Board Game News – Gateway Gazette – 17/02/2017

Happy belated Valentine’s Day gamers. While love is still in the air between couples young and old the love for cardboard is an enduring one that survives all ups and downs during the week and no matter whether you win or lose or use baggies or foamcore; your board game collection will always love you back.

This week, Stuart gave us some insight to an excellent new deck builder on the block; Emergents: Genesis. You you’ve never heard of this punching and counter punching superhero fighting deck builder, then check out the review. We’re currently captivated by the new Arkham Horror: LCG content and can’t wait for all the new titles to arrive in the coming months!

New Games News

As one of the highest ranking games on Board Game Geek, and with Euro fans from all over the world, we were wondering when there would be a followup up to Terra Mystica, and low and behold from the far reaches of the galaxy we have finally received the message. Terra Mystica: Gaia Project will feature all the intricate gameplay of its predecessor, but set in a Sci-Fi universe with players playing unique factions attempting to terraform planets to become habitable for domination. Players will advance their Terraforming, Navigation, Artificial Intelligence, Gaiaforming, Economy, and  Research abilities to gain unique bonuses. With an even bigger and a specialized 2 player mode, this may be the version for those who haven’t already drunk from the golden fountain. Due out at Essen this year!

Caverna is getting the 2-player treatment in a new game called “Cave Against Cave: Caverna“. Not much details to be found except for a post on the Lookout Games website. If you’re not fluent in German, it roughly translates to:

At the beginning of the game, you face a mountain. A small excavation tells her the entrance to the future dwelling of your clan, which consists of just two working dwarfs at the beginning of the game. At the end of the game you will have four. Cave out your cave.Aligns the cavities. Collect grains, fibers and building materials, and you will bring them to a prosperity of unprecedented proportions – for the time around 5000 BC, at any rate, and in a landscape that is so unrealistic that you prefer the humid coldness of a cave of sweeping heat. One also suspects: prosperity is also relative.

Now, Uwe Rosenberg invites all two-person game lovers to “Caverna – Cave vs. Cave”.In about 45 minutes players from 12 years experience a direct strike exchange between their dwarf tribes.

Each round, the action cards are disputed, which are urgently needed to further expand its core cave. New caves have to be excavated, walls have to be built and rooms have to be installed. Besides, it would not be dwarfs if they could not dig their precious metal and grow their wealth. The most ardent, who after 45 minutes has accumulated the greatest wealth, wins the dwarves’ contest!

Much like the Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small, we expect Lookout to do extremely well with this as there is something special about harvesting crops, tending livestock and carving out a cave with your significant other that is memorable.

We have more Codenames on the way in the form of themed Disney versions. Earlier this week USAopoly Inc. announced that two new titles are on the way – Codenames Disney Family Edition and Codenames Marvel Edition. We’ve seen this before with the Love Letter franchise, so no surprise that these gateway style games will see the use of popular intellectual properties to further increase their audience reach and this is something we should all rejoice in. Also, its more Codenames and trying to relate Thor and Antman could be quite endearing to watch around the family games table.

“We recognized that Codenames was perfect for pairing with the Disney, Disney•Pixar and Marvel franchises. We are confident the Disney, Disney•Pixar and Marvel versions of Codenames will complement our extraordinary portfolio of game brands,” noted USAopoly President and CEO John M. Davis.” 

Kickstarter

Champions of Midgard is a great viking-themed worker placement title released back in 2015, and now finally we have an expansion on the way. NAY, scratch that thought – we have two expansions on the way. Uniquely titled “Champions of Midgard: The Expansions“, you have a choice of purchasing a set of both expansions (“The Dark Mountain” and “Valhalla”) with a custom box for all expansion and base set components, or buying the expansions individually.

While both expansions will add an additional player board, they both will add a unique spin to the Viking world of Midgard. In Dark Mountain, Jarls will need to ready their troops to head to the mountains to face the threat of BergRisers but can also add Archers to their warriors and a 5th player is added to the mix! You’ll need to take Land Journey’s to reach the mountains much like you would at Sea making supplies even more crucial! New ships, Runes and a New Hero is added to make Midgard slightly more perilous! With Valhalla, you’ll be gaining victory points for sacrificing warriors and gaining glory  while you place them in the hallowed halls. You’ll gain new leader dice as well as Berzerkers and Shieldwarriors to add to your armies and each player will also start with a unique ability board! New blessings will be granted by the Valkyries and together these expansions offer so much new content Stuart is literally frothing while editing this.

Still with 25 days to go, the project is already funded with over $111K on an original goal of $10,000.

He wasn’t kidding when he said that he’ll be back. After a few shoddy film sequels, we can now look forward to The Terminator™: The Official Board Game.

The Terminator™: The Official Board Game is an asymmetrical strategy game for 2-5 players played across two boards: one in 1984 and one in 2029. One player takes control of all of Skynet’s forces: Hunter Killer machines, Terminator cyborgs, and more. The rest of the players take the role of the human resistance, struggling against the impossible odds of the machine uprising. Each of the two game boards play differently: 2029 focuses on light troop and resource management in a lopsided battle for dominance. 1984 focuses on personal missions with high stakes and intense pacing. Missions arise through the course of gameplay, and have players make decisions in 1984 that will affect the future, erasing and adding components in real time.. 

The publisher – Space Goat Productions – will be releasing a gameplay video today (17 Feb 2017) so keep an eye out on the Kickstarter page. Not that they need to release any further info, as the game is already funded with over $130,000 pledged already on a hefty $120,000 goal.

In Other News

Heard the news? The thimble is OUT! It’s time to say sew long to our thimble-y friend. 👋 #MonopolyVote pic.twitter.com/qNFbMJazXi

— MonopolyUK (@MonopolyUK) February 16, 2017

IS NOTHING SACRED? After losing the iron a few years ago, the thimble, one of the original Monopoly pieces, has been voted out and will be replaced by…. well ,we don’t know what exactly, but it could be emoji. Or a T-Rex. Thumbs crossed for the T-Rex.

Oh, just a reminder that on February 28, Fantasy Flight Games will cease selling any of their Games Workshop licensed games, so if you were eyeing something now would be the time to pull the trigger before all the games get snatched up to never return again. I’m just happy I have my copy of Fury of Dracula Third Ed (and no Stuart, I’m still not selling it to you).

And that’s it for this week, have a excellent weekend, and good gaming all.