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Dress for Battle in Conquest Princess, Scale Giants in Leviathan Wilds, and Get Stacked for a Party in the Back

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Carson City: Big Box
Board Game: SlackJack
• After years of unavailability, Carson City: Big Box from Xavier Georges and Quined Games is being republished, with this edition including new solo rules and a fancy-shmancy insert. (Gamefound link)

• Let's jump genres from cowboys to pirates with SlackJack, a game from Thomas Robert Beatman, Joel Colombo, Travis Magrum, Ian Moss, Jim Schoch, and Jellybean Games in which players try to convince the captain to make them part of the treasure-search team. Each player has a hidden role, including a scofflaw who will make off with all the gold should they part of the captain's team — assuming that team even gets the gold as that will be awarded to one side or another depending on the strength of each team. (Kickstarter link)

Board Game: Pavlov's House
Board Game: Castle Itter: The Strangest Battle of WWII
Board Game: Lanzerath Ridge
Pavlov's House: The Battle of Stalingrad, Castle Itter: The Strangest Battle of WWII, and Lanzerath Ridge: Battle of the Bulge is a trio of solitaire games from David Thompson and Dan Verssen Games that are not new, but I suppose a Gamefound campaign will bring them to the attention of new players.

All three titles are part of Thompson and DVG's "Valiant Defense" series, which also includes 2021's Soldiers in Postmen's Uniforms.

Conquest Princess: Fashion Is Power is a co-operative game from Peter Yang, Seppy Yoon, and Fight in a Box in which you are a member of the Temporal Intergalactic Armed Response Agency (TIARA) who dresses for battle, then faces off against "the worst classic space problems: Invaders from Space, Giant Mecha-Monsters, and the dreaded Fashion Tyrant Mu-gahgah". (GF link)

Board Game: Conquest Princess: Fashion Is Power

Board Game: Loam
Board Game: 9th Circle
• In Loam from Cardboard Revolution, you are a plant that wants to build healthy soils. Writes designer Max Helmberger, who is also a soil ecologist and biology lecturer at Boston University, "You have a lot more power and agency over your environment than humans often give you credit for. Use chemical inputs to sculpt the soil's weird and wonderful biodiversity to assemble vibrant ecological communities." (GF link)

9th Circle seems like a radical departure from R&R Games' usual fare, with this design from Rebecca Bleau and Nicholas Cravotta putting you in the role of a demon lord who uses minions to gain control of various parts of the eighth circle so that you can use those powers to gain favor with Malacoda, that is, a bad ending. (KS link)

Board Game: Leviathan Wilds
Leviathan Wilds from Justin Kemppainen and Moon Crab Games challenges 1-4 players to scale gigantic creatures that are depicted on a two-fold spread in a spiral-bound notebook to remove the crystals that bind them.

Each player has a unique deck of multi-use cards, and they also represent your ability to hold on to the leviathan; run out of cards and you fall to a rest point, which resets your deck. The bound leviathans resist your efforts to free them with a deck of effect cards that gain strength over the course of play. (KS link)

• In Asteroid Dice from Camden Games, players play cards to compete for the giant squishy die of their choice, then roll them on the table — or smash them against already rolled dice — to try to get the high number. (KS link)

Board Game: Asteroid Dice

• We'll close with a non-game project from BGG's own Chad Krizan and his wife Caylyn, who run the company Puzzle Bomb and are currently running a Kickstarter campaign for a trilogy of all-wood jigsaw puzzles titled "Party in the Back".

All three puzzles have multiple layers to them, with many different thematic images in the parts of the puzzle that will be buried once it's fully assembled. The images below give a taste of what these puzzles are like, with the KS campaign featuring animated GIFs that feature all the levels...should you wish to have them spoiled in advance.

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From gallery of W Eric Martin
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Tue May 30, 2023 10:00 pm
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Cross the United States in Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

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Roughly a week after publisher Days of Wonder teased a Ticket to Ride legacy game, it's now officially announced Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West, a game for 2-5 players from Alan R. Moon, Rob Daviau, and Matt Leacock.

