I just saw the new games that White Goblin Games will be releasing at Essen in Germany in October.  These are looking really good.  They’ve also just started taking pre-orders too.

	Lost Temple A game based on the excellent Citadels but this time it’s a race game to be the first one to the temple to plunder its treasures. In Citadels, players select a role/character from a fixed set and pass the rest to the next player to make their choice. Figuring out which role each player has probably selected is a big part of the game as some characters foil others and no-one knows who picked which character until everyone has chosen for that round. Not sure how much of this is in Lost Temple but it sounds very interesting as Citadels is a classic. Plays 2-8 players too.
	Panic Station This game really interests me as it’s like the movie The Thing with a single player who has been taken over by an alien amongst lots of uninfected players; however, the infection can spread so the infected players start to increase.  Each player controls an android and a human trying to stop the evil aliens – well, unless they;re already evil aliens. The reason this interests me so much is that I actually have game design notes going back some years with the exact same premise, so I’m very interested to see how this game compares. Plays 4-6
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London is a primarily card-based game where players construct buildings in their parts of the city and run their city to generate as much income with as little poverty as possible.  The player with the most victory points (VPs) at the end of the game wins.

On a player’s turn, they can play cards (the game’s core mechanic), run their city, buy land or take 3 cards.  To play a card (which builds the building on it), a player must discard a card of the same colour as well as sometimes pay any extra monetary cost.  Each card gives you benefits of different types – some instant, some when running your city – such as money, VPs based on the buildings in play, the power to re-use a buildings’ ability, etc.  This seems simple enough as you try to build a city that will work well in combination; however, players must weight up two other elements too: Read the rest of this entry »

I have played many adventure-style board games over the years – some were simple fun like Heroquest and Space Crusade whereas some have had more meat to them with modular board sections like Claustrophobia and Space Hulk (the latter being a classic game in my opinion).  So, I was very interested when Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft was announced with modular board adventuring and receiving positive opinion.

The game is co-operative with 1 to 5 players aiming to defeat the scenario they are playing.  As you’d expect from D&D, players control heroes of different types each with their own unique abilities.  Players get to choose their abilities (some unlimited use and some one-off) at the start of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

Kickstarter.com is growing in popularity as a way to finance board game production and I’m always interested to check out any new games on there.  In fact, it was through Kickstarter that I ordered my copy of Triumvirate back in April 2010.

A game on Kickstarter that has caught my attention is Lyssan as it looks like an interesting Medieval-themed game that mixes Diplomacy on the board (as there’re no dice for movement and attacks) but with card play to sway the conflicts.  Helping your opponents can be a useful tool so you can plot against them such as getting inside their castle and then turning their followers against them.

Check it out on Kickstarter – the video is a very good introduction and the designer (who seems like a very pleasant guy) describes the game.  Lyssan has reached its $20k funding but you can still pledge and, as with most Kickstarter projects, any money over the goal is always well-appreciated so larger production runs can be made.

I look forwards to seeing more about this game and hope it can deliver its mix of intrigue and confrontation.

James.

Wow!  There are few announcements these days that really are big news but FFG have just managed one by announcing they’re going to be releasing their own Star Wars games.  FFG have been going from strength-to-strength as a company as they secured bigger and bigger licenses – much in the same way that Electronic Arts did the same with videogames back when they were young.  I have a few issues with FFG in terms of the costs of their expansions (as they release so many) but they do release solid, quality games and have created a couple of my favourite non-Euro games.

For me, this is great news.  As a major Star Wars fan, I’ve been wondering for years why no-one’s done any serious games.  Even to the point last year that a friend and I discussed creating a Star Wars large battle game with a demo set using the toys to potentially get Hasbro’s attention.  In my opinion, the last great Star Wars game was Assault on Hoth by West End Games (a lot of randomness and very cheap production but a game we still play to this day) and since then Hasbro continually released weak board games that primarily served kids.

