Boardgame News

News about games and gaming-related items of interest from around the world.

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Headlines May 12, 2008 - Cannonball Colony – New Title from Adventureland Games 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 6, 2008 - Deutscher Spiele Preis Voting Now Open May 6, 2008 - Preview of the XBLA Ticket to Ride on Team Xbox May 6, 2008 - Dungeon Twister Coming to Xbox 360, PS3, DS May 6, 2008 - Filsofia Pimps the New Chinatown May 1, 2008 - Strategos – Free Bimonthly Ezine from Riachuelo Games April 30, 2008 - Matt Leacock Talks to Google April 29, 2008 - Commands & Colors: Ancients - The V online tournament April 28, 2008 - Überplay Out of Business

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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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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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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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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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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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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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Nominations for Best Boardgame at UK Games Expo

The 2008 UK Games Expo takes place May 31-June 1, and games on display at the event will be eligible for Expo Awards. The list of nominated board games, most of which will be available for the first time at the show, are:

• Confucius (Surprised Stare)
• Monastery (Ragnar brothers)
• Athene (JKLM)
• Iceflow (Ludorum)
• Huang Di (JKLM)
• Tinner’s Trail (Warfrog)
• Odin’s Table (Lost Games Foundation)
• Fruit Fair (Wattsalpoag)

Awards will also be given out for best role-playing game, miniatures game, abstract game, card game, and more. Visit the UK Games Expo website for the complete list of nominees in all categories. The winners will be decided by a combination of votes from the public and opinions from a panel of judges.

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Try Reiner Knizia’s Brain Voyage Online

Eidos has recently released Reiner Knizia’s Brain Voyage for the Nintendo DS. Brain Voyage appears similar to the popular Brain Age, an incredibly popular DS game that includes a series of quick puzzle-style games. You can sample Brain Voyage online at Gimme5Games.com, which has Flash versions of three games.

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New Titles from Pegasus Spiele: Through the Ages & Five Card Games

German publisher Pegasus Spiele has posted info about a number of new and translated games coming out over the next several months, starting with Im Wandel der Zeiten – a German edition of Through the Ages – and a German version of Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper, both listed as June 2008 releases.

Back in February 2008, in part three of his Nuremberg 2008 report, Jeff Allers mentioned that Pegasus – perhaps inspired by France’s Cocktailgames – was launching a series of card games that would be sold in tin boxes in the summer of 2008. Those titles have now been announced:

• Tatort Themse (Crime Scene Thames), by Reiner Knizia
• David & Goliath, by Reinhard Staupe
• Ochs & Esel, (Ox & Donkey) by Wolfgang Kramer
• Circus Maximus, by – well, well, lookee here – Jeff Allers

No wonder Jeff knew about this new series of games; he’s right in the thick of it! “My game was originally titled Scalpus Maximus as it has to do with players trying to make the most money by scalping tickets to events in ancient Rome,” he says. “Although the theme is humorous, it is designed as a strategy game, with that board-game-in-a-card-game feel.” These titles are scheduled to be released by August 2008.

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Origins 2008 Semi-Finalists Announced

The semi-finalists for the 34th Origins Awards have been announced at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas. From all the entries obtained through open submission, “juries of subject matter experts in each award category” – to use the press release’s terminology – narrowed the list down to a maximum of ten entries per category. The categories of concern to BGN readers:

Board game or expansion

• AmuseAmaze, by Ethan Goffman (HL Games)
• Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords, by Jim Long (Red Juggernaut)
• Chang Cheng, by Walter Obert (Tenkigames / Z-Man Games)
• HeroCard Orc Wars, by Nico Carroll (TableStar Games)
• Kingsburg, by Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco (ElfinWerks)
• Last Night on Earth, by Jason Hill (Flying Frog Productions)
• Pillars of the Earth, by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler (Mayfair)
• Qwirkle, by Susan McKinley Ross (Mindware)
• StarCraft: The Board Game, by Corey Konieczka and Christian Petersen (Fantasy Flight)
• THUGS!, by Nik Mikros and T. W. Cooney (Tny Mantis Entertainment)

Traditional card game or expansion

• Bankruptcy, by Geoff Habiger and Coy Kaissee (Tangent Games)
• Before the Wind, by Torsten Lansbogt (Mayfair)
• Cutthroat Caverns, by Curt Cove (Smirk and Dagger Games)
• Escalation, by Reiner Knizia (Z-Man Games)
• Infernal Contraption, by Matt Wilson, Jason Soles, Kevin Clark, Erik Breidenstein (Privateer Press)
• Lifeboat, by Jeff Siadek (Gorilla Games)
• Minions, by Rick Smith (Cloud Kingdom Games)
• Walk the Plank, by Brian Hess and Evan Sass (Green Ronin)
• You Don’t Have More Cows, by Dane Fuller (Fuller Flippers)
• Zombie Fluxx, by Andy Looney (Looney Labs)

Game retailers attending the Trade Show will narrow the list down to five each, then attendees of the Origins Game Fair in June will select the winners, which will be revealed on June 28, at 8 p.m.

