News Collider – Board Game News 30/01/2019

Its time for our weekly out pouring of “ooh, look at the shinies” as we collate some of the brightest tabletop game news from the last seven days.

Speaking of shinies we have Matt Leacock’s latest endeavour, which you can be seen in our header image and there isn’t a disease in site (because all the plague ridden rats will be in the basements), as well as all the latest news from Portal Con.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: ERA 

Pandemic’s Matt Leacock has moved into the “Roll &…” space with the first in a series of games to be published by Eggertspiele.  The first is Era: Medieval Age uses dice as members of your medieval city where you’ll claim 3D pieces from a central supply to build your own city on your player board.

You’ll also be able to extort your opponents and otherwise generally dick on them whilst you all contend with things like the plague.  The game is set for launch at Gen Con this August.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: CENTURY - A NEW WORLD 

The game that is sure to have Steve counting down to Origins, and possibly even considering buying a plane ticket, is the final instalment to the Century games.

A New World takes players to 16th Century North America as merchants looking for riches...or cubes.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: EUROPA BASE ALPHA 

Look, we’re all tired of colonizing Mars, I mean that was soooo 2017 and Wizkids are helping us turn our backs on the red planet and look a little further afield, to one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa in fact.

In this card and dice game players will roll dice and play cards in order to build silos, bunkers and all the other installations we are very, very familiar with.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT: BAD MAPS 

A pirate game I missed when it was on Kickstarter last year will soon be hitting shelves, Bad Maps the 3 to 5 player game of programmed-movement will be available for all to enjoy come the 6th of March.

In this game, you’ll captain a crew as the search for buried treasure but they’ll only be able to perform their pre-selected movements and yet they’ll somehow need to avoid pits, cliffs and other desert islands troubles.

GAME ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM PORTALCON: 

Lats Saturday Portal Games held their annual Portal Con, this time celebrating their 20th birthday.  During the day (and live stream) Ignacy announced a number of new games.

There are also expansions for Monolith Arena, Neuroshima HEX! Detective and a stand-alone expansion for Stronghold 2nd Edition: Undead you can catch up the whole release here 
 

IMPERIAL SETTLERS: EMPIRES OF THE NORTH

This is a standalone card game set in the Imperial Settlers “universe”.  It makes use of the Imperial Settlers civilisation building “style”, but in a new and different way.  The game features three clans, the Scotts, Inuits and the Vikings.

IMPERIAL SETTLERS: ROLL & WRITE 

Another Imperial Settlers spin-off, this time making use of the hot mechanic of rolling a dice and drawing.  This game is more of an engine building game as you try to construct those building you need to power your civilisation.

PRET-A-PORTER

This will be the 3rd edition of the game about running a fashion house.  It’s a ruthless economic worker placement, set collection game with a catwalk at the centre of it and will be coming to Kickstarter later this year featuring new art and fancy new components.

WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR CHAMPIONS ON SWITCH

PlayFusion and Games Workshop have announced that their very popular semi-digital CCG will soon be coming to both Nintendo’s Switch and Steam for PC and Mac.

For this game players scan their physical cards to be able to use them in their digital deck before taking on other players around the world on any platform  Champions will arrive on the Switch in February and on the Steam by the end of March

NOVICHOK IN SALISBURY

If I told you that there is now a game about the real-life poisoning of two former Russian double agents in Salisbury, which left four people hospitalised and another innocent bystander dead due to exposure to the deadly nerve agent.  Like me, you might be dumbfounded.  Now, what if I told you the game sold-out when it was released in Russia, both in stores and online?  My guess is you’d be a little disgusted.

The game is literally about taking two agents across Europe, from Moscow to Salisbury and the board features two “characters” that look pretty darn similar to the GRU “agents” involved in the attack, a spray can with a green skull and crossbones and at the final destination, Salisbury, some people in Hazmat suits.

Publishers, Igroland, are now considering making another, larger print run of the game.

ALLEY CAT GAME CON 

Alley Cat Games are putting on a tabletop convention on Saturday 9th February in Letchworth Garden City.  Tickets are just £5 for a whole day of gaming which will include the ACG catalogue plus their upcoming game Chocolate Factory amongst many others.

EVERYTHING TABLETOP GAMES BOOK 

Publishers Simon & Schuster will be adding a tabletop board games book to their “Everything…” range later this year with this instalment coming from Twitter Boardgame celebrity, vlogger and founder of Be Bold Games, Bebo (Brittanie Boe).

The book is largely intended for the uninitiated but includes light instructions, strategies for some of the games featured and ideas on how to expand your games.  Everything Tabletop Games will be available in July.

STEVE JACKSON CON 

Otherwise known as FNORD CON.  Details have been released for this convention celebrating everything Steve Jackson for April this year in Austin, Texas.  The con will give attendees to play loads of Munchin.

Just loads, and loads of Munchkin.

They’ll also be Ogre, and the newly released Fantasy Trip RPG and Munchkin.

SIGNIFICANT CMON 

CMON has announced a significant increase in profit for 2018 as compared to the loss of the nine months ending in September. This is so far, all unaudited and is believed to be based on Kickstarter performance in the last quarter of the year.  CMON are expecting an overall lower profit in their final year accounts largely due to royalties, opening new markets in Asia and of course, shifting to the Main Board of the Hong Kong Exchange.

HASBRO WINS GAME OF LIFE 

Chief Federal Judge, William E. Smith has ruled in favour of Hasbro’s ownership of The Game of Life after a very long legal dispute about the design.  It has been contested by the widow and heirs of Bill Markham who, in the 80’s, was hired by the toy developer Reuben Klamer to tweak and update the original design (The Checkered Game of Life, designed by Milton Bradley).

After the game’s release and a huge success, Markham took Klamer to court for a bigger slice – that was settled in 1989.  After Markham’s passing his heirs sued Hasbro who acquired Milton Bradley in 84.

In his decision, Judge Smith wrote: “the success that met the Game of Life was, in fact, nothing if not the result of collective effort.”

KICKSTARTER HIGHLIGHTS:

Zorro The Roleplaying Game – the FIRST EVER Zorro tabletop game! Can this be true, I’m not sure, but it sounds ace!

Lex Draconis - Be The Dragon - What would you sacrifice for power? Be the dragon and roar in this tabletop RPG corebook for the Modern RPG Universe!

Awaken: The Liborian Saga - Return to dark fantasy Awaken RPG, with the regional book “The Liborian Saga”, and face the nightmares in the dark and in your heart.

Dead Man's Cabal - Dead Man's Cabal is an upcoming strategy game from the Publishers of Dinosaur Island, The Mind, Machi Koro and more!