Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Board Game Madness 5/30

A day late, but now with a juicy nougat filling!

Fun:
  • Spielbox, the world’s most read board game magazine, is now available for download from BGG. This is the English version! Unfortunately it’s $9 an issue and you’d have to print out the free goodies you get with the magazine on a regular printer.
  • Dice towers are common, but a card tower, now THAT’s a cool idea!
  • Go is a serene game. Now couple it with these surroundings and you may end up never returning to society.
  • Pimp my Game: Sculpted Pandemic pawns. Nicely done!
  • Pimp my Game II: Buzz Lightyear meets Martian captain. Why didn’t I think of this?!?!
  • Pimp my Game III: Really cool score track/tile for Carcassonne. You build it into your map!
  • Pimp my Game: Sculpted Cities and Knights of Catan pieces, also very nicely done
  • Good Eats: Civilization cake. Mmmmmmmm – edible wonders [gurgle gurgle]
  • Awesome looking Warhammer battle scene. Looks like something out of Saving Private Ryan.

New Games:
  • Fantastiqa: New deck building adventure game from Gryphon games where you tour different landscapes, fight creatures and complete quests. Almost reminds me of the old Dungeoneer game. Release September 2012.
  • Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game: Fantasy Flight’s early entry with their new Star Wars license brings you a short 20 minute mission-oriented space combat game of X-Wings vs. TIE fighters. Very customizable, but it looks like it’s going to be one of those games that may require a some number of expansions if you want to do some of the missions. Release July 2012.
  • Dominion: Dark Ages: Yes, another set from Donald X. No release date yet, but this is a full expansion (500 cards) and a new type of card called a “Ruin”. They are also replacing Estates with Shelters (not sure why). This set seems to be all about the trashing and upgrading (ok, this may be a must buy for me then…)
  • Doctor Who: The Card Game: Play the Doctor and his friends and defend the universe in this new Martin Wallace game coming in August 2012. Very few details available.
  • Recent releases: Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, Richelieu, Web of Flies, BITS, Munchkin the Guild

iOS:
  • LeHavre possibly late June
  • Hacienda in testing

News:
  • Thunderstone is now Print and Play and free. At least the original set is. The cards are redesigned too. My biggest issue is mixing with the other sets. I’ve done it with Dominion fan cards and you can tell if you have one of the homemade cards.
  • Dominion is also rereleasing their basic set, but just the victory, treasure and curse cards. These will need to be purchased though. Great new artwork and they’ll replace your beat up cards if you don’t sleeve them.
  • A joint venture between the Chicago Toy and Game Fair and Live Oak Games gives birth to the Games for Educators newsletter for anyone looking to use games in the classroom.

Recently Played:
  • Played a bunch of Dominion with the Mrs. last week. We used a new iPad app called D-vault as a shuffler. It’s got the most current sets and also has some really nice features like card logs (no repeats!), minimum number of Alchemy cards, etc. 99c and well worth the price
  • I took Friday off last week as a mental health day. I finally had a chance to play Mage Knight. I didn’t have the greatest play experience, but I’m more than willing to do it again as I’m a sucker for a good fantasy adventure game. I’ll hold off judgment until I play it again.
  • Afterwards we played a 3p Haggis game which is always fun.z
  • That night was also our monthly board game night and I got a chance to try The Castles of Burgundy. As a big fan of Kingsburg, Lords of Vegas and Alien Frontiers, this game was right up my alley. However it took a looooooooooooooooooooooong time to play.
  • I needed something a bit quicker after Burgundy, so I taught Blood Bowl: Team Manager. Oy, another really long game. J Oh and I broke one of my own rules: Never win the game you’re teaching. Damn me.
  • My sister-in-law is in town so we got some other gaming in including more Dominion, Ubongo: Duel and Lost Cities.

