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.
"....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!
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.
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.
There has been a rash of great titles that have found their way onto the Kickstarter site. I can't highlight all of them for you here, so I'll pick a couple that I think are a few of the best. I really hope that this trend continues as I love to see the underdog succeed and this can really only continue to help our industry grow in scope of content and hopefully player base as we hit larger target audiences. One of the limitations of this service is that advertising for these campaigns will mostly have to be by word of mouth, hopefully that's where I can come in. Please, if you see a title that I advertise on here, make sure you tell your friends. That is the only way we will continue get great independent titles to market.
Fantasy Flight Games, looking to capitalize on the massive craze that's been going on, has announced a second edition release of A Game of Thrones board game. While the card game version has had many content updates, the board game market has been overlooked until now, outside of the Battle for Westeros. The last update to the board game was the expansion A Storm of Swords released in 2006. The update contains the following (taken from the product announcement page):
The updated second edition brings a host of enhancements to your A Game of Thrones experience. It includes elements from the A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords expansions, including ports, garrisons, Wildling cards, and Siege engines, while introducing welcome new innovations like player screens and Tides of Battle cards. This, along with updated graphics and a clarified ruleset, means the time has never been better to take control of Westeros.
Victory Point Games has announced the release of the fifth installment of the Historic Gaming series entitled The Alamo Remembered. From their official press release -
The Alamo Remembered, a redesign of The Alamo from Conflict magazine, is a quick, 1-2 player, historical game covering those dramatic minutes when legends were made at the Alamo. In this game of bluff and counter-bluff, command the Texian or Mexican units, defending or attacking the walls of the Alamo.
With no dice rolling, rules to cover many variable conditions during this historic assault, and a "Last Stand" climax to the game, the birth of Texas is yours to relive. As the Texians, can you hold out at the Alamo to the last, or as the Mexicans quickly breach walls for glory? Find out in The Alamo Remembered!
A Game of Thrones Expansion Announced
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