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What seems to be the problem here is that our manufacturer changed their cutting tool back early 2012, so the previous versions have slightly larger cards than the next ones. As there were no Power card in the Power Up expansion, it was not an issue until now.
Cards from Halloween should be the exact same size as the cards in the copies of King of Tokyo bought in 2013. As I wrote before, we're looking for a way to solve the problem for those of you who have bought an older version of the game. It could take a few months, though, so I hope you'll still be able to enjoy the game with the expansion until then.
The KoT: Halloween expansion includes a promo card for King of New York, a standalone game from designer Richard Garfield due out in 2014 that uses gameplay similar to King of Tokyo while having its own features, too. As Bonin has noted on BGG:Cards from Halloween should be the exact same size as the cards in the copies of King of Tokyo bought in 2013. As I wrote before, we're looking for a way to solve the problem for those of you who have bought an older version of the game. It could take a few months, though, so I hope you'll still be able to enjoy the game with the expansion until then.
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All we can say for now is:
1. Monsters will be able to move through different districts on the board.
2. The humans will definitely strike back!
3. The game should be a bit richer than KoT, but not much more complex.
At Spiel 2013, Bonin added a bit more detail to this description, noting that districts will have special powers that players can use only while within them. No word yet on whether Kurt Russell will be one of the monsters.1. Monsters will be able to move through different districts on the board.
2. The humans will definitely strike back!
3. The game should be a bit richer than KoT, but not much more complex.
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-----—RYŪ by GOSU designer Kim Satô (delayed from 2013 due to this being Moonster's biggest game to date)
-----—Joseon, a prequel to Koryŏ from Gary Kim
-----—Awatar, a two-player-only card game
-----—Animonde, which I believe is a role-playing game, but I'll let it sneak onto this list anyway
-----—Crossing, co-published with Space Cowboys and Cocktail Games
-----—A new version of Yoshihisa Itsubaki's Streams, co-published with Asmodee
-----—A tiny game in a metal box, co-published with Cocktail Games
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• While U.S. publisher Z-Man Games sold out of a number of titles at Spiel 2013, including Russian Railroads, Z-Man's Zev Shlasinger says, "Unless bad luck interferes, we should have copies of all our Essen releases available at BGG.CON" in November 2013. I ran into Shlasigner at the Atlanta airport on the way home from Spiel 2013, and he said that Z-Man had set aside a pallet of games for sale and demo in Dallas at the convention.
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Originally available on Pawn's blog as a print-and-play game titled "The race of thousand sheep", the finished game was being demoed at Spiel 2013 ahead of its debut at the Tokyo Game Market on Nov. 4, 2013 and availability at stores on Nov. 16. Why didn't I know about this game prior to the opening of Spiel 2013? Because Bouken posted info about the game on its website on Oct. 24, the day that the convention opened. Surprise! What's Shephy about? Here's a description:
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In the solitaire game Shephy, you start with one sheep in your field, and you must manage the event cards presented to you in order to have one thousand sheep in the field before you go through the deck of event cards three times.
The sheep deck consists of values 1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300 and 1,000; at the start of the game, you place a 1 sheep card in your field, then shuffle the 22 event cards and lay out five cards to form your hand. On a turn, you choose one card, carry out its effect, then refill your hand to five cards. Event cards might duplicate existing sheep cards, add new ones, swap one value of sheep for another, remove sheep, etc. Play through the deck until you have no cards in hand, then shuffle the event cards.
If you go through the deck three times without having at least one 1,000 sheep card in the field or if at any point in the game you have no sheep in the field, then you lose.
The sheep deck consists of values 1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300 and 1,000; at the start of the game, you place a 1 sheep card in your field, then shuffle the 22 event cards and lay out five cards to form your hand. On a turn, you choose one card, carry out its effect, then refill your hand to five cards. Event cards might duplicate existing sheep cards, add new ones, swap one value of sheep for another, remove sheep, etc. Play through the deck until you have no cards in hand, then shuffle the event cards.
If you go through the deck three times without having at least one 1,000 sheep card in the field or if at any point in the game you have no sheep in the field, then you lose.
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I've played Shephy three times — once during Spiel 2013 and twice more at home — and have managed to beat the game only once. My first time was a total flame out, with me piling up the "Release sheep" cards (each of which have different qualifiers, such as "Release your highest-ranked sheep" or "Release all but two sheep") in hand until I had no choice but to leave my field sheepless before I had even finished going through the deck once. Poor abandoned sheep.
Knowing the event deck composition is important, especially the sledgehammer that reads "Release seven sheep". Your field can hold only seven sheep, mind you, so if you must play this card, you've lost. Thankfully you have one event card that lets you discard a card and another that lets you remove one card from the game. Add on a third card that lets you mimic any card in hand, and you've got a few defense weapons. The question is whether you can skip around the wolves, plague, lightning, meteor(!) and other drawbacks long enough to pop out the necessary sheep.
Each of the sheep cards bears a different illustration, and the work is charmingly amateurish and impressionistic, with the sheep and other characters all bearing a stylized look that takes the game into its own realm. I think the independent, non-traditional look of games like these is part of the reason that I like exploring them so much: Each one feels more like a heartfelt representation of the creator's desires rather than a creation pulled together by a separate designer, artist, graphic designer, illustrator, etc. Geez, I'm reliving my youth, having my head blown off by Frank Miller's Rōnin, then going on to discover Cerebus, Flaming Carrot, Neil the Horse, Neat Stuff, Reid Fleming: World's Toughest Milkman, and so much more...
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