You Got Kemet in My Cyclades!

By Firestone A weuro is a wargame (usually a lighter one) that has definite Euro mechanisms in it. Wallenstein was one of the first of these—or at least the first to become popular. Other notable examples include Friedrich and A Game of Thrones.

I usually don't play these sort of games, because I'm generally not aggressive enough to do well at them. But I've played two weuros from Matagot in the last 6 months that have completely captured me, and made me a convert: Cyclades and Kemet.

Each of them rewards aggressive behavior (particularly Kemet), but they also have special power cards, interesting auctions, and other Euro mechanics. Oh...and did I mention the MONSTERS?! Both games are also known for adding monsters to the mix. You can recruit mythological Greek monsters to help you in Cyclades (minotaur, kraken, Polyphemus, etc.), and Egyptian monsters in Kemet (giant scarab, giant scorpion, mummy, etc.). There are detailed miniatures that are sure to turn the heads of anyone passing by your game table.

Both games are just terrific and clever and worth playing. And now there's even more reason! Matagot has announced that they'll have a mini expansion available at Essen (and later through Asmodee). C3K, which stands for "Creatures Crossover Cyclades/Kemet," is seven cards for Cyclades and six power tiles for Kemet that allow you to use monsters from one game in the other.

According to Matagot's description, "With this expansion added to Kemet, the Greek Legends join the fight, bringing new powers to your army. Now you can make the Kraken appear in the Nile River and benefit from its strength, use Medusa's deadly stare to destroy enemy shields, and more.

With this expansion added to Cyclades, you can hire Egyptian Reinforcements, a new type of troop that comes with a special attack. Use the Mummy to raise fallen enemies into troops under your control, use the Elephant to improve your dice rolls, and more."

The expansion will NOT come with the monsters, so you'll have to own copies of each game.

Have you played one or both of these games? What did you think? Are you excited about this news? Thanks for reading! And make sure you connect with us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

TOG Joins the Extra-Life Gaming Marathon!

Every once in a while an opportunity comes along to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and to reach out and help those who are in desperate need. And sometimes that opportunity takes the form of something we also love to do. So we're very pleased to announce that Theology of Games has joined the Extra-Life gaming marathon that will take place on November 2nd!

What is this? A gaming marathon? How does that help others? We're glad you asked... Read on!

Here are the basics -

1 - Sign up. You can either join a team, or create your own.

2 - Tell people what you're doing.

3 - Send them links to your team page and kindly ask for their sponsorship.

4 -  Play games from 8:00 am Nov. 2 - 8:00 am Nov 3.

ALL of the proceeds go to the Children's Miracle Network Hospital of your choice. The hospital I (Jeremiah) am supporting is Akron Children's Hospital. I live about 5 minutes from this hospital, and we have been blessed to have such a great and top notch medical facility nearby to help us care for our boys.

Here are some more details about Team TOG -

We (and when I say we, I mean Jeremiah) will be playing games at the Root Cafe, 852 Bath Rd. Cuyahoga Falls, OH, 44223. If you want to join us and be a part of the team, GREAT! If you just want to come and play for a few hours, GREAT! Or if you just want to support our efforts financially, GREAT! Karolyn at the Root has been gracious enough to make the venue available to us for the full 24 hours. I plan to schedule out the day with different events; we'll Skype in game designers to chat about the games we're playing, and all sorts of fun stuff! Plus we'll have a great supply of food and caffeinated beverages to keep us going! We'll have more details available as they get worked out!

If you'd like to join us or support us you can find our team page right here!

Thanks so much for reading, we'll be sending out updates about the event on all of our social media outlets, so make sure you check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! And don't forget, we're podcasters now too!

Carcassonne Around the World!

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Some may say that it's impossible to catch up with the popularity of the likes of Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, but Carcassonne is doing its best to pump out fresh versions, expansions, and editions of the game until the market is oversaturated. Hans im Gluck, publisher of Carcassonne, announced the franchise's next step toward that end.

Carcassonne: Sudsee will be released on October 21 of this year, as the franchise continues its trip around the world. Some would say it's impossible to build the French city in such places as North America, or...I don't know...a tropical island? But those are the words of fools!

Sudsee will keep "the familiar tile-laying gameplay of the original Carcassonne, with players adding a tile to the playing area each round and optionally placing a token on the tile to claim ownership of...something. Instead of the familiar cities, roads and farms, however, players in Carcassonne: Südsee use their meeples to gather bananas, shellfish and fish, then ship those goods to traders in exchange for points."

Can't get enough Carcassonne? Want to see it in more places? You're in luck, because this is being touted as the first in a series dubbed "Carcassonne Around the World".

What do you think? Will you pick up the newest iteration of the tile placing classic? Is it necessary?

Hanabi Gets the Deluxe Treatment

by Firestone Even though it's only September, Hanabi is on my short-list for Game of the Year. So what could make this Spiel Des Jahres winner even better? A DELUXE EDITION.

Designer Antoine Bauza teased a pic on Twitter that revealed a deluxe edition of the game is in the...works. (See what I did there?)

