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.

 

Writing a website post in the middle of a gigantic Magic the Gathering Pre-Release event is kind of like juggling chainsaws while being barraged with sharks fired from cannons.  Okay, it’s not exactly like that, but close.

Either way, I have Magic on the brain.  And the only way to get rid of it is to tell you fine peoples about the new Magic accessories we received this week.  First off there are the new sleeves and deck boxes that coincide with the new Innistrad set.  These include a Liliana Vess deck box and sleeves as well as a regular Innistrad box and sleeves emblazoned with some shadowy wolves.  Along with that, though, there is a rainbow of leather mana deck boxes.  These babies are sweet as they are sturdier than most deck boxes while also having magnetically sealing lids.

As a recent comic stated brilliantly, when there’s a problem, throw dragons at it.  That’s not to say that there is a problem with the fourth edition of Talisman, but it’s always proper to toss dragons about.  And so Fantasy Flight has dubbed their newest expansion, The Dragon.  Inside its hefty packaging are all the pieces to add the Inner Region to your next Talisman experience.  These pieces include over 170 cards, 160 tokens, a rule book, and six plastic figures.  If you guessed that one of the figures is a dragon-related, you win a prize.

If I had a million dollars and was in the market for a spacey mansion, I do not think I would go much further than a tour on the Mansion of Madness.  Each to their own, though.  Especially because most would say that they love playing Mansion of Madness, the Arkham Horror offshoot.  And they’ll say that even louder if they get their hands on the new Season of the Witch and Silver Tablet expansions.  These are print on demand scenario expansions, so very, very, very (did I mention very?) limited expansions.  They both give players an original single-scenario and all the pieces to play it.  And they are a lot cheaper than a million dollars!

There are a bunch of sci-fi RPGs nowadays, but how many of them have gun-totting locust people?  One:  Ashen Stars.  Set in a rough and rowdy universe known as The Bleed, games put players in the role of a unit of freelance space cops settling disputes, chasing baddies, and blowing lots o’ stuff up.  There are seven different, detailed races to choose from, including the kch-thk which are the locusts I mentioned at the beginning.  This hardcover also contains all sorts of information on vehicles and NPC threats.

Do you have the next big game idea?  Okay, say you do, do you know how to design it and then get people to buy it?  There’s a good chance that’ll be a “no”.  For those creative people out there Open Design has just printed The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design.  This nifty pocket-sized edition has entries from some of the top creators today, including Steve Jackson, Richard Garfield, and James Ernest.  Broken into easy to navigate chapters on concepting, design, development, and presentation this should be on the desk of every self-respecting hopeful designer out there.

The Warhammer 40K RPG universe gets much bigger this week with the new Black Crusade hardcover.  It also gets much darker.  Much darker.  Inside players find the instructions on how to make either a Chaos Space Marine or a Disciple of Chaos gunning to bring down the Imperium.  As the book is about 400 pages long, rules for just about every possible situation, be it combat or conversational, are held within.  And instead of dropping you in headfirst, the book offers up a complete adventure for beginners.  Shipping along with Black Crusade this week is the related Game Master’s Kit.  If you’re running a game in the world, you’ll want to have the screen for quick reference of NPCs, base rules, and helpful advice.

Fiction log, stardate 9242011.  A new Star Trek board game has appeared on deck.  The crew has fallen into its trap of epic space battles spread across an, as to this point, undiscovered region of space.  They have selected their sides, being Federation or Klingon, and are currently deploying ships from twelve popular models as strategically as possible so as to defeat rival ships, complete scientific missions, and solve various other obstacles.  This game, Star Trek:  Fleet Captains, not only covers the original Star Trek universe, but Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager.  Personal note:  having loved the recent Star Trek Expeditions game from Wizkids and knowing that this is from the same company, has weakened my own resistance, eventually resulting in an out pouring of nerdom.

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