Errr. Game make Game Caveman happy.

Game Caveman not smart enough for Power Grid.  Game Caveman CAN play First Sparks!

Okay, that’s enough of you Cavey. That’s right, though, folks, a new version of Power Grid, The First Sparks releases today!

A standalone edition, The First Sparks maintains most of the original game’s mechanics, but transports the gameplay to the first days of human existence. Keeping with the theme of early man, the game moves faster than the original, while also adding new elements of play. Players work to build better equipment for hunting and surviving in the wilderness while also attempting to keep the rest of their tribe alive. So, in the words of Game Caveman: Rrrrrgggghh, game good.

A bit of trivia for you folks out there, Clint Eastwood’s classic western, A Fistful of Dollars, was originally titled A Fistful of Penguins. Sergio Leone changed it, though, for fear that audiences wouldn’t get the inclusion of an Arctic animal in the desert. Luckily, the new A Fistful of Penguins game reclaims the title. Another dice game in a series of popular dice rolling games like Zombie Dice, BEARS!, and Martian Dice, this time around players are attempting to collect various animals for their zoo. Be forewarned, though, each animal comes with their own benefit and flaw. Having a fistful of penguin tokens, however, will always help you gain more dice. A fun, quick little game for the family, A Fistful of Penguins takes the best of dice games and Zooleretto, binds them together, and delivers a good time for all.

Captain’s log 4458. WizKids has yet again released an appealing miniatures game, this time based around the ships and battles of Star Trek. For the record, there are two ways to collect and acquire these prepainted ship miniatures. One, would be to pick up a Star Trek Heroclix Tactics box set, which comes with four key ships, including the Enterprise. Two, would be to beam up one or more of the individual Star Trek boosters, each coming a single, random ship. Both are perfect for use with any Star Trek miniature game, such as Expeditions or Fleet Captains.

And speaking of Expeditions, it should be noted that a new expansion set for the game also shipped today. Containing three new characters (Sulu, Scotty, and Chekov) and their character cards, when playing with this expansion the game will now be able to accommodate up to five players at once.

As the Apostasy Gambit reaches its climax, the third chapter in the Dark Heresy adventures RPG makes its entrance. This supplemental edition, Chaos Commandment, presents four new chapters for gameplay, all focusing on the Acolytes and their effort to save the Calixis Sector.

Anyone who doesn’t like pandas has no heart. It’s just a fact, people. So, if you have a heart, love pandas, and want to see them thrive, then Takenoko is your game. Players raise and care for bamboo crops, of various varieties, in an effort to feed and keep the emperor’s panda happy. Colorful game pieces, artwork, and miniatures combined with fun, easy to learn gameplay, make Takenoko quite the enjoyable experience. That and pandas.

Ecpecto gamtronum!

Though Wiz-War is indeed about wizards, they are not the cutesy, lovable kind from Harry Potter. These wizards are greedy and desperate to beat their opponents into the pavement. To do so, two to four players compete with spells of varying types across a segmented board. Updated from the classic game created by Tom Jolly, Wiz-War is the newest version of the classic wizard battle game.

 

Allow me to level with you all.

Tonight is a busy, busy night up here at Pulp Ficiton. There is what the Magic the Gathering addicted call a Pre-Release. To give you an idea of what these are like, imagine a horde of monkies with jetpacks high on cocaine. That will give you a slight idea of the insanity inherent in running a Magic Pre-Release.

For that reason, I’ll be cutting a few corners with tonight’s New Game Stuff Post. We’re going to play the back of the game box game tonight, so here we go.

Pathfinder Module: The Ruby Phoenix Tournament
An event-based adventure for 11th level characters…compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world’s oldest RPG. Set in the Dragon Empires of the Pathfinder campaign setting, the adventure serves as an ideal introduction to the folk and fighting styles of the lands encompassing the Eastern-inspired continent of Tian Xia, and contains a fully detailed island location and a brand-new monster sure to challenge players in any campaign setting.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Jade Regent Poster Map Folio
Within this map folio, you’ll find three huge 8-panel maps: one of the frozen reaches of the Crown of the World, one of Minkai’s capital city of Kasai, and one of the entire continent of Tian Xia, home of the Dragon Empires and site of the final chapters in the Jade Regent Adventure Path. Even if you aren’t running the Jade Regent Adventure Path, the maps inside can serve as the surroundings for all sorts of arctic adventures or urban mysteries, or an entire campaign setting for you to detail on your own! The spirit of exploration calls you – are you brave enough to answer?

