News

On a site called Boardgame News, you expect to see – oh, I don't know – news about board games. Surprisingly enough, BGN does indeed gather news from across the wide world of board gaming, and this news is slotted into the following categories:

• Boardgame News – Anything and everything about board games that can't be shoehorned into the three categories listed below


• Gone Cardboard News – Updates to Gone Cardboard, BGN's list of recently released and upcoming games from publishers in North America


• Convention Preview News – Updates to BGN's previews of the Nuremberg and Spiel conventions, which detail hundreds of games released or shown at Germany's two biggest game conventions. Why focus on Germany, you ask? Because Germany is a sweet golden paradise of gaming and a huge influence on modern game design. For more details, check out BGN's New to Boardgames? section, which highlights the heights of German gaming.


• Media Watch – Game-related readings from the mainstream media, only a few of which are about Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble and other familiar games

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Headlines May 12, 2008 - Cannonball Colony – New Title from Adventureland Games May 11, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: A Game of Games – Coming in June May 11, 2008 - Im Reich der Wüstensöhne – Playable on PlayCatan.com May 10, 2008 - Gen Con Owes Hasbro More Than $400,000 May 10, 2008 - BGN Game Giveaway Winners for March & April 2008 May 9, 2008 - Media Watch: What’s Taboo for Senator Obama? May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Time’s Up Times Two – Coming in June May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Dirge: Carnage in Crimson – Coming Soon May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Khet 3D: Tower of Kadesh – Shipping Soon May 9, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Monty Python Fluxx – Coming in Fall 2008 May 8, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Okko, Era of the Asagiri – Coming in June May 8, 2008 - Gone Cardboard News: Money, Gem Dealer – Coming in September; High Society in 2009

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Articles

Cannonball Colony – New Title from Adventureland Games

Designer Phil Harding, he of the self-published Archaeology and Archaeology: The Card Game through Adventureland Games, has a new title set to debut at the Australian Games Expo in June 2008. Here’s a description of Cannonball Colony:

It is the golden age of colonialism and a beautiful deserted island has just been discovered. Unfortunately, ships from four different countries have arrived at the same time to claim it! The main mechanism of Cannonball Colony is two layered tile-laying. Players construct a network of road tiles, then build forts, cannons and blockades on top of road tiles to which they have access. When different networks of roads merge, new options open up for players. There is strategy in the way you plan to develop the island for your benefit, but also tactical decisions as you react to what and where your opponents build. The game has the ruleset of a light Eurogame, the thought of a somewhat weighty abstract, and plenty of direct conflict as you blow up opponents. The player with the most forts standing at the end of the game wins the island for his country!

The cover shown above is a draft. Cannonball Colony is for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, with a playing time of 30-60 minutes. Details about price (which will likely be around $40 Australian) and ordering will soon be available on Adventureland Games. Harding says that the game might be available to North American gamers through an online store, as was the case with Archaeology: The Card Game, but the logistics are still being worked out.

Note on May 12: Item bumped to show corrected cover and include prices.

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Gone Cardboard News: A Game of Games – Coming in June

Ted Cheatham and Mike Petty released a small card game at the Gathering of Friends in April 2008 called A Game of Games. While the game is similar to Password – players give single word clues to get their teammate to guess game titles – A Game of Games includes additional scoring opportunities that depend on your knowledge of a game’s designer and year of release.

A Game of Games is available for preorder through Fair Play Games and will be released on June 1. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Im Reich der Wüstensöhne – Playable on PlayCatan.com

Klaus Teuber’s Im Reich der Wüstensöhne (In the Realm of the Desert Sons), the second title in his new Entdecker series, won’t be available in most game stores, but you can try the game online at PlayCatan.com for free through the end of May 2008. After that time, the game will be available only to Premium members of the site. To find the game, visit PlayCatan.com, then click on “Play” underneath the Catan Online World heading.

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Gen Con Owes Hasbro More Than $400,000

While looking for information on the Lucasfilm vs. Gen Con LLC lawsuit, Trask at LivingDice.com ran across Gen Con’s bankruptcy filing, which took place in December 2007. Among the creditors listed are the Make a Wish Foundation ($148,000), Lucasfilm Ltd ($284,000) and Hasbro ($431,000). You can download the filing from the Gencon [sic] Bankruptcy Filing post on LivingDice.com.

