Game Announcements

News about upcoming game releases. To see the complete list of recently released and upcoming games from North American publishers – with links to publisher websites and the games' BoardGameGeek entries – visit BGN's Gone Cardboard.

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Velo City, Charly, Zooloretto Mini – Coming from Abacusspiele

German publisher Abacusspiele showed off three new titles at the Nuremberg toy fair in February 2010, with one being a big box title, the second being a smaller game for kids, and the third being a spin-off of an already successful line.

Velo City isn’t the first published game from designer Kevin G. Nunn, but it is the first to debut on the German market. (3-7 players, ages 8+, 45 minutes, €30) Each player in Velo City controls a team of bicycle couriers, and naturally you want to prove that your team is better than anyone else’s. To determine who’s the big wheel in the group, players race through the city street, either singly or in groups, picking up energy drinks along the way while avoiding manhole covers.

On a turn, a player either rolls his team die, then moves one of couriers forward exactly as many spaces as shown – possibly spending energy drinks first to roll a second die for an energy boost or sprint – or rolls his team die along with the die or dice of opponents sharing the same space as one of his riders. If the active player then chooses his die, his rider is the only one to move; choose an opponent’s die, however, and both you and the opponent move ahead.

Players can also spend energy drinks to have their riders draft another rider leaving the same space. Where does your courier team get all these drinks? If a rider stops on a space depicting an energy drink, the player takes one from the bank. When a rider hits a manhole, the player can either pay an energy drink to stay in place or move backwards to the first empty manhole space, picking up an energy drink on the way. Move all the way back to start, and you get two drinks – small compensation for the trouble! (Plus you’ll have to take more frequent bathroom breaks.)

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Nestorgames Lets Players be Koi in Jin Li

Spanish publisher nestorgames has added another title to its series of portable two-player games, Jin Li by designer W. David MacKenzie. (2 players, 15 minutes, €19)

Each player controls two koi on a 7x7 gameboard, and each turn a player either moves one koi to an empty adjacent space, then drops one of his ten stones on any empty space or jumps one koi over an adjacent stone into an empty space. After each turn, if a player’s just moved koi is adjacent to other koi – whether that player’s or the opponent’s – he scores one point for each adjacent koi. The first player to reach ten points wins.

MacKenzie mentions on the website of his Clever Mojo Games that Jin Li will be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch at some point.

Details on Terrain and Troop Movement in Battles of Westeros

Fantasy Flight Games has posted a second preview for the upcoming Battles of Westeros from designer Rob Kouba, this time focusing on the game’s terrain and troop movement. While most of the terrain and its effects will be familiar to anyone who’s played BattleLore – rivers are impassable, forests impede movement – the gameboard itself can be laid out either horizontally or vertically, allowing players to set up battles that feel very different from one another.

The gameboard can be reoriented because troop movement in Battles of Westeros doesn’t depend on the playing of cards that direct troops in the left, center or right sections of the board, as in the case of BattleLore. Instead, writes Kouba:

Because the only boundaries on the battlefield are the board edges themselves, it is possible to order any units on the battlefield, as long as that unit is “controlled.”

Controlled units are units that begin in a hex within a commander’s zone-of-control (ZOC). A commander’s ZOC in the core set (no matter which House) is two hexes. This means that any unit within two hexes of a friendly commander is controlled.

Sounds like an interesting change from BattleLore as players will always have the ability to move their commanders, and those movements will determine which other troops can take actions or be affected by certain events. What’s more, if you can take out an opponent’s leader, you effectively render certain other units helpless as they’d suddenly lack direction and stand around with their thumbs up their butts waiting for orders.

At least that’s how I imagine things on Westeros. FFG promises more previews in the weeks ahead, so maybe my speculation will turn out to be misguided…

Fantasy Flight Prepares a Horde of Goblins

Fantasy Flight Games has announced the release of a new expansion for Richard Borg’s BattleLore in Q3 2010: Horrific Horde, which is subtitled “Goblin Army Pack.” ($40)

While this expansion will include 42 goblin figures, it contains only two new types of troops, with all of the previous troop types appearing in either the BattleLore base set or the Goblin Marauders expansion. Those new troops are Goblin Halberdiers, who fight well against cavalry, and Ogres. While some players will lament the minimal amount of novelty in the expansion, others will be pleased that they can now do battle with an entire goblin army instead of a mixed human/goblin army.