Board Game: Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

Here's an overview of the setting and gameplay:
Quote:
In Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West, players embark on twelve journeys across North America as 19th century pioneers. The campaign begins on the East Coast, with players working their way to the West from one adventure to the next, meeting challenges along the way. As in Ticket to Ride, completing your tickets will remain your primary goal, but you will need to develop other skills if you hope to overcome the unexpected events and your resourceful rivals. Game after game, route after route, you will continuously fill your vault with earnings. As the story progresses, you will open frontier boxes that unlock new rules, content, and many more surprises.

Board Game: Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West
Frontier boxes

In the Legacy style, Legends of the West is a unique experience molded by player choices. Each player has their own role to play, allowing them to change the way the story unfolds around them. Combined with evolving mechanisms that change as the game progresses, players will have a new experience every time they gather around the board.

Board Game: Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West
Sample tickets

At the end of the twelve games in this legacy campaign, you will have transformed your game into a unique copy that you can continue playing for a lifetime.
For hints of what's inside the box, the components list includes 13 frontier game boards, 7 event cards, 6 newspaper cards, 77 postcards, a story deck, and a conductor's toolbox.

Board Game: Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West will be demonstrated at Gen Con 2023 in August and released on November 3, 2023, bearing a US$120 MSRP.

Board Game: Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West
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Tue May 30, 2023 6:06 pm
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Revisit Black Friday, Play Seasons in Holly Oak, and Flip for Freaky Frogs From Outaspace

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Board Game: Black Friday
Board Game: Black Friday
• I've already written about Faiyum: Privileges, but it turns out that designer Friedemann Friese of 2F-Spiele has at least three other items that will be released by SPIEL '23 in October.

Black Friday is a revised edition of Friese's 2010 stock market game of the same name...or named Schwarzer Freitag if you have the German edition. In this game, 2-5 players try to gain as much gold as possible by dealing in shares before the huge stock market crash. Ideally you can earn cash by cleverly buying and selling shares, thereby manipulating the market development and share prices, then spend it on gold to lock in your wealth.

Black Friday includes an independently acting opponent, the M.I.B.S. (minimally intelligent broker service), that you can use or not depending on the number of players in the game.

• Friese has released a few solitaire games over the years — Friday, Finished!, and 5x15 — and now he's releasing a new one: Freaky Frogs From Outaspace, a card game that simulates a pinball machine. An intro:
Quote:
Try to keep playing as long as possible, relying both on skill and luck. If everything runs perfectly, you will start the nerve-wracking Multiball, or you gain an Extra Ball to play an additional round.

Board Game: Freaky Frogs From Outaspace

This game can be unfair, exactly like a real pinball machine. Sometimes you lose a ball very quickly without having any opportunities to aim at the targets: Bad luck!

Do not give up if you initially score only 1,000 points. From game to game you will get better. Score Bumpers, hit the Ramps, and possibly activate the Multiball...and you will get to scores of 100,000+ points, just like with a real pinball machine.
Rio Grande Games plans to release all three of the titles above in North America.

Board Game: Fancy Feathers
Board Game: Fancy Feathers: It is getting colorful!
• Friese's 2022 card game Fancy Feathers will see an expansion — It is getting colorful! — that features six new types of animal cards. You play by choosing any six types of cards in the game, so you can add these to the mix, giving you 18 types from which to choose.

Like the base game, the expansion is for two players, but additional copies can used to accommodate up to six players.

• To expand on Rio Grande Games' offerings, the publisher plans to release Prussian Rails, a new edition of John Bohrer's German Railways, which originally debuted in 2008 as Preußische Ostbahn in the second half of 2023.

Board Game: Prussian Rails

• In that same time period, Rio Grande plans to release Holly Oak, a seasonal trick-taking game Tom Lehmann in which 3-5 revelers mark the passing of the seasons, seeking the favor of the Oak and Holly kings. In game terms, trump rotates with the seasons as spring becomes summer, then summer becomes fall or autumn (depending on where you live).

