This limited edition of Lords of Middle-earth will sell for $50, be available only through Ares Games (with preorders opening in January 2013 on the Ares website), and will include "the Treebeard promotional mini-expansion (with painted miniature and card) and a numbered certificate of authenticity, packaged in an elegant, embossed and hot-foil stamped box. The cards, dice, rulebook and markers are the same ones included in the regular edition."
• To reverse direction from the title above in theme, weight, artwork style, and almost every other aspect of game design, in February 2013 U.S. publisher Gut Bustin' Games will release Cheap Shots and the expansion Cheap Shot: Cheaper Shots. Here's an overview of the two items:
Cheap Shot: Cheaper Shots ups the drama with edgier and potentially more insulting cards, e.g., "Your Latest Gigolo / is urine soaked / and / is a spaz on the dance floor." Don't care for such words aimed in your direction? Block it with "Stick it where the sun don't shine".
Glad to have your skills, they immediately assigned you to your current mission: to set up secret bases throughout Panem. If you succeed in Catching Fire: Seeds Of Rebellion, your efforts will ensure at least a chance for the rebels to make a difference. Fail, and they won't stand a chance...
• Starting in 2009, U.S. publisher Mayfair Games has given away a promotional map for The Settlers of Catan featuring some Catan-ized segment of the United States at Gen Con, with Catan Geographies: Indiana & Ohio being the first such release, followed by Catan Geographies: Delmarva in 2010 (with "Delmarva" being an abbreviation for "Delaware, Maryland, Virginia & West Virginia"), Catan Geographies: Penn-Jersey in 2011, and Catan Geographies: New York in 2012.
While originally released as promotional items, these maps will now apparently be available through the standard retail chain, at least in the U.S. as Alliance Game Distributors has solicited all four of these expansions to their customers. The maps retail for $5 each, and while Alliance listed a December 2012 release date, I suspect that date will be missed...