In addition to the figures, Horrific Horde includes five new scenarios, new unit summary cards, and 15 cards for the Call to Arms expansion so that players can build customized Goblin armies. Pics of the new figures are on the FFG website.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Valley Games Releases Habitat, Second Edition

Valley Games has started to ship the second edition of Elliot Hogg’s Habitat, which bears a far more inviting cover than that of the first edition. (2-6 players, ages 8+, 20-45 minutes, $20)

Habitat first appeared in a limited print run at Spiel 08 and has been largely unavailable since that time. For a game description, let’s turn to a game preview that I published on BGN in August 2008:

Your goal in the game is to create a diverse forest by collecting and feeding at least one type of animal in each of the eight ranks. Grizzly bears are rank 8, for example, while worms and insects are rank 1. Says Hogg, “Animals are arranged into food chains based on their rank and diet, and whether they swim, fly or live on land.”

Each turn you can play nice and draw cards hoping to get animals you need to complete chains and keep animals fed – or you can play aggressively and use large animals to pilfer resources and smaller animals from opponents. Drawing also brings opportunistic event cards like “Migration” that draws animals from others to your part of the forest. “Additionally,” says Hogg, “each turn you have a chance to save unfed animal populations from starvation by feeding them with lesser ranked cards, as well as the opportunity to redesign your food chains to be more resilient for the struggles of the next round.”

Head to the preview link above for more comments from Elliot Hogg about the design and development of this game. This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Second Printing of American Rails Coming

Designer Tim Harrison is prepping a second printing of his American Rails, with only sixty copies of the game being available. (3-5 players, ages 14+, 90 minutes, $32 after a 20% preorder discount) Here’s a game description from the designer:

In American Rails, each player assumes the role of a wealthy capitalist managing a portfolio of stocks and bonds in six fictional railroad companies. Through ruthless negotiation and rigorous planning, players struggle to increase the value of their holdings and reap the profits. The player with the most money at the end of the game will become the nation’s first railroad baron and win the game.

English rules are available through Harrison’s website, which also features a preorder page for the game, which should be available before the end of April 2010.

Lookout Games Wants Your Ideas for Le Havre

In July 2009 Grzegorz Kobiela posted a request on BoardGameGeek from Le Havre designer Uwe Rosenberg that asked people to submit ideas for new special buildings to be published in a tiny stand-alone expansion. The result of that effort – a 30-card set called Le Grand Hameau – was released in Europe in February 2010 and should arrive in North American stores before the end of March.

Now Hanno Girke of Lookout Games, the publisher of Le Havre, is turning to the game’s fans once again, this time requesting ideas for 30 new standard buildings, which will most likely represent some other French port city. In a follow-up post on BGG, Girke suggested the following: “[F]ind a theme, a strategy, and the buildings that might help this strategy. After the first brainstorm, someone will suddenly see the light and come up with a set that consists of different ideas discussed here.” Whether you have ideas for one card or thirty, you can post them in the BGG thread linked to above.

Three New Claustrophobia Scenarios Online

The standalone Claustrophobia website – which features a number of articles from designer Croc in addition to video demonstrations and other material – has posted three new scenarios for the game, one by Croc and the other two each by a different designer. These scenarios join three others posted in the scenarios section of the website.

Fan-Made Gameboards for Summoner Wars

Colby Dauch’s Summoner Wars from Plaid Hat Games has received much praise in the gamer community, with the majority of complaints being directed at the paper gameboard that’s reminiscent of a pre-GPS fold-up paper map designed to fit in a car’s glove compartment – assuming that you can fold the thing up after use, of course.

A number of fans have created their own version of the gameboard, such as this number on display at the 2009 BGG.con. While that design was carved from foam, a member of my game group, Joey Miseirvitch, has gone in another direction, thanks to the equipment at the printing company where he works. Here’s his remake of the gameboard:

This gameboard is a slightly plasticized canvas-type of material, allowing it to be folded or scrunched, then laid out flat once again. You can iron the material with a cool iron if you want to remove all the creases. [Edit, March 18, 2010: At Dauch’s request, Miseirvitch has asked me to pull his contact information as he will no longer sell copies of this gameboard.]

