Card Drafting

A new game in the 7 Wonders franchise is coming out any day now, and it has been deemed a family game with enough depths to satisfy gamers as well. Lets check it out.

A party game that involved drinking and fastasy dungeon crawling? You had me at party!

Horray! The excellent D&D themed board game Tyrants of the Underdark is getting reprinted this summer!

A Civilization game is in the making and in being Kickstarted in May, it's called Mosaic - a Story of Civilization. It's designed by Glenn Drover, the designer of hit games such as Age of Empires III, Railways of the World, Sid Meier’s Civilization The Boardgame, and Raccoon Tycoon. Let's check it out, shall we?

Uwe Rosenberg is famous for his rather large and meaty Euro game with loads of components and options. This one differs a bit and plays an important role in the designers arsenal of great games.

The old classic Glass Road has been out of print for quite some time. Its rerelease is in the making though, and is estimated to hit the stores in the middle of 2021.

A fully simultaneous deck-builder sure sounds interesting and Philosophia: Floating World promises to be just that. Combine this with ideas from games like Race for the Galaxy and Inis, together with artwork of Edo Japan, and it sounds like good times indeed.

A cool little game with a pretty original theme has caught our eye. It's about making movies, and is being Kickstarted right now. Let's see what it's about, shall we?

The long-awaited "big box release" for Terraforming Mars is going to be on Kickstarter in the near future (date set for 9th of June or so). But what does this mean? Well, let's find out.

Good news for all you Marvel Legendary fans, the classic expansion Dark City is finally back in the stores. It did come back briefly in March but ran out quickly, and with the current situation being as it is, it's quite surprising to find it back.

Another miniature game is on Kickstarter, this time around well will return to Castle Wolfenstein, you know, the same as that PC game that came out some 30 years ago.

Sushi Go is a game designed by Phil Walker-Harding, published by Gamewright. In this game, players will be diners eating at a sushi restaurant as they try to collect the best combinations of dishes available. They will score points from the cards that they collect. The player that is best able to score the right combinations and collect the most points will be declared the winner.

Good news Terraforming Mars fans! There is a dice version of the popular game coming out some time in 2021, here's what we know so far.

Donald X. Vaccarino, you know, the Dominion guy, has also made an excellent game called Kingdom Builder, a rather themeless affair where you lay down settlements on different regions on a modular map for points. The theme is the only thing lacking in the game though. Now it's time for a sequel, Winter Kingdom. Let's have a look.

Someone said to me that the last expansion of the deck builder Dominion was coming out. I believed them. Well, I believed the part where there would be an expansion was coming out, but I laughed at the notion that it was gonna be the last one.

That expansion in question was Dominion: Guilds which was the 8th one. Here we are a couple of years later and now it's time for the 13th expansion; Dominion: Menagerie. Let's have a quick look.

An expansion for the awesome coop game Spirit Island is on its way. It's called Jagged Earth and like expected, it will contain new spirits, power cards, adversaries, etc. But it will also contain some new stuff, like badland tokens, which is a new way to fight the invaders.

The next upcoming expansion to Marvel Legendary is "The New Mutants". This refers to a group of X-men, who has previously appeared in Legendary as special bystanders in the X-Men expansion.

New Mutants members Magik and Cannonball have already appeared in the game as playable characters in Secret Wars, Vol. 1 expansion, and the X-Men expansion respectively, so our guess is that we can rule those heroes out. This is probably going to be a 100-card set, given the material.
With that in mind, here are our speculations:
Here is the confirmed list of heroes:

Stonemaier Games has announced another expansion for their success story, Wingspan. The expansion will take us to Oceania, like the name suggests, with species found in Australia and New Zealand, among others.
It has also been confirmed that this expansion will be compatible with Wingspan: Europe, or just the base game.
The same team that made the base game will also be designing this one and will be out sometime 2020.

Not much more is known right now, we will keep you posted though :)

The next expansion in line for the Marvel: Legendary series is Heroes of Asgard
This expansion will come out on February 26th, 2020 and will mark the 20th expansion to the game, which is pretty crazy. 

Finally, non-RPG players will be able to take part of the Star Wars: Outer Rim universe on your gaming table. Fantasy Flight is releasing a new sci-fi board game in June.
The game will support 1-4 players and will take 2-3 hours to play.

A huge variety of cards and a myriad of ways to chain them into powerful engines is the heart of Terraforming Mars, and this is what makes it into such an enjoyable game with high replay value. Enjoy this review by guest-star Callan Bond.

Another expansion for Marvel Legendary is due in May! It's a small expansion, as in 100 cards, it will contain a new keyword, Switcheroo, and two returning ones, Investigate and Teleport from Noir and Dark City/Secret Wars respectively.
As the previous small expansions, there will be 5 new heroes, 2 new henchman groups, but only one new mastermind, to make room for 5 new bystanders.

Tasty Minstrel Games are planning a Kickstarter release for a interesting (!) game, Dragon's Interest. In this game, the players take the roles of Kings and Queens in dire need of money to restore their broken Kingdoms which has been ravaged by war.
But there are no money to be found, except in the Dragon's lair. He is reasonable, he will lend you some money, with an interest....

Mindclash Games is releasing the much anticipated expansion to Anachrony, Fractures of Time, on Kickstarter. Fractures adds a new area for worker placement, the Amythenia Valley, an area where humanity has learned to survive and collect the powerful Flux resource.