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BGN Game Giveaway Winners for March & April 2008

Put your hands together for the following BGN members who won games in the drawings for March and April 2008:

• Jamaica – Jeffrey Henning (March), Timothy S. Higgins (April)
• Kill the Hippies – Joshua Cappel (March)
• Game Ink T-shirt – Steve Hughes (March)
• Slide 5 – Michael Merten, Pat Mitchell (March)
• Galactic Destiny – Jim McDanold (April)
• Word Blur – Giuseppe De Carolis (April)
• Medievalia – Jon Sykes (April)

Hope everyone enjoys their games, and thanks again to all the publishers that generously donated games!

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Media Watch: What’s Taboo for Senator Obama?

From ABC News:

Sometimes even politicians need a break from the game of politics. Aboard his 757 airplane en route for five hours from Washington, D.C. to Oregon, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama opted for a new game: Taboo.  Obama was challenged to a press corps versus Obama staff game to pass some in flight time.... The competitive senator quickly got into the game, cheering on staff members, handing out high fives to his team, and checking the score religiously after each turn.

How well did the Senator perform? And would he propose a Taboo-off to settle the long-running Democratic nomination process? Read the complete article on ABCNews.com to find the answer to one of these questions.

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Gone Cardboard News: Time’s Up Times Two – Coming in June

R&R Games’ Time’s Up – Peter Sarrett’s take on the charades game Celebrities – has been a blast whenever I’ve played it, and soon there will be even more to love. Coming in June 2008 are two new (or partly new) Time’s Up titles:

• Time’s Up Deluxe, which combines 500 names from the base game and the two expansions with 500 new names. This set, which retails for $30, also includes an electronic timer, play rules for an odd number of players (so you don’t have to kick someone out to form teams of two), and advanced rules for a fourth round of play. What can you do once you’ve eliminated speech in round 3 and are left with nothing but pantomiming? Eliminate that, too! Yes, the fourth round is all about posing. Your teammate will keep her eyes closed until you’re ready to show off your still life version of Herbert Hoover or Georgia O’Keeffe. Take a cue from Madonna, and strike a pose…

• Time’s Up: Title Recall, which does away with the famous names and replaces them with 864 titles from books, movies, songs, and more. This standalone game will retail for $20.

These games have been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Dirge: Carnage in Crimson – Coming Soon

John Clowdus will start shipping the fourth title from Small Box Games, Dirge: Carnage in Crimson, the week of May 12, 2008, but there’s still time to preorder the game at a discounted rate. Dirge is a two-player miniatures combat game with a basic action point system; wreck the other player’s army, and you win. You can download the rules from the Dirge webpage on the Small Box Games website.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Khet 3D: Tower of Kadesh – Shipping Soon

Luke Hooper at Innovention Toys says that the Tower of Kadesh expansion for Khet – which was first shown at NY Toy Fair back in February 2007 – has finally arrived at the company’s warehouse. He adds, “After our full inspection they will begin shipping next week!”

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Monty Python Fluxx – Coming in Fall 2008

Looney Labs has announced that it will release a Monty Python-themed version of Fluxx before the end of 2008. According to designer Andy Looney, the card mix “focuses heavily on Holy Grail but pulls in as many other bits and references as I can squeeze in.” The previously announced Martian Fluxx has been moved to the second quarter of 2009 to make room for this title.

These games have been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Okko, Era of the Asagiri – Coming in June

Asmodée Editions had initially given a Q3 2008 release date for Okko, Era of the Asagiri, but in a rare display of overachievement on the part of a game publisher, Okko is now due out in June 2008.

Okko, Era of the Asagiri is a two-player miniature-style game with modular game tiles, a ton of characters, and a heaping helping of dice. For more details, head to Asmodée’s Okko webpage or visit the official Okko website, which includes a PDF of the English rules.

This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

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Gone Cardboard News: Money, Gem Dealer – Coming in September; High Society in 2009

FRED Distribution has passed on images for the first titles in its Gryphon Games line: Money and Gem Dealer, both due out in September 2008, and High Society, which is now scheduled for early 2009. Gryphon games will be 6"x8" with a bookshelf look and perhaps 8-10 titles in the series once it’s complete. “They’re not all going to be card games,” says FRED’s Keith Blume. “But they will be family-friendly games that you can get into in five minutes and play in 20-40 minutes. That’s the ballpark we’re shooting for.”

