Board Game News – The Gateway Gazette – 13/05/2016

Greetings Gamers,

Welcome to Friday the 13th, which is probably why our site is encountering a few weird errors (I’m looking at you, sidebar widget).  But at least that hasn’t stopped us from publishing articles, as Paul experimented with weird science this week as he reviewed Steampunk Rally.

Time to see what piqued our interest this week in the news.

New Games

A new expansion for Descent has been announced titled The Chains that Rust.

The heroes’ adventures through the Mistlands continue with The Chains That Rust, a new Descent expansion that pits your might against ever more deadly dangers. Within this expansion, you’ll discover an entirely new one-act campaign that can be played on its own or as a sequel to the campaign included in Mists of Bilehall. New Tainted cards and a new Overlord class give the overlord player new tools, even as eight plastic figures swell his armies with new monsters. Finally, you can stretch beyond your hero’s traditional Class decks for the first time with the addition of hybrid classes!

Releasing in August is the next game in the Legendary series of deckbuilding titles. It’s Big Trouble in Little China, the cult classic 1980s action movie featuring Kurt Russell (though that box art resemblance looks slightly off). 

Become Legendary with the mystical arts seen in the cult hit film – Big Trouble in Little China!

Players will work their way through the co-op game trying to defeat Lo Pan and the three storms! Play as Jack Burton, Gracie Law, Wang Chi and even the Pork Chop Express as you play schemes straight from the film.

With The Bespin Gambit, you can take your Imperial Assault missions into the iconic locations of Cloud City. You may sneak through an ornate dining room or battle your foes around the deadly pit at the center of a carbon freezing chamber. While an entirely new mini-campaign challenges both Rebels and Imperials to search for a missing spy, you’ll also find plenty of content for the skirmish game with two new skirmish missions and new Command cards and skirmish upgrades.

Additional characters (to be sold seperately) includes everybody’s favourite backstabber Lando Calrissian.

Kickstarter

This War of Mine: The Board Game is a fully co-operative, open and play, survival experience. In this challenging, story-driven game for 1-6 players, you will play as group of civilians trapped in a city torn by a military conflict.

To survive, you will need to make tough moral choices, delivered in a role-playing style. You will also scavenge, manage, fight, trade and upgrade your shelter. This tabletop adaptation is based on one of the biggest indie games of recent years. TWOM: TBG offers you an experience that is hard to come by in any other tabletop game. Combined with the highest quality components created by experienced companies, this title will fully engage you with its meaningful story. It is high time for board games to address important topics.

Time indeed. This War of Mine has already managed to bring in over £120K in funding on a £40K goal, and no wonder if you look at the amount of components, as well as the expertise behind the game (Michal Oracz from Portal Games, designer of titles like Neuroshima Hex and Theseus the Dark Orbit).

Time is on your side. Except in Anachrony, where an Asteroid will destroy “New Earth” in 25 days.

Anachrony is a competitive, epic Euro-style strategy game with worker placement at its core, set in a grim future where Earth has been rebuilt along four different ideological Paths. The game is played through a series of Eras, with a time travelling twist – players can use Time Rifts to reach back to earlier Eras as the game progresses. 

This intriguing project from Mindclash Games  has already been funded, having already made over $120K with 24 days still to go.

Plague Inc is a popular mobile app and PC game that is also being converted to tabletop. It’s essentially the anti-Pandemic, with players taking the roles of different diseases, with your aim being to eradicate life on Earth.

Plague Inc. The Board Game is a strategic game of infection, evolution and extinction for 2-5* players lasting 60-90 minutes. Each player is a deadly disease competing against other players in a battle to be first to infect and wipe out the world! 

It’s also gone well beyond its original goal of $34K, and is sitting around the $90K mark still with 18 days to go.

Apps / Steam

Other

Ever wonder how much profit retailers make on large boxed games? You know, the Star Wars Rebellions and Descents of the industry. Not that much it seems according to Gary Ray of Black Diamond Games, who shares all the costs involved in selling games. It shares some interesting insights about the industry and the work involved with running a retail shop.

And that’s a wrap on the news. Next week we are following up our Steampunk Rally review with even more racing action as we review the 2014 Spiel Des Jahres winner, Camel Up.