Should Established Publishers be Crowd-Funding Their Games?

A few weeks ago we told you that Hans im Gluck is preparing to crowd fund the latest edition of Saint Petersburg. Firestone and I (Jeremiah) have recently had some discussions about whether or not it's right, or a misuse of the crowd funding tools, for well-established publishers to bring new titles--or special edition/big box versions of classic titles--into the marketplace via crowd-funding sites such as Kickstarter. 

Hans im Gluck is giving fans the opportunity to cast votes for their favorite gaming industry personalities, designers, artists, developers, and---ahem--bloggers, whose likeness will be used for eight cards in the game. Fans have also already cast their votes for the new edition's box color--teal. And the campaign will go live on March 21, 2014.

But the real question is: should it? According to Hans im Gluck, the fans have been clamoring for this, but where do you land on the topic of large publishers crowd funding? Is crowd funding for everyone? Should the "big boys" stay away and let "the least of these" scrap it out? What's the difference between Kickstarting a game and having a preorder system? Does it make any difference how they fund the game, as long as it gets on the shelves? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and/or by taking our survey!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

[polldaddy poll=7838446]

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Knizia is Back With A New Game from Fantasy Flight

Okay, Knizia's been working on some things--mostly iOS implementations of his games. But he used to come out with games all the time. And he's designed some absolute classics. So it's super exciting to hear about a new game from the Doctor!

Fantasy Flight has announced Age Of War, a dice game for 2 to 6 players set in feudal Japan.

According to the description:

"Each turn in Age of War, you must decide where to commit your armies against a castle. At the beginning of the game, fourteen castles are laid out, divided between six clans: Mori, Uesugi, Chosokabe, Shimazu, Tokugawa, and Oda. On your turn, you will attack one of these castles. Each castle card displays a number of battle lines showing different symbols. On your turn, you will attempt to conquer a castle by matching your dice results to the symbols in the battle lines of a chosen castle.

Your turn begins by mustering your troops – rolling seven custom dice to gather infantry, archers, cavalry, and loyal daimyos to your attack force. Once your troops are mustered, you may attack a castle by matching the results of your dice to one battle line on the besieged castle. If unfilled battle lines remain on the castle card, you must reroll the dice to muster your troops again and press the attack.

If, after any roll, you cannot fill a battle line on the besieged castle, your assault is thrown back. You must regroup your troops by setting one die aside, before mustering your troops again by rolling your remaining dice.

If you can conquer a castle by filling all of its battle lines, you take the castle card and add it to your play area as one of your castles, and the castle’s point value counts towards your total score. But just because you conquer a castle doesn’t mean that castle is safe! You can attack other players’ castles on your turn in the same way you attack unclaimed castles, with the addition of the red daimyo in the upper left hand corner of the castle card as another battle line that must be completed to conquer the castle."

The game is expected in the second quarter of the year. I don't know about you, but hearing about a new Knizia game fills me with joy. He was The Man when I got into this hobby, and it's good to see him coming back.

What's your favorite Knizia game? Or favorite Knizia memory?

Thanks for reading!

Eldritch Horror is Getting an Expansion

Fantasy Flight has announced a small expansion for their co-op Lovecraftian game Eldritch Horror, called Forsaken Lore. 

The deck of cards adds over 100 new Encounter cards, 20 Condition cards, and 14 new Mysteries. 

According to the press release: 

"Yig’s cultists and the Serpent People make their way across the world, determined to conquer for their master. Savage and sly, these venomous cultists and the serpents under their control unleash a new horror on investigators – a condition called Poisoned. Yig enters the game with six unique mysteries, and your Investigators will need to gather all of their strength and cunning to keep Yig from entering our world. Break the power of the Serpent Crown over the will of the people, and defeat the Winged Serpent Epic Monster in order to world safe once more."

This will hit second quarter of 2014. What are your thoughts on this expansion? Is it too soon after the regular release for your tastes? Should FF have included this in the original box, rather than going for more $? Do you not care about that at all, and JUST WANT MORE EXPANSION GOODNESS? Let us know in the comments. 

 Thanks for reading!

Days Of Wonder Announces Ticket To Ride: 10th Anniversary Edition

By Firestone It's the perfect gateway game. It's the game my Mom wants me to bring to every holiday get-together. It's often mistakenly called "The train game"--also by my Mom. And it's turning 10 years old...with a shiny new edition.

Days Of Wonder has announced the 10th Anniversary Edition of their blockbuster bestseller.

The game will come with in an oversized box, with new cover design and graphics. And the new and redesigned board will be 50% larger than the original.

The box will also include:

• 5 Tin Boxes, each with 48 finely sculpted trains
• 5 Wooden Scoring Markers
• 1 Multilingual Rules Booklet
• 110 Train Cards with all new illustrations
• 30 Classic Destination Tickets
• 35 Destination Tickets from USA 1910
• 4 Destination Tickets from Mystery Train
• 1 Longest Route/Globetrotter Bonus card

Those trains and tins look really cool! It drops in June, but start saving your pennies now: it'll cost $100...

Hans Im Gluck Announces Expansions for Carcassonne and Bruges

One of the many toy fairs in Germany is the Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair Nürnberg, held in February. As you can imagine, there are many new games and expansions announced there--including new expansions for Stefan Feld's Bruges, and the latest Carcassonne expansion.

While we'll be the first to admit that some of the Carcassonne expansions have jumped the shark *coughCatapultcough*, Carcassonne: Sheep and Hills actually looks pretty good. First, there are some hill tiles, and when you place one you immediately draw another tile and place it under the hill tile, creating a...hill. Now, if there's a tie, whoever is on a hill will break the tie. This is an easy and neat little addition that's simple enough to even add to the base game when playing with newbies.

