Category Archives: new arrivals

new arrivals

Hot New Arrivals Mid Sept 2015

new arrivals

Finally my pre-orders have arrived. I know most have been out for up to a month. But I decided to group all my pre-orders together into one delivery so I saved on the postage. The final piece of the jigsaw that the rest were waiting on, was the Legendary Encounters Predator game that came out last week.

I'm happy with the little delay in getting my games. As long as I knew they were coming I wasn't in a rush, and it saved me money. Sometimes patience is a virtue!

Other good news it looks like the Coup: Rebellion G54 and One Night Rebellion (was originally Resistance) that I backed on Kickstarter are just about to start shipping.

I'm looking forward to introducing the students to One Night Rebellion. I think they will really enjoy the game.

 

BGG Order Arrives

castle panic, new arrivals

So what arrived for me from the Land of the “Free”? Well I made use of the excellent BGG store and got the two promos they had for Castle Panic. While I was there ordering them I finally caved and ordered Deep Sea Adventure.

Deep Sea Adventure is a little Japanese push your luck game based around diving for treasure. I knew it was a small game but when I opened the parcel and saw how small the box was I was a little shocked. It's tiny.

Naturally I'll be looking at Deep Sea Adventure in more depth in another post.

So not a big order but a nice little one adding a little customisation to a game with promos, and a new game to play.

Still in the postal system somewhere…

  • Epic is shipping, my friend Freddy in the U.S. Of A. has already got his copy.
  • Game of Thrones the Boardgame, just over a week ago was posted but no show yet.
  • My pre-order I made has finally all the pieces in and is now on its way. But I'm not going to ruin the surprise.
  • Dead Drop is being played by Americans but who knows where the international copies are.

 

I think Tiny Epic Galaxies is due to ship any day now, so hopefully will arrive by end of the month.

 

Power Up! King of Tokyo Expansion

expansions, new arrivals
As regular readers will know I picked this expansion up last weekend when I visited Nath. It had been delivered there the weekend before but I failed to get it then due to that epic car fail on the Friday.
Power Up! Is the first expansion for King of Tokyo.

Let's have a look at the contents of the box that make up this expansion for King of Tokyo.

Ok first up there is a small rules pamphlet that explains the rule additions that cover this expansion. Plus you then get seven little cardboard tokens that will be used by some of the new evolution cards. Which nicely brings us on to the fact you get fifty six evolution cards (which I will cover in a minute). Then finally you get a new monster called Pandakai, this means you get a new cardboard figure and stand for Pandakai, plus a monster board.

The main addition this expansion adds to King of Tokyo is the evolution cards. Each monster within the game has a unique deck of cards that can be acquired and used through out the game. These evolution cards give a monster either a temporary power or a permanent one. They remain secret during play until the player decides to use the card.

This looks like a great addition to the base game, and I can't wait to start playing with it. Plus I believe the first expansion for King of New York is also a Power Up! Expansion. And this has made me even more excited for that too.

 

A Kickstarter Arrival

new arrivals

This morning A Chaotic Life a game I backed on Kickstarter arrived.

Below is a photo of the contents of the box.

Now I know that the designer/publisher has been listening to feedback from backers (those that had already received and played it) about the gameplay. So at the moment the rules are being updated based on that feedback and under going play testing at the moment.

I love that the designer is so responsive to the community, this is definitely a benefit a small company has over larger ones. Looking at the Boardgame Geek page for the game the designer is engaging with the games community. Love it.

However even with all this love, I'm in a quandary. Do I play the game with the current rules or wait for the rules update?

 

Battlelore Arrives

new arrivals

Well I'm a semi happy bunny today. The second hand copy of Battlelore Second Edition arrived today. I'm still waiting for the second hand copy of The Game of Thrones Board Game to turn up apparently it was sent last Friday. I believe it's been sent using myHermes. This courier is used a lot on the Facebook group I belong to. Mainly because it's cheap to send stuff through them. Sadly there is a trade off for this low cost, and that is its not the speediest of couriers to use.

I'm still waiting for Ashes to turn up. Plaid Hat Games said it was allegedly sent two weeks ago by their European distributor, and that I should have had a notification that it had been sent. Needlessly to say I've never received that notification. I have to wait until Friday before getting back to them if it has not turned up.

I have to say this is the one I'm most disappointed about. Previously my experience with Plaid Hat has been exemplary. But at the moment my current experience is leaving a little sour taste.