Money, as you might expect, is all about the bills. Blume says that the money cards will be Lost Cities-sized to give you more grip on the geld.

Read more...

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Media Watch: Game collection fetches $150,000

From the (Oregon) Mail Tribune:

You might say Ken Fonarow is doing a little spring cleaning. After buying and selling board and role-playing games for 25 years and hawking his wares at shows around the country, the retired policeman is selling his personal collection — for $150,000. Fonarow’s 20,000 games — from one-of-a-kind collector’s items to out-of-print rarities — is being snatched up by board and role-playing game Internet retailer TrollandToad.com, based in Barbourville, Ky. TrollandToad.com spokesman Ryan Severin says the acquisition is the largest in the company’s 17 years of doing business. It has 75 employees and had sales of $5 million last year.

Visit the MailTribune.com for the complete article, which includes a pic of Fonarow and a tiny part of his collection.

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Media Watch: Gathering for game nights

From the Baltimore Sun:

They gathered at Potomac Community Center for game night as they do every Wednesday; never mind that it was the day after Christmas. Initially, they considered playing board and card games unfamiliar to most of the public but popular among the gaming faithful: Qwirkle, Anno 1503 and Loot. But ultimately, the evening would begin with a traditional favorite. “I want to say it’s been a long time since I played Uno, but actually I played about a month ago,” said Wei-Hwa Huang, 32, a software engineer at California-based Google who was visiting his hometown of North Potomac for the holidays.

Head to the BaltimoreSun.com for the entire article, which covers the Games Club of Maryland as well as more traditional family game nights.

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Gone Cardboard News: Massive Z-Man Games Update

Zev Shlasinger has an incredible number of plates in the air right now, and while he’d love to take a rest, most of them will be spinning against his will until June or July. (Hmm, that analogy doesn’t really work, does it?) Here’s an update on many titles forthcoming from Z-Man Games:

• Neuland is arriving at the Z-Man warehouse on May 8th, so expect to see it in stores soon.

• The second edition of Ideology will probably be out sometime in June rather than the previously announced date of April.

• Wasabi! is coming from the same printer as Ideology and also expected in June.

• Chinatown should appear in June as announced. Filosofia has already released the new version of the game in French, and the English one is almost ready.

• Traders of Carthage, from Susumu Kawasaki is expected in June as well.

• Agricola has been delayed until late June or early July as Lookout Games, the original publisher, is coordinating a simultaneous printing in eight different languages and waiting for final approval from everyone involved before going to press. Due to preorders and orders from distributors, Zev says that this print run is already sold out, which means that he won’t have copies available at Origins (assuming the game would be released by then). He has already ordered a reprint, but of course the initial run needs to be printed first!

Read more...

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Media Watch: Wits & Wagers Developer Q & A

North Star Games’ Wits & Wagers graduates from board game to electronic time suck today with its appearance on Xbox LIVE Arcade, courtesy of developer Hidden Path Entertainment. IGN has published an interview with Hidden Path’s CEO, Jeff Pobst, about the game’s development and the players’ funky dances.

Thanks to Ted Alspach for pointing out this interview!

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Deutscher Spiele Preis Voting Now Open

Voting for the 2008 Deutscher Spiele Preis is now under way, and you – yes, you – can participate by submitting up to five games for consideration. Your first title listed is awarded five points, the next title four points, and so on. You can also submit a single title for the best children’s game released in the latter half of 2007 and early 2008.

To vote, visit DSPvoting.de and complete the form there, including all of the fields at the bottom of the screen: first name, last name, street, ZIP/mailing code, city/state, country, phone number, email address, email address take two. The deadline for entry is July 31, 2008.

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Preview of the XBLA Ticket to Ride on Team Xbox

TeamXbox.com has published a preview of the Xbox LIVE Arcade version of Ticket to Ride, something I ran a news item on back in March 2008, although Days of Wonder’s Mark Kaufmann was coy at the time about an XBLA version of the Spiel des Jahres-winning title.

