The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending May 4, 2018.
- Event registration for Gen Con opens this weekend. So you’d better finalize your wish lists and be ready to hit that submit button when the virtual door opens at noon on Sunday. (Don’t forget to sign up to play games with GeekDad on the Saturday of Gen Con at noon!)
- There was a nice surprise this week when Stonemaier Games announced My Little Scythe, a family-friendly version of their very popular game, Scythe (read our review). What’s even neater is that My Little Scythe is designed by the same father/daughter team who did the My Little Pony print & play version last spring, Hoby and Vienna Chou. The game will release at Gen Con, but you’ll need to become a Stonemaier Champion if you want to pre-order.
- Renegade Game Studios announced they would be republishing the fantastic card game Arboretum, but with new art by Beth Sobel. Sobel has worked on many of Stonemaier Games’ offerings, as well as Herbaceous, Lanterns, and the recent Tabletop Day exclusive, Wonderland. Arboretum will become available this fall at a very affordable $20 for this wonderful game.
- This week’s image is from Altiplano.
- The beautiful and very enjoyable dice chucking and placement game, Sagrada (read our review), will be adding a 5-6 player expansion in July. The game will include new private objectives, tool, and window cards. The expansion will retail for $25.
- They say that Dracula is hard to kill. The same is true of Fury of Dracula, which will be resurrected yet again, this time by WizKids. This new, fourth edition will feature five new pre-painted minis, larger sized cards, and more. Look for it in the most haunted of months, October.
- Renegade announced Gunkimono, a tile-laying game set in feudal Japan, available for pickup at Gen Con, and Wendake, a reprint of the very popular game of increasingly better decisions and themed around Native American Indians, available later this fall.
- Fantasy Flight has a beginner RPG coming out this third quarter that’s based in the L5R universe. Players will get to take on the roles of samurais in the Emerald Empire, test their characters and fate in this four-player affair that has some very nice custom dice.
- In the biggest news of the week, Fantasy Flight announced a huge overhaul of their X-Wing Miniatures game in a new, second edition. The new sets have been completely revisited with better balance among ships. The announcement was met with excitement (for the improved balance) and frustration, as players will have to spend upwards of $200 (or more) to come into compliance for Organized Play, depending on their squadrons. Second edition will become available at Gen Con.
- Oh, but have no fear, they’re still pumping out ships for the old version of X-Wing, as seen in this TIE Reaper expansion.
At GeekDad, we write a lot about tabletop games. Here’s what we’ve written about this past week:
- Kim Haynes went on a quest to tell you about The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.
- Sophie Brown was on a tear over at GeekMom, covering a Kickstarter for a dice game called Kicking Class, looking at (and giving away) Pokemon Sun & Moon: Ultra Prism, and calculating 5 math games that are fun to play and make learning enjoyable.
- Logan Giannini returned from getting married to explore Treasure Mountain with its many, many bits and pieces.
- Rob Huddleston alerted us to a Kickstarter for a pickup & deliver game called Tricky Tides.
- Jonathan Liu told us about the greatest game to ever boast an alpaca standee, Alitplano.
- Ryan Hiller told you how you could win a trip to PaizoCon.
- Jim Kelly cataloged the many things on his game radar.
Finally, here’s what some of the GeekDad Crew has been playing this week:
- Michael Harrison: Cosmic Encounter, Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age, Scythe
- Jonathan Liu: Magic Maze, Herbaceous Sprouts, Mystic Vale: Conclave, Samurai Spirit, Visitor in Blackwood Grove, Barker’s Row, Battle Merchants, Groves, HOPE, The Neverland Rescue, Space Base, Thunderstone Quest, Witching Hour
- Logan Giannini: Spyfall, Azimuth: Ride the Winds, Skulls, Seals of Cthulhu, Treasure Mountain
- Robin Brooks: Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, Dungeons & Dragons 5th ed: Curse of Strahd, Heroes and Treasure (upcoming Kickstarter)
- Sara Blackburn: Oh My Goods!, SECTRE, CONEX, Ticket to Ride
- Sophie Brown: Villagers (launching on KS soon), Sushi Go, Bananagrams, Jurassic Park: Danger
- Dave Banks: The Game, The Mind, Sparkle Kitty, Space Base, Roll Player with Monsters & Minions, Mystery of the Temples, Wonderland