I'm hoping these both will turn up before the weekend. There is a new gaming group in Wisbech that I am going to (first meet up that I'm attending tonight), and they have a gaming event this Saturday. Plus I'm hoping to get to The Hobbit Hole in Chatteris on Sunday (taking my Netrunner decks with me incase I can get a game).

 

Southern Car Park

new arrivals

So finally made it down to see Nath. I'd like to say without incident, but it seems the South is just one big carpark with road works every blooming where. Take a route to avoid road works I knew about, only to run into more road works. Nice to know all my taxes are going to prop up the South while we get no investment locally.

Waiting for me at Naths was last weekends delivery that the escapades of the previous Friday meant I missed.

So I'm assuming a recent issue of XBox The Official Magazine gave away with it a little XBox themed card game called Heroes of XBox Combat Cards.

As the instructions on the back (see below) indicate this card game is “similar” to the popular card game for children of all ages Top Trumps.

I'm not going to bore you with all the cards in the pack, however I will bore you with four of my favourites.

I think every kid growing up has played a top trumps game or two. I think my favourite version of the ones available when I was much much younger was the Marvel Top Trumps. So we are probably talking early to mid eighties.

Hopefully tomorrow we will get a game or two in before I have to return back to the land of the never ending horizon.

 

Sleeve that survivor

netrunner, new arrivals, zombicide

The theme of Android:Netrunner is incredibly awesome, the game is amazing, and boy oh boy is the art on the cards out of this world.

Now to sleeve all of the cards in Netrunner would be a tad on the expensive side. Especially if I was to use the official sleeves. A pack of sleeves is usually made up of fifty sleeves and costs between a fiver and eight quid. With a card count that must easily be over two thousand by now if you have everything, you can quickly do the maths, and have a minor heart attack from the shock.

There is a cheaper solution. Just sleeve the cards that make up your current decks for corporate and runner. For my Noise deck I have been using the beautiful looking Snare sleeves from FFG (below right).

Doesn't the art work for Snare look amazing? I love the whole venus flytrap look of it. It captures the theme of the card perfectly. This card is the Android:Netrunner version of a venus flytrap, it sits there waiting for the runner to “fly” into its cunning trap looking for those oh oh so sweet agendas. But just as the runner realises something is wrong it snaps shut.

However this morning I had two more packs of official FFG sleeves arrive. The amazing looking pop up (above middle) and the equally amazing looking Posted Bounty.
What really impresses me is that there are some really abstract ideas within the game, and some how the artists manage to capture that theme/idea in such a beautiful way. Pop up window and Snare manage to do this so so well.
The pop up window sleeves I'll be using with my NBN corp deck that I am building. If I build a third deck I'll use the Posted Bounty for that.
The exciting thing is I think from what I have seen of Ashes Rise of the Pheonix Born that the art in that game may surpass the art of Netrunner!!!!

The dudes a survivor

Finally the Gary character for Zombicide also arrived today.

As you can see the Gary Zombicide character bares a remarkable resemblance to a certain Jeff Lebowski character played by Jeff Bridges from the cult/hip/classic (think that covers all the bases) movie The Big Lebowski.

I got this character for one friend (the same one I did the hipster minifig for) only to play with. He's a big fan of the movie (although I debate that because he hasn't seen the porn parody version) and when we next play Zombicide (we are long over due for a game or two) I'm sure this will be the only character he will want to play with.

I have to say that I think they have captured the character really really well in the sculpt.

Now I just need to track down the Ross survivor which is the John Goodman character from the movie.

 

My Awesome Weekend

imperial assault, netrunner, new arrivals, tabletop
Saturday saw me driving up North to the shadow of Kinder Scout to visit friends. As the photo below shows I took the odd game with me. I had ordered some new games that I was hoping would make it before I set off. Unusual for the Royal Mail they actually attempted to deliver my parcels, and they did it at half eight. Which meant I got them on time for once.
But I still had no idea what time DPD would be arriving with the one game I actually did want to take with me specifically for the weekend. Then a text message arrived letting me know they would be delivering the game Castle Panic before ten fifteen. Score I'd have everything before my planned leave time. For once the stars aligned for me.

Once at my destination for the weekend it was Netrunner time with my guru Todd. Todd was using his newly constructed HB Cybernetics Division deck against my Noise deck. Two games, two loses. But I did score some agendas so it wasn't a white wash. Then we swapped I played Todd's HB corp deck, while he played my Noise deck. I think this was maybe my third time playing corp. I haven't really looked at trying to construct a corp deck yet. I'm not really sure which corp is me yet.

