With the Tapestry: Plans and Ploys expansion going on preorder later today on the Stonemaier website, it got me thinking.
This Winter period there are no games I’m really excited about getting (with one exception), it’s all about the expansions for me. No game has grabbed me, inspired me, and made me say “I’ve got to get this game”. In fact the recent announcement of Splendor getting a Marvel reskin for me sums up the direction the industry seems to be moving at the moment. It’s a sweeping generalisation. Especially considering the number of games that get released each year. But the high profile ones from the big boys are the ones that generally grab peoples attention and the headlines in publications. Heck I wasn’t even excited about the new Stonemaier game Pendulum. It just didn’t fire my imagination!
Obviously considering the opening sentence of this post I’m excited about the Tapestry expansion Plans and Ploys.
Plans and Ploys adds new landmarks, tapestry cards, civilizations, new space tiles (plus a replacement tile for a misprinted tile in the first printing), landmark tiles, landmark cards, a bag for territory tiles to go in, and automata cards.
So more variety, a new mechanic with the landmark cards, a new tiebreaker rule. It looks like a great addition to a game I like.
I wasn’t expecting an expansion for Civilization A New Dawn to be announced. So it was a nice surprise when FFG did announce it at this years Flight Plan.
Terra Incognita changes the game up a little bit by the looks of it. This expansion allows up to five players, you can now explore during the game and dynamically create the game board as you play. The combat rules have been tweaked, new leaders, and other additions.
I liked the original version of the game. But the exploring does sound really cool, and more like the video games. Will this change the way I play this game for ever? That’s an exciting prospect.
Then there is a massive expansion coming for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition called Prophecy of Kings. This increases the player count to eight players! New tiles, races, mechs, plus much more. It may be a while before this gets to the table (I need a table big enough for starters), I’m still excited for what this is going to add to the game.
The only game I’m excited about is Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals. Which is an expandable card game from Renegade Games set in the Vampire Masquerade/World of Darkness. Ok the setting isn’t the bit that excites me. But a multiplayer card game, where politics is part of the game play. That does. All the sounds coming out of Renegade about the game had me thinking they are approaching the game and it’s development the right way. The Kickstarter $100 tier was amazing value, and included a copy of the first OP kit. And is scheduled to be delivered in December.
What are you looking forward to or planning on buying this Winter?
I’m only interested in a couple of releases and they’re quite predictable for me. The first is the Wingspan Oceania expansion, which I’m pretty excited about – this is my favourite game (it was my game of 2019 last year). The other game , which is a given for me, is Hallertau. This is a Uwe Rosenberg heavyweight game and it is one I’m really looking forward to. The other game that I’m quite interested in is Glasgow, which is a 2-player game, which is already out to buy (so I don’t know if that counts).
The Wingspan expansion is also on my list. But I think it’ll be hit or miss if it makes this year. Plus it’s not been announced. But then again that won’t happen until a month before it’s release.
Ah, if it’s only this year that you want and not really winter, then I think neither of the main games I mentioned will be available to buy this year. (there’s a slim chance that they might as I thought they were both Essen releases). Of course, that would leave me Glasgow as a purchase option, but I’m on the fence at the moment; it looks interesting, but will it just sit on the shelf like a lot of my other games?