins the round.
It seats four to six players, runs a quick ten to fifteen minutes, and is aimed at ages 14 and up, which puts it firmly in the fill-the-gaps and break-the-ice bracket rather than the main event. The small box and unique cards give it a bit more bite than a standard shedding game, and it is built to teach in a minute.
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See how it worksOmens is on preorder now for 19.99 dollars, with copies due to ship around Gen Con at the start of August. Hachette Boardgames UK is carrying it too, so British buyers will not be stuck importing. If you are the one who always ends up teaching the opener at your table, this is the kind of thing worth a punt. Need a group to try it on? Find a game night near you.
Sources: Hachette Boardgames | Bleeding Cool | BoardGameGeek
