Cards & Boards

The expansions just keep coming for Fantasy Flight Games boardgame titles.

And the latest to check in, is for Cadwallon: City of Thieves. King of Ashes. The add-on will have new adventures, characters, equipment, Arcana, and a new catacombs board for the guilds to explore and loot!

In case you missed out, Cadwallon: City of Thieves is a fast-paced game of cunning thievery and ruthless skullduggery in a fantasy city steeped in magic and intrigue.

Two to four players each control their own gang of four thieves, competing to amass the greatest haul of loot from the many carefully locked chests scattered around the board.

The most successful players are as likely to claim their loot from the other gangs as they are to do the time-consuming legwork themselves.

Adding to the randomness and fun are the Guild, who direct the thieves from the shadows, as well as the lawmen themselves (the militia), who will sound the alarm and stop you – eventually!

Anyway, the gist is that the King of Ashes expansion will feature four new adventures, four new mercenaries, the monstrous Cyclops of Mid-Nor, and dozens of new Arcana, equipment, and intrigue cards. Release date is the third quarter of this year, so buckle up!

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Work’s picked up again for yours truly, which accounts for the silence on the blog for a good week plus.

The good thing is, there’s been a slew of updates gaming-wise, so let’s get right to the heart of things shall we?

Firstly, Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) finally gave Star Wars gamers a solid reason to rejoice, as they finally gave a solid release timeline for its Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game. This summer release looks like a solid combo of painted, high-quality miniatures and cards that depict the pilots, equipment and equipment that these little beaters pack.

Yes, there’s even astromech droids, dice and some funky tokens to go along these starter sets. The game will be sold in Core Sets, which presumably is enough to start anyone off, as well as the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Y-Wing and TIE Advanced Expansion Packs, which add more fighters and pilots to the mix.

In other news, Wizards of the Coast has finally unveiled the entire card spoiler list for Magic: the Gathering’s newest set, Avacyn Restored. Being out of the scene for awhile now, what do you guys think?

And finally, I thought it’d be fun to highlight a pretty fun-sounding FFG boardgame, called Ugg-Tect. The team-based game has players racing to complete monuments in the cavemen era, accomplishing and performing “grunts” and actions along the way.

Sounds like another fun party game to me!

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Living card games have been steadily making its market in the increasingly diverse boardgames and card games market for a few years now.

The idea that one can share “expansions” which come in non-random assortments, thus reducing the need to “chase” cards, is one that seems to balance out the money factor so inherent in trading card games (TCGs), such as Magic: the Gathering. (By the way, Dark Ascension, the latest Magic set, has been completely “de-spoilered” here.)

As an “old hand” when it comes to TCGs, I have to admit that the kick of opening packs has somewhat lost its luster completely. Maybe it’s the awesome Blood Bowl Team Manager card game from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), which allows a mini-league to be run easily, but TCGs are certainly extremely low on my priority list now. I’m cured, haha!

Anyways, FFG has recently announced new league support kits across its three leading LCGs, A Game of Thrones, Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer Invasion.

These First Quarter 2012 LCG Game Night Kits are supposed to add another dimension of play to the existing games, by introducing new incentives and levels of play, via Achievement Books.

To quote FFG’s official announcement: “Each kit features Achievement Books that layer new challenges and accomplishments on top of regular play. Achievements offer veteran players a wide variety of game-specific challenges to tackle each week and reward new players with a sense of accomplishment as they mark these goals completed.”

Wow, just when I was actually considering Warhammer Invasion, on top of my ongoing Blood Bowl Team Manager league! So, game to try?

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

We’ve just entered the year 2012, and another holiday season passes us.

2011 was another decent one, games-wise, with polished products being churned out for Magic: the Gathering and the World of Warcraft TCG (WoW TCG). Games companies such as Fantasy Flight Games continued to impress with a slew of awesome products, with Blood Bowl Team Manager: The Card Game being one of the year’s surprise hits.

New box art for the upcoming Fortress America remake from Fantasy Flight Games.

This year should see more interesting releases and products. Apart from the usual follow-up expansions and follow-ups to existing product lines, there should be a couple of gems to look out for.

