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.
As seen on Gamesalute - http://www.gamesalute.com/?p=16745
Magic 2012 is about to become more eventful! In mid-August 2011, Wizards of the Coast will release two Magic 2012 Event Decks to stores. Have you been wanting to try out Standard? Here's your chance! These pre-constructed event decks are a great introduction into Standard format. They're designed specially for players to hop right into a game and have a fair chance at winning.
Magic 2012 Event Decks come with 60-cards each, a 15-card sideboard, a spindown life counter and a fancy card box to store your cards in.
Following the release of Magic 2012 Event Decks, Friendly Local Game Stores will be hosting Magic Game Days! August 13th-14th, standard tournaments will be held at participating locations. Learn to play standard and get awesome cards with these Magic 2012 Event Decks.
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.
There are only a few topics that are commonly understood to be taboo during discussions at work or in public areas, at least in the United States: sex, religion, and politics. There are some valid reasons for this forbiddance, most notably that most wars that are waged are because of these subjective topics. The fate of the Earth even seemed to come into question due to a significant difference in political ideals during the Cold War and the threat of nuclear winter. Politics, designed by John Ruf under No Mana Games, won't put the fate of humanity in the palms of power hungry politicians, it will, however, cause debates, strife, and backstabbing (so choose your players carefully)!
Critical Gamers would like to extend a special thank you to John Ruf for supplying us the review copy.
Ares Games Secures Rights to War of the Ring
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