Board Game: Holly Oak
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Sat May 27, 2023 7:00 am
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Manage Railroads in Wyoming and Explore New Dual Gauge, Age of Steam, and Maglev Metro Maps

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Trains and stock markets have been on my mind a lot lately. I've been hooked on Amabel Holland's Dual Gauge, which is a stock-holding and route-building game for 3-5 players. Plus, I played an epic and enjoyable first game of Helmut Ohley and Leonhard Orgler's 1880: China (new Lookout Games edition), which was one of my most anticipated SPIEL '22 releases. So in the spirit of trains, allow me to share a few new and upcoming releases.

Board Game: Dual Gauge
• In mid-May 2023, Hollandspiele announced the release of Dual Gauge: Netherlands and Eastern U.S., the third expansion map pack for Dual Gauge, designed by Amabel Holland. If you're not familiar with Dual Gauge, it's a shared incentive train game system where you compete against other players building train routes, and operating and investing in train companies. It has 18xx-lite vibes, but feels unique and can be played in about 90 minutes. Each map for Dual Gauge varies up the core system in fresh and interesting ways, offering players a plethora of exciting new challenges.

Here's the publisher's description of what twists and turns you can expect in the new Netherlands and Eastern U.S. map pack:
Quote:
These maps introduce Star Dits, which function as normal dits for most purposes – they count as a stop but cannot be tokened – but are worth more money. Depending on the map, players may also have an additional incentive to hit these stops over others. Both maps also see players in a race to grab bonuses, which also serve as another game end trigger.

The Netherlands map seats up to five players and features a new gauge conversion step, allowing you to flip narrow track to its standard side. Of course, what it doesn't do is change your narrow trains. You'll need to plan your train purchases carefully, and beware of opponents who might use this tactic offensively.

That's if you have enough time, of course! The standout feature of this map is a race to complete certain Goals. Achieving one of the map's eight Goals will win you a disc. This can be traded in later, either to place a station or to buy a precious second share of stock in a single round.

The Eastern US map is for three to four, and is a bit subtler. Preprinted track segments provide awkward chokepoints to either work around or embrace. Company turn order isn't fixed, but shifts from round to round depending on company stock value. Increases in that value are gated – tied to your dividends, so you'll need to work for big routes while your rivals try to block you with aggressive token play.

At the western end of the maps, there are the destination cities of Detroit and Chicago, each containing a set of Bonus Discs. When a company ends a run there, their President claims a disc. At the end of game, you'll get a payout based on the number of discs you've claimed.
Board Game: Age of Steam
Dual Gauge isn't the only train game getting new maps. Eagle-Gryphon Games is crowdfunding the Age of Steam Deluxe Expansion Volume IV on Gamefound, which includes seven new expansion maps for Age of Steam. The Volume IV maps cover a wide range of player counts (2-6 players) and each map has its own unique feel.

The crowdfunding campaign also includes the Age of Steam Deluxe: Acrylic Tile Set, which features transparent acrylic tiles for both track placement and new city placement, which will allow you to see the board below each track tile to read the maps easier.

If that wasn't enough, there's also a Jamaica/Puerto Rico promo map expansion available too. Jamaica is a 2-player map expansion and Puerto Rico is a solo map expansion, both designed by Ted Alspach.

Board Game: Maglev Maps: Volume 1
• Speaking of Ted Alspach and map expansions for train games, Maglev Maps: Volume 1 is available at retailers after a successful Kickstarter campaign in May 2022. With Maglev Maps: Volume 1 you get a box set with three expansions for Maglev Metro (Moonbases & Mars, London & Paris, and Mechs & Monorails), and each features a double-sided map with different rules and mechanics from designers by Ted Alspach and Dale Yu and Bézier Games.

Board Game: Maglev Metro: Moonbases & Mars
Board Game: Maglev Metro: London & Paris
Board Game: Maglev Metro: Mechs & Monorails


• On the 18xx front, Mercury Games announced 1868: Wyoming in a May 2023 press release. 1868: Wyoming is an 18xx game for 3-6 players from designer John Harres, which integrates the coal and oil industry boom in Wyoming to add some fresh twists to traditional 18xx mechanisms.

