Cards & Boards

I had a blast with the DC Comics Deck-Building Game when it rolled in early this year. Well, to be honest I haven’t played DBGs up till that point, so the cool art and simple mechanics of the DC Comics game just kind of blew me and the playing group out of the water.

And it seems that Boardgamegeek.com managed to dig up this nugget: a preorder for a standalone expansion set has appeared on selected retailers’ websites, including this one. Called Heroes Unite, the expansion will purportedly feature Shazam, Hawkman and Batgirl, among others.

Note that we write it as speculative, as Cryptozoic has not revealed any official information yet.

Well, in good time then: we look forward to more superhero goodness of the DC kind! May they preserve the same awesome standards, artwork-wise!

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Looks like there’s no keeping a good franchise like The Walking Dead (TWD) down, as we’ve got more games based on the classic comicbook-turned-into-a-very-famous-TV-show franchise coming up!

According to various websites including Boardgamegeek.com, we’re set to be getting both RISK and Monopoly sets based the TWD comic books, sometime by year-end. Both the games, MONOPOLY: The Walking Dead Survival Edition and RISK: The Walking Dead Survival Edition, will be produced by USAopoly and exclusively available via Diamond Comic Distributors.

While I can’t imagine the Monopoly game to be that different, the RISK game has me very curious. It’s supposed to be set in the Southeast part of the United States, and the gameplay is described as a battle for survival, with players going at each other. Will the zombies be the wild card like the how the TWD universe pits things about? What about these Supply Cards? Very exciting indeed!

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

If I ever had to recommend a solitaire boardgame, I’d almost always recommend that people roll with Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game. The classic Warhammer 40K card game is a quick and easy adaptation of the classic Space Hulk boardgame.

While the original Space Hulk had plenty of wow factor going for it, it’s hampered by the two-player limitation, and the need to “prepare” the game (okay, so painting the miniatures is an optional thing, but it’s more or less prerequisite since the game will look a lot nicer).

The Fantasy Flight Games’ card game works wonderfully as a one player game, and supports up to six.

There’s a handful of other games that has solo support. One that looks promising, which I’m keen to try, is “Labyrinth: The War On Terror, 2001-?”. A one- to two-player game that simulates the global war against, well, terror, the solo variant has you playing the US of A, trying to curtail and overcome the extremist jihadist movements across the usual “hotspots”.

With every key facet of the war being simulated, from populations/nations’ “street” sentiments to US-friendly / unfriendly regimes, to military strikes, this looks like the kind of game that will appeal to anyone that’s looking for something a little more balanced, and not just a straight out wargame.

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

When Fantasy Flight Games previewed the Jawa bunch from their upcoming The Edge of Darkness deluxe expansion set for the Star Wars Living Card Game, I screamed Utinni so many times, I think I freaked my neighbors out.

The Edge of Darkness will satisfy those who want to play the yellow (Smugglers and Spies) and green (Scum and Villainy) factions of this cool game. Featuring a stellar “cast” of Jabba the Hutt, Bossk and Lando Calrissian, this looks like THE set of the year for me, since I really doubt FFG will be so focused on my favorite Dark Side bounty hunters, for a long time.

The Tatooine Crash objective itself looks like a solid capturing machine: the ability to mess with your opponent’s deck every turn is huge. Sure, capturing seems random enough, but I’ll take anything that is potentially disruptive in the long run. After all, it’s card gaming 101: disruption is the arguably the next best thing, after card draw.

And, I know I sound like a nutter but the artwork for Jawa Scavenger is simply, cool beans! Okay, I may have been less kind towards the standard of artwork in the earlier sets (I still stand by those assessments by the way), but things are looking better, aesthetically, so there.

I’m still hoping FFG keeps to the May 2013 release date for this set. I really, really want this, since yesterday.

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

It came as a great shock to me to learn that one of my favorite Magic: the Gathering illustrators, Quinton Hoover, had just passed on recently. He also contributed artwork in other games, including the Legend of the Five Rings Card Game.

