Category Archives: new arrivals

new arrivals

New Stuff We29May16

new arrivals
This weeks latest bricks in the gaming extension I'm building to my home.
The main reason A Game of Thrones the board game hasn't been added to the collection earlier is the lack of people to play with. It requires a minimum of three to play, which rules out just Nath and I playing it. However I have found others interested in playing the game, so here it is, ready for us to battle it out for control of Westeros.

I like the deck building kits for Magic. They fit in with my casual approach to the game. So this adds to my card pool and gives me a couple of boosters from the Shadows over Innistrad set just released.

Grave Consequences the expansion for Elder Sign that was “sneaked out” found its way to my letter box. This is a small small expansion made up of three small decks that up the difficulty level of the game.

The last new arrival shouldn't be a surprise to anyone really. It was just a matter of time before it appeared. And please when I declare it my game of the month try and act surprised!

So that wraps up this weeks just arrived stuff.

Minor building works we21may16

new arrivals
Trading. Trading games specifically is hard for me. Which game am I prepared to sacrifice from my collection to gain another to add to it. My first time trading was ok, it didn't require too big a sacrifice. However this time the sacrifice was bigger. Ok I didn't blink, or pause to think when I agreed to it, up for grabs was a grail game for me the English language version of Glen More. All I had to do was sacrifice Viva Java the coffee game the dice game for it. Not one I want to lose from the collection, but then again easier to replace than to buy Glen More in English. So the decision was a no brainer, the deal done, Wednesday I took delivery of the game from Matt when we played Pandemic Legacy.
It's dangerous being in the “candy store” for a tournament, that's why the third and final set of the Epic Tyrants expansions ended up leaving with me.
Why three copies? Well I have three copies of the game, so to be able to play all three copies as an Epic cube…
7 Wonders has a two player variant that according to popular opinion isn't upto much. Sooo I'm kinda not likely to try playing the game with Nathan unless we can get a third player. Which is why the highly rated two player game 7 Wonders Duel has been on my radar since coming out to rave reviews. It's a smallish box, fits in my bag, I get a discount, “how did that get in my bag too?”

The next item although a welcome addition to the game Legendary, the expansion I want is the cards like Howard the Duck that came out last year in the 3D card packs they did in the US.

Oh and for the record I am a Cap fan, so more Cap is always good for me.

 

Minor building works

new arrivals
It's been a quiet week on building the collection. In fact if today's new arrival hadn't come there would have been no new additions at all.
Way back earlier in the year I took the opportunity to pre-order the 51st State “reboot” by Portal Games. That pre-order arrived this morning.
Portal ran their pre-order like a Kickstarter with “bonuses” being unlocked the more pre-orders they got. Here is the infographic they did to show what people were getting:
 

Going through the box after opening was like going through the layers of a chocolate box, each layer more delicious than the other.

The game with its wooden components and cardboard tokens do look gorgeous.

The instructions have a sense of humour that I really love, and bought a smile to my face with a little chuckle too.

The only down side from this wonderfully presented game is that it was missing the transfer sheet, and also it says two wooden faction discs with stickers and there was only one! So now I guess it's time to see what the Portal Customer support is like.

UPDATE just after posting: so we have a mini expansion in the game as part of the pre-order bonuses. Back of the tiles direct you to the website for the rules, which when you go there are nowhere to be found! It's the little things… And the ocd side of me is kicking in and starting to take the gloss off the warm fuzzy feeling I had opening the game.

Oh and you can read the collected game designer diary here (it's a PDF)

 

Last weeks new stuff weekending 7May16

new arrivals
The week started off with a Kickstarter project I had backed finally arriving. Although not about boardgames, it's about video games, specifically ones from the eighties and an amazing software house called Hewson.
The book was written by Andrew Hewson, who over came health issues to finish this book about his time in the UK games industry running one of the top video game companies in the country. Hewson put out some really great games like Paradroid, Uridium and Gibbly's Day Out. So I'm super stoked this has arrived. I really enjoy reading about the stories behind some of my favourite games back in the day.
The next new arrival I had totally forgotten had been ordered (way back in November if I'm remembering it right). So it was a complete surprise when it turns up. I just wasn't expecting it. My friend William said he had received an email that he was getting his, but I saw nothing warning me of its imminent arrival. Have to admit it was a rather nice surprise.
With its arrival it also acts as a pleasant reminder I do need to get Zombicide back to the table.
Way back on this blog I had a rant about why companies didn't release official playmats for their games. I think I even used Splendor as an example.
Even with there being an official mat to buy, it's not easy to get hold of. But with the interweb making borders irrelevant this one winged it's way from somewhere in the EU (can't remember where).
I do like the design of the official mat, it has some nice little touches that aid setup.
I have to admit I do prefer the look of the unofficial one I had made using a design I got off bgg if memory serves me right. Which now has a new home.