Here's the scoop from the press release for 1868: Wyoming, which is due out in 2024:
Quote:
1868 takes players on a journey through the history of the railroads during the coal and oil industry boom in Wyoming. Headlined by the powerful Union Pacific, this territory was not only born thanks to the railroads, but also saw a large influx of people and industries looking to make their mark on the immense and rugged terrain.

Board Game: 1868: Wyoming
Original TraXX edition cover

1868: Wyoming is novel in that it depicts the coal and oil industry boom-and-bust cycle in a way that is different each play. Railroads must decide whether a new rail line makes sense given the development level of an area and the potential for total industry collapse. All the while the Union Pacific pushes further West seeking vital connections to maximize their revenue. Variable at-start Private Companies ensure that no one strategy can be employed with any guarantee of success.
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Fri May 26, 2023 7:00 am
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Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game Release Plans Now Solid Once Again

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game
Old look
At PAX Unplugged 2018, IDW Games announced Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game from Emerson Matsuuchi, stating that the game was "Coming 2019". Here's an overview of this 1-4 player game:
Quote:
Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is a fully co-operative, miniatures board game. Following the story of the first Metal Gear Solid video game, players take on the roles of Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh, Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, and Gray Fox the Cyborg Ninja and need to use their unique skill sets to avoid detection as they complete objectives across multiple campaign scenarios. Featuring a highly dynamic A.I. system and sandbox gameplay, missions can be completed in multiple ways and always play out differently.
Then more than two years passed.

In February 2021 Matsuuchi announced that IDW Games would not be releasing the design:
Quote:
The rights to the design were finally given back to me a few weeks ago. So I have reached out and enlisted the help of a friend that is a bonafide expert in licensing and has connections with Konami. We're working to keep this project alive and exploring possible options. While there are no guarantees that our efforts will bear fruit, I'm still optimistic that we will be able to get the MGS game to market, to the patient fans that have been kept waiting.
If you are one of those patient fans, your patience is now being rewarded ...sort of, as you still have to wait at least one more year.

CMON has announced that it plans to release Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game in May 2024, with a pre-order open now for the "Integral Edition" of the game that includes a graphic novel that illustrates each mission, as well as a 13 cm tall "Metal Gear REX" miniature.

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CMON notes that the game's 14-mission campaign will be the same in both the retail edition of the game and the "Integral Edition". Additionally, it clarifies that "all exclusive promos are exclusive to this Pre-Order (or crowdfunding platforms), with remaining stock available through conventions and special promotions only", so maybe "exclusive" isn't quite the right word.

For more on the game, you can check out this interview with Matsuuchi (and IDW's Spencer Reeve) at Gen Con 2019:

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KENDi Kicks Off with The Choice, Durchmarsch, and Get It!

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Board Game Publisher: KENDi
KENDi is a German publisher founded in February 2023 by Franz Jurthe, who was previously the managing director at Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag (NSV). At KENDi, Jurthe has been joined by Steffen Benndorf, who designed two of NSV's biggest hits: Qwixx and The Game, and Reinhard Staupe, who had been a game editor at NSV since 2012, in addition to being a designer himself.

The goal of KENDi is to publish designs similar to what they used to do at NSV. As Staupe said in an interview with Michael Weber for Reich der Spiele:
Quote:
This is mainly due to my own vision: I generally like developing simple games, both as an editor and as a writer. In other words, games that use simple means to bring as many people as possible to the table and build a bridge. In terms of game mechanics, I'm always looking for a reduction to the essentials. The perfect example of this is The Mind. Almost no rules, ingenious and bold. A spectacular shared experience easily accessible to everyone.
In that interview, Staupe mentions that Qwixx, The Game, and The Mind have all sold more than a million copies and they "have such great potential that they will certainly continue to be represented on the market at a very high level."

