Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending August 14, 2020.
Gaming News
- We don’t have many details yet, but GeekDad 2019 Game of the Year winner The Quacks of Quedlinburg is getting a new expansion. As of now, all we have is a German title—Die Alchemisten (“the alchemist”)—and an oh-so-brief description on BoardGameGeek that the expansion “introduces nightmares, obsession, and hysteria to The Quacks of Quedlinburg base game, with players working in new laboratories to distill essences that can free the citizens of Quedlinburg from these afflictions.” We’ll definitely keep you updated as we learn more.
- Stonemeier Games has announced the first expansion to Tapestry. In Plans and Ploys, players can “(c)hoose from a variety of new civilizations, pursue individual achievements to add landmarks to your capital city, and sneakily interact with the opposition.” The expansion will be available for preorder in early September and will ship later that month. If you are interested in the original game, the Game Nerdz website has it for over half off, at least as of this writing.
- There have been quite a few board games over the years based on the perfect movie, The Princess Bride, and this fall Ravensburger is adding a new one to the mix. In The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game, players work together to progress through six “chapters” that recreate important elements of the movie. Keep your eyes out for a full review of the game here on GeekDad, coming soon.
- Adobe Flash may have only a few more months to live (RIP), but Iello has brought the classic game Flash 8 back with a “modernized version” in which players race to reproduce configurations of electrons.
- And speaking of returning classics, Pandasaurus is re-releasing Tammany Hall, the game of “game of backstabbing, corruption, temporary alliances, and taking power at all costs.” You can preorder now, or wait a few weeks for the September 16 release.
- CMON has released Project Elite, a “real-time cooperative game of alien invasion” where players defend the Earth. It’s available now.
- Plaid Hat’s Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is coming back. In partnership with Team Covenant, Ashes Reborn is introducing a new, pretty unique model: interested players will be able to subscribe to the game, and will automatically receive new releases to the collectible dice and card game every three months. It’s certainly a novel approach to game distribution, and it’ll be interesting to see how it works out. Oh, and if you’re a fan of the original game, the first shipment will include an upgrade kit to make it compatible with the new releases.
- Dune fans are already getting increasingly excited about the upcoming release of the new movie, and so now they’ll be even happier to know that while they are watching the movie at home (because that’s the only way to get to watch movies anymore), they can play along with Dire Wolf’s deck-building-meets-worker-placement game Dune Imperium. No release date has been announced, but as the game is advertised as a direct tie-in to the movie, one might assume that it will be out mid-December.
- Warcradle Studios has announced the upcoming release of Altered Carbon: Fightdrome, a card-based combat game based on the popular Netflix series. According to the announcement, Fightdrome is only the first of a series of planned games based on the series.
- Warcradle has also announced Flash Gordon: Death to Ming!, based on 1980’s so-bad-it’s-good movie with Sam Jones and that incredible Queen soundtrack, and what will surely be the most excellent board game Bill & Ted’s Riff In Time, which features what looks like some pretty cool miniatures of the Wyld Stallyns.
- Mondo, the studio behind GeekDad-approved Unmatched, has released Disney: Shadow Kingdom, a cooperative two-player card game exclusively at Target.
- It looks increasingly like there won’t be much—if any—American football this year, so perhaps its perfect timing for Games Workshop to announce a new edition of Blood Bowl. Billed as the “second season” of the game, it’s actually its sixth edition. It’s due on shelves in time for the holidays, which means I only have a few months to finally assemble and play that last edition of the game that has been on my shelf for a few years.
GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews
- Jonathan Liu reviewed Mia London and the Case of the 625 Scoundrels and Northgard: Uncharted Lands.
- Michael Knight reviewed Western Legends: Blood Money.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Greg Howley played Quirkle and Spirit Island.
- Michael Pistiolas played Can’t Stop, Hearts, Nobody But Us Chickens, Euchre, and 6nimmt!
- Jonathan Liu played Northgard: Uncharted Lands and The Umbrella Academy Card Game.
- Robin Brooks played Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave, Marvel: Champions, Tumble Tree, Rhino Hero, Journeys in Middle Earth, and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
- Michael Knight played Western Legend: Blood Money, Marvel Villainous, and Kharnage!
- I played Titanic: The Game, our featured image this week.
