Board Game Madness 11/22

BGM will not be out next week, or will at least be delayed as I have a minor surgical procedure on my shoulder. If it comes out will fully depend on how loopy I am from the pain meds…

Fun:

• CONTEST: North Star Games (makers of Say Anything) is running a contest to win a free iPad. Go through the BGG page for the rules. Make sure you tell them I sent you so I can get a free game if you win (which will mean that I will have to play the game with you first of course!) 
• “So I go the table to play a game of Merchants and Marauders and you’ll never believe the skullduggery I encountered! This guy parroted every action I made and then stole my loot!!! 
• Have to show this to my son – Lego Chess 
• Awesome geeklist called “Games Where Some Guy Just Totally Flipped Out” with great anecdotes
• From the This is Totally Wrong department, we have a mock ad for My Little Pony Hide & Seek 
• The BoardGameGeek Golden Geek Winners were announced with game of the year honors going to Dominant Species (oh my God, NOT 7 Wonders!!! (although that did win best card and family game)

New Games:

• Innovation: Figures in the Sand: New expansion for Innovation that brings in people civilization moods. Due out August 2012 
• Article 27: The UN Security Council Game: Negotiation game a la Diplomacy where every player takes a shot at being the Security General and leads negotiations over five issues. Looks interesting. Release unknown.

iOS:

• Ticket to Ride Pocket released for iPhone 
• Forbidden Island released 
• Tigris & Euphrates is now actually available in the App Store

Happy gaming and Happy Thanksgiving!

Board Game Madness 11/15

Fun:

• Contest! Tasty Minstrel Games is putting out a new game called Kings of Air and Steam. To celebrate hitting their Kickstarter goals, they are running a contest and offering to 1 lucky gamer immortalization of their face on the cover of the box. 14 people will also get the game for free. These are the same guys that brought us Homesteaders and the new hotness Eminent Domain. Answer their questions before November 27^th to be eligible.
• Hysterical (and somewhat insightful) Dear Flabby advice column for gamers
• Strange Halloween costume – dress as a board game?
• Because board game humor is always better with animals
• For our French speakers, but this is funny in any language
• Thanksgiving-themed Race for the Galaxy card
• Don’t mess with a Jedi with gaming on his mind
• Pimp my Game: Wow, someone really decked out their Cleapatra SoA game with a really nice throne And the columns have been painted really nicely too.
• I won’t be at BGG.con, but they will be selling Meeple Jewelry. They look really nice!

New Games:

• Zombie Dice 2: Double Feature: Yes, there’s a new expansion for the family friendly game of eating human brains. 3 new dice and movie simulations – Big Summer Action Movie and Santa Claus Meets the Zombies. Not sure of the release date on this one.
• Fresco Card Game: No link yet, but expected end of Q1/early Q2 from Queen games
• Jungle Speed Raving Rabids: Expansion to the popular dexterity game. Now you have to possibly grab a character sitting on top of the totem or create rabbit ears on your head. Looks silly, but then again Jungle Speed tends to be (and that’s good!)
• Schlock Mercenary: This is in the Kickstarter phase so it is still seeking funding, but they have reached their goal of $25K. As you’d expect from the farcical webcomic, this one is a multi-player shooter set in the SM universe. Scenario books and dice come with, so I imagine this will probably align with an RPG-like board game such as Castle Ravenloft.

iOS:

• Games reduced in price in the last week: Medici ($1.99), Ra: ($1.99), Tikal ($1.99), Bohnanza ($1.99), Bang! ($2.99)
• Tigris and Euphrates is now out ($5.99). It’s got pass and play and online multiplayer available. Also an AI at different levels. I’m not a big fan of the game, as I know some people are, but this one is highly anticipated. Apparently there are a few bugs, but the fixes have been promised. At this point, the game is waiting for Apple to signoff, but that is apparently imminent.
• Keltis HD (Lost Cities-like game) released this week.

News:

• I mentioned a while ago that there was a new TV channel that was a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications. They are about to kick off a miniseries based on the board game Clue. They have other shows based on Scrabble and Life.

Happy Gaming!

Board Game Madness 11/9

Sorry about the day late… BTW, anyone want to feel depressed that Stairway to Heaven is 40 years old???

