🔥 Gentes Nemesis

Jan 19
2021

Help Creatures Gain Immortality in Equinox, from Knizia and Plan B

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin Reiner Knizia designs tend to have a long lifespan, either because the game itself becomes iconic (as with Lost Cities) or because the design is flexible enough to fit many different environments.In 1996, for example, Austrian publisher Piatnik released Knizia's Grand National Derby, a game in which you were betting on which horses would complete a race, with you also influencing how those horses finished! I ...


Jan 19
2021

Find the Right Crew to Tackle Space Dragons, and Prepare to Steal with Matthias Cramer

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • German publisher Edition Spielwiese has passed along an overview of its 2021 game releases, with the first title due out being Space Dragons, a trick-taking-ish card game from Richi Haarhoff, whose first release was the 2020 title Memorinth, also from Edition Spielwiese. (Haarhoff won the 2018 "Spiel des Jahres" author stipend based on those two designs.)Space Dragons is for 3-5 players and plays out in ...


Jan 18
2021

Game Overview: MicroMacro: Crime City, or It's Murder by Numbers, One, Two, Three

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin MicroMacro: Crime City by Johannes Sich is an ingeniously simple and engaging design, but before you even get to the experience of being a detective and "solving" criminal cases in this horrible location, you should take a few moments to appreciate the brilliant packaging by publisher Edition Spielwiese:The first step toward selling a game is getting people to do more than just glance at the cover. ...


Jan 17
2021

Industry News: dV Giochi Buying Ghenos, Asmodee Bought Philibert

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • Italian publisher daVinci Editrice S.r.l. — a.k.a. dV Giochi — plans to purchase fellow Italian publisher Ghenos S.r.l., which operates under the brand "Ghenos Games".To quote from the press release, "With this new combination, dV Giochi aims to strengthen its presence in the Italian and global board game market through an expansion of its offerings, an extension of its commercial network, and a merger of ...


Jan 15
2021

All Bridges Burning, and How GMT’s COIN Series Captured My Heart

BoardGameGeek News

by Candice Harris Ahhh, the summer of 2019...I remember it so fondly. Handshakes, hugs, going out to restaurants, and weekly board game meet-ups were all the norm. More relevant to this article, it's also when I bought my first COIN game: Cuba Libre (Volume II), designed by Jeff Grossman and Volko Ruhnke and published by GMT Games.In anticipation of playing Cuba Libre, I set it up, ran the playbook, and ...


Jan 14
2021

Bid for Light in Umbra Via, and Bring Mayhem to the Table with Looney Tunes

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin In mid-December 2020, Danni Loe at Pandsaurus Games sent me the following cover image, noting that it was for a game that would be announced on January 13, 2021 — and while I was thankful for Loe sending me the image in addition to submitting a game listing in the BGG database ahead of time, I was bummed that I couldn't share the image right away. ...


Jan 12
2021

Corey Konieczka Asks You to Take The Initiative

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin [ImageID=TKTKTK medium]In January 2020, I posted about the founding of Unexpected Games, a new studio under the Asmodee umbrella "centered around innovative design and spearheaded by renowned game designer Corey Konieczka", with Konieczka having left his role as VP of Research & Design at Fantasy Flight Games in mid-2019 to start this new position.The first title from Unexpected Games — initially due out in 2020, but ...


Jan 12
2021

Shuffle Cards to Terraform Mars, and Master My Father's Work

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • Publishers FryxGames and Stronghold Games have released the barest of information about Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition — which is subtitled "The Terraforming Mars Card Game" on the Kickstarter preview — but given how many fans Terraforming Mars has, I thought it wise to share that smidgen of info about this 1-4 player design from Sydney Engelstein, Jacob Fryxelius, and Nick Little:Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is ...


Jan 11
2021

Game Overview: Beez, or Who Can Deny the Heart that is Yearning for Nectar?

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin When I first posted about Dan Halstad's game Beez in January 2020, the game seemed to be complete, and publisher Next Move Games announced that it would debut at Origins 2020.Then the world got sick, and Next Move said, okay, no rush now since Origins won't be happening, and it reworked some of the game's graphic elements. (You can see the early 2020 version of Beez ...


Jan 10
2021

Fighting in the Future, But Not Aboard Battlestar Galactica

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • Italian publisher Ares Games has announced that it's been unable to extend its license agreement with Universal Brand Development, which means that its contract to produce the Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles game line expired on Dec. 31, 2020. In more detail:The expansion Faster Than Light and the Additional Counter Set, announced for early 2021, will be released only as free downloadable PDFs, and no further ...