Rules Online for Asteroyds from Ystari

French publisher Ystari Games has posted the rules for Asteroyds from designers Guillaume Blossier and Frédéric Henry in English, French and German on the Asteroyds page of the Ystari website. For those who want to cut to the chase, here’s a short description from a Jan. 2010 news item on BGN:

Asteroyds is set in the Lost Swarm, an erratic asteroid field that possesses no minerals, no riches – only the possibility of providing the most dangerous race course in the universe.

In the primary game, players must launch their spaceships from a platform and travel through four gates in order to win. Each round starts by rolling three dice – red, white and blue – then players secretly decide the actions they’ll take: moving forward, left or right; reversing direction; or activating a shield. Players have a limited amount of time to choose their actions, with the number of seconds determined by how difficult the players want to make the game. Once time runs out, players first move the red, white and blue objects on the gameboard in the directions indicated on the dice, then move their ships in player order. Hit an asteroid or other object with your ship, and you’ll take damage; take too much damage, and you’ll become one with the asteroid field (as a corpse). Whichever player hits four gates first wins.

Ystari’s Cyril Demaegd notes, “We’ll add a form to the page when the game is ready in April. This form will be an opportunity for players to propose new scenarios, which will be published on the website. The best ideas will be rewarded with games and goodies.” I call dibs on the moon rock!

Update on Ogre, 6th Edition from Steve Jackson Games

In January 2010, Steve Jackson Games posted a mock cover image from Ogre, 6th Edition. On March 16, in SJG’s Daily Illuminator post, Phil Chapman revealed a prototype vehicle from the new edition of this 30+-year-old combat game, noting that the vehicle was composed of thin laser-cut wood.

Chapman didn’t include a release date for the new edition as it’s still in the works, but he did say this: “It’ll be bigger – both in scale and weight – and more impressive than any previous edition. This will be a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the game’s first release, so we were not content just incorporating the maps, units, and rules from GEV,” GEV being a companion game to Ogre. The Munchkin figures being attacked by the tank? They’re just masochists.

This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Four New & Newish Titles Coming from Minion Games

In 2009, U.S. publisher Minion Games released three titles in print and play versions – Those Pesky Humans! (reviewed on BGN), Legitimacy, and Sturgeon. Minion’s James Mathe now says that print versions of these games, which had always been planned, are underway and should be available by July 2010. At the same time, Minion will release a new card game called Nile. Here are summaries of those four games:

• Legitimacy, by Chuck Whelon – The king is dead, and you and your fellow players all want to claim what you think is your rightful place on the throne. Play it straight or trick the other crown claimants to fight for power. (2-6 players, 30 minutes)

• Those Pesky Humans!, by James Mathe and Clay Gardner – In general, players are monsters who want to keep humans from invading their dungeon and making off with their gems. In addition to a solitaire game, TPH can be played with one player taking on the role of the humans and pitting him against one or more monsters (i.e., the other players). (1-4 players, ages 13+, 60-90 minutes)

• Sturgeon, by Russ Brown – In this card game players want to stock their portion of the lake with fish, then play larger fish to “eat” those fish, eventually working their way up to catching sturgeon, as the first player to capture two sturgeon wins. Special action cards let you dip into an opponent’s area, set up barriers to protect your stock, and more. (2-5 players, ages 10+)

• Nile, by Daniel Callister and James Mathe – A card game set in Eygpt in which players draft cards representing resources, then try to profit from floods. (2-5 players, ages 8+, 30 minutes)

Taktika Returning to Print from Z-Man Games

Designer Ian Cooper published Taktika under the Gizmet Gameworks label that he shares with Marc Majcher, and the game has popped in and out of print since its debut in 2007 as Cooper assembled copies himself.

Now Z-Man Games has added Taktika to its already packed 2010 release schedule. For a description of the game, let’s turn to Mary Prasad’s summary from her 2008 article on flicking games – that is, games in which you flick the pieces with your fingers or thumb to make them move:

This is a two-player game in which each player has an army of 10 brown or natural wood wooden disks. Each army is composed of three different units: four infantry, four archers, and two cavalry, and each unit type moves and “kills” in a different manner. The table top forms the battlefield. The winner is the player who “kills” six of his opponent’s units. Four special disks are included for optional scenarios.

No release date was announced for the new version from Z-Man Games. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Memoir ‘44: Breakthrough, Coming from Days of Wonder

Days of Wonder has announed a new expansion for Richard Borg’s Memoir ‘44 called Breakthrough. (2 players, $30/€30) The Breakthrough format for Memoir ‘44 uses a gameboard that’s 13 hexes wide by 17 deep compared to the regular gameboard that’s only nine hexes deep, thereby providing roughly twice the playing area and allowing for larger battle scenarios that wouldn’t fit on the normal boards.

