Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending November 13, 2020.
Gaming News
- Classic gateway game Catan is now old enough to rent a car, and with that, of course, comes a 25th-anniversary edition that will include the base game, the 5-6 player expansion, the Helpers of Catan scenario, new sorting trays for resource and development cards, special iridescent player pieces, custom dice, and two packs of Gamegenic™ card sleeves. Thankfully, unlike the 10th edition, this version of the game will also be affordable, coming in at only $80. Keep your eyes here on GeekDad for a full review to come.
- In an interview posted on YouTube, Steve Horvath, head of publishing and president of Fantasy Flight parent company Asmodee North America, told Team Covenant that Fantasy Flight has plans for a lot of new Star Wars games over the next few years. Miniatures-based games X-Wing, Legion, and Armada have releases planned out through the end of 2023, which will include new elements from The Mandalorian. Star Wars: Outer Rim will be getting “new content,” although it’s unclear if that means it’ll get an expansion or something else. He also said that he was aware that the company seemed to be underserving Star Wars and said that there “are more board games coming.”
- Justin Gary from Stone Blade Entertainment is running a game design course, and spots are still available for a $300 discount for those that sign up early. You can get the details on the course and sign up at Teachable.com.
- Search through your couch cushions because a Pokémon First Edition Base Set sealed booster box is up for auction on the Heritage Auctions site. As of this writing, the current minimum bid is only $290,000.
- ‘Tis the season for advent calendars. My son can’t wait to start opening doors on his LEGO Star Wars calendar—an annual tradition he still looks forward to despite being generally uninterested in LEGO anymore—and I have my Q Workshop dice calendar ready to go (but sadly, it appears to now be sold out), but fans of Warhammer 40K needn’t feel left out, as Games Workshop has a calendar full of individually sleeved A4-sized art prints from the Black Library available now.
- Renegade Game Studios has released Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Card Game, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a deck-building game about putting together a dragon tea party.
- Renegade also released this week Viscounts of the West Kingdom, a game of gaining loyalty to end up as the most powerful person in the realm.
- Fans of the classic miniatures game Blood Bowl may find the Games Workshop interview with lead rules writer Jay about the new edition of the game of interest.
- Spiel Digital, the online replacement to the world’s largest gaming convention, put out a final report. They had 140,000 individual visitors, with a million hits on their official livestreams. They also report a 100% increase in Tabletopia users during the events. You can read the whole thing here (PDF).
GeekDad and GeekMom Reviews
- Robin Brooks reviewed Bardsung.
- Michael Knight reviewed Break In: Alcatraz.
- Jonathan H. Liu shared a roundup of Kickstarter projects.
- Paul Benson gave us a peek and Skeletor from Masters of the Universe: Fields of Eternia, and a preview of Dune: Imperium.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Robin Brooks played Warhammer Underworlds: Arena Mortalis and Bardsung.
- Michael Pistiolas played Robo Rally, Cockroach Poker, Liar’s Dice, Scooby-Doo: Escape from the Haunted Mansion, Encounters: Shadowrun, Blood Bowl Team Manager, Everdell, Wingspan, Volt, You Gotta Be Kitten Me, Food Chain Island, Unbroken, Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive, The Crew, Unmatched: Battle of Legends Volume One, Chronicles of Crime, Just One, and Mmm!
- Z. played Dungeons & Dragons.
- Jonathan H. Liu played Zombie Teenz Evolution, Cloud City, Mass Transit, Tokyo Highway, Pingyao: First Chinese Banks, Creature Comforts, Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, and Veritas.
