In honor of the impending apocalyptic doom that is about to hit the East Coast of North America in the form of Hurricane Irene (whoa is us!), I bring you Survive: Escape from Atlantis. Survive is an 2 to 4 player game that takes 45 to 60 minutes to play where players must escape from an island that is breaking apart and sinking into the ocean. Each player must work their way over to an adjacent island either by swimming or taking a boat; if only it were that easy. While in the water, players must avoid sea serpents, whales, sharks, and if you have the latest expansion, giant squid.
GMT Games announced in their newsletter email today, that they plan on expanding their relationship with Victory Point Games after the resounding success of the No Retreat: The Russian Front Deluxe Edition. The deluxe edition included a mounted board, bigger counters, and a color treatment. The two groups are now coordinating to take some of VPG's more successful titles and giving them the same deluxe treatment. The next title to get the treatment and hit the P500 list will be Circus Train: Deluxe Edition. There are also plans on adding two more titles by the end of year and a one more mid to late 1st quarter of next year. If you are a fan of VPG and GMT like I am, this should be a marriage made in heaven.
Wits&Wagers; is a fast-paced party game with a unique combination of trivia, gambling, and social interaction. You're always involved in the action because everyone answers every question and each player bets on who they think is closest to the correct answer. So while you might not always give the right answer, that doesn't mean you can't profit. Wits&Wagers; has won the MENSA Best Mind Game for 2006 and is a great party game as it can be played by 3-7 players, ages 10+.
I guess if you think about it, it is a natural progression. I mean we have dice games, we have deck building games...why not a dice building game? Well that's what you get with WizKids latest offering called Quarriors ; featuring an impressive 130 custom dice, over 50 creature/spell cards, and a new, fast paced, style of gaming. The game is fast, easy to learn, and will appeal to both the casual gamer and the intense strategy gamer. Each Quarriors Game comes with 130 Custom Dice and 53 Power Cards, a Score Tracker and 4 Dice Bags, all stored in a collectible tin box. It's been getting rave reviews so why not roll the dice on this one?
Fantasy Flight Games has announced another expansion to the hit A Game of Thrones board game called Lions of the Rock. Here is the official announcement -
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to present the latest Deluxe Expansion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, Lions of the Rock, coming the fourth quarter of 2011! In Lions of the Rock, House Lannister will demonstrate its power through its traditional hold over intrigue and card advantage, as well as some exciting new options.
Lions of the Rock includes 165 cards - three copies each of 55 unique cards - featuring exciting new cards for House Lannister as well as powerful neutral cards that will easily find a place in decks of any House.
Knives Behind Every Smile
For more insight into this expansion, we present these designer notes from Lions of the Rock's developer, Damon Stone.
More than any other, House Lannister divides fans of A Song of Ice and Fire. The family is beyond dysfunctional and no number of appearances on Dr. Drew will ever patch up the rifts and fissures between the members of this family. Beautiful, tragic, vicious, devious, ruthless, and powerful. These are the words that came to mind when I sat down to design the Lions of the Rock Deluxe Expansion. The cards in this box would need to define for me everything the family and their banner men represent in the books. Deciding what of the numerous themes in House Lannister I wanted to highlight in this box came pretty simple.
Tyrion Lannister and his horde of clansmen were an obvious choice to entice the newer players of A Game of Thrones. The "bro-mance" in the much lauded HBO series and the aggressive nature of the clansman cards in the Brotherhood Without Banners cycle helps attract attention of newer players and the defiance of normal Lannister expectations is enticing to veteran players. Tyrion as the leader of the horde of clansmen and the defender of King's Landing led sorties, foiled power grabs and machinations, and even survived an assassination attempt. This Tyrion works with the clansman characters beautifully, allowing him to stay on the board and lead wave after wave of attacks at the head of his personal army of savages.
A couple of weeks ago we brought you a review of a indie title called Politics (here). As a quick synopsis, it was a pretty ruthless title that had a great foundation but needed a little more content, more substance, to really pull it to the next level. Well, not less than a month later, the designer has heeded our advice and raised the bar. It is time to head to Kickstarter and support this project.