Breakthrough includes two nine-panel, double-sided gameboards, with the countryside and beach battlefields on one board and the winter and desert battlefields on another. This expansion includes fifteen scenarios from Borg and Jacques “jdRommel” David that have never previously been offered in print, including Operation Crusader, Operation Amherst and two versions of the battle for Sword Beach. (Days of Wonder already provides an online Memoir ‘44 scenario application; search for “breakthrough” to see the scenarios currently available for download.)

To use Breakthrough you need to own a copy of Memoir ‘44. The press release from Days of Wonder notes that “[v]arious expansions, depending on the scenario being played, are highly recommended to fully enjoy this expansion, although players can substitute game pieces if they don’t own a specified expansion.” For a taste of which expansions you could use with Breakthrough, click on the image after the jump.

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Sudoku Craze Rolls on with Kakuzu

The high point of Sudoku-based card and board games was 2005/2006 when dozens of the titles flooded the market, and while most of those titles have since made their way to the big remainder bin in the sky, new games building off the Sudoku engine continue to appear, as with French publisher Gigamic’s Kakuzu. (1-4 players, ages 8+, 20 minutes)

Kakuzu includes the familiar 9x9 playing grid and twenty double-sided number grids that follow the Sudoku pattern of having the numbers 1-9 in each row, column and 3x3 square without any of the numbers repeating. To start the game, all of the numbers are hidden under stones. On a turn, a player draws a number from 1 to 9 from a cloth bag, then reveals the number hiding under a stone. If the player finds the correct number, she keeps the stone and takes another turn; if not, the next player goes. Thus, memory becomes a Sudoku game mechanism alongside logic and deduction.

Stefan Riedel Breaks Out the Tin for Fleet 1715

Designer Stephan Riedel of Clicker Spiele has released a version of his 2006 release Fleet 1715 in a metal tin for a price just under €7, but it’s not clear from the listing what differs between this release and the original game. The new game is titled Fleet 1715 Solo – yet the game listing on Clicker’s news page lists the game as being for 1-5 players, and most of those player counts would not qualify as “solo.” I’m checking with Riedel to find out details of this release.

In addition to this title, Riedel notes that Old Town Solo, Schinderhannes Solo and Ostfriesenlauf Solo will soon be available in tin cases.

The Crow & The Pitcher – Tricky Trick-Taking from Sean MacDonald

Günter Cornett’s trick-taking card game Flaschenteufel has long been admired for featuring a strong theme that’s meaningful and relevant to the game play, while also being an extremely good game. Not an easy goal to fulfill for a card game!

Sean D. MacDonald has followed a similar path with his trick-taking game The Crow & The Pitcher, the theme of which comes from a fable attributed to Aesop in which a thirsty crow fills a pitcher with pebbles one by one until the water in the pitcher rises high enough that the crow can drink. (3-4 players, ages 12+, 30-40 minutes, $15)

In MacDonald’s game, the card deck consists of 27 stone cards (nine each in three colors), 9 drought cards, and 12 pitcher cards; the stone and drought cards are shuffled together and dealt evenly to each player. The game lasts nine or twelve rounds depending on the number of players, with a new pitcher card being revealed each round. The lead player plays a card, and the other players must follow suit, if possible. Add the stone cards of the suit led, disregarding those equal or higher than the value of the pitcher. If the sum of those cards equals or tops the value of the pitcher, the player with the highest valued stone card takes the trick; if the sum doesn’t “fill the pitcher,” then the player with the lowest valued stone card takes both the trick and the pitcher.

Once a player breaks the drought suit by playing one, drought cards can be led on a trick, with the highest drought “winning” the trick. Once the round ends, player total their points, with stone cards being worth 1-3 points (with lower values worth more than high ones), drought cards being worth negative points, and pitchers worth -5 points. Thus, if you contribute the least to filling a pitcher, then you’re punished by taking home the pitcher.

MacDonald is taking preorders for The Crow & The Pitcher through his own NoMADS Games on a standalone website, which includes preliminary rules for the game. (I say “preliminary” because a number of questions about what to do in certain circumstances aren’t answered. Presumably those few details will be clarified prior to the game’s release.)