The publisher's name, by the way, originates from a shortening of "I kenn' di", which is apparently the Bavarian way of saying "Ich kenne dich", which means "I know you" — which is appropriate since the three main parties have worked with one another for more than a decade. (I have Bavarian friends living nearby, and they've mentioned that Bavarian German is almost unintelligible to Germans elsewhere, so it's almost like they speak two languages since they also speak "regular" German. I felt similarly confused when I visited southern Mississippi long ago, barely understanding anything I heard despite me living in Tennessee at the time. Dialects are fascinating...)

KENDi launched with three titles in April 2023 at the SPIEL DOCH! game fair in Dortmund.

• The short description of Benndorf's Get It!, a card game for 3-6 players, might be "Speed Hanabi Mind". To explain:
Quote:
Your goal as a team in Get It! is to play all of your cards in ascending numerical order. Sounds easy, doesn't it? However, you have only one minute to do so, and you are not allowed to speak...and you can't see your own cards — only the cards of the other players! Can you give the right signals and interpret your teammates' signals correctly to play everything in time?

Board Game: Get It!

To win, you need to complete six levels of play. For level 1, deal out ten cards from a deck numbered 1-40 as evenly as possible. Sort the cards face down (without showing anyone else) to stack the cards from low to high. Each player picks up their topmost card facing away from themselves so that it's visible to everyone else, then someone starts the timer. Whoever has the lowest card must play it. How will they know? Tell them with your eyes! If they play the card correctly, they pick up their next card, then you all figure out who plays next; if not, restart the level, losing the game if you fail a second time.

If you complete the level by playing all cards correctly, add the special cards for level 2 — smile cards — and deal 13 cards. Special cards can be stacked anywhere in a player's pile other than the topmost card. When a player holds a special card, that's considered the lowest card in play. Each level adds new special cards, such as the mirror and a second copy of some number cards, and more cards dealt to players. Make it through 25 cards in one minute at level 6, and you win!
Durchmarsch is a press-your-luck dice game from Staupe in which 2-4 players attempt to march through ("durchmarsch") a row of numbers on their player sheet:
Quote:
Each player has a sheet of paper with four rows of numbers from 10 to 1. If you cross off all the numbers in a row, you win!

Board Game: Durchmarsch

On your first turn, roll the eight dice, then see whether you can use two dice to sum to 10. If you can mark a 10, you either:

—Set aside one die, and roll the remaining dice, hoping that two dice add up to a 9; if so, mark the 9 in the current row, then make this decision again for the 8, and so on. You never set aside more than three dice in total.

—End your turn, passing all eight dice to the next player.

If you end your turn, on your next turn roll all eight dice and hope to mark off the leftmost unmarked number in your current row. To mark off 7-10, you need two dice that sum to this number; to mark off 1-6, you need one die that matches this number.

Board Game: Durchmarsch
Image: Spellenclub Incognito

If you ever fail to mark off a number, mark the "misthrow" box at the end of the current row; next turn, roll the eight dice and hope to be able to mark the 10 in the next row down. If you have marked a misthrow in all four rows, start on the top row once again, trying to mark off the leftmost unmarked number. If you misthrow again in this row, mark through the row completely. If you mark through all four rows, you're out of the game.

If any player crosses off all the numbers in a row, they win. If no one manages to cross off an entire row during the course of the game, whoever remains in the game the longest wins.
The Choice is another dice-rolling game from Staupe, with 2-4 players choosing how to use the dice results each turn:
Quote:
In The Choice, each player receives a pen and a sheet of paper from the game pad. Each side of the paper shows an area with 13 hexagons, each filled with a number, surrounded by a ring of 16 hexagons, each filled with a color. Start on whichever side you want; you use both during play.

Board Game: The Choice

On a turn, the active player rolls three dice, then can re-roll any number of dice once. Each die has the numbers 1-6 with a different color on each side. After the roll, all players use these dice to mark off hexes on their sheet. For each die, you can use either the number or the color; additionally, you can sum numbers on the dice, which will be required since the numbers in the hexes go up to 12.