I won this role reversal game, and then had feedback from Todd on where he thought my short comings were for my deck. I basically need to look at my economy (there wasn't really enough being generated), while there was also not much synergy going on in my deck either.

After a break, Todd constructed a runner deck that he wanted to test. So I played his corp deck again (well I don't currently have one) it was a tense game. But in the end Todd ended up winning.

While we were playing the last game it was getting near to the bedtime for his boys, and they wanted to play a game with me. So before they went to bed we had a couple of quick games of Batman Love Letter.

Tea for us grown ups had been an awesome homemade chilli made by Todd. It was just right, not over hot, but not bland like the chilli at work. There was a really nice heat to it. Perfect.

Sunday morning after breakfast was a quick game of Batman Love Letter with the boys. Then with the table in the middle of the room it was time for a game of Zombies! a favourite of the boys.

I hadn't played Zombies! before, so this was a new experience for me. My initial impression of the game was it was a lot of fun. Building the map as you go along was a nice mechanic. The game has a lot of opportunities for player interaction, well a take that interaction. It was very easy to screw over another player, forcing them to skip a go, stop them moving, surround them with zombies etc. One of the boys was really getting into this side of the game. That did add to the enjoyment of the game.

Run,Fight or Die! Fails

I tried to teach the youngest age seven Run,Fight or Die! However it didn't really grab his attention, especially with Cartoon Network on the TV.

How unfit I am?

After lunch we all went for a walk. The weather was hot, and the route took us over a hill to a conviently placed pub that used to be a mill. The hill was hard work, I'm so out of shape. Well more than usual. Luckily the return journey didn't have as much up, which was welcomed. The boys were amazing, not a single word of complaint, they really enjoyed themselves. It warms my heart to see kids enjoying the outdoors.

But boy was I knackered and sore afterwards. I really must get back into shape for the outdoors.

With the car packed it was time to say my good byes. I'd had a really great weekend. Great hosts, a great time. 'Nuff said.

Chris Shaner GenCon Star Realms Champion

Well the subheading says it all. A really big congratulations to Chris on becoming the champ. I don't think I'd be wrong in saying this competition is the nearest the Star Realms has at the moment to a world championship.
For an amazingly long time Chris was the top Star Realms player online however due to his alterism (he is no longer actively trying to push up his ranking since hitting level 40) he has been over taken and currently sits at number 4 on the all time league table. So really when you are that good at the game is it a surprise that Chris did so well in the GenCon competition?
Chris regularly thrashes me at Star Realms online. Sometimes I even make him work hard for his victory. Even more rare is the below photo, a victory for me. It just happened I managed to score this ultra rare win yesterday on the day I find out about Chris's well deserved title win.

Imperial Assault Wave 4 Announced

At GenCon this years big Imperial Assault announcement from Fantasy Flight Games was details of the wave four expansions. Wave four will have another big expansion which will return us fanboys back to Hoth.

Above photo taken from The Dice Tower stream from GenCon iirc ^_^

My favourite GenCon coverage from the week has been from Team Covenent and their unboxing and looks at the Wave Two expansions for Imperial Assault and the next big expansion for Android:Netrunner Data and Destiny. The videos give a great look with initial thoughts on the expansions, the enthusiasm for the contents, and the games really does come across in the videos. It's infectious and makes the videos a delight to watch.

The other coverage I have enjoyed is the MeepleWorship Instagram feed. This has been a great personal view of the show. Some great photos from the show floor, including loads of selfies with industry figures, celebs from the bloggersphere and of purchases.

New Arrival To The Pile Of Shame

The Recon expansion for Arctic Scavengers arrived this morning. It comes in a pretty big box. But there is a reason for that. The box is designed to hold not just the Recon expansion but also the base game and the HQ expansion (the right half of the photo above shows this). Apart from adding 140 new cards for the game, it also comes with the rules for using the Recon expansion, plus an updated rule book for the base game and HQ expansion. Now to just get the game to the table! Which is easier said than done.

 

Overrun

new arrivals, tabletop

Last night had an unexpected gaming session. A friend was working behind the bar at a local establishment, and it was a bit empty. So I was invited up to help pass the time with some boardgames.

Being such a Star Realms fanatic I took that with me, and also I thought I would introduce Run Fight or Die!

