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W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
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• Canadian publisher FoxMind Games has unveiled its release schedule for the first half of 2012, some of which are localized versions of games already available in Europe and Japan and some of which is new. The rundown of releases is:
Already available
-----• Rise or Fall, a quick-playing simultaneous reveal game in which you want to slime other high school cliques to leave yourself on the top.
March 2012
-----• Four in a Square, a two-player abstract in which you place a token, then slide a tile in the grid to try to create...
April 2012
-----• I Go!, a new pirateless version of Leo Colovini's Corsari.
June 2012
-----• Map It! World Edition and Map It! U.S. Edition, being respectively a localized version of Ausgerechnet Honolulu and a new version of the Ausgerechnet series that focuses solely on U.S. cities and landmarks.
July 2012
-----• Chocoly, a localized version of the Steffen-Spiele release Schokoly in which players place and stack chocolate wafers to create large blocks of their color.
Q2/Q3 2012
-----• String Railway, an English/French version of this Hisashi Hayashi design, which Japon Brand previously made famous at Spiel. Yes, Asmodee had previously been announced as the publisher of a forthcoming new edition, and FoxMind's Marie-Ève Lupien – man, could there be a better-sounding, more French name? – says that plan is still in place: "Asmodee is launching its own version in France this year, too. Production should be made at the same time." The FoxMind version also has rules in French to cover sales in Québec.
Release date unknown
-----• Six, another Steffen-Spiele release, this one being a game that FoxMind has published previously but is now redoing to include bakelite tiles.
-----• Kulami, yet another Steffen-Spiele title and one that I sadly overlooked while compiling the Spiel 2011 Preview. Whoops! Wish I would have seen this game in Essen, but apparently I'll have a second chance now. Lupien mentions that the FoxMind version will likely have a different name.
• U.S. publisher Steve Jackson Games has announced that it's working on Munchkin Zombies 3, a second expansion for the Munchkin Zombies base game.
• I've added four new HABA titles to the Nürnberg 2012 Preview, with all of them being due out in March or April 2012 in Europe. (These games might have separate U.S. releases in 6-12 months.) The games are:
—A new Animal Upon Animal title – Tier auf Tier: Jetzt geht's rund! – in which players now stack animals on a crocodile which is on a ice floe (turntable) that must be rotated each round.
–In Wasserratten in Sicht!, players must collectively build a series of lighthouses to prevent water rats from reaching an island.
–Roberta Fraga's Kuck Ruck Zuck!, with players trying to deduce which animal took which picture based on the animals that can be seen in them.
–In Monstertorte, players scoop colored sugar balls from a mixing bowl to get the right ingredients for cake recipes.
I still have many more HABA titles to add to the database. Soon!
• The UK Games Expo has posted a new games page for its 2012 event, and while details are scant about most of what will be on offer – the title Mountain Railway and Guilds of London from Surprised Stare Games, Nine Worlds from Medusa Games – the page is there if you want to keep an eye on it.
• French publisher Libellud is releasing Sticky Stickz, which Korean publisher Happy Baobab had debuted at Spiel 2011. The short description: Roll dice, then smash tokens with your "sticky stick" – i.e., a stick bearing a suction cup – to claim the appropriate token.
• French publisher Bombyx has now released more info on Noé, a card game from Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc due out in March 2012. Here's the detailed game description I've now posted on the BGG game page:
Quote: In Noé the flood is at hand, and to save as many species as possible, Noah will need your help – with only the most deserving of players being saved from the waters!
Each round, players start with eight animal cards in hand; five ferries are laid out in a circle, with one animal placed on board from the top of the deck. Noah himself stands on one ferry. On a turn, a player plays one card from hand onto the ferry where Noah is located, following two rules: (1) the total weight of all animals on board cannot exceed 21 and (2) animals on a ferry must be placed either in alternating gender order or must be all of the same gender. After placing an animal, the player moves Noah to a different ferry; if he played a female animal, Noah goes to either adjacent ferry, while if he played a male, Noah goes to either ferry on the other side of the circle.
If a player can't legally play an animal, he must first take in hand ''all'' the animals on the ferry where Noah is located, then play an animal.
In addition to moving Noah to a nearly full ferry, players have two other ways to benefit themselves or mess with other players. If a player plays an animal identical to the one last played on that ferry, he moves Noah, then takes another turn. If a player brings the weight of a ferry to exactly 21, that ferry launches from shore to meet the ark located in distant waters, a new ferry becomes available for loading, and the player distributes 1-4 cards from the deck among his opponents. finally, some cards have special animals, such as the giraffe that lets you peek at an opponent's hand and the woodpecker, which stupidly pokes holes in the ferry and reduces its maximum weight to 13. Bad woodpecker, bad!
The round ends when a player runs out of cards in hand or a fourth ferry launches. Players receive penalty points for cards still in hand, scored according to the number of tears on each card, those tears representing Noah's sadness at the animal being left behind. Then players shuffle all the animal cards and begin a new round. The player with the fewest points after three rounds wins!
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Quote:In Noé the flood is at hand, and to save as many species as possible, Noah will need your help – with only the most deserving of players being saved from the waters!
