Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending April 15, 2022.
Gaming News
- The American Tabletop Awards has announced their 2022 winners. Happy City won the Early Gamers category, Cubitos won for best Casual Game, and Lost Ruins of Arnak won for best Complex Game. Meanwhile, GeekDad Game of the Year Finalist Cascadia won the award for best Strategy Game. (Disclosure: GeekDad Senior Editor Jonathan Liu is on the ATTA committee.) Cascadia is our featured image this week.
- Asmodee is launching Unbox Now, a new label that will include a “selection of its best-selling and most accessible board games” aimed at “helping friends and family to find the right board game to play together.” Unbox Now will launch in both physical stores and online with new branding, websites, social media, and in-store displays. The label will initially include titles such as Catan, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Splendor, Dixit, and Azul. The label will also introduce a loyalty program, giving players free content and online features, and free access to Asmodee’s Board Game Arena, with each game including a 6-month membership for that title on BGA, or a one-month premium membership to BGA if the title is not yet available there.
- Stonemaier’s winemaking game Viticulture is getting a new expansion. In Viticulture World, players will now be able to cooperate with others or play solo. The expansion features a new board, tiles, tokens, and event cards and gives players 6 years of gameplay to achieve their victory conditions. The expansion is compatible with other expansions. The game will be available later this year. Stonemaier is also revising the game’s red and blue “mama and papa” cards to offer same-sex pairings. Future printings of the base game will also have these new cards, and they can be downloaded for free from the company’s website.
- D&D Beyond, a digital toolset for the game, is being purchased by Hasbro for a reported $146.3M. The toolset, and the team from Fandom who developed it, will become in-house assets once the deal is complete.
- Archon Studio is readying the release of Masters of the Universe: Battleground, a miniatures game based on the ’80s toy and cartoon series. The game will be released in English, German, and Polish in “select” EU countries. No word on when, or if, a US release might follow. The game features 10 highly detailed miniatures of favorite characters from the series, along with terrain elements based on Castle Greyskull.
- Ravensburger’s first campaign on crowdfunding site Gamefound, which the company heavily invested in earlier this year, will be a deluxe reprint of Castles of Burgundy. This new edition will feature entirely new artwork and upgraded components and a campaign mode. The campaign is set to launch sometime next month.
- Fantasy Flight has announced a new expansion for Cosmic Encounter. Called Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Odyssey, the first expansion for the game in over 5 years introduces new content and a new campaign mode. The expansion is set for release in August, immediately after Gen Con.
- Renegade has announced Birdwatcher, a new wildlife photography game. The competitive game has players taking on the roles of rival wildlife photographers and is now available for pre-order.
GeekDad & GeekMom Reviews
Here’s what we reviewed this week:
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Robin Brooks reviewed Root: The Roleplaying Game.
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Michael Knight reviewed GeekDad Approved Familiar Tales.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads and GeekMoms played this week:
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Jonathan Liu played Decorum, Gen7, and The Initiative.
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Michael Pistiolas played Marvel Champions and Cascadia.
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Robin Brooks played Lord of the Rings LCG and Elector Counts.
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Will James played Horizon: Zero Dawn.
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Michael Knight played Familiar Tales, Tiny Epic Dungeons, and High Noon.
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Paul Benson played Dungeons, Dice & Danger, Dungeons & Dragons: Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Dungeons & Dragons Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
