Time for an update on what's coming to North America from Asmodee, with many games from the previous list already being available, some having been delayed, and many more added to the release calendar. Here's the current schedule, which is subject to change due to any number of circumstances. (I've noted a game's original publisher in parentheses as Asmodee often serves as distributor for games from French and Swiss publishers.)
May
-----• Divinare (Asmodee)
-----• Monster Chase (Le Scorpion Masqué)
-----• Sidibaba (Hurrican)
June
-----• Dixit: Journey (Asmodee)
-----• Restocks of Eclipse, Jaipur and Mr. Jack
July
-----• 7 Wonders: Cities (Repos Production)
-----• Fame Us (Moonster Games)
-----• Noah (Bombyx)
-----• Serenissima (Ystari Games)
-----• Timeline: Discoveries (Hazgaard Editions)
-----• Restocks of Cyclades, Cyclades: Hades and Dice Town
August
-----• Barbecue Party (perhaps this mainstream-friendly game)
-----• City of Horror (Repos Production)
-----• Lady Alice (Hurrican) (shown in this BGGN post)
-----• Libertalia (Marabunta)
-----• Seasons (Libellud)
September
-----• Streams (still no info on this one)
-----• Timeline: Events (Hazgaard Editions)
-----• The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow – 10th anniversary edition (Lui-même)
October
-----• 1929 Black Thursday (no info on this title or others below – soon I hope!)
-----• Crazy Circus (GameWorks)
-----• Dixit Jinx (Libellud)
-----• Dragon Rivers
-----• Eclipse expansion (Lautapelit.fi)
-----• Expedition Franklin
-----• Formula D: Circuits 4 - Redacted & To Be Named Later
-----• Sherlock Holmes (Ystari Games)
November
-----• Kemet (Matagot)
-----• Timeline – fourth set (Hazgaard Editions)
A few notes about various releases:
• Asmodee will have Divinare and Dixit: Journey available at the Origins Game Fair, which starts, um, tomorrow May 30. Copies will be available at retail level soon afterward. At Origins, Asmodee will also demo Noah and other forthcoming releases.
• The standalone game Dixit: Journey is an exclusive release for the U.S., while the Dixit 3 expansion pack – which contains the same cards as Dixit: Journey, along with two additional cards that replace DJ's promotional cards for earlier Dixit releases – will be released everywhere else and not sold directly in the U.S. (although some retailers will certainly import the title).
• Asmodee's Stefan Brunell says that the publisher's two big releases for Gen Con 2012 in mid-August – City of Horror and Seasons – are "still on time".
• The names of the specific tracks in Formula D: Circuits 4 - Redacted & To Be Named Later are still being kept under wraps, and as Brunell noted in February, "This release is made especially for the USA since we are the ones who asked for it." This expansion will still debut at the World Boardgaming Championships in August as scheduled, but Brunell says problems with the production have delayed its publication and release until October.
• Marabunta, mentioned above as the publisher of the August 2012 release Libertalia, is actually a part of Asmodee itself – but a new publishing branch run by those who qualify as hardcore gamers within Asmodee. ("Marabunta", for those who don't know, is a term describing a swarm of army ants, which tend to engulf whatever they run across. A very evocative name compared to those adopted by many other game publishers!)
The first post of the Marabunta blog notes that the publisher will release only one or two titles a year, and those titles will be more involved than its mainstream titles like Jungle Speed with theme imbuing the design rather than serving as window dressing. Here's a description of that first release, Libertalia, which is designed by Paolo Mori and scheduled to debut at Gen Con 2012:
In Libertalia, you must thwart the plans of competitive pirates over the course of three rounds while using cards that show the same crew members as your piratical comrades-in-arms. Yes, not only do they attack the same ships, but they employ the same type of ravenous scum that you do! Can you take advantage of the powers of your characters at the right time? Will you be outdone by a pirate smarter than you? Jump into the water and prove your tactical skills!