Legend of the Five Rings RPG: Imperial Histories
*Ten eras in great detail, including The Dawn of the Empire, The Gozoku Era, The Clan Wars, The Thousand Years of Darkness, and more.
*In depth look at the Clans and personalities who shaped those eras.
*All new schools, spells, ancestors, techniques, and more, some thought lost to the ages.
*The 1000 Years of Darkness in great detail. Offering you an opportunity to fully explore this apocalyptic alternate history.

Nexus Ops
…is a board game of fierce sci-fi battles and fantastic alien creatures in which two to four players control factions of corporate troops and strange life forms on an alien moon. This updated edition of the classic title features detailed plastic figure, stunning new art, a clarified rulebook, as well as a host of optional rules and variants. Gather your troops, tame the aliens, and begin the harvest!

Call of Cthulhu the Card Game: Shadow of the Monolith
The sixth Asylum Pack in this cycle that centers on the South Pacific. This chain of islands has flora and fauna that can be found nowhere else on Earth. What else lies hidden and waiting?

Warhammer Invasion the Card Game: City of Winter
The Fifth Battle Pack installment of The Capital Cycle, a linked expansion series for Warhammer: Invasion, a card game of intense warfare, clever kingdom management, and epic questin. This 60 card pack contains 20 different never-before-seen cards designed to augment existing decks and add variety to the Warhammer: Invasion metagame.

 

HELLO. TONIGHT GAME STUFF ROBOT WILL EXPLAIN.

PROCESSING….PROCESSING…

FIRST GAME IS POWER GRID: THE ROBOTS. IT IS 10110011! HAHA! ROBOT HUMOR!

THIS EXPANSION IS COMPATIBLE WITH TWO PLAYERS, BUT IF DESIRED, YOU MAY PLAY WITH UP TO 5. EACH ROBOT PIECE IS COMPRISED OF TILES. THESE TILES EXPLAIN THE RULES AND ACTIONS OF EACH ROBOT SO THAT PLAYERS MAY USE THEM AS INANIMATE OPPONENTS. DO NOT LAUGH AT ROBOT, THEY ARE SERIOUS OPPONENT. THEIR SPECIAL ABILITIES GIVE THEM BENEFITS THAT OUTWEIGH NORMAL PLAYERS. ALSO…

DESTROY ALL HUMANS! DESTROY! DESTROY! DES…***

Sorry about that. Some times he gets overworked.

So, anyway, back to just us humans.

Well, humans and hobbits and elves and orks, anyway. Releasing its second edition, War of the Ring finally returns to the shelves today. What used to be a scrictly two player game has now expanded up to four (don’t worry, though, you can still play one-on-one), but the gameplay of Free Peoples versus Sauron’s legions is still intact. One side plays the “good guys” attempting to battle Sauron and get the ring to Mordor, while the other side plays Sauron’s forces, searchig across the land for beings to slaughter. The 205 miniatures included along with the board have been updated with intricate detail and design.

But don’t kick yourself if you’ve already bought the first edition and are feeling left out. Ares Games has you in mind. In fact, they’ve created a special conversion kit just so you can keep using your copy of the first edition. Coming in a sturdy tin container the kit comes with all the good and evil forces cards you will need to update your game along with specially sized sleeves to protect all of them. Now that’s thinking ahead.

Well, guess that’s all…wait, no, don’t…Aaaagggghhh!

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! GAME STUFF ROBOT WILL EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS!

 

Let me tell you something about Khazad-Dum. Not the place you want to go for a wedding reception. Just terrible ambience.

However, as a new expansion for the Lord of the Rings LCG card game, it’s just what the cleric ordered. Coming with three entirely new scenarios for players to battle through, you would alone consider this worth it, but add on top of that two additional dwarf heroes, encounter cards, and quest cards and all I got to say is…YOU SHALL NOT PASS…on buying it.