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Puerto Rico Wins Poland’s Game of the Year 2008

Andreas Seyfarth’s Puerto Rico has been sitting in the #1 position on BoardGameGeek’s rankings for years, and the game is still spreading to new lands and winning new accolades, such as Gra Roku 2008, Poland’s Game of the Year award. Interestingly, the Lacerta edition includes illustrated building tiles with a direct reference to slavery, something that would be a lightning rod for media attention in the U.S. Of course media attention = sales, so maybe Rio Grande should take a look at this…

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Jamaica Tournament in Paris for Swiss Boats

Anyone going to be in France for Paris Gen Con this weekend? If so, keep your eyes peeled for a Jamaica tournament organized by GameWorks and designers Sébastien Pauchon and Malcolm Braff. The six finalists will receive a signed copy of the game, along with a set of lead galleons handmade in Switzerland specifically for these games. TricTrac.net has published a series of photos detailing the creation of the ships. If anyone wants to pimp up their games with lead bits, here’s a starter lesson!

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Win a T-Shirt (Game) for Earth Day

Today, April 22, is Earth Day, and while you’re probably busy debating whether having a game airmailed to you with lots of packaging is more or less environmentally friendly than driving to a store to purchase locally, I thought I’d point out a contest running on Tim Shea’s Buffalo GameBuffs Blog. Buffalo Games is giving away six copies of The T-Shirt Game, which has a molded fiber tray and box made from recycled material. To enter the contest, leave a comment on the contest page about the positive actions you’ll be taking for the environment, either today or any other day. The deadline for entry is May 1, 2008.

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Lost Cities Hits Xbox Live on Wed. April 23

Reiner Knizia’s Lost Cities has been in print since its debut in 1999, but a video version on Xbox LIVE Arcade will soon introduce the game to a whole new audience. Starting Wednesday, April 23, Lost Cities will be available for download and online play with up to three other people.

Strangely, Knizia’s name is nowhere to be found on the game listing. You think that would be in his contract…

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Interview with Robert Kalajian and Sean Boyle of Tremorworks

Robert Kalajian and Sean Boyle, co-owners of Tremorworks, talk about their company, their games – including Kalajian’s ElementaliS – and the game design process in an interview published in Flagship Magazine.

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Asmoman Takes on Senji

My French isn’t strong enough to understand all that’s going on in this video clip, ”Asmoman vs. Senji,” but even if I did speak the tongue, I think bafflement would still reign. Asmoman is, to hazard a guess, the living embodiment of Asmodée Editions – take a look for yourself to learn more.

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Purple Pawn Provides “Game News Across the Board”

Longtime blogger about games Yehuda Berlinger started a new website called Purple Pawn in February 2008 to cover news across all the gaming genres: Euro, American, RPG, CCGs, traditional games, and so on. A couple of editors provide posts of their own, and Yehuda is looking for more editors in case you’re interested in covering one of the genres.

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Call of Duty Card Game – Coming from Upper Deck

Upper Deck has announced a real-time card game based on the popular Call of Duty video game series. The game, cleverly titled as Call of Duty Real-Time Card Game will be sold in eight 60-card squad decks, each representing a different country, with eight soldier cards, two mission cards and a double-sided map in each deck. You can customize the decks by mixing parts of them together or play as is.

For more details on the game play, head to Upper Deck’s Call of Duty webpage. This quote is particularly enlightening: “During the course of a game, a player might play a card every three seconds until a ‘pause’ card is played. That’s quite different from a traditional card game in which moves might take twenty times that amount of time.” Yes, waiting 60 seconds between turns in a card game has been adding years to my life. And why the pretense that real-time card games such as Falling, Brawl, and Blink don’t already exist?

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Valley Games Partners with Eagle Games

Valley Games’ mysterious American partner that was hinted at in early April has been revealed to be Eagle Games, which is owned by FRED Distribution. Eagle Games will handle the 750 Special preorder program – which offers discounted prices and bonus items for upcoming Valley titles – for those living in the U.S. Canadian customers (and presumably all those living outside the U.S.) can place preorders through the Valley Games website.

All previous preorders have been cancelled, and new preorders can be placed starting Monday, April 21 for Titan and Municipium, both of which are scheduled to be released by July 2008.

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Play Hive, Win a Mosquito?

Boardspace.net is hosting a Hive tournament starting June 1, 2008. The winner will receive an engraved glass trophy, while the top sixteen finishers will receive a set of precious Mosquito tiles. Details are on the website, and with only 13 people signed up as of April 17, you’re odds of nabbing a Mosquito are pretty good.

The tournament is part of the IAGO World Tour, a series of tournaments for abstract strategy games.

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Catan Comes to Mobile Phones

Board game, video game, why not a game for the cellphone as well? Catan: the First Island is coming to mobile phones courtesy of United Soft Media and Exozet Games, and the game can be played with human opponents or against AI personalities with different strategies. While the description on Catan.com mentions that this publisher is “German only,” the video demo on the site is in English. A sign of things to come?

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Senji Rules Now Available

Asmodée Editions has posted the English rules for Senji (PDF), which is due out Q3 2008, on its website.

Christophe Arnoult at Asmodée notes in passing that many of the company’s recent and upcoming games involve Asian themes and settings, from Ca$h’n Gun$: Yakuzas last month to Senji and Okko l’ère d’Asagiri in the summer to Repos Production’s Ghost Stories, which Asmodée is distributing in North America around the end of the year. Last fall saw two games themed around the Great Wall of China, and Z-Man Games is releasing both Genji and Wasabi! in the coming months. Any predictions for the next trendy location in Eurogaming?

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