Don’t Eat the Meeples, Issue Five

The latest in board games for the week of Feb. 19.

To celebrate the fifth issue of this weekly newsletter, I’ve … done exactly what I’ve done each time, and what I’d like to continue doing: look at new games, catch up on news around the industry, and talk about games we’ve been playing this week. Onward? Onward.

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Games

Finca [Kickstarter]

This is a reprint of a game very well received in 2009 — it was a nominee for the Spiel des Jahres that year, where it was beat by Dominion, which we’re obviously still talking about today. Finca, on the other hand? That didn’t reach quite the same levels of success, eventually falling out of print.

This would bring it back into print, and would you look at the adorable little wooden lemons that come in the box! I’m sold.

Martin Wallace’s Wildlands (Q4 2018) [Osprey Games]

One of the most notable board game designers of — well, ever — is dipping his toes into the miniatures game, making Wildlands a fantasy miniatures game. Now, I don’t know exactly what a “miniatures game” is aside from being a game that involves miniatures, but it looks like this goes back to what you might have expected: a game where you make miniatures fight. Sort of.

Wallace is great, designing a bunch of excellent train games (and, like, a billion other great things), so I’ll anticipate playing this.

Aeon’s End: Legacy [Kickstarter]

Because, really, who doesn’t love a deckbuilding legacy game? I haven’t played the Aeon’s End games, so I don’t know if this is up my alley or not. It’s being produced by Indie Boards & Cards, so don’t be surprised if this one sees a successful retail release.

Unlock! [Asmodee]

Asmodee is releasing even more of those Unlock! games, which I still haven’t played (or the Exit games, or… you get the picture), and I think they’re really riding a strong wave right now. I’ll be curious if this trend continues.

• Tombstone Express
• The Adventures of Oz
• A Noside Story

Other games

• Argonauts: Second Edition — a cooperative game where you play as Jason and the Argonauts [Kickstarter]
• The Reckoners — I wanted this to be fun. It looks like the opposite. [Kickstarter]
• Cooks & Crooks — a family game set in a restaurant [Kickstarter]
• Pandorum — planet colonization with a modular board [Kickstarter]
• Master of Respect — a Japanese resource management game [Kickstarter]
• Dice Throne: Season Two — a very successful campaign already [Kickstarter]
• TOR — Tales of Resurrection — this cooperative civilization game will need some help over the line [Kickstarter]
• Leviathan — a two-player microgame based on Moby Dick [Kickstarter]
• Byanz — this 3–6 player auction game gets a March 14 release date [Renegade Games]
• Endless Pass — A Viking Saga — a card-based adventure game [Wizkids]

News

ICV2 is reporting that Geek & Sundry, who you may know for their work with Tabletop or other web media endeavors, released the list of exclusive games to be released for International Tabletop Day on April 28.

• Sparkle*Kitty (variant box art), Breaking Games
• Sagrada (promos), Floodgate Games
• Wonderland (exclusive), Renegade Games
• Actions Cats (expansion), Twogether Studios
• ITTD Promo Pack, Fireside Games (Hotshots, Castle Panic, and more)

ICV2 is also breaking down a report that Steve Jackson Games delivered to their stakeholders — and things aren’t looking rosy for the company, with sales declining for their third straight year. This is a particularly interesting development, and I think it shows in the 2018 release of Munchkin Collectible Card Game, which seems a little desperate, to my mind. Still, don’t panic for Steve Jackson Games — they’re still breaking even, they say. Perhaps partnerships with Asmodee (for digital games) and CMON (for board games, as opposed to card games) will help them stay in this game for years to come. Most of us probably aren’t out there playing Munchkin, but it’s hard to look past the role it played for many years with American gamers, too. What does the future hold for this company? Will gaming market growth positively impact Steve Jackson Games, or is the vast production of games going to crowd out the space giants like Munchkin once occupied?

What we’re playing

I played a game of Scythe this week for the first time in a bit, and it was nice to see just how easy it is to grasp the game’s concepts while still feeling like there’s so much more game to explore before you even start to dip your toes into expansions. I’ll try to resist a little longer, but the campaign play coming out later this year (with The Rise of Fenris expansion), two new factions (Invaders from Afar), and airships (The Wind Gambit) all have a particularly strong pull. I wouldn’t just dump this on a non-gamer, but for someone with some gaming experience, this is easy to teach, broad enough to feel like there’s variety in every play, and engaging enough to feel like you’re doing something throughout. [Stonemaier Games]

I also got a chance to play Spirit Island at Game Night Games in Salt Lake City — they hosted a free demo night, and I couldn’t pass up a chance to play one of the hottest games of 2017. It seems fairly variable, given the player powers are asymmetric, and I do love a good cooperative experience. I once read somebody’s comments about the game, in which they said it was simply another Pandemic experience, although that didn’t quite ring true to me. Sure, certain aspects were similar, but this felt very different to me. I need to play this one several more times to really get a feel for how it compares to other cooperative games for me, which I think is a pretty sure sign that I enjoyed it a great deal. [BGG]

Speaking of Pandemic, I played Pandemic: Rising Tide just last night, and I continue to be a fan of the games in the series. We just played a two-player game, which led to a pretty easy experience, given we also played on the introductory difficulty. Keeping the Netherlands from flooding was a nice twist on the mechanics, but I’d like to give this more playtime so I can really get a good sense of things. [BGG]

Finally, I added two more challenges to my 2018 Challenges in the BG Stats app: 150 plays and 50 plays of cooperative games. I was mostly looking for an excuse to add some new goals, given they added an “X plays” option, but I like the idea in principle, too. I have several other challenges set already, which I’ll have to talk about in more detail some other time.

What I’m looking forward to

I’ll be in San Antonio for a work conference this week, so I suspect I won’t get quite as much gaming in as I might otherwise — but if I can find a FLGS near the Riverwalk (I suppose I could also take public transit or something similar), I might just have to see what’s going on there.

Other than that, I should be playing another game of Scythe this week, and I’ll probably get in a slew of Ticket to Ride phone plays while I’m on the airplane. I’ll just wait and see what else I’m able to get in.