Attack of the Clones – Star Fleet Scramble from Jacob Davenport

Spanish publisher nestorgame has added another title to its line-up of portable games in tiny packages, Jacob Davenport’s Star Fleet Scramble – which uses some familiar graphics for the pieces. (2 players, 30 minutes, €27)

Each player has a fleet of nine ships, with three each of small, medium and large ships worth 1, 2 or 3 points when captured. Players start the game with their fleets in opposite corners, with the ships face-down to show that they are shielded. On a turn, you can either unshield a ship (by placing it face-up) or move an unshielded ship in the direction it faces. After moving, you reorient the ship or shield it.

You destroy an opponent’s ship by landing on it, but you can destroy a shielded ship only if it’s smaller than your attacking vessel. Of course if you plop a ship down where it can attack the enemy once it unshields itself, then you’ve pinned that piece. Destroy eight points of ships to win the game. Complete rules are more pics are located on the Star Fleet Scramble page on the nestorgames website.

Nexus Games Previews Scenarios from Battles of Napoleon

NG International, which releases games under the Nexus label, announced at the start of 2010 that Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle & the Lion would be released this year after spending many years in development. Fantasy Flight Games, Nexus’ publishing partner on this and other projects, expects to have the game available in May 2010.

As further evidence of the game’s imminent release, in February 2010 NG International posted the ten scenarios included in the game, along with the dates and locations of these French and British conflicts and a download (PDF) of the first scenario, “Battle of Maida.”

Now in mid-March, NG has released the sixth scenario, “The Road to Namur.” You’ll need Adobe Flash Player in order to view this scenario, which is posted online instead of available as a download.

Z-Man Games to Release Rattus

In addition to releasing the QWG / White Goblin Games’ title Martinique in May 2010, Z-Man Games has announced that it will release another White Goblin title, Åse and Henrik Berg’s Rattus. (2-4 players, ages 10+, 45 minutes) I wrote a first impression of Rattus in January 2010 based on a single play. Here’s a game description from that write-up:

Rattus is themed around the Black Death, with player cubes dying off again and again as the plague travels throughout Eurasia. One face-down rat token starts on each region of the board. On a turn, a player adds one or more cubes to one region, with the upper limit of new arrivals being the number of rats in the area; optionally takes one of the six special characters; optionally uses the powers of any characters he holds; then moves the plague figure to a new region of the board, most likely spreading more rats along the way.

If the plague figure – being the personification of death – stands on a region that contains both rat tokens and player cubes, the rat tokens are revealed one by one. Each rat token has a limit value showing the number of cubes (1-6) that trigger an outbreak and symbols that show who dies in the event of an outbreak. Those symbols are M (meaning the player who has the most cubes), A (meaning all players) and the six symbols that represent the special characters; if you hold the special character shown on the token – or have the most cubes in the event of an M, or exist at all with an A – you lose one cube for each matching symbol. If rats and cubes remain in the same area, you keep revealing rats until one group or the other dies off. Whoever has the most people on board at game’s end wins and gets to bury the dead.

No info on a release date from Z-Man at this time. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

Glory to Rome Reprint Update

Time to highlight a comment left on a March 2010 news item about French publisher Iello releasing a new version of Glory to Rome – here’s what Wakefield Carter, new commercial director for Cambridge Games Factory and brother of owner Ed Carter, had to say in response:

Glory to Rome needs playing card decks which take a few months to produce, especially as we weren’t happy with the company we used last time around and so are looking for a new printer.

and

Iello is not publishing a version of Glory to Rome. Our understanding is that the game in question may share some of the same mechanics, but that is true of many games, and we wish Carl Chudyk the best of luck with the project.

As I noted in the original news item, “Iello rep Patrice says that the publisher is working on a new version of the game with a different title ... and will address the presence of somewhat more imbalanced cards in the most recent version of the game to increase the strategic potential of game play.”

Carter also noted on BoardGameGeek that CGF’s version of Zombie in My Pocket should be available again “in a few weeks” as the company needs only to print rulebooks in order to assemble the games.

These games have been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Three Train Games and More from FRED Distribution in 2010

U.S. publisher FRED Distribution has announced its mid-2010 line-up of game releases, which includes three train-related games through its Eagle Games brand – one a brand new title and the other two new editions of previously released games.