Happy Gaming!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Board Game Madness 5/22

Fun:
  • There’s no way the dark side would have lost on Hoth had they had deployed this ultra-secret weapon
  • Pimp my… er… home? A coaster set for Settlers of Catan
  • A teacher on BGG taught a bunch of 13-year-olds how to design strategy games. He’s posted the designs on BGG for feedback from the community. It’s pretty amazing what some kids came up with.
  • A nice pictorial timeline of the history of dice

New Games:

iOS:
  • Scotland Yard released
  • Neuroshima Hex updated with asynchronous multiplayer
  • Cities and Knights of Catan in final beta
  • Console gaming (not iOS) – the board game Dungeon Twister is coming to the PS3

News:

Recently played:
  • The Long Island Blood Bowl League is rounding down season 2 and my beloved Necromantic team the Death Rockers took a loss that didn’t seem to matter as I’ve wrapped up my division and am solidly the 4th seed going into the playoffs. One more game to go, and if I lose it to a divisional rival I could actually go into the playoffs with a losing record (how embarrassing!). But for a first season Necro team, I’m pretty pleased with how they’re doing. A few strategic cuts of some niggling injuries after the season and I’ll be primed for a second season run.
  • Got a game of Core Worlds in the other night with my wife and a friend. I tried a different strategy and ended up taking 4 core worlds. The looks from my wife I got might have been considered a request for separate living quarters, but it was worth it! I got 49 points.
  • The same friend and I played a couple of games of Quarriors! with my son

Happy gaming!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Board Game Madness 5/15

Fun:

New Games:
  • Mice and Mystics: Cool looking miniature game where players cooperatively try to save their kingdom, but they’ve all been turned into field mice. Explore the castle, avoid dangers and monsters (like cockroaches, spiders and house cats) and try to solve the adventure that you help to create during the game. Role playing meets board gaming. Release in August 2012.
  • Recently released: Amateurs to Arms!, Asara, Lost Temple, Abaddon, Virgin Queen

iOS:
  • Android users need not fear that they get no love. There is a review on BGG of a number of board game utilities available on the Android platform including shufflers for Dominion, Thunderstone and Rattus; scoreboards for Agricola, Carcassonne, Lost Cities and Race for the Galaxy; toolboxes for Descent and Magic: The Gathering; and an encyclopedia of races and abilities for Small World
  • Ascension: Storm of Souls has been released and is fantastic!
  • Le Havre hit beta
  • Scotland Yard in development

News:

Recently Played:
  • Played Power Grid with a couple of friends on Friday night. We did the Brazil board which was a very interesting game. The way the plants came out was almost sequential (can you say China?). It made for a very heated and contentious game that I did not fare well in. Still enjoyed it though.

Happy Gaming!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Board Game Madness 5/8

Fun:

  • Since last Friday was Star Wars day (May the Fourth be with you), I pass along this unbelievably impressive piece of work by some guy named Djali. These aren’t minis anymore though, they’re maxis!
  • Again, I am not a war gamer, but I appreciate the detail that goes into the hobby
  • And the sword shall be received by he who fights for the kingdom and righteousness

New Games:
  • Ace Detective: A story telling card game where you spin a tale in pre-WWII San Francisco outlining some crime and the detectives’ attempts to solve it. Release: 2013
  • Richelieu: A political game with a lot of interaction where you try to influence the Cardinal and defend against the English, protestants, Habsburgs and enemy French nobles. Release in June.

iOS:
  • Yggdrasil released
  • Conquest! Medieval released
  • Ascension Storm of Souls expansion submitted for approval, so it should be available within a week
  • Summoner Wars in June
  • Dominion development continues

News:
  • The Collector’s Trove is auctioning off Dave Arneson’s game collection. Arneson is one of the co-creators of Dungeons and Dragons and had over 10,000 individual items in a storage locker. Rare wargames, RPGs and autographed items are part of the set. They’re being sold on eBay.

Recently Played:
  • Not much gaming this week, but I made sure I spent some time with the kids on Saturday evening and played a couple of games of duck! duck! Go!

Happy Gaming!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Board Game Madness 5/1

Fun:
  • Pimp My Game: Someone made a really nice wood center board for Quarriors. It’s got cut outs for the dice, really nice!
  • Back in 2011 there was a poll for demographics of game players. Interesting analysis if you look deeper into the numbers. What I find most interesting is the older a gamer gets, the more likely they are to buy online.

New Games:

iOS:

News:

Recently Played:
  • Picked up my kids from a friend’s house after I got home late one night from work. They were watching their friends play Plants vs. Zombies, so when they got home, they wanted to continue the Zombie theme. So of course we pulled out Zombie Dice.
  • Monthly game night this week. Continued on the Zombie kick so we played Zombie Fluxx. Then played a couple of two player games in Tien Zi Que and Haggis (I love this game). Then we played Ghost Stories (lost when the incarnation came out) and Quarriors for the rest of the night.
  • Took another shot at Leader 1 and I’m feeling it now. Finally figured out how to break away from the Peloton.


Happy Gaming!