The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending December 7, 2018.
Gaming News
A quick summary of this week’s board game news:
- Here at GeekDad, we’ve released our finalists for Game of the Year: Cryptid, Decrypto, Dragon Castle. Fireball Island, Heroes of Land, Air & Sea, Junk Orbit, My Little Scythe, Root, Visitor in Blackwood Grove, Welcome To… Within the next few weeks, some intrepid GeekDad writers will be converging in Kansas City to play all of the titles and decide on a winner. Stay tuned!
- Reddit user thebeardedcosplayer created a Google Spreadsheet of the 250 or so boardgame-related conferences in the US coming up in 2019. It’s a continuing, crowd-sourced project, so if you know of a con that isn’t there, feel free to comment on the spreadsheet to get it added.
- Meanwhile, over at BoardGameGeek, user Danny Nichols has created a tool that allows you to enter rules for your games into Alexa so that you can ask her for clarifications while you play. The title of the post says it also works with Google Assistant. I plan to test it out this weekend, and if it works as advertised, playing basically anything from Fantasy Flight will become a lot more pleasant.
- This week sees the release of three titles in long-running series: Catan Histories: Rise of the Inkas, Carcassonne: Safari, and Codenames: Pictures XXL.
- Also in Carcassonne news: the game is now available on the Nintendo Switch. Carcassonne is also our featured image this week.
- In board game business news, Fantasy Flight founder and current Asmodee North America CEO Christian Petersen has announced he will be stepping down as of the end of the year. After his departure, the company will split into two distinct units, with one focusing on publishing games and the other on distribution.
- Happy Meeple is releasing their 10th digital game, Circle the Wagons. And to entice people to play it, they’re offering a $100 reward to the first person to beat their bot 3 times.
- Of course, holiday sales on games continue at CSI, Amazon, and, maybe even your FLGS.
GeekDad Reviews
Games we’ve reviewed this week here on GeekDad:
- Jonathan H. Liu helped Egypt grow in Imhotep: A New Dynasty.
- Michael Pistiolas introduced his family to Race to the Treasure.
- Logan Giannini went pillaging in Raids.
- Erik Stanfill stayed up past bedtime with Stuffed Fables.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Jonathan Liu played Scorpius Freighter; Troika, Battle of the Bards; Hyperspace; Imhotep: A New Dynasty; Minute Realms; Oddbods Go-Kards; Roll for Your Life, Candyman!; Terra Evolution; and Unspeakable Words
- Michael Pistiolas played Bohnanza, Downforce, Reef, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, and Tsuro
- Robin Brooks played Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault
