The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending July 21, 2017.
It’s a game with a bridge as a playing board, Blanche (that minx) eating the last piece of cheesecake, Gen Con badges, Fantasy Flight rules updates, Spiel des Jahres winners, and much more in this week’s edition of the tabletop game news roundup. Let’s Re-Roll things…
- Please take a shower and put on some deodorant before heading to Gen Con. We’re going to be packed in like sardines. After selling out of 4-Day badges, Saturday badges have sold out, and Sunday badges are on the verge of being gone as well. Friday will probably be next to go after that. It’s gonna be Comic-Con crowded.
- Renegade Game Studios has announced they are partnering with Legion to create branded card boxes, playmats, and card sleeves for their beautiful card-laying game, Lotus. (Read our review of the game.)
- Asmodee has released another preview of one of the Splendor expansions. This time, it’s the Cities expansion, which features seven double-sided tiles, and winning over a single city will also win you the game.
- IDW Games announced they have signed a deal with Nickelodeon to bring a food fight-themed game to kitchen tables. The game will feature a wide variety of characters including Rugrats, Spongebob, Hey Arnold!, and Ren and Stimpy. Look for Splat Attack to release in spring of 2018, you EEDIOT!
- Spiel des Jahres winners were announced this past week. In addition to the Kinderspiel winner, which was given to Ice Cool a month ago, 2017 winner’s include Kingdomino for the Spiel Des Jahres (read our review) and Kennerspiel winner EXIT: The Game (read our review).
- Games making their way to shelves this week include:
- Merchants of Araby from Daily Magic, a previously Kickstarted hand management/worker placement set among the tents and merchants of the caravans in the Middle East.
- Leaders of Euphoria applies the gameplay of Good Cop, Bad Cop to Stonemaier Game’s world of Euphoria, while introducing some rule tweaks and added strategy.
- USAopoly has a pair of games this week, quite dissimilar titles (or are they?): Munchkin: Deadpool — Just Deadpool stars the comic paneled version of everyone’s favorite anti-hero and apparently will have kittens, too. Also making its way to shelves (and probably quite a few of your shelves) is Clue: The Golden Girls where players will try to out think their competitors to figure out who ate the last piece of cheesecake. My money is on Blanche. Every time.
- Stronghold will be dropping Cottage Garden for all you tile-layers. It’s a bit of a deeper game than Patchwork and can accommodate four.
- If gardening isn’t your thing, but you still enjoy being outdoors… with guns… maybe Cryptozoic’s Train Heist will interest you. With cowboy meeples and a slow moving train, Train Heist is a refinished version of the Kickstarted game from a couple of years ago.
- I don’t know much about it, but CMON has a gangland-themed game (second one in as many weeks!) hitting shelves, Gang Rush Breakout. With a suggested retail of $75, you better hope it’s something special. I haven’t seen a rulebook or anything about gameplay, but check out the pictures of the board–it’s a friggin bridge! With cars, ramps, barriers, and ship containers! Looks amazing.
- Fantasy Flight unloaded a ton of new rules this week for tournament regulations. They all take effect on July 26, which is also my brother Matt’s birthday. Maybe I’ll print out the rules as a present to him. I’m sure he’ll be confused because he doesn’t play many games. Anyway, without further ado: Imperial Assault, Destiny, X-Wing Miniatures, Armada, A Game of Thrones Card Game, Android: Netrunner, and Star Wars: The Card Game.
- A reminder, GeekDad is hosting two events at Gen Con. We’re deep in planning stages now and, if you attended last year, you know how fun it was. We’re dialing it up a notch this year and it’s going to be even zanier. I can’t wait!
At GeekDad, we write a lot about tabletop games. Here’s what we’ve written about this past week:
- Robin Brooks tells us about a Kickstarter that allows you to easily change out the hand on your minis. Because of magnets. Magnets! How do they work? I don’t want to talk to a scientist!
- Ryan Hiller pointed to another Kickstarter, this one for Elderwood Academy’s Hex Chest Dice Boxes. They are pretty!
- Before running away to Florida, Jonathan Liu managed to find the time to write about Ares 4X game called Masters of the Galaxy. (It’s on Kickstarter. Of course.) And he also opined a bit on one of his favorite obsessions, PACG and the latest deck, Mummy’s Mask.
- Sophie Brown double-dipped on gravity defiance this week with a preview of the new Beasts of Balance game (on Kickstarter) and a review of some other stacking games.
Finally, here’s what some of the GeekDad Crew has been playing this week:
- Rob Huddleston: Word Domination, Saloon Tycoon, Dead of Winter, Eurorails
- Will James: Star Wars home brew RPG
- Gerry Tolbert: Word Domination, Problem Picnic, Delve
- Anthony Karcz: Monopoly Gamer Edition, Star Wars: X-Wing Minis
- Ryan Hiller: Pathfinder RPG
- Michael Harrison: Lords of Waterdeep with Scoundrels of Skullport expansion, Love Letter, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Spires
- Robin Brooks: Warhammer 40,000. Outfoxed, Visions
- Sean Hallenbeck: Goatfish
- Mike LeSauvage: Quarriors
- Jonathan Liu: Happy Salmon, Dr. Beaker, Go Go Gelato, Sushi Go, Kingdomino, Before the Earth Explodes (upcoming Kickstarter), Quickpick: Island of Monster Masks
- Dave Banks: Downforce, Dice Forge, Indulgence, Word Domination Windup War
