The main advantages of the Neuroshima Hex! Sharrash army are mobility of HQ, the ability to blow up even the fastest enemy units and to paralyze the slower ones, and the possibility of bypassing the enemy's defense lines thanks to the mortars. Another advantage of the Sharrash is a difficult to eliminate Foundation Tile (Hole), which can easily thwart the enemy's plans.
Sharrash's disadvantage is a smaller number of fighting units than in other armies, their low mobility, low toughness and initiative, as well as a complete lack of armors.
• Designer Matt Worden is looking for feedback for a third edition of his Jump Gate.
• On Facebook, Z-Man Games has given an early April 2013 release date for its edition of Terra Mystica.
• I recently posted a preview of Bruno Faidutti's Mascarade, with Thomas Provoost from Repos Production giving an overview of the game, which is due out by June 2013. Faidutti has now posted a design history of Mascarade on his blog, naming its distant inspiration, noting a similar game that was not an inspiration, comparing it to two recent releases – Love Letter and Coup – that have somewhat similar gameplay, and offering a reason why his creation might fare better in the annals of game history: "It's the only game in which players not always don't know who the other players are, but often don't know for sure who they are – like in real life."
In addition, Repos has now passed along three promotional images showing the artwork on character cards as it evolved from pencil sketch to color wash to final image. Sweet! (Also, the player count for Mascarade has been finalized as 2-13, as compared to the 3-10 player count mentioned in the video.)