Dogs of War is not a game of pure military power, but rather a game in which deception and betrayal often lead the way to a decisive victory. The goal for the Dogs of War is to earn the most power by the end of the game. Thanks to thoughtful game design and development, there are many ways to achieve this, like defeating other captains in battle, getting rewards from the Houses you help, amassing gold and troops, and most importantly, gaining influence with the most successful Houses.
• Samurai Sword: Rising Sun, released by dV Giochi in Europe in April 2014 and previewed on BGG in February, is due out in the U.S. in May 2014.
• Ignacy Trzewiczek's Imperial Settlers, announced in this BGGN post, will debut at Gen Con 2014 in August, the first title from Portal Games to debut in the U.S. at the same time it's released in Poland and the first appearance by Portal at a U.S. game convention.
• Stephan Herminghaus' Gold Ahoi!, first announced on BGGN under the title Opal, will be released by Lookout Games in May 2014.
• To follow up on this April 19, 2014 BGGN post, Stone Blade Entertainment has now revealed the contents of the four Ascension: Theme Packs that it plans to release on May 14, 2014, and as a number of BGG users suspected these packs are indeed a new presentation of cards previously released as promotional items. Thus, I've removed the separate Ascension: Theme Packs listing from the BGG database and created new versions for the existing BGG listings of these four items: Leprechaun, Rat King, Rat Queen and Samael Claus.