"....This is Mayor Hernandez of Farmingdale....*zzt*.. Is anyone....out there? Can anyone...? Refugees....pouring into...town....*bzzz* .. villages overrun....St Thomas is burning....the nuclear plant....*zt* abandoned....Walking dead...everywhere. .... eating us! Do you hear me? *kzzt* It's the dead... attacking us! Hordes...."
"Sergeant, can't you make that transmission clearer?"
"Trying, sir! Reception is awful in these mountains..."
Like a deathly hand from the grave comes Dawn of the Zeds, a States of Siege™ solitaire game of horror and survival from designer Hermann Luttmann.
The world has gone crazy - a deadly virus has turned ordinary people into vicious, zombie-like killers. These undead, called "Zeds," are now converging on your corner of the world! Left to your own devices while the National Guard organizes a relief column to fight its way to you - how long will you survive?
Regular citizens can emerge as heroes as you work to halt the Zeds' advances by (re)-killing them, discovering and implementing a cure to this vile scourge, and preserving the area and its inhabitants as much as possible.
Be the "braaaains" behind the operation, fight the hordes and protect your townspeople. A game that will keep you on your toes (or certainly lose a few), unearth the possibilities with Dawn of the Zeds - a nightmare that ends with your fate ranging between being a hero.. or a hero sandwich!
GenCon News--At GenCon Margaret Weis Productions announced the acquisition of the rights to create Marvel Heroes Role-Playing Game. Cam Banks, the line developer and Creative Director at MWP told ICv2: "Our biggest announcement is the acquisition of the Marvel Heroes RPG license, which we are making a 2012 release. There will be 16 books, and the first of them will be launched in February. The initial release is the Basic Game, a softcover $20 book. It will have the rule book in there as well as a sort of mini-event based on Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers run, issues 1-6."
Banks explained the publishing strategy behind the new Marvel Heroes RPG, which is based in large part on major comic book crossover events like Civil War: "After the initial February release, we will have these big event books. The event books will be cornerstone products and each of them has three supplements. The first event book will be Civil War. There will be two versions of the event book. The Premium version will include the operations manual, the same rulebook from the basic game, and the Essential version, which has all the Civil War information without the rulebook. If you are interested in Civil War, you can buy the Premium Edition and all three supplements and you're fine, you've got everything you need to play. If you already own the Basic Game, then you just need to buy the Essential Edition of Civil War."
The softcover books, which include the basic game and the supplements for the event books will cost around $20. The Premium Edition event books, which include the rules from the basic game, will be $40, and the Essential Editions of the event books, which don't include the Basic Game, will be priced around $30. The next two event books after Civil War are Annihilation, which is based on 2006 crossover series by Keith Giffen and Andy Schmidt, and The Age of Apocalypse, which is based on the 1995-1996 X-Men crossover series.
Banks explained that the Marvel Heroes RPG will use MWP's Cortex Plus game system: "We will use our current system, which is called Cortex Plus. The way we do things now however is not to take the same rulebook and use it again and again for different games. We create a new game using those basic, underlying foundational rules. The Leverage and Smallville RPGs are a good indication of how we've done it so far. We modify the system to suit the material at hand."
A good example of the different versions of the Cortex Plus system can be seen in Dragon Brigade, which is based on the recently published novel Shadow Raiders: Book 1 of the Dragon Brigade by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes. A core Dragon Brigade RPG book will be out by the end of the year. It will have a cover price of $40 and feature a version of Cortex Plus that has been modified to accommodate the swashbuckling action of the Dragon Brigade storyline. MWP plans on releasing one Dragon Brigade book a year for the next three years.
If you haven't signed up for the contest, I suggest you do! Who doesn't like free games?
In Launch Pad, players battle against each other to build the biggest, baddest rockets possible and send them soaring into space. Each rocket requires specific components such as metal, fuel, and the expertise required for liftoff. It's not quite as straightforward as you might think; you must beware of your opponents, who are eager to steal your goods and sabotage your work.
As you get your rockets ready for takeoff, the launch pad is being constructed. The rockets will launch, ready or not, after the pad is completed. So work fast, think quick, and do everything you can to thwart your opponents.
To enter, answer a survey containing 5 trivia questions about Stratus Games. Each correct answer will earn an entry in the contest! In addition, you can earn extra entries by referring your friends and interacting on Facebook and Twitter. The winner will be selected randomly from all of the valid entries.
