Convention Report: Origins 2006: July 2, 2006 (Day 4)

By Rick Thornquist
July 2, 2006

Here’s my report from the final day of Origins 2006.  Today I got more scoop from game companies and played one last game - Ave Caesar.  Here we go!

Mayfair Games
Mayfair had a big booth at the convention and were featuring their extensive line of games including new one - the Phalanx game Bison.

Before we get to Mayfair’s upcoming games… During the convention, Mayfair ran a very interesting event.  All attendees got a Mayfair ribbon when they registered and could earn additional ribbons.  The ribbons were based on the Settlers resources - Ore, Brick, Grain, Wood and Sheep.  To get the ribbons, you would play one of their games at their booth - for example, if you played one of their train games you got an Ore ribbon.  If you collected all the ribbons you got a number of prizes.  First of all, you got a deck of the new Settlers Event Cards (I described these in the Setup Day report).  Secondly, you got a coupon for 50% off a Mayfair game.  Thirdly, you were entered into a raffle to win a copy of Settlers 3D.  Lastly, you got a Knight of Catan ribbon to add to your collection.  Will Niebling of Mayfair told me the event was a great success and he was very happy with the results.

I had a chance to sit down with Will and he gave me the scoop on what he has coming up.

Bison, along with Winehandler and Figaro are going to be in stores in Early August.  Shear Panic (with cute sheep pieces), Pompeji (featuring a new and better volcano), and Emira are due in August / September as is Leonardo daVinci (a game I played yesterday).  Valley of the Kings is going to be an October / Essen release along with On Top (another game I played yesterday).  I expect the ‘New Settlers Game’ (that I played on Friday) will also be an October / Essen release as well.

China Rails has been temporarily postponed for tweaking and Bang Deluxe! (Working Title), Feurio! (To be Retitled), NoNo and Inferno are all still in the pipeline but don’t have release dates.

Asmodée
My next stop was the Asmodée booth where they were featuring Dungeon Twister and the game’s expansions including the upcoming Dungeon Twister - 3/4 Players expansion.  Designer Christophe Boelinger was on hand for demos and he gave me the scoop on what’s coming up in the Dungeon Twister universe.

First, he said that the Dungeon Twister - 3/4 Players expansion should be available in a week or so.  The Dungeon Twister - Goodies Pack #1, which will be available to those who do organized play for the game, will be available at the same time.  They plan to release Goodies Pack #2 next year.

The next expansion that was to come out, Fire & Water, is now going to be skipped.  Instead, the next expansion that will be available in English will be Forces of Darkness.  Christophe told me this was because Forces of Darkness is getting such great reviews they wanted to get it out sooner than later.  The release date for this one is to be October / November.

Out of the Box Publishing
I next visited Out of the Box Publishing where they were showing their line of games including a few new ones - the card game Pepper, the Maureen Hiron Bridge variant Abridged, plus the abstracts MixUp and CoverUp.  I chatted with marketing man Matt Mariani to find out what’s in the pipeline.

The Apples to Apples Party Crate Expansion Two should be available next week.  Pepper should be generally available at the End of July.  Matt is hoping for a November release for Cineplexity.  Pantheon, 10 Days in Asia, and Logomachy are now going to be done in 2007.  Merchants still doesn’t have a release date.

Eye Level Entertainment
My last stop with at the booth of Eye Level Entertainment, the boys responsible for the card game Nature of the Beast.  Designer Mark Anticole kindly took a few minutes to give me a demo of the game.

Nature of the Beast is a card game where each player is amassing an animal army.  Each player has two decks of cards - a Troops deck and a Tricks deck.  The Troops deck contains the animals in your army - all of which have unique special powers.  The Tricks deck gives you more special powers.  During your turn you have three actions and with these you can do many things - recruiting new animals, moving animals, battling, drawing Trick cards, playing events, etc.  The idea is to field nine animals to win the game (there are other victory conditions as well).

The game is of medium complexity and I found it all fairly straightforward - the graphic design on the cards makes things easier to digest.  I thought all the special powers would bother me (I’m not normally inclined to like card games where everything has a special power) but all the powers didn’t seem too onerous.  There are two versions of the game and both have two armies in them - good for two players.  Note this isn’t a collectible game, but you can expand it for more players by getting additional packs.

I’ll need to play a couple of full games before I render an opinion, but the demo intrigued me enough to want to explore the game further.  I hope to get in a few games in the coming weeks.

Titanic Games
I had seen designer Mike Selinker once or twice during the convention and was hoping to quiz him about what was going on with his new gaming venture Titanic games.  I didn’t get a chance to collar him at the convention but, fortunately for me, I ran into him at the airport as I was heading home.  He let me know that Titanic’s first game, the deluxe version of Kill Doctor Lucky, was on for October and he should have a prototype for me to check out at Gencon.  The anthology boardgame Stonehenge, which features five game designs from different designers using the same components, is still in the pipeline as is Dust and Sin, but there are no firm release dates for these as of yet.

Ave Caesar
I was only able to squeeze in one game on my last day but fortunately it was a goodie - the new version of Ave Caesar that is coming from Café Games.  I played a prototype of the game that used the final art and pieces.

For those who don’t know the game, Ave Caesar is a chariot race game. Players take turns playing numbered cards to move their chariots and the first player to cross the finish line after three laps win the race.

The game is simple to teach and very fun to play.  The name of the game is screwage - trying to block routes for other player’s chariots so they can’t go anywhere or they have to take a longer route.  I like the fact that the only random element is the card draw and you can play fairly strategically though make no mistake - this is meant to be a fun game, not a test of strategy.  I really like the game and am very much looking forward to the new version so I can finally get a copy of the game.

And with that, it was time to pack up and head to the airport.  Tomorrow I’ll write up a Wrap-Up of the festivities.  See you then!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	The boys from Eye Level Entertainment
	Games Played - Ave Caesar
	Ave Caesar
	The Ave Caesar Box

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© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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