Category Archives: new arrivals

new arrivals

Epic New Stuff 26Mar16

epic, expansions, new arrivals, star realms

Another week and more good more stuff dropping through the letter box.

From my FLGS I got the latest Fluxx to hit our stores Firefly Fluxx. As an incentive to buy from your FLGS or LGS if they are not that friendly when you buy from a store it should come with a promo card for the game too.

I also finally crumbled and got the Batman Fluxx. This had been on my wishlist for a long time.
Tiny Epic Kingdoms Second Edition, plus Heroes Call it's expansion qualifies as my first delivered Kickstarter of the year.
Star Realms Colony Wars is on its way (somewhere in the postal system) but I knew I didn't have enough sleeves for the new arrivals. So three packets of sleeves dropped on the mat this morning to solve that problem.
Finally a real bargain (aren't they all?) appeared on Facebook for three copies of the Kickstarter version of the game (that's basically the base game plus promos). I'd mentioned it to a friend who asked me to get it for them. So here we are a box full of awesome, ready for delivery Tuesday.

 

A Quiet Week

netrunner, new arrivals

Business First th second data pack in the Mumbad Cycle arrived. Well that was a given really.

Plus the replacement card I needed for Lost Legacy arrived. If you remember I bought Lost Legacy off of the Facebook Trading and Selling page. Now I knew it didn't come with the nice little bags, which AEG kindly sent me for free. However I did discover a card that had a tear on the back of it. Which meant the card is useless unless I bought sleeves to use with the game that are opaque. This was a fault the seller hadn't declared and I was not happy with.

But once more AEG stepped up to the mark and sent me a replacement card.

How flipping cool are they. This is how customer support should be. The Fun Forge support is sooo slow and bad compared to AEG. AEG respond quickly (within 24 hours), and have the call resolved and replacements sent out within that time also. The replacement figure from Fun Forge is being shipped from China and won't be with me until sometime in April!!!! That's nearly two months to resolve.

Next week there is one item for sure, I might be lucky with Tiny Epic Kingdoms Second Edition and Heroes expansion arriving. Disappointingly The Others is being delayed until July, who knows I may see the expansions for Thunderbirds soon. It's nice to see some of the kickstarters coming to completion. But I can't help feeling disappointment with Cool Mini Or Not, because I feel that their delivery estimate was deliberately optimistic at best and misleading at worst. There is a big debate on the Kickstarter page on this at the moment.

 

13Mar16 through the letter box

expansions, netrunner, new arrivals

Not much landed through the letter box this week.

The latest expansion for Tokaido, Matsuri arrived. This adds even more depth to the game, this time festivals that happen when the travellers arrive at the inns. Plus there are even more characters to choose from.

The annoying thing about the expansion adding more travellers to chose from is having just gotten the deluxe upgrade kit that has models for all the travellers in the base game and Crossroads, not having figures for these new characters is annoying.

One thing I think may come across when I talk about Netrunner is how much I love the theme of the game. The whole cyberpunk setting, hackers verses the evil corporations. The world of Android that Netrunner is set in, is dark and seedy, and bought to life brilliantly by the art work and flavour text on the cards.

Now FFG have released Worlds of Android. A beautiful book with so much background into the android universe, and some stunning artwork. With the deluxe version you get a playmat, four prints, and the book itself.

I think you will agree that the prints and the playmat look stunning.

Finally the Alliance Smuggler for Imperial Assault arrived, and a second track (not counting the base set one) to be used in the Fenland Gamers Formula D league that will be kicking off at the end of April.

 

Splash Down

new arrivals

So what dropped through my letter box this week?

I'm sure you are eager to find out.

And I'm eager to share with you what is piling up in my home.

 

 

 

Taking advantage of another Amazon silly price deal, it was hard to not fall for temptation and get WWE Superstar Showdown for eight pounds and some pence.

How much do I like playing Patchwork on my phone? A lot. Which would explain why this turned up!

A visit to my FLGS The Hobbit Hole landed me the Bantha expansion for Imperial Assault, and a second track to use with Formula D. Plans are a foot to have a league for Formula D at Fenland Gamers. So this will give a little variety for us.

Plus a copy of the card game Haggis arrived. This has gone straight into my bag I take with me when there is a Costa Gaming session.

These two figures for Super Dungeon Explorer were too good a bargain to pass up on Facebook. I just need to get the game to the table.

AEG customer support are amazing. Not only do they respond within twenty four hours, but they sent me the two missing bags for Lost Legacy and some spare tokens for Batman Love Letter for free. I've had to make use of the support again for Lost Legacy because I've discovered a badly marked card in one of the sets. Which I wasn't happy with, because this was not declared by the seller. Luckily AEG have stepped up once more and are sending a replacement.
The alt art player boards for Takenoko look beautiful. Each one is different art. Plus a spare time machine for Colt Express.

