Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending November 1, 2019.
Gaming News
- Popular Mechanics has updated its list of the Top 50 New Board Games, and, as usual, it’s a good list. Unlike many mass media publications that go with common titles, the writers at Popular Mechanics are obviously gamers. The list includes GeekDad-approved titles like Wingspan, Root, Tiny Towns, and plenty more.
- In related news, Ars Technica ran a post this week highlighting three games that feature programming mechanics.
- Bus, widely considered the first-ever worker placement game, is returning to shelves with a limited 20th Anniversary edition. According to the Capstone Games website, the $100 game includes the full retail edition, exclusive wooden screenprinted buildings, exclusive wooden Start Player Bus token in full color, screenprinted Score disks, fully restored game, action, and punch boards, an artbook featuring early design concepts and drawings from the designers, 3 exclusive prints of art from the original Bus, and a large-scale A3 print of the original cover art from 1999. The site also says that there will only be a single printing of this edition.
- WizKids has released the dice-placement game Merlin’s Beast Hunt, in which players compete “in a grand tournament to become the Champion of Magic.” The game consists of playing semi-transparent plastic cards, with the dice acting as stands to hold them up, to create a fenced-in hunting ground. The game should be in your friendly local game store now.
- Ultra Pro has announced that they will be releasing Deranged in the US in the first quarter of next year. The semi-cooperative game had a limited release at Gen Con through Hobby World but will be going wide thanks to Ultra Pro.
- Wizards on the Coast is looking for feedback with their annual D&D Survey.
- Munchkin Warhammer is getting another expansion. Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar lets players become “a soldier of one of the Armies in the Grand Alliances, as you fight against the numberless minions of Chaos and Death!” The expansion is of course completely compatible with other Munchkin Warhammer expansions.
- Chicago is getting its first full-service board game cafe, offering shared plates from Vietnam, Spain, and Mexico and a selection of games to play after dinner, complete with teachers to help your group learn. The 14,000 square foot cafe is the Margie’s Candies building in downtown Chicago, and also features an attached escape room. The venture is run by the people behind Cards Against Humanity.
- Board Game Atlas has launched a podcast. As of this writing, it’s only available as video, but they say in the comments an audio version is coming soon, which I’ll definitely be willing to check out in my too-long commute.
GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews
Here are the games we’ve reviewed this week:
- Jonathan Liu reviewed Village Pillage and Big Dog.
- Sarah Pinault wrote up a series of smaller reviews of family games in her An Impromptu Un-parented Game Day post.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Jonathan Liu played Paranormal Detectives, Marvel Champions: The Card Game, Wayfinders, Ecos: the First Continent, Promenade, and Unmatched: Robin Hood vs. Bigfoot.
- Michael Pistiolas played Era: Medieval Age, Azul, and Go Fish.
- Robin Brooks played Block Happy, Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave, Sushi Roll, and Red7.
- I played Quacks of Quedlinburg, Meme The Game: Disney Edition, and Deep Blue (our featured image this week).
