Don’t Eat the Meeples, Issue Eight
The latest in board games for the week of March 12.
Between party games, Euro games, and something between, there’s a lot of news that floated out of the last week.
News
Bad Medicine, Second Opinion
Designer: Gil Hova | Kickstarter
I’m a big fan of Gil Hova’s work on the Ludology podcast (which I’d highly recommend), and I really enjoyed his design for The Networks, but this is a second edition of a game of his I’ve never played, Bad Medicine.
It’s a party game that’s been out of print since 2015, and in it, you and your friends play as pharmaceutical companies making horrible drugs. I’d love to play this one.
Auztralia
Designer: Martin Wallace | Kickstarter
This is a Martin Wallace design with Cthulhu and Lovecraft. I mean, I don’t really have any words for this. Of course, he has done this before — see A Study in Emerald from 2015, and he has a wide variety of designs, but this looks just like a Martin Wallace game. Fun.
Sorceror City
Designer: Scott Caputo | Kickstarter
This looks like a nice take on abstract-ish tile-laying — and for that, I’d love to give the game a play when it comes to retail. Is it worth backing right now? Well, it’s not Scott Caputo’s first design, but it will almost certainly be his biggest.
Werewords Deluxe Edition
Designer: Ted Alspach | Kickstarter
From the designer of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and, as expected, Werewords comes Werewords Deluxe Edition, a social deception word-guessing game with… Werewolves. Fun! This includes some extra stuff, including new artwork.
Munchkin Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Designer: Jon Cohn | Kickstarter
Just because you can make a Munchkin game with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doesn’t mean you should. Still, this has the original artist involved, and that’s pretty cool.
Magic: The Gathering, Heroes of Dominaria
I spent a whole bunch of time in my teenage years playing Magic: The Gathering, so hearing that WizKids is announcing another game based on the CCG is exciting — but it’s really the name that gets me. You explore Dominaria, and I sure hope you can play as Karn.
Architects of the West Kingdom (and more)
Designer: SJ McDonald | Renegade Games
In the spirit of the North Sea trilogy, which I’ve played none of, Renegade Games is continuing with another trilogy. This time, that involves significantly less pillaging and raiding, and it’s set in the 9th century. Worker placement! Alright.
Stonemaier Games releases stakeholder report
Have you been curious about what a medium-size board game company makes in a year? What they spend their money on? Stonemaier Games released their annual stakeholder report, which is super interesting.
What we’ve been playing
It’s been a quiet week in gaming for me, with just a few plays — one of Masques, a couple of The Game, and one of Paperback.
Paperback, a word-building deck-building game, was particularly interesting this week, because while I met three of the four milestones to progress the game with words I played, I lost and the game was pretty close at the end. That’s the great thing about deck builders, I think. You might have a deck that works wonders, but if you don’t focus on victory conditions and just on game-ending conditions, you’ll find yourself behind.