Finally the locations cards for Ninja Dice arrived along with Kage Masters and two mini expansions. I got stung by the customs charge (which I don't mind paying) and the daylight robbery handling fee of the post office (which I do mind paying). Everything just about fits into the Ninja Dice storage bag.

Another Facebook bargain District-Z a zombie fighting card game for up to four players also arrived. Ok I like zombie games, sue me.

And that's it for this week.

 

New Loot 27/2/16

expansions, new arrivals

Welcome to my weekly round up of stuff that dropped through my letter box.

Even though I haven't got Ticket to Ride Europe (yet) this mini expansion is free from Days of Wonder, you just pay for the postage.

I've already blogged about the following, looking at its contents. However the publisher hasn't responded to my email yet about getting a replacement figure for the broken one. I have been forced to register with their call tracking system. But that was an automatic response to my email. I've uploaded evidence of the fault. But no update has been put on there either. Walls of silence are great customer service!
At my weekly Netrunner fix there are plans afoot to play the draft format of the game. With a lack of the draft rules online, I ended up getting this draft starter just to get a look at the formats rules!

There is going to be a “marathon” Ticket to Ride play session in March by some of the Fenland Gamers. So I thought this might be a fun “chaotic” expanse to throw into the mix. Or at least have the option there of playing it.

 
This week I met up with an old school and college friend who I hadn't seem since 1987(?). In the meantime he moved to the land down under, and made a life down there. Fast forward the clock, with the aid of Facebook we got in contact again. That friend is now back in Blighty for a visit with his wife and latest addition to the family.
I made a little gift package for them of the following two games and Love Letter (from my collection) after hearing they were just using a pack of cards and playing canasta as entertainment. I think I covered a few genres with these three, cards, dice and tiles!
Thanks to Gavin who alerted me to this little bargain currently on Amazon, if you are a WWE fan you should be snapping this up. And with unlimited music streaming from Apple I'm sorted for the entrance music to play for each wrestler.
 

Oh how much of a bargain was it? Just under a tenner! That's a twenty odd pound saving. Plus my Prime membership it was free next day delivery.

That's it for this week.

Tokaido Collectors Accessory Pack

expansions, first look, new arrivals

So today (and I'm jumping the gun here, because I normally talk about new arrivals on Saturdays) the Tokaido Collectors Accessory Pack arrived.

After opening the box up my initial excitement was damped by disappointment to see that one of the figures was broken. I've emailed the publisher via their website for a replacement. Time to see how their customer support matches up against the likes of AEG and Portal Games.

So in the box you get sixteen unpainted plastic figures representing the characters in both the base game and the Crossroads expansion. Sadly there is not a figure for the Eriku promo character.

Also in the box is a nice cloth bag for storing the coins that also come in the box. Plus a CD of Japanese inspired music to play in the background while playing the game is also included.

Naturally if we have a cloth bag, we also have to have something to put in it. That something is fifty metal coins. These are lovely, have a nice feel and weight to them.

You also get five replacement score tracker tokens in the shape of coloured packages. Plus a coloured base cover for the figure you are playing with, and finally a “second” (assuming you have the Crossroads expansion) dice.

As a pimp my game kit, this is a really nice little kit. Despite a model being broken, the models are really detailed, and look great. And I can't wait to get Tokaido to the table using these new components.

If you love Tokaido this is a must buy.

 

New Additions 20/2/16

new arrivals

It's that time of week where I share my new arrivals on here, but if you know me on other social media outlets then you will have seen these photos during the week as they arrived.

Those cards from DriveThroughCards arrived at the start of the week. And boy was I impressed with the quality of the cards. Great prices, amazing quality. Can't go wrong. I'm thinking now that I will get the print and play cards for the time machine promo for Colt Express that a fan made done now. That would be really really cool.

I managed to get a real bargain on Council of Verona second addition from the Facebook Trading and Selling page. A second copy by a different seller appeared the next day for twice the price! I'd love to get the second expansion for the game, plus the spin off game, but for some reason the publisher has decided to make it nigh on impossible to get them in the UK. Which also goes for this game. I don't get that. Obviously making a living is against the publishers ethos.

My other two arrivals were also great deals from the Facebook Trading and Selling page.

The Lost Legacy was the game plus the three expansions in the single box. The seller hadn't included the two little storage bags that came with two of the expansions. So I've emailed AEG about how to go about getting the bags.

Eminent Domain a deck building game about building your space empire was also a really good bargain.

I should point out when these second hand games the first thing I do is check that everything is there. It's not that I distrust the seller, it's more for my piece of mind. If I didn't do it, the thought that something was missing would just eat away until I couldn't ignore it.

So that's this weeks new stuff.

