August 4, 2011
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?
At Conquest Tactics Giveaway
At Launch Pad Giveaway
Critical Gamers Staff at
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August 3, 2011
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.
Critical Gamers Staff at
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August 2, 2011
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 -
Continue reading: "Fantasy Flight Games Announces License Rights to Star Wars"
Critical Gamers Staff at
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July 25, 2011
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.
At A Game Of Thrones: The Board Game
Critical Gamers Staff at
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July 20, 2011
White Goblin Games has a significant lineup ready for release for Spiel '11 in Essen in October. From the official press release -
Rattus Africanus
First and foremost, there's a new Rattus expansion up for release! Rattus Africanus will mark the introduction of a caravan, as well as diplomats. This will add more strategic possibilities to the game and with the introduction of region cards, players will have more control on possible outbreaks of the Black Death. Rattus Africanus will make playing Rattus feel like a completely new experience! Besides that, this expansion also makes it possible to play the game with 5 and 6 players. Rattus, the basic game by Ase & Henrik Berg, has been a big hit internationally so far and by adding a whole new playing experience to the Rattus-family, the success of this game will become even bigger.
Lost Temple
Secondly, there's Lost Temple. In this game by Bruno Faidutti, 2 to 8 players are explorers looking for a mysterious lost temple. To find it, they must cross the jungle of southeast Asia and get help from the indigenous people. The first player to reach the temple on the last space of the track wins the game. The game uses a character selection rule similar to Bruno Faidutti's Citadels, and the game includes nine different characters: Shaman, Thief, Seer, Priest, Elder, Craftsman, Scout, Canoe and Child. Can you outwit your opponents and claim the discovery of the Lost Temple? This game will definitely attract all the fans of Citadels.
Revolver
And then there's Revolver. This is a non-collectable card game for 2 players by Mark Chaplin and the game is set in the Old West. Consisting of two balanced 62 card decks, the game pits two players against each other in a life or death struggle. One player takes the role of Colonel Ned McReady and his lawmen, and his opponent assumes control of the notorious and deadly Colty gang. At their disposal, the Colty gang - the meanest bunch of low down dirty dogs in the West - have a roster of weaponry to bring down the lawmen on their tail: .38 Specials, .45 Long Colts, 1866 double barrel Derringers, and even a Gatling gun! The Colonel player's objective is to eliminate all the gang members before they can escape across the Mexican border. The game has an asymmetrical design, with both decks featuring different cards and abilities. Primarily a combat-driven card game, each player must manage his deck of cards effectively to win. Revolver is played using a 5-column system, representing consecutive gunfights in the following battlegrounds: The Bank at Repentance Springs, Whiskey Canyon, Buzzard Point, Rattlesnake Creek, and the 3:15 Express from Rattlesnake Station. Gameplay is quick. Numerous tricky decisions must be made throughout.
Panic Station
Earlier this year, White Goblin Games released the crazy squirrel game Get Nuts by designers Tom Luyckx and David Ausloos. Also from Ausloos is Panic Station, a partly cooperative game for 4 to 6 players of growing paranoia in which no one can truly trust anyone. As a member of the Extermination Corps, you as well as your android are sent out by the government to investigate the presence of fiendish alien life forms in a base. Players need to move both their Androids and Troopers through this base, exploring and gathering equipment that will help them to complete their mission: to find and destroy the Parasite Hive hidden somewhere in the inner depths of this hell. When a player manages to get his Trooper into the Hive location and play three gas can cards to fuel his Flamethrower, he wins the game for the humans. However, one of the players is a Host. He must keep this identity secret, infecting as many team members as possible to gain allies and prevent the humans from completing their mission. Only players who carefully watch the behaviour of team members and find a good balance between cooperation and paranoia will stand a chance against the infected players and roaming parasites. The game uses a unique exponential traitor-system and combines tactical play with a compelling psychological mind game amongst players. Can you maintain your sanity and destroy the source of this evil?
Singapore
Singapore is a game by Peer Sylvester and in this game, the 3 to 4 players are rich merchants who are trading to develop a small outpost into a metropolis. Although the legal trade flourishes, the opium trade increases as well. In this game the players will have the opportunity to participate in these illegal, profitable activities. However, the risk of being caught increases as more illegal activities take place... In this game, you'll definitely experience the intense tension once you have opted for very profitable, but also illegal activities!