This one will feature tiles instead of cards. Matthias Wagner of Abacusspiele has dropped some details.

The material will be similar to the bakelite used in Hive.

The tiles will be thick enough to stand up and stack (32x25x15mm).

They'll be engraved.

I love the idea of being able to stack these, turn them sideways, move some forward or backward, or group them. The maneuverability of the tiles is much better than the cards.  But the price of this beauty will be $90, so I'll likely just be sticking to my $10 copy.

Will you be picking this up once it's out?

Thanks for reading!

Z-Man to Reprint Ricochet Robots—AKA: Box Of Headaches

Do you like puzzles? And headaches?! Well we have some good news for you!

Z-Man Games has announced they're reprinting the classic puzzler Ricochet Robots. Four boards are randomly placed down, and four robots are placed on the boards. Once a robot starts to move, it will keep moving until it hits a wall or another robot. You're trying to get certain robots to certain random targets in the fewest number of moves. With a reported 1500 different board configurations, no two games will ever be the same.

I (Firestone) have played this game only once. You know how you joke about game being "brain-burning" or that it's so dense it gives you a headache? This game seriously gave me a headache.

But some people I know (Hi William!) really love this game, and are terrific at it. Their brains are wired differently than mine...

Here's what comes in the box:

8 two-sided boards

1 centerpiece

5 robots

5 Start space markers

17 Target chips

1 sand timer

1 rulebook

Z-Man's site lists this as "Currently in production" with a Fall release window.

Have you played this? Are you looking forward to it?

Kickstarter Weekly - Aug. 30, 2013

Well, our little experiment last week resulted in a much different outcome than we thought it would. Thanks again everyone for the feedback! We're back to normal for now, until we decide to rock the boat again! Speaking of new things, you may have missed it yesterday, (we had a little hiccup with our email delivery system!) but we have officially launched the Theology of Games podcast! You can find it on iTunes by following this link RIGHT HERE!!! We're very excited about this, and would love any and all feedback!

Anyway, there's lots of stuff going down on Kickstarter this week, so let's jump in!

Fantasy Frontier - Gamelyn Games

We're really excited for this one! Gamelyn Games, which brought us Dungeon Heroes, is bringing us this worker- and tile-placement game that has players exploring a new frontier in steampunky dirigibles! Check back soon for an interview with Michael about this, and all things Gamelyn Games! The campaign is chugging along and is about 20% funded after just 24 hours.

A pledge of $45 gets you in on a copy of the game, and you can check out the campaign, right here!

The Cards of Cthulhu - Dan Verssen Games

Yep, it's another Cthulhu themed game. This time featuring a solitaire to 4-player system, </begin obligatory Cthulhu game description> players take on the roles of investigators trying to save the world from eternal torment, from the elder gods. </end obligatory Cthulhu game description>. The game system looks interesting on this one, and they've blown past their funding goal within the first 24 hours.

They've unlocked a lot of stretch goals and a $30 pledge gets you in on the fun, and you can check out the campaign, right here!

Infamy - Mercury Games Inc.

This is Mercury Games' sophomore Kickstarter voyage after a successful first go-around. Infamy is a bidding-based game set in a cyberpunk realm,

$45 gets you a copy of the game and they're limiting the amount of pledges to 2,000, although it doesn't seem yet that their going to be turning folks away. You can check out the campaign, right here.

Burning Suns - Sun Tzu Games

It's really hard to tell a whole lot about the game play of this from the main video on the campaign. But check out those sweet die-ships! The game looks to be just the beginning of what will expand into something larger if they get the chance to bring it to market.

For a pledge of 45 pounds (About $69 usd) you get the entire game, plus anything else that is unlocked during the campaign. Speaking of which you can check it out here!

Funded!

A few campaigns have closed recently...

Templar the Secret Treasures - Queen Games

So you're basically hiding treasure in an Abbey and trying to keep it safe. Looks like a fun game, but you're going to have to wait until it hits the shelves! You can take a look at the campaign, right here!

A Duel Betwixt Us - Game Salute

The game was 624% funded. Yeah I'd say that was successful! We're pretty excited about this one. You can check out the campaign here, and our interview with co-designer Laurence Honderick too!

Whaaa happened?

Privateer - Ensignia Games

For some reason unbeknownst to us the campaign for Privateer has been canceled by Ensignia Games. This is a shame because the game looks great. We've reached out to Ensignia to see if they have any plans to relaunch the campaign. (The first one was doing great, just about $4,000 short of the goal with over 3 weeks left!) We're really hoping that we see this one re-launch soon!

That's it for now! Is there something cool you're backing that we missed? (I wouldn't doubt it!) Let us know!

Thanks so much for reading, please take a few seconds and subscribe to the blog over on the right. And look us up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! And don't forget the brand-spanking new podcast! Just click this little ol' link here to find that!!

It's Finally Here! Our First Podcast

Okay, first: Thanks so much for your patience. The truth is, this was way more work than we thought it would be. So it took a little longer to get this out than we'd hoped. But we learned a bunch during the process, and it'll be easier from now on (we hope!).

