• Canadian publisher Le Scorpion Masqué has posted an evolution of the cover for Québec, a Philippe Beaudoin and Pierre Poissant-Marquis design that it will release in coordination with Ystari Games at Spiel 2011. So many visions of Québec!
• Mayfair Games has announced that the new version of Francis Tresham's 1830 is now being printed and expected to arrive in the U.S. in mid-October 2011.
• What's inside Poseidon's Kingdom from Fragor Games? These guys...
Not to mention starfish and octopuses, too. Gordon Lamont reports that more than 300 preorders have been placed in six days out of a maximum of 900. That's what a track record and limited edition will do for you. Actual game details still to come.
• With so many Fs above, it seems natural to seque into news of Friedemann Friese's second announced title for Spiel 2011, following Freitag, that game being Funkenschlag: Die ersten Funken, aka "The First Sparks". This game recreates the game dynamics of Power Grid in the Stone Age. Here's a brief game description:
The First Sparks is much faster and far more direct. You are immediately part of the action. Each turn, each decision is important. As a clan leader you decide on the well-being of your clan during the Stone Age. You need to develop new hunting technologies and get new knowledge – to successfully hunt food or to learn to control fire. With the help of these skills, you will harvest enough food to feed your clan and spread it far enough to reach new hunting areas.
In a game of The First Sparks you are always confronted with many decisions: Which technology cards offer you the biggest advantages? When is the right time to spread your clan on the game board? Which hunting areas will grant the most food? Reaching new hunting areas or trying to secure parts of the game board for your own clan are important factors for your strategy. Empty spaces are cheaper for you to settle compared to spaces in which other clans are already settled. If you are the first to increase your clan size to 13 clan members, you win The First Sparks.
• The number of board game projects on Kickstarter is astounding. Here's a selection of open projects awaiting your support:
-----—Sunrise City, a tile-laying, city-building design from Isaias Vallejo and Clever Mojo Games. (KS project)
-----—Divided Republic, a 2-4 player game about the 1860 election. (KS project)
-----—Board 2 Pieces Comics Compendium, Volumes 1 & 2, with each volume containing two hundred B2P comics by Ted Alspach and only a small percentage of those strips making fun of me. (KS project)
-----—PongCano: The Game of Sacrifice, a transformation of the ball-bouncing drinking game into a ball-bouncing drinking game with LAVA! (KS project)