Board Game News

IELLO Adopts Minimum Advertised Pricing Policy, While CMON Limited Updates Theirs

On Wednesday, May 24, 2017, CMON Limited announced a new unilateral Minimum Advertised Pricing Policy (MAPP), and here's the announcement in full:Quote:Today, May 24, CMON, Inc. announced it has...

Game Overview: Wettlauf nach El Dorado, or Racing for the Golden Poppel

When I started recording this overview of Reiner Knizia's Wettlauf nach El Dorado, a Ravensburger title recently nominated for the 2017 Spiel des Jahres, I did not expect to go on for more than...

New Game Round-up: Monks Brewing, Detectives Chasing, and Devil Pigs Teasing

• Apparently it's time to start covering titles that will debut at SPIEL 2017 in October as eggertspiele has revealed the final cover for Heaven & Ale, a design by Michael Kiesling and Andreas...

Kingdomino, Magic Maze, and Wettlauf nach El Dorado Nominated for the 2017 Spiel des Jahres

The nominees for the 2017 Spiel des Jahres — Germany's "game of the year" award, which typically boosts sales of the winner by several hundred thousand copies — have been announced, and they...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Combat and Miniatures Galore!

• Will you be cruel or merciful? That's the question Indie Boards & Cards is using to pitch Path of Light and Shadow, a design by Travis R. Chance, Jonathan Gilmour, and Nick Little in which...

Links: Mensa Winners, Co-op Games for Newbies, and Black-and-White Squares Forever

It's been a while since my previous link round-up, so some of these links might be less timely than is ideal. Still, onward!• Voting for the Deutscher Spielepreis 2017 is underway, with gamers...

New Game Round-up: The Empire Rises, Roosters Go Rushing, and Ruins Inhabits New Scavengers

• I've been writing about Tokyo Game Market for the past week or so (and tweeting dozens of pics from that show), but plenty of other game announcements have taken place during this time, such...

Tokyo Game Market, May 2017: Preview Night — Mini Rails, Crows Overkill, Korocchi!, and Sweet Honey, Bee Mine!

On the day before Tokyo Game Market, which took place May 14, 2017, I attended a preview event hosted by designer Shimpei Sato (Onitama, Eggs of Ostrich) where a number of Japanese and Taiwanese...

Game Previews from GAMA Trade Show 2017 V: Fanhunter: Urban Warfare, Road Hog, Zombie Tsunami, and Immortals

To continue my thoughts from yesterday's post, we record a lot of videos at game conventions — 100 or so at Spielwarenmesse, 150 at Origins, 150-175 at Gen Con, and 300-ish at SPIEL, with a few...

Game Previews from Spielwarenmesse VIII: Valletta and Sword & Sorcery

I attend more game conventions than the average bear, which often makes me anxious to get things learned or recorded at one convention into print as quickly as possible because I've learned from...

New Game Round-up: Titles at Tokyo Game Market 2017 – Mini Rails, Animal Village, and Dungeon of Mandom VIII

• Not all of the publishers with new games scheduled to be at Tokyo Game Market — which next takes place May 14, 2017 — are from Japan. Many Taiwanese publishers show up with new games as...

Game Overview: Birdie Fight!, or Color Your Nest the Right Way to Win

In May 2016, ahead of my trip to Tokyo Game Market, I published an overview of ButaBabel from designer Yuo and design circle Kocchiya. Since I'm headed to TGM once again in May 2017, I thought...

Game Preview: Taiwan Monsters Brawl, or Lining Them Up and Knocking Them Down

Games originate from many sources, and I believe (although I can't now find the source again) that Hung-Che Lin's Taiwan Monsters Brawl from Chiaos Creative originated from Lin seeing the...

Game Overview: ReCURRRing, or The Art of Spinning Your Wheels

I love card games. If I had to choose between card games and any other type of games — heck, between card games and all other types of games — I'd choose card games. Each hand is a mystery, a...

New Game Round-up: Titles at Tokyo Game Market 2017 – Path to Yaaru, z3r0d4y, Spirit of Totem, and Korocchi!