Fun:

• Some AMAZINGLY attractive crokinole sets: Cthernie, Asunder, Frankenstein
• Monster-sized Jenga board. And an even bigger and stonier one! You could really get hurt playing this game!
• Would bandages and blood be considered appropriate garb for a game of Pandemic? How about a HAZMAT suit?
• Ingenuity at its finest – who needs a chess board???
• Some games really have an engaging theme and really pull you in. But then, sometimes they go a little too far and scare the begeezus out of you.
• Wow, this is an unbelievable dice sculpture by the artist Tony Cragg
• Some of you know I want to build my ultimate game table. This is what it takes from someone who did so at BGG. Of course, my design is much better.
• Contest: Take a picture of yourself and your dice in an exotic location and win a bunch of Q-Workshop dice and a bag. Yes, this is as strange as it sounds.
• Mmmmmm… chocolate covered dice <gurgle gurgle>
• In the news this week, Israel intimated that they might take a preemptive action against Iran to halt nuclear proliferation in the region. Well, how about a board game already in place to simulate this? And designed by military novelist Larry Bond.

New Games:

• Frankendie: Combine the pattern recognition game of Set with assembling creatures a la Norbert and you have this seemingly loud and fun game. Probably not out until after Christmas
• Carcassonne Expansions: From the I Wouldn’t Believe It If I… Wait, Who Am I Kidding Department, yes, three more expansions for the Rio Grande seminal tile laying game. Crop Circles, Plagues and Tunnels.

iOS:

• Trivial Pursuit has now taken to the iPad – available now
• Elder Sign: Omens released
• Dominant Species is still in testing (expect a couple of more months)
• Tigris & Euphrates updated to 11/14 release

News:

• Saturday 11/12 is National Gaming Day at Your Library! The writeup for North Merrick is “Join the North Merrick Public Library, as thousands of libraries throughout the country host special gaming events in celebration of National Gaming Day. There will be plenty of video games, board games and tournaments to entertain the whole family. Open to Teens, Tweens and their families.” Participating libraries are:
• North Merrick
• Farmingdale
• Island Park
• Long Beach
• South Huntington
• Huntington

Happy gaming!

Board Game Madness 11/1/11 (The Date of 1s)

Fun:

• I’ve found a video cast/TV show about Board Gaming called Shut Up and Sit Down. I LOVE this show. It’s funny, they review games from Power Grid to Descent, so it’s across the entire genre. Two English gamers that have a great sense of humor and good reviews on games. They’ve done 5 ½ episodes so far.
• Pastry gaming: Small World
• Drinking games: Agricola beer
• OK, the pieces to the new game Poseidon’s Kingdom may be too cute to play
• I’ve been known to play games in strange places from time to time. Zombie Dice or Lord of the Fries in a restaurant, D&D in an airport… but how about Sid Meier’s Civilization in a subway station???
• Contest #1: Want to win a free copy of Ticket to Ride Asia? Like DoW on Facebook and you and a friend (who may be me?) will win free copies.
• Contest #2: Want to win a free copy of Dominion: Hinterlands? Like ISlayTheDragon on Facebook and you (not a friend who may be me) will win a free copy. There’s other ways to win too.
• MeepleSource.com is putting out non-standard meeples to be used in your games. I am SERIOUSLY considering making my next Blood Bowl team meeples.

New Games:

• GameChanger: Identity Games has released an iPad add-on that allows you to play one of two kids games by plugging into the iPad and letting you use the board to interact with the digital interface. This is available for the holidays and one of the kids games is the Magic School Bus, a favorite of my kids.

iOS:

• Reiner Knizia’s Lines of Gold out now
• Ghost Stories updated for 4-monk play
• Elder Sign: Omens (Horror dice game) announced and available very soon apparently
• Bang! is now multiplayer
• Cyclades out now
• War of Words is available for the iPad and is apparently combat Scrabble. Not sure how this works, but you can blow words up.
• Tigris & Euphrates pushed back to November

News:

• 7 Wonders won a-(yawn)-nother game in Denmark. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the game and its accessibility to a large group of people, but this is getting a little ridiculous. Maybe I should just report on who wins second.
• Want to make custom pieces for your favorite games? Roland DG Corp is now doing 3D modeling with a more desktop-sized device (so they say… no prices yet)

Happy gaming!