There are a couple of things we're still figuring out. For instance, a few times during the podcast, Jeremiah's voice echoes a little bit. But it never lasts more than a minute of two, so please bear with us.

We seriously, seriously want your feedback. If something is good, bad, or ugly, let us know.

And we've already recorded podcast #2, so look for that in just a few days. (And that's our plan going forward: A new podcast at the beginning of the month.) Thanks for reading and watching (and now listening!).

Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe!

Blue Moon is Coming Back in Print!

By Firestone This is seriously good news, folks. Back in 2004, designer Reiner Knizia came out with what was really the first LCG: Blue Moon. It and the expansion decks slowly went out of print, and they were recently fetching big bucks on the secondary market. That's all about to change...

Fantasy Flight has announced Blue Moon Legends, which will collect both the original game and the expansions into one package. There are numerous races in the land, and each is vying for control. They all have different strengths, characters, abilities, weapons, and control of the planet's main resources: Fire and Earth. Each race genuinely feels unique, and they're all a joy to play.

The game comes with nine preconstructed decks, and while you can play with those just fine on their own, you can also construct decks. There are rules for adding a few people from other races to any other race's deck.

The cards all look slightly different than they did in the original game—and the cards have gone from tall, "tarot" sized cards to regular-sized ones. My concern is that FF will look to expand this, which will mean if I want to play with the new decks, I'll have to re-buy the game I already own. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Which will be Q1 of next year.

There will be a TON of replayability and fun in this box. But there is one important thing to note. One of the races in the Mimex, which are sort of Amazons who wear almost no clothes. The game doesn't actually show nudity, but it comes quite close. I have every deck from this except the Mimex; I made the conscious decision never to buy it, and if I ever pick this game up, I'll be pulling them out.

Did you ever play the original? Are you excited about this announcement?

The Latest 'Mages Battling Each Other' Game, From Designer Vlaada Chvatil

Maybe I missed a resurgence in popularity of the Disney film The Sword In the Stone, but suddenly we're seeing a bunch of mages-kicking-each-others'-butts games: Summoner Wars, Mage Wars, Seasons, and now...Tash-Kalar: Arena Of Legends from designer Vlaada Chvatil.

According to Czech Games Edition, "The game includes three different factions, each with a unique deck of beings to summon and one deck of legendary creatures. Players take turns placing their common pieces on the board, and if they succeed in creating patterns depicted on one of the cards in hand, they may play it. When played, the card summons a particular being and allows the player to perform an effect described on the card: a giant destroys neighboring pieces, a knight moves through enemy pieces, a warlord orders previously placed pieces to move and fight, an enchantress converts enemy pieces to player's own color, etc. After that, the player discards the card and the summoned being turns into a motionless piece which may be used in patterns for summoning other beings – or even be awakened and moved into combat by the effects of other cards."

The game says it's for 2-4 players, but I'm not sure how 4 players will play with only three factions.

It looks very abstract, actually—not at all the heavily thematic games we've seen in Mage Knight The Board Game and Dungeon Lords.

Vlaada is hit-and-miss for me, so I'm not sure how likely I am to try this one. How about you?

Mayfair Makes History

It's no secret that one of the biggest events in gaming happened just over a week ago, in Indianapolis. Yes, we are of course referring to Gencon. Mayfair Games, one of the world's top publishers, and gatekeepers of the Catan franchise, had HUGE plans for the con this year. How huge? Well, let's find out...

Mayfair set out to make the Guinness Book of World Records by hosting the world's largest group of people playing a single game of Settlers of Catan. And set the record they did! 922 Settlers fans sat down to roll the dice and trade resources on the Island CONTINENT of Catan. Setting an Official Guinness World Record.

With so many game events going on at Gencon, you may have been playing in this event and not even realized it. So we've compiled a list to help you determine if you're a part of gaming history

10 Signs You’re Playing in a Guinness World Record Breaking, 922-player, Settlers Of Catan Game.

10. You have 2.5 hours between turns to use the bathroom.

9. You have to keep track of which of the 153 subtle shades of blue you are. “You’re Cambridge blue, not Carolina blue! Sheesh!”

8. GenCon has been over for a week and you’re still on turn 2.

7. The Longest Road is 4.2 actual miles long.

6. There’s a 1 in 922 chance of the robber hitting you, and it still happens three turns in a row...

5. The 75-pound accountant in the Wolverine costume keeps screwing up the board with his homemade, aluminum-foil claws.

4. You were the last to place your first settlement and the only hex left was in Gary, Indiana.

3. Someone finally snaps, jumps onto the table, rips off his shirt, yells “I am the king of Catan!!” and passes out.

2. You find out that guy was Klaus Teuber.

1. 3,723 “Wood for sheep” jokes!

Congratulations to Mayfair, and thanks for reading!

Stay tuned this week as we bring you all sorts of other fun stuff from around the gaming world! And don't forget to check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!

How would you handle playing a game with nearly one thousand people? Leave it in the comments!