To start with the fresh blood, Railways of the World: The Card Game – designed by James Eastham and Steve Ellis – streamlines the game play of the company’s Railways of the World by putting everything on cards and putting those cards in player’s hands. (2-4 players, ages 8+, 30-60 minutes, $35) Starting from a central pentagonal city board, players use track and city cards to build a railroad network and deliver goods, upgrading their engines as needed in order to get goods where they need to go. The game includes two sets of rules, one for families and another for experienced players (who may or may not be part of the same family).

Fred expects to debut Railways of the World: The Card Game at the Origins Game Fair in June 2010. For a better idea of the game play, check out the two sides of the player aid reprinted below:

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Warfrog Lays Down its Gun, Announces 2010-2011 Line-up

Designer Martin Wallace had anounced at the end of 2009 that the Warfrog Games label – a label under which he’s published games for fifteen years – would soon disappear and be replaced by Treefrog, which was previously a line of games within Warfrog. As Wallace explains on the Warfrog website: “The change of name is mainly to increase our appeal to the German market. (A U.S. soldier frog with a sub machinegun does not go down well with the family market over there.)”

As it turns out, the final title appearing under the Warfrog label is the two-player game Gettysburg, due out in March 2010. (English rules (PDF) for Gettysburg are available on the Warfrog website. Wallace discusses how the game deviates from history in a Jan. 2010 interview with Kris Hall here on BGN.)

In addition to becoming the main name, Treefrog will operate under a different production model than it has since its debut in 2008. Previously each Treefrog game appeared in a limited edition of 1,500 copies with wooden bits, then if interest warranted, Wallace licensed the game to another publisher.

Starting with its 2010-2011 line-up, games from Treefrog will appear in editions of 3,000 copies, with 1,000 of those copies being signed and numbered and having custom-designed wooden components to replace some of the bits found in the “regular” edition of 2,000 copies. Subscribers to the Treefrog line will receive the limited edition copies, which will not be sold in stores, while the regular games will be distributed to stores, with games being reprinted from Treefrog on an as-needed basis. (For cost info on a Treefrog subscription, visit the Warfrog website.)

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An Overview of Drachenherz / Coeur de Dragon

Rüdiger Dorn has designed a number of classic games – Jambo, Goa, The Traders of Genoa, Louis XIV – and three new titles will join his ludography in 2010: the dexterity game Snapshot from Kosmos, the strategy game Titania from Hans im Glück, and the title I’m focusing on here, the card game Drachenherz, also from Kosmos. (2 players, ages 8+, 30 minutes, €15)

While Titania will see release in English from Rio Grande Games at some point in 2010, Drachenherz will not, as Rio Grande’s Jay Tummelson says he is “not likely” to pick up the game. (Canadian publisher Filosofia, on the other hand, has released the game in French as Coeur de Dragon.)

For those curious about the game, here’s an overview: Each player has an identical deck of cards and starts the game with five cards in hand. On a turn, a player plays one or more cards with the same image onto the space on the communal gameboard that shows that image, then she refills her hand to five cards. The gameboard has arrows that indicate which cards trump what, so by playing cards you can possibly claim items already on the board. The third dragon hunter played defeats the dragon, for example – assuming a dragon is present – while the second knight played protects the princess and a third boat collects certain characters who have already done their job and been removed from the board.

I’ve seen comparisons of Drachenherz to Reiner Knizia’s Lost Cities in terms of the games’ simplicity and hand management challenges. Tric Trac has posted a demo video that’s useful for those who speak French or can suss out gamerese.

Inon Kohn Unleashes Flinke Stinker for Zoch

The key to designing games for German publisher Zoch Verlag seems to rely on focusing the game play around an animal of some sort and attaching a clever, rhyming title. (Assume the game is also fun, challenging, etc.) Take, for example, Inon Kohn’s Flinke Stinker, with its cute skunks depicted by Zoch regular Doris Matthäus. (2-5 players, ages 6+, 15-20 minutes, €20)

Flinke Stinker combines memory and racing, with players trying to move their skunks down the path as quickly as possible by using track cards, while avoiding the clothespin-adorned puma that won’t be deterred by your aroma as he chases you. Overtake a fellow skunk, and you can use your natural talents to give them a taste of victory and shoo them backward a few spaces. Reach the final tile first, and you win.

Flinke Stinker should be available in May 2010. The game page on the Zoch website doesn’t include rule downloads at the moment, but Zoch typically makes them available prior to a game appearing for sale.