Weekly News

6/20/14

New Games:

There are more details out on King of New York, the sequel to King of Tokyo. It seems that there’s more for your monster to do in NYC than just destroy each other – you can evade the military, become famous, smash some buildings, and…destroy each other.

It seems strange for a wargame to cover events from only about a decade ago, but that’s just the time period of Gregory Denysenko’s Orange Revolution. Due out in early 2015 by Mercury Games, Orange Revolution is the first in a new series of political warames focusing on “themes not often covered in boardgaming.” The next game focuses on Germany just prior to WWII. At first glance, I’m not sold on it. Can I call too soon?

Medina is a city-building game by Stefan Dorra, is being updated with new rules and components. I’ve heard good things about the original and I’m willing to trust Stronghold Games with this. Medina asks players to rebuild the ancient city by completing palaces and renovating the city wall.

Panthalos, due this fall from Irongames, is all about building your own titans to fight the demi-gods wreaking havoc on your civilization.

Fantasy Flight is adding Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion to their list of two player card games.

Expansions:

The thing I don’t like about all of Fantasy Flight’s LCG expansions is that the titles mean nothing to you if you don’t play the specific game in question. So, for the sake of simplicity, I’m just going to say that there are expansions for Android: Netrunner (All That Remains) and Game of Thrones (Secrets and Schemes)  

Polis: Fight for the Hegemony is getting another edition.

I can’t keep up with Privateer Press! Level 7 [INVASION] will be out at Gen Con. Maybe I’ll have finished the base game by then?

Other News:

Game Chef 2014 winners have been announced!

Penny Press has begun funding on Kickstarter! We got to play this game back at the Boston Festival of Indie Games in September, unaware at the time that it was to become one of the co-winners of the Cards Against Humanity-sponsored Tabletop Deathmatch contest. We were so excited about this game’s prospects, and the game’s designers kindly took the time to chat with us in this week’s Vox Republica podcast. Given this month we’re focusing on BFIG, it’s a win-win all around!

Crowdfunding Corner:

Scrapyard Empire – Do you have what it takes to be the best inventor around? Can you be both brilliant in your engineering and ruthless in your execution? That’s what you do in Scrapyard Empire, the first of our three previews of the week. Scrapyard Empire is a steampunk-themed card game where players scavenge the property of a wealthy genius who has passed away. He has left his wealth to the winner of an eccentric contest: you have to be the first to collect the necessary parts and assemble Inventions in order to collect the inheritance. It’s one part hand management, one part clubbing your neighbor over the head to stop them from winning. You can get in on the game for $25.

Harbour – Have you ever wanted to play a resource management game but simply can’t or won’t have the time for a two-hour investment? Probably not. But if you did, you’d certainly want to check out Harbour, TMG’s latest game. It’s designed to be a half hour Euro, and while it’s about delivering goods (we know), it actually packs a lot into a small box. It was our second preview and was a Seal of the Republic recipient. The game has strategy, great artwork, and deftly pulls off being a 30-minute Euro game. A mere $20 gets you a copy.

Tiny Epic Defenders – Micro-games aren’t for everyone, but TED certainly is one that stands out. A sequel of sorts to Gamelyn Games’s Tiny Epic Kingdoms (although the games are very different), TED is a co-op to defend the Capital City from a horde of invaders. More adversaries get added each round until you square off against the Epic Foe for the win. But this game is hard, as your turns are determined randomly and health is a precious commodity. TED will kill you. A lot. For a micro-game it has a big swagger, and it’ll keep you wanting to try again. That’s convenient, since games are over pretty quickly. It was our final preview of the week and was another Seal of the Republic recipient. $16 is all it takes for a copy of this one.

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