However, once you mark a colored hexagon, you can mark only the adjacent colored hexagons from that point on. Similarly, when you first mark a number, circle that number. The next number you mark must be in an adjacent hex; draw a line that connects this number to the circle. With each subsequent number marked, you must extend the line, never crossing it or revisiting a marked space.

Board Game: The Choice
Image: Suzan

If the active player can't use all three dice, they mark a misthrow box on their sheet; the same is true for non-active players who don't use at least two dice. When you mark all three misthrow boxes, flip your sheet, then start marking the other side on the next turn; you can also choose to flip your sheet before you get three misthrows.

When any player has three misthrows on their second side, the game ends, and players tally their points for each side, summing those values. The more hexes you mark off, the better your score!
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Leacock and Daviau Join Moon for Ticket to Ride

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Board Game: Ticket to Ride
Publisher Days of Wonder has dropped a 28-second teaser video — only on the accursed Facebook, alas — that seems to promise a legacy version of Ticket to Ride courtesy of designers Alan R. Moon, Matt Leacock, and Rob Daviau.

The only info so far from the publisher: "This fall, embark for a once-in-a-lifetime journey!"

Screenshots from the video:

From gallery of W Eric Martin

From gallery of W Eric Martin

I can't help but offer a reminder that publishers should never use seasonal release dates given that fall for me won't be fall for someone in the southern hemisphere. Think globally, act locally...by timing globally!
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Walk Dogs, Ride Waves, Catch Imps, and Role Play in an Adventure Party

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Can I blitz through even more new and upcoming games from GAMA Expo 2023 by using only an image and a couple of lines? Of course I can because I've selected which images will be included in this post! The secret of life is to set yourself up for success, not failure!

• In Adventure Party: The Role-Playing Party Game from David Smith, Travis Winstead, and Smirk & Dagger Games, each player takes the role of a fantasy character in one of three scenarios, and you roll dice to resolve various situations — but this is a co-operative party game, not a role-playing game, with success being determined by how well you can describe the effect of your die roll on the situation and whether someone else can guess what you rolled from that description.

Board Game: Adventure Party: The Role-Playing Party Game

Weird Little Elf was a tiny release from Maggie and Jordan Clyne and Atlas Games in late 2022. In this party game for 4-15 players, players attempt to identify the imp among all the elves who are answering questions from Santa, with the imp required to follow this one weird rule for weight loss for interacting with others, with the game containing dozens of weird rules.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• Designer Sean Fletcher and publisher The Op continue to roll out expansions for the battle arena game Disney Sorcerer's Arena: Epic Alliances, with Leading the Charge hitting retail in Q1 2023 — and being the best-selling pack to date, which isn't a surprise given its Elsa, Buzz Lightyear, and Scar character combo — and with At the Ready coming later in 2023 with Robin Hood, Mulan, and Mrs. Potts. Yes, the teapot is ready to inflict scalding punishment on your enemies!

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• Aside from its licensed catalog, The Op is releasing several games aimed at the hobby market in 2023. I've already mentioned The A.R.T. Project, which is being licensed from Lumberjacks Studio for release in Q3 2023.

The Perfect Wave is a drafting card game in which you construct a wave from number cards, with the wave never decreasing in height and with you scoring for runs and sets in the wave you ride, not to mention tricks performed thanks to "paddle out" cards.

Board Game: The Perfect Wave
Mock-up at GAMA Expo 2023

Express Route is a co-operative game in which 1-4 players operate shipping technology, co-ordinate actions, and use specialist abilities to expedite vehicles and satisfy consumer demand before it becomes too overwhelming.

Board Game: Express Route

Mish Match is a real-time card game in which you need to spot and slap cards that match.

Board Game: Mish Match

Bark Avenue from Mackenzie and Jonathan Jungck and TerreDice Games is a game of competitive dog-walking. Think pick-up-and-deliver in New York City, with you trying to earn good reviews over seventeen rounds from all the dog-walking opportunities available to you. Australian publisher Good Games Publishing is handling distribution for this crowdfunded title, with availability at Gen Con 2023, followed by a release in October 2023.