FFG seems to be setting the pace for the other game companies, as they’ve already lined up a Star Wars card game AND a Star Wars miniatures tactical combat game, after scooping the vaunted rights to the lucrative franchise.

These gaming stalwarts are also remaking Fortress America, a classic Milton-Bradley / Avalon Hill strategy boardgame back in the 1980s, and Nexus Ops, which was recently done by Hasbro and Avalon Hill (just several years back).

Fortress America looks like it will be majorly overhauled – well, the first preview article from FFG gives little away, but let’s see what the finished product will look like eh?

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

No, I have not suddenly developed an urge for something that’s seriously macabre.

I’m talking about my game group’s latest obsession, Fantasy Flight Games’ (FFG’s) Blood Bowl Team Manager Card Game.

If a non-collectible card game that depicts no-holds barred, violent football strikes your fancy, then this game is it.

Players assume the role of team managers, leading different Warhammer Fantasy-themed teams out to contest in various “match-ups.” You have Orcs, Skaven (giant rat-men), Chaos, Human, Dwarfs and Wood Elves. The object of the game is to win the highest number of fans – you’ve got a cool scoreboard tracker component to track this too (left)!

The two to four player game lets you win match-ups and take home prizes – Team Upgrades (which give the various races different cool abilities), Staff Upgrades (all teams have access to this; more team-based boons) and Star Players (the “meat” of the game IMHO, with these guys being the crème de le crème of the game).

The more you win, the more boons in the form of Team and Staff Upgrades, as well as Star Players. The Star Players is really where the game excels, since your starting line-up of a dozen players can definitely use some hotshots in the team. Most give an extra dimension to you, but the downside is, just like the other upgrades, they are drawn randomly, so you will never know who you’ll end up getting.

Match-ups are fast and furious as players go back and forth, tackling, sprinting, seizing the ball and event cheating. Love how they kept the core of the original miniatures game’s spirit, ie, cheating is mandatory! But careful, sometimes, your player might get the referee’s whistle, and sent off! Other times, cheaters win extra fans, and points. Highest number of points win match-ups.

First impressions for me and my group? Mighty impressive I must say: this is FFG’s most addictive non-collectible game this year so far. It’s stand-alone and all that, but my bunch have decided to run a league with this. We might even spice things up with our own dream cards and what not. It’s worth noting that the video game adaptation last year already gave fans 20 races: with only six here, can FFG please make expansions like now?

The game components are a dream too. Great looking art, especially on the cards, and sturdy components, especially the scoreboard tracker and the tokens. The cards need sleeving though – go with the FFG-made ones, you can’t go wrong with those.

Older gaming enthusiasts would recall a similar miniatures game, also known as Blood Bowl. Yeah, this is one and the same, with FFG giving the old classic a new revamp, turning it into a fast-paced hour-long (give or take 15 minutes) game.

For now, check out the Boardgamegeek.com entry, and the official FFG home page with downloadable rules and tutorial videos, if you haven’t already. Then buy the game – best RM135 you’ll ever spend I daresay.

Have something to say? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Some weeks ago I blogged about the new Fantasy Flight Games (FFG in short) Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game.

You might, at this point of time, groan and go, no, not another card game! Well, fear not my bloodthirsty Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Chaotic fellas and Rat, err, Skavens, for the game is a non-collectible one. Better yet, it is not even a Living Card Game, which makes this entirely self-contained, and very wallet-friendly.

Of course the cynics would note that the game might well have numerous expansions that introduce new teams, races and what-not, but let’s rejoice in the game being self-contained, and entirely playable on its own. Hoo-ah!

The awesome news is that local distributors should be having this mighty exciting looking game in the shops by this weekend.

Word has it that this game will retail for roughly RM135. Not too pricey, not too cheap either – I like!

Curious to see how the game works? Check out the FFG YouTube demo link embedded in its announcement article, here.

Well, all I can say is, this weekend can’t come soon enough!

What do you guys think? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Fantasy Flight Games (www.fantasyflightgames) is one helluva busy company these days. (more…)

Cadwallon: City of Thieves, is one Fantasy Flight Games’ latest boardgames. In the game, you control one of the four gangs of thieves who seek to bring home the most amount of loot in the city of Cadwallon. (more…)