New Game Round-up: Worldwide Africana, A New Neuroshima Army, Blue Max Flies Again & It's Time to Win!

New Game Round-up: Worldwide Africana, A New Neuroshima Army, Blue Max Flies Again & It's Time to Win!
Board Game: Africana
• ABACUSSPIELE's Matthias Wagner has passed along news that Michael Schacht's Africana – the publisher's big release in the first half of 2012 – has been picked up by a few other publishers, specifically by Z-Man Games (English edition), Filosofia (French), Lautapelit.fi (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish) and Albi (Czech, Slovak). Says Wagner, "The production is scheduled for April, so the game should be available in the U.S. in May." Um, presumably the game will also be available in those other countries around the same time.

Board Game: Neuroshima Hex! 3.0: Steel Police
Portal Publishing has released details of Michał Oracz' Neuroshima Hex! Steel Police, the first in a series of single army packs for Neuroshima Hex!. Here's a short description of what's new with Steel Police, which is due out Q2 2012:

Quote:
The Steel Police army pack introduces a new ability in the Neuroshima Hex! line called "Reflection". Reflection protects the army unit from all attacks directed at its sides marked with a Reflection icon. Such attacks are reflected in the opposite direction for a distance of one field and hit an enemy tile (Unit, HQ or Module) if it stands on an adjacent field on the line of attack. The reflected attack doesn't harm Steel Police tiles.
• Italian publisher Stratelibri has announced a new edition of the dogfighting game Blue Max from designers Phil Hall and John Harshman. Here's an overview of the game from Stratelibri:

Quote:
Blue Max is a multi-player board game of World War I aerial combat over the Western Front during 1917 and 1918. Each player is an Allied or German fighter pilot, and each game allows them to relive a dogfight, in which players try to shoot down as many enemy planes as possible without being shot down themselves. The game is played on a hexagonal board, using a maneuver chart from which each turn, the players decide which move their planes will make. After the planning phase, all the planes are simultaneously on the map and all shots are resolved. With intuitive and easy-to-learn rules, Blue Max allows players to simulate WWI air combat with impressive accuracy.
Stratelibri notes that it published the first Italian version of the game in 1988, with a second edition following in 1993. This new release, which doesn't yet have a release date, will appear in "all major languages" and "aims to maintain the spirit and the original setting, [while] making improvements in the mechanical components".

Board Game: Blue Max: World War I Air Combat

Board Game: Who Would Win
• Publisher Funforge has announced a new French edition of Jeff Siadek's Who Would Win under the more direct and intimidating name Win! Game play remains the same, with two players each drawing a character card, then drawing a single event card, then explaining how their character would win the contest or challenge presented. How would Brigette Bardot best Gérard Depardieu in a pie-eating contest? You tell me!

Earlier in 2012, Funforge released a French-only expansion for James Ernest's The Big Idea titled La Science-fiction Médiévale, which includes eighty new cards highlighting inventions – or rather, potential inventions – associated with medieval times or science fiction. Asked about whether an English version of the expansion might appear at some point, Funforge's Philippe Nouhra has said that such an expansion will depend on sales of the English version of the base game, released in late 2011.

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