I’ll fondly remember him for being one of the “greats”, for illustrating the first Magic sets. His style was very unique – surreal and beautiful at the same time.

For a deeper look at the artist’s life and achievements, do have a read at Glenn Godard’s “The Life And Times of Quinton Hoover”, which was featured on GatheringMagic.com last week.

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Finally: the long-awaited Lord of the Rings Deck Building Game, The Walking Dead Card Game and the Castle: The Detective Card Game should be clocking in here during the coming month of May.

This bunch of Cryptozoic games are long-awaited, and will finally make it here, reliable sources tell me. The LOTR game is much-awaited, and uses a modular Cerberus card game engine, meaning future related DBGs can be mixed in, further enhancing your playing experience.

Also appearing on the horizon will be the newest expansion for the Star Wars Living Card Game, by Fantasy Flight Games. The Search For Skywalker ought to arrive during May as well.

Watch this space as we get more details, soon!

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

As much as I am a Windows-device advocate, I have to concede that Apple is where it’s at, games-wise.

There’s a pretty lively virtual boardgaming scene there too, and the recent The Unofficial Apple Weblog announcement on Talisman Prologue being out this week, kind of sums up what we’ve suspected all along. Yes, playing iPad boardgame conversions is pretty much IT.

The same announcement also has confirmation of an iOS version of the sci-fi nugget, Eclipse, but it’s the fantasy Talisman Prologue which I’m really buzzed about. It’s one of the first boardgames I’ve ever laid my hands on (alas, I did’t get to play it then), way back in the early 1980s. Over the decades, it’s pretty much gone on to becoming a boardgaming legend.

Granted, many of us will favor different editions, and different expansions, but having a tablet-friendly version will go a long way in making sure the game finds a new, and refreshed following.

The graphics previewed look true to the cool art we’ve seen in the latest, Fourth Edition. They’ve also looked to have preserved the original mechanics, die rolls and all.

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

The Star recently highlighted a Malaysian-made card game that ought to resonate well enough across all segments of society, now: “Politiko”. Believe me I was actually driven to it, after reading a number of positive tweets and Facebook posts – hooray me for staying digitally social!

It seems that the game is getting quite a bit of buzz, ahead of actual polling day for the 13^th General Elections, on May 5.

Granted, it’s got to be one of the more mature games I’m usually recommending, but hey, our national issues never really consistently got a “General” rating, if you get my drift!

In Politiko, you have Party, Voter and Scheme cards. You need to win enough Voters, via the various Scheme cards.

The game is produced by the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights, better known as Pusat Rakyat LoyarBurok. It’s still available at better bookstores everywhere, and a Cziplee tweet today actually stated that fewer than a couple of dozen units of the game are left.

So yeah, I don’t often say this: but let’s get Politiko shall we?

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Wizards of the Coast has just started their daily previews on the next upcoming Magic: the Gathering expansion set, Dragon’s Maze.

Well, it’s good to know that the game’s still trucking along fine. (Yeah, I’m still out of touch, TCG-wise.)

The third and concluding set in the Return to Ravnica block, is set to wrap things up for the ten guilds, bringing along brand-new mythics and cool cardboard. More overpowered cards, and yes, more shifting of the metagame. Will Jund be even stronger, with all the new stuff that’s been shown so far? How many boxes does it take to own four of everything, including the mythics? Will you be attending the prerelease party and the release event?

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Games Workshop’s Space Hulk boardgame is a certified classic. The eminent miniatures game company’s primo reissue set several years back flew off the shelves, predictably. There’s also a card game version which I enjoy supremely, by Fantasy Flight Games, called Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game.

Now, looks like there will be a video game adaptation too, very soon. Boardgamegeek.com just shared an early demo video on what the game will likely look like, here.

Done by Full Control and Games Workshop, this cool game has a 2013 release window. It’s going to be mindblowing for sure!

So what do you think of this game? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.