We played a couple of games of Star Realms first. Fun games, my friend enjoyed learning and playing but I don't think it was as big a hit as it had been with Nath (side note Nath is playing the app but not forked out for the full version yet, so no online games together. But so looking forward to my next visit and seeing how much he has grown in his game play.)

Next up was a couple of games of Run Fight or Die! I lost the first game we played when I got over run by zombies. The second game ended up with my friend being over run by zombies. Both games the mutant boss appeared. In the first game I did manage to hit him once. But the second game our card draw just kept adding more life to the mutant boss. There wasn't much chance of us getting rid of the mutant boss. Plus we were both having to concentrate on trying to hold back the zombie horde. I was having a modicum of success. However my friend was mounting up wounds fast, zombies knocking on the door, but it was a mutant card dealing two wounds that finished them off.

The great thing about Run Fight or Die! is it's portable (easily more so than Zombicide), doesn't take up loads of space to play (ideal for last night), quick to setup, and quick to teach. The game captures that constant threat, overwhelming odds feeling so well. I get the same feeling while playing Zombicide (which I love playing) and it's a part of playing the games I love. That feeling of impending doom, attempting heroic moves that if successful keep you alive another turn, or if you are lucky a bit longer until the next wave of zombies hits. Then after that intense feeling of impending doom comes a wave of serenity when you accept your bloody fate. Pure gaming delight.

The plus side is that at our next game night if we play Run Fight or Die! there is someone else to help teach the game to the others.

New Additions to the Pile of Shame

So the first expansion for Five Tribes called The Artisans of Naqala has arrived. Yes an expansion for a game that I haven't got to the table yet and is sitting proudly in my pile of shame. But I know that if I don't get it now after it just came out, when I do want to use it I won't be able to get it. Or I would be able to get it but it will be mega expensive on eBay.

This expansion adds a new tribe to the game, with the supporting tiles, tokens, meeples, cards etc for that tribe to added to the game.

Next on to the pile of shame is the game Biblios Dice. I haven't played the original card game Biblios or the earlier versions Scripts and Scribes (card and dice), so why the interest in the dice game? It looked cool in the YouTube video I saw of it being played! I had heard it was good before seeing the video, had a look for it on YouTube. Liked what I saw, thought I can see others I play with liking it. And it wasn't mega expensive.

In Biblios Dice you play a monk (no jokes about my love life please) who has been tasked with increasing the prestige of the abbey's collection of historical and sacred texts. Doesn't sound an exciting theme to be honest. But the video of it being played really sold me on it, the mechanics, DICE, and it looked fun.

Finally

The button was pressed on the Amazon cart this morning, about five-ish. A couple of items will arrive sometime next week, but I knew that before hand. It's now a race against time hoping that the courier Amazon have used (DPD according to the text I received) will arrive before eleven tomorrow morning so I can take Castle Panic with me. Here's hoping.

 

Excelsior!

dice masters, marvel legendary, new arrivals, pixel tactics

What would a Marvel Cinematic Universe film be without the cameo from Stan Lee? A lesser movie that's what. So when I found out that there was a Stan Lee bystander card for Marvel Legendary, well I just had to have it. Guess what came today?

So now when I play Marvel Legendary I can simulate that cameo appearance from the Generalissimo himself by shuffling in these two bystander cards into the bystander deck.

And for me the awesome thing will be when I'm playing with some-one who doesn't know I have this card and it appears. I'm hoping for a little “OMG! That's awesome” moment.

Tomorrow im going to see Ant-man at The Luxe cinema, and hopefully before the film two or three of us will have a chance to be uber geeks and play a game of Marvel Legendary before hand with Stan Lee shuffled in the Bystander deck.

Also today the two Dice Tower Pixel Tactics promos arrived. I only got them yesterday off that UK Facebook trading page. So dam good service.

Finally the other day the rare Constantine dice masters card arrived. It appears to be a popular card especially in control teams I think. I'm not fully up on the current meta. It's changing again now that the Age of Ultron set has hit stores in the U.S. and any day now in the UK.

I've not played nearly enough dicemasters this year. I really enjoy the game. But this release schedule Wizkids has for sets is brutal. It's almost a new set every two months. Which if you want to be a completionist makes the game expensive. If you want to be competitive at tournaments (which I like to think I'm capable of being) then you need to be living this game, which makes it a life style game. And I have too many games in my collection that I enjoy playing that fall into this category. But I think this is a topic that I will explore in another post in the future.