Brand new Italian publisher Ares Games has secured the rights to republish the acclaimed War of the Ring board game. Here is the official announcement -
Ares Games, an Italian games publisher recently established, announces the acquisition of the rights from Sophisticated Games to publish the game, based on the literary rights granted by Middle-earth Enterprises.
"We are proud to be able to bring back to the international gaming market a prestigious game like "The War of the Ring". The game has been out of the market for a long time and there is a big anticipation for this second edition, which we forecast to release within the end of this year", said Christoph Cianci, CEO of Ares Games.
The new edition of "War of the Ring" will debut in English language, in autumn 2011. Several editions in other languages are planned to be released in spring 2012.
This edition of the game will include several changes from the previous version published by Nexus Editrice and NG International, with a completely new graphic design - still using the original illustrations created by John Howe, one of the most famous Tolkien artists -, bigger tarot-size cards and revised rules, with changes to some key game elements to make it even more balanced and engaging.
Created by the Italian game designers Roberto Di Meglio, Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, the strategy board game "War of the Ring" allows players to immerse themselves in J.R.R.Tolkien's classic history, leading the Fellowship in its quest and the armies of the Free Peoples against the assault of the dreadful minions and armies of the Dark Lord, Sauron.
The first edition was published in September 2004 and the game has been acclaimed as one of the best thematic games of all times, winning several awards.
Over the last few months, Critical Gamers has given you some insight to the indie developed, strategy based, card game Conquest Tactics (original post). In celebration of their recent release, Zeitgeyser, LLC is giving away 10 copies for free over at Board Game Geek. All you have to do is answer a few questions about the game and get additional entries for each correct answer.
And if you haven't participated in our Stratus Games' Launch Pad giveaway contest, you should! Two different contests, two easy ways to enter, what are you waiting for?
In addition to demoing some of the latest and greatest in their lineup at Gen Con tomorrow, Wizkids will be showing off some of their new board game concepts. We are pretty excited to see what Wizkids can do with these properties and concepts:
Mage Knight - Designed by Vlaada Chvatil. Fight and conquer as one of four mythic Mage Knights as you battle to secure your place in legend!
Lord of the Rings: Nazgul - Join your fellow Ringwraiths as you work to destroy the Fellowship of the Ring...but beware! Sauron can only favor one Nazgul in this semi-cooperative game!
We are glad they are bringing the Mage Knight property back and can't wait to see if it translates well to a board game. Seeing as it will be designed by Vlaada Chvatil (Through the Ages, Dungeon Lords), we have all the confidence in the world he can pull it off. While it's nice to see a Lord of the Rings game coming out where you can play on the side of the Dark Lord Sauron as the Ringwraiths. There is a lot of potential thematically with this and look forward to seeing what Wizkids can produce.
The big news of today is that Fantasy Flight Games has announced a partnership with Lucasfilm Ltd. for the rights to publish card, roleplaying, and miniature games set in the sci-fi culture dominating Star Wars universe! The publishing rights will be worldwide and there should be no shortage of translations and regional publishing deals for these titles. Along with the rights, FFG has also announced the first two titles to come out of the partnership: X-Wing and Star Wars: The Card Game. Here is what Fantasy Flight Games had to say about the deal -
Critical Gamers is teaming up with Stratus Games to give our readers a chance to win a copy of Launch Pad! In Launch Pad, players battle against each other to build the biggest, baddest rockets possible and send them soaring into space. Each rocket requires specific components such as metal, fuel, and the expertise required for liftoff. It's not quite as straightforward as you might think; you must beware of your opponents, who are eager to steal your goods and sabotage your work.
As you get your rockets ready for takeoff, the launch pad is being constructed. The rockets will launch, ready or not, after the pad is completed. So work fast, think quick, and do everything you can to thwart your opponents.
To enter, answer a survey containing 5 trivia questions about Stratus Games. Each correct answer will earn an entry in the contest! In addition, you can earn extra entries by referring your friends and interacting on Facebook and Twitter. The winner will be selected randomly from all of the valid entries.
An Impending Watery Death, Can you Survive?
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Review: Politics - Unpretenious Package But Packs Plenty of Punch