In addition, there are sheep tiles that let you draw sheep chits from a bag if you place your shepherd (a new figure) there. But beware...there are also wolf chits, and they'll gobble up your sheep.

And finally, though it's not mentioned in the title, there are also a few new tiles with vineyards on them. If you place one of these vineyards next to a monastery, then when (and only when) that monastery scores, you score three extra points.

These all seem like sensible, easy to include, not-insane expansions. I might finally dive back into Carcassonne!

The other expansion is The City at the Zwin expansion for Stefan Feld's Bruges. According to the description on the Geek, this will include:

• Components for a 5th player.
• Additional character cards from a new guild.
• New stock cards that each have a special power that modifies an existing action.
• A new mechanic where, "whenever a 3 or 4 is rolled on a die at the start of a round, a ship of the same color is placed on the supplemental game board. As an extra action, a player can discard a worker of the appropriate color, reveal the matching ship, and take the action depicted, such as advancing on the influence track or reusing a one-time power on one of your character cards."
• Some more statues of higher values to give people incentive to build canals.
• A revised Engraver card to replace the one from the base game, as some people thought it was overpowered.

Each of these modules can be added to the game separately, or you can add all of them for utter Bruges madness... Apparently Z-Man will be printing an English version, but no word on when it will be available.

Thanks for reading, and make sure you're subscribed, as THIS WEEK we'll be giving away a copy of Relic Expedition to one lucky follower/subscriber/liker.

Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Wave 4 Announced

By Firestone

Oh well-played, Fantasy Flight... I finally get caught up with the first three waves of the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game over Christmas, and then you go and announce Wave 4. Sneaky devils...

People who were wondering how much more they'd borrow from the Expanded Universe should wonder no more. All four new ships are from the EU:  the Z-95 Headhunter, TIE defender, E-wing, and TIE phantom.

From FF's Web site:

• The Z-95 Headhunter enters the Rebel fleet as an extremely efficient missile platform, better enabling the Alliance to match Imperial forces ship-for-ship.
• The TIE defender is a straight-forward fighter with strong shields, weapons, agility, and a maneuver never before seen on a dial.
• The E-wing pairs the X-wing’s firepower and resilience with the A-wing’s speed and agility.
• TIE phantom pilots rely upon the ship’s unique cloaking device to evade enemy fire and pounce upon their foes with their deadly laser cannons.

Okay, if I'm being honest, those tie fighters look like something cobbled together at a Maker Faire. Maybe that's what Stormtroopers do in their garages on the weekend. "Hey, Steve. Hand me another cold one, and let's glue nine more wings on this thing..." Don't get me wrong: I'm still buying these, of course...

For more details on each of the ships, check out the press release at Fantasy Flight. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Game Night at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference!

By Firestone We know this will only apply to a fraction of our readers, but please bear with us. Jeremiah and I are excited to announce that we'll be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Columbus, Ohio in early March. And we're hosting a game night!

My company (Group Publishing) is putting on the conference, and they've been nice enough to let us have one of the late-night options after Gungor's music set. We'll be playing The Resistance, Coup, Two Rooms and a Boom, One Night: Ultimate Werewolf, and more! So if you're going, join us! And if you're in youth ministry, and not going...WHY NOT?!

St. Petersburg is Getting a Reprint

Well...maybe. The game company Hans im Gluck has announced that, thanks to numerous requests from gamers, they'll be crowd-funding a new edition of St. Petersburg.

The company is going the crowd-funding route because they're still now sure how popular the reprint will be. If enough people show interest, it'll happen. If it fizzles, it'll stay OOP--and prices for the original will likely get a boost.

According to the announcement, the new edition will include:

• A whole new phase (color) with private deck.
• Options for a 5th player.
• A graphical redesign.
• An updated rulebook.
• Additional modules.

It's scheduled to go live in March, on a German crowd-funding site.

Con You Help Us Out?

We here at TOG, love gaming cons... Well at least I (Jeremiah) do. Firestone often sulks from afar because most of the major cons happen states--if not time zones--away. Anyway, while there are some large staples in the gaming con universe: GenCon, Origins, Spiel Con, BGG Con, today we thought we'd make an open place for folks to inform others of the diamonds in the rough. It seems that unless you peruse the bulletin boards at your FLGS you won't hear much about the local cons in your area.

So here's where you come in. We'd love to hear from you, especially if you've attended a smaller local con that you think is worth checking out--just let us know down in the comments below. Let us know all the vital details: date, location, any special guests, events, and of course cost for admission. Feel free to include links or twitter accounts, and contact info as well. Remember, this is the internet and our readers are spread out everywhere, so don't hold back--the more cons listed the better!

So sound off, gaming folks: Where do you get your con on?!

Thanks for reading and contributing!

Another Quick Microgame Kickstarter from Tasty Minstrel Games

Tasty Minstrel Games is back with yet another microgame campaign on Kickstarter. This time it's a tile-laying one cleverly called "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the 2-4 of Us."

The game comes with 24 square tiles, each with a fenced of tract of land, and some "brands" in the player colors. On a person's turn, he or she places a tile down next to another. If the placed tile finishes a series of fences, such that there's an enclosed section, you count up the brands, and each person scores VPs equal to the number of brands of the next-lower player.

Tiles with silver bars let you move around a tile that isn't locked into place--which happens when a section of land is completely fenced in. The game ends when each tile is played out. The game is for...2-4 players, and a pledge of $3 gets you a copy shipped to your door. (Tasty Minstrel is suggesting you pay $5, though...)

The campaign is only running for 10 days, so if this sounds fun to you, don't delay.

Thanks for reading!