Dragon's Gold
Last but not least, there's a re-release of Bruno Faidutti's 'Dragon's Gold'. In this highly interactive game, you have to beat the dragons and seize the treasures. Each player plays with a team of heroes intent on only one goal: collecting lots of magical objects and treasures. Beating a dragon is quite simple. But then comes the real challenge: reaching an agreement on the distribution of the loot. This negotiation mechanism makes this game really stand out from the rest: players have to come to an agreement under time pressure. If they don't agree, nobody gets anything! Besides new artwork, there's also a more strategic variant for players who don't like negotiating.
Critical Gamers Staff at
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July 18, 2011
Dear Alan Emrich and Victory Point Games,
You have recently announced plans to expand to the digital application realm in a recent news post - 3 July Update That Was the Fortnight That Was VPG's "Appy" Future. First, I applaud you for your plans to expand to an area that is outside of your business model and is one of the fastest growing markets out there. As an avid video and tabletop gamer, the proposition of being able to do both is highly appealing as such a creation would be the best of both worlds to me. While I currently find the digital realm somewhat void of solid tabletop to digital translations, I believe with the proper vision and development, this won't be an issue for much longer. That being said, I implore you to take a thorough examination of porting your States of Siege solitaire line to the digital media. The solitaire functionality of the lineup with the typically single player of the mobile digital devices makes for a perfect marriage of playability and portability. We here at Critical Gamers would like to thank you for taking a risk to appease us gamers who enjoy your products and want to take them with us wherever we may go.
Critical Gamers Staff at
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July 7, 2011
We don't normally post specifically about miniatures here at Critical Gamers but that doesn't mean we don't like or appreciate them. Quite the contrary to be exact. It's hard not to point out well designed and manufactured miniatures that are included with titles that are published or call out low quality pieces as well. In addition, miniatures, in their raw form, can add a significant mechanic and/or experience to a game. What adds even greater depth to the gameplay experience of a title that uses miniatures is to turn those raw forms into colorful, realistic (as much as possible) portrayals out of those game elements.
This art form has been around for a while and has a significant community following and many artists have refined their ability to a significant degree. It is contests like the one that Fantasy Flight Games recently had for Dust Tactics that really helps expose some of the best in the community. And even I, with such little artistic ability/eye, couldn't help but want to share what they have produced after seeing the results. So without further ado, the winners from the contest -
Continue reading: "FFG's Dust Tactics Mini Painting Contest Winners"
Critical Gamers Staff at
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July 1, 2011
Kickstarter is becoming so popular as a crowd-funding solution that even some of the smaller publishers are starting to use it to as a tool. Granted this is their third Kickstarter project, the fact that Gryphon Games continues to use it for their ideas speaks volumes about the success they have been seeing, it's a self-created P500 list for individual titles. Mirror, Mirror is their latest addition to their Kickstarter funding efforts and attempts to turn chess upside down, or should I say reversed. Players must intercept and find your opponents letter to the Princess so yours may reach her and win her heart and hand. There are three different courtiers: Knights, Ladies, and Masters. Knights move just like Knights in chess, Masters move like the King, and Ladies more like a checkers piece by jumping over an existing piece. Each of their pieces has a mirror on the back and players must maneuver accordingly to identify and intercept the letter.
At Mirror, Mirror
Critical Gamers Staff at
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June 19, 2011
RoboArena is a currently in development "Top Down Tactical Turn Based Casual Strategy Multiplayer Action Game", or TDTTBCSMAG for short, for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad by Bravado Waffle Studios. Imagine the classic RoboRally mixed with X-Com and RoboSport where players program moves for a robot or team of robots to complete the level objectives. The game will come with both single player and multiplayer modes. The single player mode consists of 30 levels of robot destroying, puzzle solving challenges as the player attempts to escape from the evil robot factory. Multiplayer is made up of a variety of different game modes like free-for-all, capture the flag, and Robo Hunt. There are already plans for an expansion so there will be plenty of content to enjoy. Also as another added bonus, if they can fund up to $2000 USD on their kickstarter campaign, they will also release a limited first edition board game version for backers. Pretty sweet deal.
At RoboArena
Critical Gamers Staff at
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June 9, 2011
Thanks to some market research by ICv2 (original article) that was released at the end of May, we get a good look into the successes of the analog gaming industry for the early part of 2011. Some general statements from the research points to a nice upswing in sales for a majority of publishers. ICv2 has broken up the lists into multiple categories including separating card games into multiple collectible and a non-collectible to help differentiate the growing deck-building genre. Continue reading for the all of the lists compiled in the research.
Continue reading: "Tabletop Gaming Q1 Best Sellers"
Critical Gamers Staff at
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