If you were a reader during the March timeline, you might have read a 4 part article about an fairly unknown title called Warparty that I had the pleasure to encounter during my trip to the 25th revision of the annual convention known as Total Con held in Mansfield, Massachusetts. For a recap or if you would like to check out the articles you can find them here:
As I go back and recount my descriptions of Warparty, I don't think I really explained the breadth of the game and more of recounted my experience with it. While the experience aspect is important, it is only a piece of the whole that the user needs to know in order to fully realize what is at stake with support for the title. That is where the Youtube demo video comes into play. Being able to understand the mechanics of the game will help you understand what the game is all about and the 4 part series will help you understand what it feels like to play it. I cannot stress how polished and balanced this game is and how passionate the creators are for the game. I urge you to go out and meet Larry at a convention, pick his brain, and try the game. Without you, the player, this title cannot fully come to realization as it should be. If you haven't pre-ordered it for a discount at Lock N' Load, go do so!
The Locusts, so named by human scientists for their immense numbers, are a race of humanoids from deep within the subterranean tunnels of Sera. These relentless killers seem bent on destruction, and all attempts at negotiation with them have ended in violence. As mankind approaches its final stand, what new horrors does their mysterious enemy hold in store?
An Emergence Hole has opened at your local game store, and you and your team are humanity's last hope of survival. Gears of War™: The Board Game is now on sale at your local retailer and on our webstore!
Gears of War: The Board Game, designed by Corey Konieczka, is based on the wildly popular third-person shooter by Epic Games. One to four players take on the roles of COG soldiers cooperating to destroy the Locust horde, and must work together to complete missions against an ingeniously challenging and varied game system. In Gears of War: The Board Game, you'll relive classic moments from Gears of War™ and Gears of War™ 2. Roadie Run into cover, spray your enemy with blind fire, or rip him in half with your Lancer's chainsaw!
Stand together or die alone
Teamwork is essential in Gears of War: The Board Game, as you and your fellow COGs will secure areas in an ever-expanding and randomized map, lay down suppressing fire to support each other's movements, and rush to the aid of fallen allies - all in an effort to complete your mission objective.
Also essential is the careful use of the tools at your disposal: a range of tactical options and devastating weapons. Your hand of Order cards represents your COG's spectacular battle prowess, and on each turn you'll discard one to either use its listed ability, move across the map, or attack.
You can even hold on to these versatile Orders, discarding them to dodge or guard against incoming attacks, or to follow closely behind a teammate. Communication is key, and the most successful COGs recognize that together, they form a deadly machine.
If you have been around for the last few months you will have noticed that we here at Critical Gamers enjoy seeing the little guy, the unexpected success, the underdog, rise up and conquer. I mean how else do we get to where we are today? Someone has an idea, devotes themselves to it, and gathers support from their peers to bring it to fruition. What makes Carnival from Dice Hate Me Games even more special is that this idea comes from a direct peer of ours here at Critical Gamers. Not only is this DHMG's first offering it is coming out of a fellow gaming blogger site Dice Hate Me. It is ideas and passion like theirs that continues to drive our industry forward with fresh and creative ideas that just overflows with love for what they do. Check out the video about the game, visit the Kickstarter page, and pledge today!
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.
"....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.
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 -
Warparty Demo on Youtube
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