If we’re going to start with the grandaddy of all fantasy epics, may as well follow with some of its grandchildren.

Battle of Westros gains yet another expansion set this week, this time introducing a new ally faction to the game and dubbed Brotherhood Without Banners. As is the case with all the Westros expansion sets, this one includes all the essential to add the faction into play, including rules, battle plans, 36 new figures, tokens, and terrain overlays.

A second distant cousin, A Game of Thrones LCG, receives both a new expansion set and chapter pack this week. The expansion, Lions of the Rock, focuses on the new cards relating to the House of Lannister, providing 165 cards that help to build two separate theme decks. Where Loyalty Lies is the chapter pack in question, is the fourth addition to the Tales of Champions chapter. Jam packed with 60 cards, pick it up to keep your game progressing.

The, lets say, brother of Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, today released one of its high-quality Map Packs, this time around depicting the ruins of a religious nature. Coming with three individual maps, the set includes materials for a crumbling cathedral, haunted chapel, and other currently out-of-print sources.

Finally, the stepbrother of the pack, Pathfinder, launches full bore into its miniature onslaught with their first Pathfinder Battles booster pack release. These individual, blind box boosters contain a single miniature, all of which are compatible with the roleplaying game. Bricks of figures are even said to contain a minimal amount of repeats, which seems to be a nice incentive to pick up figures that way. And if you need something bigger than you standard hero, you might want to go for one of the monster boosters, which includes a giant size creature figurine.

If you go all in and grab a case of figures, you should be aware that you then have the opportunity to purchase a mega-uber-super-crazy rare black dragon miniature. A small, small amount of these are available, so snag one before they vanish into myth.

Alright, family reunion over. Now to hop a train to further regions. Or, at least, if you have a Ticket to Ride.

That’s right, another new Ticket to Ride map expansion, this time to the far reaches of India and Switzerland. Like the recent Asia expansion, two maps and destination tickets are included in this set, both of which require one of the base editions to play. The Switzerland board is a reprint, but a pretty fantastic one, to be sure. Made for only 2-3 players, a bonus option of connecting countries is available in addition to the standard route building option. The India board, on the other hand, is entirely new, coming with new challenges and strategies.

Who doesn’t love a new deck building game? I do. Many customers do. And, apparently, so does Penny Arcade. In Penny Arcade the Game: Gamers vs. Evil, up to four players battle for deck dominence with by collecting cards emblazened with cast members of the popular web series. Oh, and you also get a D20, ’cause why not?

 

Not sure about you, but there’s nothing better to do on a New Years Eve than venture across fantasty landscape, battle creatures, overtake towers, and become the most powerful warrior in the land. Or maybe drink a lot. Or you can always combine both.

In that effort, we present the new Mage Knight board game from WizKids. Expanding on the original Mage Knight miniature game, this board game offering forms the adventure around the player as they choose what to attack, what spells to develop, and what dungeons to raid. Based on these actions players gain or lose fame, loot, and acclaim as the most praised Mage Knight in the land. Taking place over three rounds of night and day, players adventure with one of four knights, balancing their action deck with their adventure choices.

And what would that night be without a dragon or two?

The new Dungeon Petz (a stand alone spin-off of Dungeon Lords) can supply just those kind of creatures. At heart a worker placement game, Dungeon Petz involves opponents strategically positioning workers in hopes of breeding, feeding, and selling the most exotic assortment of fantasy beasties know to imp kind. Supplied with humorously cartoony artwork and finely crafted pieces from Z-Man games, Dungeon Petz should make every happy. Except PETA, those guys are never happy about anything involving animals.

If you’re one of the folks who favor Ascension over Dominion (or if you like both) you might prick your ears up to hear about the new Ascension: Storm of Souls expansion/game. That / is in the previous sentence because this bad boy does not need to be combined with the base game. So, when you pick up Storm of Souls (as I’m sure you all will), you’ll be getting a completlely stand-alone game filled with new mechnics previously unavailable in the other Ascension editions. Namely, these come in the form of new Event Cards which alter the rules of the game as you play. And if you’ve got up to six players, you may as well combine it with base Ascension for more god fighting action.

© 2012 Pulp Fiction Comics & Games Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha