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Who Dares News Friday 26th June 2015

by Mike B on June 26, 2015

Well its been a while since I’ve done one of these so its probably time for a little bit of a catch-up so gather round all like-minded individuals and we can spoon in an entirely consensual manner and pick from the cracker box of board game happenings.

So first sorry for the delay in regular postings of late, there was the EXPO and then some work errgh! and then I was in Spain and holiday and then more of that work stuff ERGH! Hopefully now we can return to some form of regular blather but who knows.

So off the bat and as I still need to get some more plays in of this beast before getting a full review down I need to blather about my current gaming addiction and that would be Fantasy Flights new behemoth Forbidden Stars. Man this is a big box of head scratching fun, the hype is justified its a monster, it plays long and some of the mechanics are a tad clunky but I’m falling for its many charms. If you’re a fan of straight up war games then this is a satisfying juicy steak sandwich to really get your teeth into, there’s a huge amount to think about and plan each round and the battle system that has seen some cries of outrage over its downtime and mechanics is probably the jewel in its crown. Its mechanisms reward knowing your forces particular quirks and how its units and deck performs in conjunction to create some riveting and memorable tabletop moments. We’re be covering this in a fourth-coming podcast episode and expect a review soon, for the time being if any of that bobs into your boat house you might want to give this one a peek.

Now news, well its convention season so we’re about to bombarded with new games and news and releases oh my. The only way to survive the next couple of months is to take a deep breath, go bury your wallet in the garden and remain calm. Stuff I’m getting excited for and on my list? All of Portal Games releases are already in the shopping basket having seen these at the EXPO, Tides of Time a great looking and solid little 2 player drafting game, Rattle Battle Grab the Loot mad dice rolling Pirate fun and then the big one for me will be the release of the Atlantean faction for Imperial Settlers, can not wait for that.

Ashes Rise of the Phoenixborn from Plaid Hat looks beautiful and I’ve taken the dive and pre-ordered this little cracker, yep its more dice and card play of which there are already many of them out there, but Plaid Hat produce solid product and right now you can still nab a very sweet deal on the pre-order, last year was Dead of Winter which proved quite popular and that was months before it came back around into stock, my tip is not to miss a trick this time, I suspect this is going to be huge.

Gale Force Nine have continued to deliver solid licensed games and I don’t see that changing. They’ve already announced another big expansion for Firefly!! (i’m seriously going to need a new table) and the soon to hit WWE game that we leaked the release for back in January but nobody was listening (typical). I really dig their stuff and you can do far worse than picking up any of they’re output, especially if you’re a fan of the license.

Literally happening this very day Harry Wollop from the Telegraph (which if he posted a similar article on video games would have likely resulted in one, thankfully the BG community is far more level headed and pleasant) has put up an article on board game’s lamenting them as a dying breed, boring and tedious. Unfortunately Mr Wallops gaming knowledge rarely seems to extend past the 70’s and at best last years Apprentice debacle. With the article coming across as barely researched and at worst a tad trollish, his subsequent tweets proudly claiming that he was on telly further pushing his out of date opinions only goes to confirm my earlier suspicions. If he’d taken the time to talk to the fantastic chaps at Imagination Gaming i’m certain they could have steered him in the correct direction of the wealth of brilliant educational and fun games available for kids.

Oh so a bit of Kickstarter news. Well Zombicide Black Plague kerzillion dollars pledged already, I was on the fence initially as I’m not opposed to some zombicide silliness, but I’ve been a bit disappointed with all the extra stuff being thrown in the box, none of it has really inspired me to want to jump in with both feet, the one bit that did catch my eye was the Carl Critchlow box of characters including Thrud the Barbarian that was pretty cool.

Much more interesting is the second Volume of Board Games That Tell Stories. Taking articles from Ignacy’s BGG blogs and other pieces from a wealth of designers this is a solid read for people just passing by and anyone with an interest in game design, its still running with 10 more days to go and I strongly urge you to check it out.

And finally for this bit. Scott King has just put up his project for the 2016 Gaming Calendar, Scott captures some of the best board game related snaps and his calendar is the perfect geek accessory.

In other site related stuff don’t forget to check out the series of articles that Charlie has been writing on his recent D&D 5th edition campaign, as well as a whole host of other RPG articles and bits he’s been feverishly submitting whilst I’ve been lazing around and picking at my nose.

If you are totally starved of hearing me talk utter rubbish then I’m currently co-hosting the Board Game Hour podcast with the ever amusing Mr Nate Brett, so get over there and check out their stuff * warning does contain naughty words*