But boy is the official mat heavy! The heaviest one I have come across. It's thicker in depth, and has a larger play area.

Now I have the urge to play Splendor again…

The first X weekending 30Apr16

new arrivals

So here we are with the stuff that makes up the expanding part of my collection.

So just added more tiles, unique abilities to the characters of Room 25 and a new couple of new mechanics which includes the mini expansion The Audience (as a separate purchase) by getting the second season of Room 25. This all nicely fits into the base game box that comes with the second edition that I have.

Thanks to Instagram and the a recent rash of photos and praise for Flip City I crumbled and ordered a copy. Whilst in a weakened state I added my first Vikings themed game to the collection, also from TMG Bottlecap Vikings. And that was of interest to me because of the light element, and the rondel mechanic it uses.
Traders of Osaka has been on the radar for a little while. And I just want to get this to the table to play.
When I saw this go up on the Facebook trading and selling page, I couldn't believe some-one tried to reduce the price, when I checked the asking price against it was over fifty percentage reduced already. A real bargain. So I snapped it up for the asking price.

However when the game arrived I did my usual ocd thing of checking all the components against the components listed in the rule book. Two tokens were missing. This wasn't mentioned on the sale post, I was not happy. I messaged the seller, who seemed surprised. And to be fair to the they have offered to refund my money and pay for the return postage. But I've put that on hold until I've heard back from Mayday games (the publisher) about obtaining replacement tokens. Having played it at the weekend I won't be sending it back, it's playable without them and if push comes to shove I can create replacements (not ideal for my ocd) .

I have to say this is the second game now that everything has not been as expected. The other being the Lost Legacy with the damaged card. I wish before selling the sellers actually checked the games before listing and listed the faults and priced accordingly. I think the majority do. I don't think my two “bad” experiences were deliberate. But still, check before you list.

And that's it for this week.

New Gaming Wing Additions 24Apr16

expansions, love letter, netrunner, new arrivals

First up the mid point in the Mumbad Cycle cycle arrived. Nothing in this data pack really grabbed me as “this has to go in my deck”. So for the time being this is a bought to just keep my card pool upto date. I felt dirty typing that, and even dirtier reading it back.

The first expansions for Ashes that I pre-ordered arrived. It should be hitting the stores real soon. Like the art work the packaging for these expansions is beautiful.
Because I pre-ordered it from PlaidHat themselves I got two promo Phoenixborn. I already had Dimona so not much point putting another photo of her up here. However it is worth putting up the new promo Phoenixborn Lulu Firststone. I also got extra dice that PlaidHat are now selling. And were also up for pre-order at the same time as the expansions. Which technically means I could run a mono dice Phoenixborn!
Dimona will be used most likely as a prize in any Ashes event I organise. If I'm lucky I can get one of the OP kits PlaidHat do that are currently only available to stores and organise something.

 

Can you believe that the UK Games Expo wasn't one of the promo game tiles made for Suburbia by Bezier Games when they did the Game Con Bonus Tiles promos? I know shocking!

The replacement die for Dead of Winter arrived. Which means I'm a happy bunny. But it still eats away what happened to the previous one.
Finally some new additions to the minifig collection.

This time I do really mean finally a replacement Batman Love Letter. I will manage to keep one of these one day.

So that's all the new additions to the new gaming wing being built.

New Series 15 Arrivals

lego minifigs, new arrivals

So the local Asda is doing a two for four quid deal on Lego Minifigs at the moment. Which is cool.

So apart from one double (the astronaut) I'm very pleased with the others. Ok I'm pleased with the astronaut too it's pretty cool. With the “hawkman” one I keep thinking it needs a Brian Blessed beard so I can say “Gordon's alive! FLASH! Aaahaaa saviour of the universe”

When I saw there was a shark guy, I had to try and get that one. You'll see more of him when I think a post is jumping the shark!

I wouldn't mind getting the farmer one with its pig. But I do like this series.

X for expand 17Apr16

expansions, new arrivals
The weeks new arrivals started off with the arrival of the two player micro experience of Eminent Domain, in the form of Eminent Domain Microcosm. To take up some of the empty space in the small box there were promos for the big brother and also Battlecruisers. It will interesting to see what Nath makes of this.
With the new edition of Viticulture some of the expansions that make up Tuscany are in it. However Tuscany will never be reprinted, so if you want to play with the extended game board this is the only way of going about it. Already this goes for more than the retail cost and is hard to get. So being able to get a copy for its rrp is good going. At the time of pre-ordering the Tuscany expansion I also pre-ordered the new Moor Visitors expansion.

All these fancy words are saying is I have two expansions for a game I don't have yet! At least it's an investment!