While the Team Xbox preview doesn’t include a release date beyond “later this year,” it does include a few screen shots, including one which looks more like an embroidery pattern than a U.S. map with potential train routes. Maybe I just need to get used to the new look…

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Dungeon Twister Coming to Xbox 360, PS3, DS

Christophe Boelinger’s Dungeon Twister has launched eight expansions to date – including Fire & Water, due out in English in Q3 2008 from Asmodée Editions – but the biggest expansion might be the one still to come: an electronic version from French development studio Hydravision Entertainment that will be available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS.

Asmodée lists a release date of 2009 on its gossip page, while March 2008 SEC filings by Dutch/American game publisher Playlogic Entertainment lists a Q4 2008 release date.

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Gone Cardboard News: Asmodée Cancels Renaissance

Almost a year after it first announced the project, Asmodée Editions has decided not to release Renaissance – a sequel to designer Pascal Bernard’s Joan of Arc – in English after all.  Eric Franklin’s English translation of the rules is available for download from the BoardGameGeek Renaissance page for those who want to pick up the game in French.

This game has been removed from Gone Cardboard.

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Filsofia Pimps the New Chinatown

While English speakers are still waiting for the new edition of Chinatown – currently due out in June 2008 from Z-Man Games – Canadian publisher Filosofia has already released the French edition of the game. Illustrator Mathieu Leysseyne (Animalia, Jamaica) continues his fine work with yet another game that features inviting and squeezably real characters and objects. Check out Filosofia’s Chinatown minisite for multiple pics from the game, along with avatars you can adopt.

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Convention Preview News: Huang Di and Athene Delayed

JKLM Games has delayed the release of Huang Di and Athene – both originally due for release at the upcoming UK Games Expo at the end of May – due to production issues, according to David Norman. The games should instead be available in July, but Norman says, “we will have demo copies at the Expo for people to try.”

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Fantasy Flight Update: Tribune, MotoGrandPrix, Talisman, More…

Last week, I ran a news item covering upcoming releases from Fantasy Flight Games. Jeremy Stomberg at FFG has added a bit more information about games coming from Minnesota via numerous other countries:

• Due to the printing time needed in Germany, Karl-Heinz Schmiel’s Tribune is now expected to be released in June 2008.

• FFG will distribute (but not publish its own version) of two upcoming titles from Italian publisher Nexus Editrice: MotoGrandPrix and Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion. Stomberg credits Nexus CEO Roberto Di Meglio with a description of MotoGrandPrix as a speedy version of Formula Dé, one in which you can complete four or five laps in an hour instead of just one. As in that classic race game, you can push your vehicle to the limit of its capability and risk damaging it and you.

  As for Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion, the box will actually be larger than FFG’s “epic” box used for games like StarCraft and Tide of Iron as it contains four giant double-sided map boards in addition to numerous, highly-detailed figures. I saw models of the miniatures at Spiel ‘07, and the level of detail was amazing. The Eagle and the Lion is the first in a series of three games, and you can read details about the game and series from Nexus PR rep Andrea Fanhoni on BGG.

• The Fantasy Flight edition of Kingsburg will be the same as the one that ElfinWerks released in English earlier in 2008 and Italian publisher Stratelibri released at Spiel ‘07. This game will not contain the expansion that the designers have been working on, and it’s not known when or if the expansion will be released.

  

• FFG picked up a number of titles from Games Workshop recently, including Talisman, the 4th edition of which was released in Fall 2007 by GW subsidiary Black Industries. “I was surprised after the 3rd edition that they went back to cardboard,” says Stomberg. Hundreds of other Talisman fans were equally surprised, and not in a good way.

  Designer and developer John Goodenough is now working on a revised 4th edition of Talisman that will include improved cards and point counters along with miniature playing figures. This revised edition is expected to be released in October 2008, and a upgrade pack of the new bits will be sold separately for those who have already purchased the 4th edition.

  What’s more, Goodenough is simultaneously working on the first expansion for the new edition of Talisman. Death and Glory is expected to be released by Christmas 2008.