I'm headed to Tokyo Game Market in mid-May 2017, so I've been compiling a (short) TGM preview of titles to which (you and) I might want to pay attention. This preview has only a few dozen titles...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Card Heroes Flow Alone in Land, Air, Sea & Skyways

• After a false start in February 2017, Gamelyn Games has rejiggered the bits and pieces of Scott Almes' Heroes of Land, Air & Sea — moving components for the fifth and sixth player to the...

Five Tribes Welcomes Fifth Player in Whims of the Sultan

Practically since the day it was announced, people have wondered why you can't play Bruno Cathala's Five Tribes game from Days of Wonder with five players — which, of course, ignores the small...

New Game Round-up: A Trilogy of Revivals — The Thing, The Ruhr, and Cartagena

• In February 2017, USAopoly announced the formation of a new designer collectibles division called Project Raygun, which is intended to pair licensed properties with modern creators to produce...

New Game Round-up: Deck-Building Comes to Dungeons & Dragons, More Dead Welcome Winter, and Rambo Assaults Your Tabletop

• I'm a week late to the party on this news, but Catalyst Game Labs has announced the development of a Dungeons & Dragons-based deck-building game called Dragonfire. Here's a short description...

New Game Round-up: Solve Crime in Detective: City of Angels, Return to Between Two Cities, and Don't Perish in Hunger: The Show

• I thought that I had posted something about Detective: City of Angels from Evan Derrick and Van Ryder Games, but alas I only tweeted a cover. Time to fix that oversight with an overview of...

Origins Game Fair 2017 Preview Now Live

BGG's Origins Game Fair 2017 Preview is now live for your viewing pleasure, and while these convention previews normally start small and grow immensely in the weeks leading up to a convention, in...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Hannibal Flippin' Off Barbarian Fantasy Clans of Mars & More

• Polish publisher PHALANX has been working on a new version of Mark Simonitch's classic game Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage for years. Defunct Canadian publisher Valley Games had released a new...

New Game Round-up: Fallout into a Pile of Miniatures, and Can't Stop More Catacombs

• The tabletopping of video games continues with the announcement of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare by James Sheahan and Modiphius Entertainment, with this minis-heavy game being due out in...

New Game Round-up: Returning to Sailor Moon, Resetting Fantasy Defense, and Raising an Army of Alices

• In 2001, Canadian company Guardians of Order co-published a standalone expansion for James Ernest's Button Men that featured characters from the Sailor Moon anime. Guardians of Order had...

Hasbro Links Round-up: Q1 Revenue, Quarterly Gaming Crate, and Corporate Citizen Status

• Hasbro has issued a revenue report for Q1 2017, noting that revenues are up 2% — $849.7 million vs. $831.2 million — compared to Q1 2016. Net earnings compared to Q1 2016 are up 41%:...

Latin American New Game Round-up: Chasing Nazis, Treasures, and Rabbits

As Latin American games are still fairly unknown outside their countries of origin, I have decided to do a Latin American new game round-up once in a while. If you have any news to share, please...

New Game Round-up: Be Cryptically Clear in Decrypto, and Fight Ghosts Anew as a Treasure Hunter

• At a recent gaming event, I ran into Christian Lemay of Le Scorpion Masqué, and while I suppose we could have, you know, actually played games, instead we talked about art, French...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Circle the Enemies of the Abandoned Morels Station to Combat Dungeon Genesis

• Phil Eklund's Bios: Genesis from Sierra Madre Games debuted at SPIEL 2016, and now he's on Kickstarter for the first time ever to fund a second edition of this "gaming from the dawn time"...

New Game Round-up: Chimera Reborn, Colonists Rerun, and Questions Rephrased

• Games cycle on and off the market quickly these days, with many games then returning to the market in a new form. One example of this phoenix-like rebirth is Chimera & More, a new version of...

New Game Round-up: Level Up with Super Mario, and Play Games with Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick and Morty

• Games come and go for any number of reasons, but sometimes they come back, whether through deep love for an out-of-print classic or through the fortunate juxtaposition of design and...