Board Game: Bark Avenue

• Good Games is also handling distribution for Mercurial from David Goh and Hyperlixir, with players rolling dice, manipulating these results, acquiring spells, then using them to do various fantasy things.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Too Many Cooks is a 2022 release from Jarrah Bloomfield and Good Games Publishing in which, like the 2022 release Décorum, everyone has secret goals and you're manipulating a shared area so that all goals can be achieved at the same time. Unlike Décorum, ]Too Many Cooks is played in real-time rounds of five minutes.

Trickdraw is another Good Games distribution project, with this game coming from designers Blake Propach and Morteza Rohaninejad and publisher House Fish Balloon.

In this card game for 2-5 players, you can play cards face down for gold, which is worth 1 point, or face up for the action listed — but played cards can be flipped via actions, allowing you to transform a used card into gold or flip gold to take the action on the other side. Whoever has 10 points in front of themselves first wins.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
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Sun May 21, 2023 7:00 am
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Cascadia: Landmarks, Holotype, Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze, and More Pics from GAMA Expo 2023

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As is usually the case, at GAMA Expo 2023 I took way more photos than I can get through in a reasonable amount of time, so let me drop a bunch in this post that get by with little in the way of commentary:

• AEG was showing the wooden bits — that is, the landmarks — in Cascadia: Landmarks, which is due out in Q4 2023 in both English and German, along with a few other languages.

Board Game: Cascadia: Landmarks

• If it's not your turn in Star Wars: Shatterpoint, you must place your right index finger on your upper lip. This is the way.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Grandpa Beck's Games is releasing a reimplemented version of Brent and Jeffrey Beck's Cover Your Assets in association with specialty cookie retailer Crumbl under the name Cover Your Cookies with the game currently available only via the publisher and Crumbl.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Board Game: Cover Your Cookies

Holotype: Mesozoic North America is the debut title from Brett Harrison, Lex Terenchin, and Brexwerx Games, with players in this worker placement game attempting to gather fossils, do research, and complete objectives.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• I covered Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. from Dane Beltrami and Fantasy Flight Games in March 2023, but here's a pic of the game board and components.

Board Game: Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.

Agree to Disagree is a party game from Ryan Mindell and Adam's Apple Games in which you score by finding someone who holds the opposite opinion. The devices shown below are 3D-printed mock-ups, but the idea is that after hearing a statement, players hold their device to expose their answer — although the device looks the same no matter which end is out — but when you nestle the end of your device with someone else's, you'll see whether you agree or disagree depending on how they fit together.

Board Game: Agree to Disagree

• I feel like this image of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Adventure Game emphasizes its scale without revealing much of anything. It's hard to take pics of games like this in passing as you really want to climb over the table and shoot down, but convention spaces seldom have ladders on hand.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Fortify from Jason Mack, Caleb Zwar, and Barrel Aged Games challenges two players to engage in a real-time card-laying water balloon fight, with you trying to build a wall around your base so that you can add friends to your side, which lets you throw more balloons (i.e. dice) to eventually overwhelm the opposing base.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• I recall getting an early lesson in the hidden longevity of game sales courtesy of designer Fréderic Moyersoen, who would regularly blog about sales of Saboteur, which debuted in 2004 and which has risen in sales volume each year since at least through the end of the 2010s, when I last recall seeing info. Saboteur isn't a hot game in the sense of BGG's "The Hotness", but you can make the case that it's not NOT hot given its evergreen status for AMIGO.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• Here's the component spread of Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze, coming from Restoration Games. I made an effort at this show to encourage presenters to step aside so that their crotch would not be featured in images, but I wasn't able to escape the floating hand in all my pics of this game. Be amazed...

From gallery of W Eric Martin
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Sat May 20, 2023 7:00 am
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Escape a Mirror Universe in Star Trek: Discovery – Black Alert, and Attend a Swedish Festival in Jokkmokk

W. Eric Martin
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Board Game: Star Trek: Discovery – Black Alert
• As it had done in 2022, WizKids had a private room at GAMA Expo 2023 to show off upcoming board games, miniature games, miniatures, and other stuff that fits more with the NECA parent company. Think collectibles.