FFG have announced two games X-Wing (http://bdg.ms/afdi) – a 2-player, space combat, dogfighting game – and Star Wars: The Card Game (http://bdg.ms/afdj) – a 1-4 player co-op card game.  I’m definitely more interested in the first one as I find living card games a bit daunting due to the continual churn of new cards; however, I’m sure I’ll try the basic set at least..

So, congratulations FFG.  I look forwards to some great Star Wars gaming to come – just keep it in the original trilogy era please (which looks to be the case so far).  As Vader would say: Impressive.

Sneaks and Snitches is a very clever game – it’s incredibly simple but delivers a lot of interaction in the form of trying to out think your opponents.  During the game, players are all thieves trying to steal gems and items so they can win by scoring the most victory points (VPs).

Each round a number of loot cards (depending upon the number of players) are placed in the centre of the table and each one has a letter next to it.  Most loot cards show a number of coloured gems the player that steals it will receive, but they also show items worth VPs and  a few other items.

Next, each player secretly picks one of their lettered criminals to be their sneak (thief) and another be a snitch (guard).  When all players have picked, all criminals are revealed and placed next to the matching letter – snitches above and sneaks below the loot.  Any loot that has a snitch next to it can not be stolen (B, D, F and H in the example picture) and, therefore, any sneaks next to it get nothing.  If a single sneak is next to an unguarded loot, i.e. no snitch (E) then that player gets that loot.  If multiple sneaks are next to an unguarded loot (C) then they get in each other’s way – the main loot stays where it is but each player takes a bonus card (which shows a single colour gem on it). Read the rest of this entry »

Mr Jack is a clever 2-player game that mixes deduction with movement – I put it that way as purely saying it’s a deduction game can give the false impression that it is dry or shallow.  The original Mr Jack and it’s follow-up, Mr Jack in New York, are both games where one player is Mr Jack (the Ripper) and the other is the investigator.  Players take turns moving the various suspects as the investigator tries to deduce which suspect is Mr Jack before Mr Jack escapes off the board.  The deduction in those games is made by saying whether Mr Jack is standing in the light or not at the end of each round.

Mr Jack Pocket is a smaller and more portable Mr Jack game that encapsulates the main elements of the original games but actually delivers a different game experience. The goal of the game is to reduce the 9 suspects down to just 1 before the 8 rounds are over and before the Jack player has accumulated 6 hourglasses. Read the rest of this entry »

Magnum Sal was a game that caught my attention just before last year’s Spiel in Essen as I like worker placement games; however, I never got to play it and, until recently, kept missing opportunities to do so at one of my regular groups.  Magnum Sal is a game about Polish salt mining – yes, you can’t beat it for having a theme that makes it different to other games.

Each player starts with a few miners which they can use to either go into the mine or they can be an assistant at a town building.  Each turn, players take turns taking 2 actions each (place workers, use building, extract salt).  The goal is to make as much money as possible (primarily by mining salt).  There are two distinct areas of the game: the town and the mine.

In the town, the player can use buildings to: buy tools (special one-use abilities and money at game end), hire extra workers, visit the palace (to fulfil a contract for lots of cash), pump water out of a mine (making it easier to get the salt out), use the market, etc.  Also, most town buildings have space for one worker so that they get income each time any player uses that building. Read the rest of this entry »

The Spiel des Jahres winners have been announced.  The Spiel des Jahres goes to Qwirkle (which is the one I hoped would win that one) and the Kennerspiel des Jahres goes to 7 Wonders which is a deserving winner.  You can click on the links to read my reviews of these games.

The competition has now ended and the finalists have been picked.  (Finalists were picked at random and the winner was picked at random from the 4 finalists.)  The 4 finalists of the Strasbourg competition are:

• Yvan Norsa (via bdg.ms)
• Geocentrix (via Twitter)
• Ernie Lai (via Metagames Blog)
• Keith Bryson (via BoardGameGeek)

AND THE WINNER IS… Ernie Lai who will receive a copy of the SdJ-nominated Strasbourg.  Congratulations, Ernie.

My thanks to Pegasus Spiele for providing the prize for this competition and to everyone who entered by all the various means.

James.