New Game Round-up: Pyramids Rebuilt, Zombies Return & Cold War Covertly Revisited

New Game Round-up: Pyramids Rebuilt, Zombies Return & Cold War Covertly Revisited
Board Game: Pyramid Arcade
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Looney Labs will release Pyramid Arcade, a new "Looney Pyramids" compilation of games, in 2016. This collection of 22 games, most of them from Pyramids creator Andy Looney, will include ninety pyramids (three sets of three in each of ten colors) as well as several game boards, nine dice, and a comprehensive rulebook. (Zendo will not be among the games included in this collection as that game "needs more pieces of fewer colors and too many other elements to be squeezed in", notes the publisher, which promises that it will get to Zendo 2.0 eventually.)

Looney Labs notes that the pyramids in this set will have rounder tips than previous ones, while still being compatible with old pyramids, so that they can sell the collection in Europe. (Previous pyramids failed the "Protruding Parts test in EN71-1:2005+A9 Mechanical and Physical Properties".) Groovy 1970s cover, man...

• I tweeted about this announcement in Sept. 2015, but never posted anything about it: In the first half of 2016, Looney Labs also plans to release Firefly Fluxx, with this version of Fluxx including all the characters and other elements from that television show that one would expect to see.

Board Game: I Hate Zombies
From gallery of W Eric Martin
• In the Department of Nepotism Dept., Steve Jackson Games has licensed Kevin Wilson's I Hate Zombies from BoardGameGeek for publication on a wider scale, with this version still using the original art by Robb Mommaerts.

• Universal Distribution in Canada has posted a page for a late 2016 Magic: The Gathering – Arena of the Planeswalkers set titled "Tears and Fears Exp." with this description: "Stand-alone and expandable play with characters & figures from FALL '16 Magic: The Gathering card set!" The box size matches the size of the original Magic: Arena set, and the placeholder images shown at left was originally posted on that page, but has now been removed.

Renegade Game Studios is bringing Kane Klenko's FUSE to the U.S. market any day now, having debuted it at a U.S. convention in early Nov. 2015, and now Renegade has announced a new title from the pairing for release in 2016: Covert.

Quote:
Control your network of spies, gather intel, and break codes in Covert, a game of tactical dice placement, set collection, and timing set in Cold War Europe. Players race to complete high risk Missions by deploying their agents and acquiring the necessary equipment, all while keeping an eye on the needs of future missions and the advances of rival agencies.

Each round, players roll their hand of dice and in turn allocate them to different actions, like moving their Agents, acquiring Agency Cards, completing and acquiring new Missions, and more. Dice are placed on action circles that require players to place their dice numerically adjacent to dice that have already been placed, allowing for rival agencies to thwart their plans — but a good Agent always has a backup plan, and there are ways around everything that stands in your way.

Covert offers a relatively light ruleset for the depth of play that it offers by allowing players the freedom to combine special abilities and card combos to complete their Missions and overcome obstacles. Utilize your assets. Make your move. Don't let anyone stand in your way.
Board Game: Covert

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