Jan 09
2021

Use Sounds for Clues, and Stack Meeples Once Again

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • For this weekend post, let's look at a few party games that will be playable on some other weekend following this one, starting with Show Me Your Sound, the initial title from new publisher GAT Game Studio, founded by Korean designers Gary Kim, Hope S. Hwang, and Yohan Goh.Here's an overview of this game, the gameplay of which is clear from the description, although I ...


Jan 08
2021

Upgrade Your Tribe and Influence the Elemental Realms in Gates of Mara

BoardGameGeek News

by Candice Harris I don't know whether you've noticed, but designer J.B. Howell has been building a diverse catalogue of solid games. I think it's obvious when you explore some of his more recent releases such as Reavers of Midgard, a viking-themed worker placement in the Champions of Midgard universe from Grey Fox Games, or his eye-catching, butterfly-themed tile-drafting and area-majority game Papillon from Kolossal Games...and we certainly cannot forget ...


Jan 07
2021

Walk the Glass Road Again, and (Re-)Release Five Ravens

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • In mid-2021, German publisher Feuerland Spiele will release a new edition of Uwe Rosenberg's Glass Road, with no changes to the game other than the addition of all previously released promos: the Oktoberfest and Adventskalender tiles and the Harlekin card for use in the solitaire version of the game.U.S. publisher Capstone Games will release this new edition in English, although the release date is not ...


Jan 06
2021

Fend Off Llamas with Dice, and Assemble Alien Teams in Silence

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • In December 2020, I shared a teaser image from German publisher AMIGO about its early 2021 releases. Now more info is available on these games, so let's check them out in more detail, starting with LAMA Dice, a follow-up to the Spiel des Jahres-nominated card game LAMA from designer Reiner Knizia.If you're familiar with LAMA, then much of LAMA Dice will be familiar as well ...


Jan 05
2021

Build the ISS, Expand Your Tavern, and Fold Paper Thanks to Schmidt Spiele

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • German publisher Schmidt Spiele has released first details about its early 2021 releases, and the title that stands out as most unlike previous Schmidt titles is the co-operative game Mission ISS, a game for 2-4 players that plays in 90 minutes from Micheal Luu, who had previously designed the 2017 title Rob 'n Run from PD-Verlag.Here's all that I know about the game right now, ...


Jan 04
2021

Game Overview: Silencio, or The Game You Lose If You Don't Begin

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin I've written long essays about why I love The Mind and how The Game got me thinking about mortality, so it's no surprise that I'm a fan of Silencio, a co-operative card game by César Gómez Bernardino and Zoch Verlag in which players discard cards in ascending order in silence.Silencio began life as Eureka!, which was released by Bernardino's company 2D10 Juegos in late 2017, just ...


Jan 01
2021

Check Out the Games Being Released in Jan-Apr 2020

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin The year of Spirit is upon us! Lift those game pieces with your mind!While I'll resume regular posts before you know it, I thought I'd kick things off by pointing out that BGG's game release catalogs for January and February 2021 and for March and April 2021 are both live. I've been updating these lists with info from publishers that have completed my survey, and I'll ...


Dec 30
2020

Play Concordia on Your Own, and Return to Hanamikoji on Geisha's Road

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • With only a couple of days remaining in 2020, I thought I'd briefly cover a few items seen in passing, starting with Concordia Solitaria, an expansion for both Concordia and Concordia Venus coming in 2021 from Mac Gerdts and PD-Verlag that allows you to play either game or any expansion on your own. Here's Gerdts' brief explanation of the expansion from BGG:There will be 3 ...


Dec 29
2020

Game Overview: Sumatra, or Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin In Q4 2019, Spanish publisher Ludonova released Reiner's Knizia's Babylonia — which I covered here — and now the designer-publisher pair is back in Q4 2020 with a new release: Sumatra, which has been released in Europe and which will perhaps make it over to the U.S. in 2021 thanks to Asmodee's distribution of Ludonova's catalog. (Babylonia hit the U.S. retail market only in Q3 2020.)Sumatra ...


Dec 28
2020

Unlock! for Kids, Mirror-Based Quests, and Sherlock-Inspired Mysteries in Arkham

BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin • In mid-December 2020, French publisher Space Cowboys announced that Unlock! Kids — a version of its Unlock! series of escape room games — will appear in 2021 from its Space Cow brand for younger players. This collection of puzzles and adventures will be aimed at players aged 6+, will not require an app, and will be language independent aside from the rules.• Another Space Cow ...

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