These games have been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Strategos – Free Bimonthly Ezine from Riachuelo Games

Brazilian publisher Riachuelo Games publishes a free bimonthly ezine called Strategos. Issue #4 is now available, and it includes articles on playtesing and giant games, reviews of Cuba, Dust, Race for the Galaxy, Tobruk and Factory Fun, and a complete wargame, Polonia 39, about the German invasion of Poland. You can download the current issue and all past issues – which are available in Portugese only, alas – from the Riachuelo Games website.

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Matt Leacock Talks to Google

Game designer Matt Leacock (Pandemic) has a second career – one might even say a first career – as a designer at Yahoo!, but on April 25th he gave a talk to his employer’s main rival, Google. The topic was “Cooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?” and the talk is now available on the GoogleTechTalks channel on YouTube. You can watch the 50-minute talk below:

Thanks to Dave Kohr for pointing this out!

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Commands & Colors: Ancients - The V online tournament

The tournament is organized by the C&CA Vassal Players League and hosted on CC Yahoo Vassal Group

The full rules for the tournament can be found in the Files section of that Yahoo website. The tournament winner will be awarded a $65 (US dollars) prize voucher provided by “Strategia e Tattica”, the finest game store in Rome. Registration is open until May 22, 2008. The flyer for the tournament can be downloaded here.

Source: Strategia & Tattica news letter

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Gone Cardboard News: A Touch of Evil – Coming from Flying Frog

Flying Frog Productions released Last Night on Earth in late 2007, and the game sold out quickly, prompting an expansion – Growing Hunger – that has also been well-received. But Flying Frog will be putting away the zombies in future months for the release of A Touch of Evil. Here’s a description from the publisher:

A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game is a fast-paced game of fiendish creatures, dashing Heroes, and high-adventure. Each player takes on the role of a unique monster-hunting Hero, racing against time to stop the forces of darkness from claiming another foothold in the world of man.  Only by investigating the town and building your Hero’s strength can you hope to hunt down the Supernatural Villain to his Lair and defeat him in an epic Showdown. Players can race competitively to be the first to defeat the Villain and save the town, or they can work together cooperatively to defeat a much stronger Villain. The game features a gameboard map of Shadowbrook and its surrounding countryside, eight Heroes to choose from, and four different Supernatural Villains to hunt; each with its own host of unique Minions and powers to drastically change the game. A Touch of Evil is designed to create an adventurous cinematic feel as the story and game unfolds.

And the next task? Fighting excessive capitalization, which is weakening our minds and preparing us for future zombie attacks. A Touch of Evil, which plays with 2-8 players, ages 12 and up in 60-120 minutes, will retail for $50. The expected release date is Fall 2008. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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Überplay Out of Business

Game publisher Überplay hit the market with New England in 2003, then a flood of titles in 2004, some good, others not so much. After that first year, the number of new releases slowed considerably, with a rerelease of Ra in late 2005, followed by English-language versions of a few Abacusspiele titles – California, Nottingham, Jericho – in 2006 even though these games already included rules in English (as well as three other languages). After much delay, Überplay released Hollywood Blockbuster in English; at the same time, though, many of the company’s games were being dumped through the clearance site Tanga.com, leading to widespread speculation that the company was in trouble.

As of April 28, all doubt has now been resolved as the Überplay website now bears nothing more than a black screen, a note about “ceasing operations,” and a recommendation for other publishers of strategic Eurogames. Thanks for your work, Jeremy Young and Matt Molen, and best of luck with SimplyFun and other future endeavors.

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Aquaretto, Shanghaien Freebies

As is often the case with Michael Schacht designs, he has created a couple of extra items for his most recent games, starting with a downloadable expansion for Shanghaien, a new two-player game from Abacusspiele co-designed with Roman Pelek.

Secondly, you can enter your name and address into a raffle on the Abacus website. Darjeeling, Race for the Galaxy and Shanghaien will be given to three randomly chosen people, and while supplies last, each entrant will receive a small bonus card for Aquaretto.

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Play Patrician Online

Michael Schacht’s Patrician can now be played online courtesy of MaBi, the force behind the online game site MaBiWeb, but Patrician won’t be on MaBiWeb itself. Instead the game, along with Hansa – another Schacht game for which MaBi created an online version – will appear on the PlayByWeb section of Michael Schacht’s own website. Note that while the MaBiWeb format has been used (with permission) by Schacht, you will need to create a new account on the Schacht site in order to play games.

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