 

Just in week starting 8/2/16

lego minifigs, netrunner, new arrivals

The latest Netrunner data pack Kala Ghoda landed through the letter box this week. Kala Ghoda is the first data pack in the Mumbad Cycle. A second pack of sleeves for Netrunner was also ordered to give me enough sleeves to use of that design.

Munchkin Gloom in its rediculous over sized box was picked up for a bargain price off the Facebook Trading and Selling Group.

Continuing my DVD trip down memory lane the 1949 serial King of the Rocket Men dropped through the letter box. This series is the inspiration behind the movie The Rocketeer. Which captured the whole feel, look really well.

Formula D is really getting under my skin. I love the game. Like Harbour I wanted something to use as a social media boast about winning. Hence the arrival of this little racing driver minifig.

Below are the extra sleeves I bought to sleeve my corporate deck. It was a little annoying and embarrassing to start sleeving the deck Tuesday before play only to discover I didn't have enough sleeves. Which forced me to play unsleeved.

I have to admit the FFG official Netrunner sleeves they produce like the four (I think it's four) official playmats look amazing. I just wish FFG produced a high quality Netrunner storage solution as WoTC do for MTG in the form of the gift boxes.

 

Late Mid Jan Arrivals 2016

lego minifigs, new arrivals

Going to start this post about new arrivals with two new minifig arrivals. These two purchases were inspired by playing a recent acquisition funny enough about baseball. I thought these would be cool reminders to players about which side they are playing.

Ok the dice aren't as big as I was expecting, but still they will do as counters for Ashes to keep track of the various states that it has tokens for.
You really think that this second T.I.M.E. Stories expansion wasn't going to be on its way to me? Wow I thought you would know me better by now.
These following arrivals are pimping out my copy of 7 Wonders. The pimping starts off with the playmat, which I would argue should be in the base game as standard and not an optional extra to track down. Ok the Wonders Pack just adds a bit more variety to the base game. But I have two packs of the Viticulture metal coins, which will be split between 7 Wonders and Viticulture (when it arrives in my collection).

Lastly a second set of dice for Formula D arrived. I'm hoping we will be playing this game a bit at the Fenland Gamers, so having a second set will make things a bit easier.

A tale of postal incompetence and deceit

Or how Wisbech Royal Mail once more prove they are lazy and dishonest.

Way back in time to the start of December 2015 I ordered one or two bits from the Portal Games web store. Fast forward to last week. The bgg stuff had arrived, and still no sign of my order from Portal Games.

Yesterday when I placed a new order with bgg I declared on Twitter a race between this new order and the Portal Games order. Which would arrive first? Ignacy top dog at Portal twitted back no need to race, and to email them to get help tracking my package.

So I did a quick search on my emails to get my order number only to discover I had missed an email from them on the 13th January saying the package had been returned to them for some reason, and could I confirm my shipping address.

Oops egg on my face, how did I miss that email? Anyway I replied with my address. Which matched the one they had one file. How strange, why would it be returned?

Unless…

Well I know they never tried delivering it, Nan doesn't leave the house. Anyone knocking one the door would attract the attention of my Wolfpack that she looks after while I'm at work. Besides if somehow Nan hadn't heard them there was no red card saying they had tried delivering it.

So the evidence points to at no time did the Wisbech Royal Mail try and deliver my package.

I then assume having not attempted to make the delivery the Wisbech Royal Mail left my package sitting in their sorting office limbo waiting for collection. A collection that was never going to happen because no one out side of their little closed collective knew the package had arrived in Wisbech. Then following the prescribed number of days, having not been collected, was sent back to the sender!

I have several tales from the last year about their staff lying about attempting to deliver a package, or failing to leave a delivery card. Or their local management failing to ever call when asked to (I was asked to leave my number when I tried to complain on numerous occasions when conveniently the management have gone home for the day).

So there is my tale of postal woe. Luckily the Wisbech Royal Mail didn't ruin my Christmas with their laziness and deceit.

During this Portal Games have been brilliant, despite my sarcasm.

New Arrivals Mid Jan 2016

expansions, new arrivals
This weeks new arrivals top and tailed the week.
Monday saw the arrival of the first Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalker expansion Battle for Zendikar. When I ordered this just before Christmas I hadn't seen it on sale in the UK, so I was “forced” (ok I could have waited, it's not as if I've played the game yet) to get the expansion from the US of A.

The week closed with the arrival of promos for two games I have from the bgg store. First up is the nine tile Medena expansion/promo for Alhambra. This is the second expansion/promo I've added to the tile pool for the game. Interestingly this one adds the possibility of negative points in the scoring phases!

The other game to get the promo pimping out this week is Kingdom Builder. The first expansion/promo is an island. Which adds another area to the board to use. I need to read the rule booklet for any other changes.

The other promo is the Capital which replaces a castle under specific circumstances, and another way to score.

Still in the postal ether is a couple of promos from Portal Games.