After seeing the Anonymous sleeves below on a TeamWorkCast video I thought I've got to have them for my Noise anarch deck. Also while shopping for them came across the card dividers. Which are going to be used to organise Marvel Legendary and all the expansions. Forty mad a small dent, but I'm going to need a lot lot more.

Also I thought it would be an idea to be able to mark which tiles had been used when playing Suburbia. Getting the official licenced 3D tokens is soooo expensive. So these are the my alternative.

After being bitterly disappointed and rage posting on the Kickstarter page because the publisher of Kodama wanted those outside the US to pay postage on replacements, and an email exchange with the publisher, I now have the replacement card for the miss cut card that was in my deluxe Kickstarter copy I got last week.

So I'm a happy bunny…

The gaming sprawl grows 9Apr2016

new arrivals

The collection expanded by one Kickstarter project arriving this previous week with Kodama.

It has this awesome looking little Kodama Meeple. The art work is pretty cool. However I have one card miss cut that I need to contact them about. Luckily it's one of the cards to use with kids, so won't affect my playing of it. But still needs replacing.
The player mats for Tiny Epic Kingdoms/Heroes' Call arrived. These lovely neoprene mats will add to the game greatly. But like the other mat for the game and also the mat for Tiny Epic Galaxies they do take the game games away from the portable fit everything in the box idea.

The four packs that make up Tyrants came in. So one set down, two more to get! Plus a fourth set for Nath. But the purchase of them will be spread out. I do like the art on the new tokens. The third instalment for T.I.M.E. Stories also dropped through the letter box.

I'd forgotten about this one. There were enough promos in this one to justify getting it. Which for the Christmas one they did I couldn't do. Plus as I mentioned in another post earlier in the week there was a nifty little way using cards to select a game to play at a gaming group.
Finally a friend was having to cull some games to finance some other more expensive ones he wanted to keep on the right side of his wife. Which is understandable. I don't have that factor to worry about, so his pressure is my gain! Suburbia has been on my wish list for little while, so jumped at helping my friend out by buying it off him. Nice thing was we also had a nice beverage and chat at Costa while conducting our little bit of business.

 

Expanding the collection Weekending 2Apr16

elder sign, expansions, marvel legendary, new arrivals

I don't know why it took me so long to get this expansion in for Legendary. Especially considering it has Captain Britain in it. My main problem now is storage, and I want to sleeve the cards. There must be over two thousand cards to sleeve now, yep that's a lot. I'd love to use the official sleeves with the cool Legendary logo on them. But that would cost an arm and a leg, and probably a major organ. The official sleeves are so expensive in the UK. So clear penny sleeves are my preferred option, I just need to find the ones that are correct size and fit snugly. The other problem is the official card dividers. I've run out and they are not that easy to get in the UK. That seems a common problem, and theme with the industry.

Now I'm just waiting for the Captain America 75th Anniversary expansion to come out. Can you guess what that is all about? Then finally and I'm not holding my breathe for these, despite Upper Deck saying they will release them, the 3D Legendary cards that came out as promos in the 3D card packs (sold in the US) last year. I so want Howard the Duck, but not enough to pay eBay scalper prices.
The new expansion for Elder Sign Omens of Ice arrived. Its origins seemed a little unusual to me, where the app version of the game is influencing the original physical game. I'm not sure I've seen this before. This expansion is based/inspired by an expansion in the app. Plus the Atlanteans expansion for Imperial Settlers arrived. This adds a new fifth race to the game, plus more cards for the existing races.
It's funny really with a mini expansion, plus this one, there are more deck building options in this game than there is squad building in Arena of the Planeswalkers, where that is a main focus of the game!
I also received the final delayed (was originally targeted for Christmas) expansions for the Thunderbirds boardgame that came as part of my Kickstarter pledge.
In the box was a nice card holder, the three expansions (no expansion boxes), plus the role playing game! Yep there is a set of light rules and cards for setting up a scenario that uses the game board and pieces. Which I think is cool, and offers more game play.
So having just got the following awesome playmat for Star Realms, my very good friend and the Scottish version of me as he is known as, Duncan stumbled upon the fact that Gameslore now have in two Star Realms playmats plus two Epic playmats. Mental note must get the Epic ones for Nath.
The Colony Wars expansion/stand alone game for Star Realms also arrived. Every card is sleeved and shuffled in to make one MASSIVE deck to play with. This gives me enough starting cards to have four people play at once without proxying cards now.
 

I can't see how much more Star Realms can be expanded, and once the year ones promos come out (sooner than later I hope) surely that must be it for Star Realms. Which would explain why they announced Hero Realms the fantasy themed version of Star Realms. On a side note it's basically what Cool Mini Or Not did with Zombicide, couldn't take the modern theme any further after the third season, so reboot with a different theme. Oh which was fantasy also!!!