Mensa has announced the winners of this years Mensa Select awards;

• Architects of the West Kingdom, by Shem Phillips and S J Macdonald.
• Gizmos, by Phil Walker-Harding.
• Gunkimono, by Jeffrey D. Allers.
• Planet, by Urtis Šulinskas.
• Victorian Masterminds, by Antoine Bauza and Eric M. Lang.

Days of Wonder has announced Ticket to Ride: London, which is a scaled down version of the original, much like Ticket to Ride: New York, but set in 1970s London. The game supports 2-4 players, and will take about 10-15 minutes to play.

North Star Games latest deep sea gem, Oceans, is LIVE on Kickstarter starting today. The game is the next step in the excellent Evolution series.

Osprey Games have announced a interesting looking war game for two players, which will be released in August 2019.

What's interesting about so far is the artwork by Roland MacDonald and the fact that it's a card game. 

Another franchise has joined the Upper Deck's Legendary deckbuilding series, after other titles like Aliens, Firefly and Big trouble in little China.

Lookout Games are releasing a expansion for Bärenpark in 2019. It's at a prototype state at the moment, and it's called Die Grizzlies sind los!, which translates to The Grizzilies are loose!. This expansion will consist of three different modules, two "core" modules and one smaller module with new achievement tiles.

Splotter games are as developing an Food Chain Magnate expansion as we speak, called The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas. The expansion will be avaible some time during 2019 and is avaible on pre-order from Splotters website. Splotter claim "the expansion is in good shape", but it is till being tested and balanced out.

Up and Away Games had recently released Athens: the Birth of Politics, in this game players  struggle with Persians, Spartans and their own people as they build their empire. Cooperate and compete to manage its fortunes, especially its politics, wars and government. 

Players must constantly balance personal advancement against the security of the state. They trade and fight to build up the empire, vie for power in the Assembly and on the battlefield. But to grow in size and power only attracts the unwelcome attention of rivals, not just your opponents, but also foreign powers like Persia, Syracuse, Thebes and most deadly of all, Sparta.

Fantasy Flight has announced The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth, another card game set in Middle Earth 3rd age. Why should we care?
Well first of all, it's Fantasy Flight. Second of all, it's Lord of the Rings.

Joking aside, the game looks solid from where we sit; a Mansion of Madness meets Lord of the Rings situation, which can be nothing else than awesome.

A new, exciting card game is currently on Kickstarter; War of the Worlds: The New Wave designed by the fairly unknown designer Denis Plastinin and is being published by Grey Fox Games. 

The game events unfold several years after the original 'War of the Worlds’ story by Herbert Wells.
Extraterrestrial invasion occurs again, but this time the Martians arrived on a giant spaceship which lands in one of the backwater districts in Scotland.
During the game one player commands the alien forces, and the other one becomes a leader of UK self-defense units. The main objective of the invaders is to completely annihilate the population of Great Britain, while the opposite side needs to deal enough damage to the Martian army.

The game is played with 2 asymmetrical decks of cards, a playing board, tokens and miniatures.

Bézier Games has announced a Collector's Edition of their city building game, Suburbia.

This version of the game will include the two Suburbia expansions Suburbia Inc and Suburbia 5*, and the two mini expansions "Essen SPIEL" and "Con Tiles", and a new expansion aswell, "Nightlife" which like the name suggests, will focus on locations are that are more active in the evening hours.

The game has been redesigned with 3D artwork, which will be printed on much larger tiles than the regular version.

Vital Lacerdas map from Age of Steam is now coming to Railways of the World!
The project will be launched as a kickstarter project, starting at January the 3rd.
Description from the publisher:

Railways of Portugal expands the Railways of the World series with a new map of Portugal designed by Vital Lacerda (The Gallerist, Lisboa, etc.).
You plan and lay track, upgrade your trains, sell goods to other cities, and use operation cards to become the richest in Portugal! Balance your budget wisely, since taking too many bank bonds can ruin your business over the course of the game.
Foreseeing your competitors moves and making well thought out moves for yourself will ensure you an undisputed railroad empire!

According to Stronghold Games, a standalone board game set in the Core Worlds universe is under development by designer Andrew Parks and his Quixotic Games development team.
No exact release day has been announced but we are guessing some time after the summer 2019.

One could say this is a perfect filler game (You know, the kind of games you play between games or when you are waiting for someone. Or perhaps as a the last game when the hour is getting late).
-One would be right.
Biblios takes about 20-30 minutes to play including set up, it's easy to teach, packs a great amount of replayability, and appeals to newbies and hardcore gamers alike.

The next expansion for Artipia Games "Fields of Green" is to be released soon, out sometime in the spring 2019, probably February or March.

Description from the publisher:

"Grand Fair introduces the Grand Fair Attractions, letting players interact with the fair in many ways.
It includes additional locations, objectives, components for a fifth player, and rules+material for solo play"

This game was released in 2016 with what seemed like a big marketing campaign. For reasons beyond us it seems to have failed somewhat. One reason could be the theme of the game and the color palette, which for non D&D fans could be off putting. But you should never judge a book or a boardgame by the cover, should you?

This 7 Wonders expansion allows you to build fleets of Ships to conquer the seas. New Armada and Island cards enrich the game and increase the interaction between players.

The flow of the game is slightly changed, but the victory conditions remain identical to those of the base game of 7 Wonders.

At the beginning of each Age, the players each get a hand of 8 cards. They will play an extra card during each Age. At any time a Red, Yellow, Green, or Blue card is played, the player will be able to move the ship of the same color one space, and access to various advantages.

Just in case you have missed it, another expansion for the excellent board game Terraforming Mars, is out now in a store near you. Go pick it up already.

Below there is more information, and also a tutorial video.