Star Trek: Discovery – Black Alert seemed to be the focal point of the board game area given the focal lights on the game board that made it tough to photograph. In this design from Lynnvander Studios, you play through an episode of the TV series. Here's the back-of-the-box description:
Quote:
The ultimate weapon of the U.S.S. Discovery isn't its phasers or torpedos, but rather its unique propulsion system: the spore drive. Now the Discovery has accidentally slipped into the mirror universe where the previous I.S.S. Discovery has been destroyed. Several members of the I.S.S. Charon would like to capture the Discovery to use it for their own aims.

In Star Trek: Discovery – Black Alert, players divide into teams, and each team represents key members of either the U.S.S. Discovery or I.S.S. Charon crew. Players take turns activating locations on their ship, navigating through the network, and attempting to accomplish missions. One crew is trying to return home, while the other wants to capture their ship. Which team will emerge victorious?
Board Game: Star Trek: Discovery – Black Alert

The Discovery crew slots are closest to camera, and they have actions facing both the Discovery team and the Charon team because the enemy can invade your ship (or somehow take command) to use your stuff against you.

The Discovery moves along the paths of space to reach destinations and do stuff, whereas the enemy moves only from one space to an adjacent one regardless of paths, attempting to box in the Discovery. You can manipulate space to change the paths, which is essential given that loops can isolate target locations.

• Due out in September 2023, Unboxed from Jordan Sorenson is a co-operative deduction game in which you are archaeology students who are presented with components and the vaguest of hints of what to do with them, then challenged to reconstruct ancient board games, after which you can play those games.

Ten scenarios are included in the box.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Jokkmokk: The Winter Market is a 1-5 player game from Henrik Larsson that has introduced a previously unknown festival to me. An overview of the game:
Quote:
The tranquil city of Jokkmokk has hosted a world-famous market and folk festival every February for over four hunderd years. Visitors from across the glob don their warmest winter gear to experience the beautiful crafts, delicious treats, and breathtaking scenery Jokkmokk has to offer.

Board Game: Jokkmokk: The Winter Market

In Jokkmokk: The Winter Market, you gather your family members for a lovely trip around the merchant's stalls of the folk festival. Will you focus on gathering souvenirs and trinkets? Will you enjoy the sights and sounds of winter in northern Sweden?
• I wrote about Ian Cooper's Ascending Empires: Zenith Edition in July 2022, and while this September 2023 release was not featured on a table, I can show you the back of the box to highlight what's coming:

Board Game: Ascending Empires: Zenith Edition

Trials of Tempus is the next Dungeons & Dragons board game coming from WizKids, with both a standard and premium edition due out in July 2023. Here's an overview:
Quote:
Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus is a co-operative, team-based game for 2-8 players in which rival parties of heroic adventurers battle to prove their worth and mettle in the ever-changing Battlerealms of Tempus, God of War!

Choose your hero wisely for the skills and allies you need to conquer each trial are never the same, and the guardian that awaits you all at the end will surely test the limits of your bravery...or is it your cunning? The trial will tell.

Board Game: Dungeons & Dragons: Trials of Tempus

To win, you and your party must work together to earn more points than your rivals by completing quests and gathering loot! Finally, you must defeat the trial guardian. Whichever party has the most points when the trial guardian falls wins the trial!
King's Coalition from Derek Croxton seems along the lines of Fantasy Realms, with players attempting to draft a valuable hand of cards. Here's an overview of this 2-5 player game from the designer:
Quote:
Help the king of Athabasia assemble a coalition in Parliament to vote him the taxes he needs. You are trying to score the most points from your cards' face value and from bonuses; some bonuses are always available (such as a straight of at least six), while others vary and are only revealed as the game progresses.

Board Game: King's Coalition

Each turn, you draft a new coalition member into your hand from the deck or from face up cards. Usually you also discard, but peasant cards can be "enrolled" face up in your hand and don't require a discard. Total your points after six turns; after four games, high score wins.
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Thu May 18, 2023 7:00 am
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