News 33 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Games News! 13/04/15

Quinns: Hello and welcome, I hope you’re all ready for another piping hot serving of Games News. Today, we have a double news, in which I’m joined by Paul and we’ll be firing off the news together, manning the News Cannons. Rotating the News Turrets.

Paul: I had to get up very early for this.

Quinns: So shall we dive right in?

Paul: Because of the time difference, it’s 4am in Shut Up & Sit Down’s North American Office and also 1986…

Quinns: Let’s go!

Paul: …I’m using a dial-up modem.

Quinns: First up!

(Image courtesy of Daniel Danzer of BoardGameGeek)

Quinns: Good morning everybody! I’m sick again, so expect a more sedate Games News than usual. Hello Lemsip, my old friend. Take me into your sweet lemony embrace. As Sherlock had his needle, I have my fruit-flavoured decongestants.

We start, as always, with the game with the prettiest header image. This time that means upcoming European-style game The Voyages of Marco Polo.

Quinns: This Games News is dedicated to Shadow of Nerekhall, the Descent campaign that I finished this weekend. Above you can see my table after the Finale, where the heroes resolutely failed to stop the Overlord’s ynfaernal demons from overrunning the burning city.

Tim? Ian? You fought nobly. May your heroes rest in peace in the plastic bag in my copy of Descent for heroes who have died and can never be chosen again.

Quinns: Good morning, kiddos! Please form an orderly queue and allow me to vaccinate you against the most deadly disease of all: Ignorance.

No, wait, sorry. I had the wrong tab open. It’s ebola. Pandemic: Legacy will be arriving late this year, turning the fantastic game of disease-battling (see our review here) into a single, apocalyptic, simulated year at the Centre for Disease Control. Excited? You’re not the only one. Z-Man has already received a preposterous 50,000 pre-orders.

This week, Shut Up & Sit Down was invited to play a finished prototype of the game. An event we were wholly unable to make because Brendan got his arm stuck behind a radiator again. Instead, we left that job to the data hounds of Board Game Geek news, who’ve posted a blog on the inner-workings of this box, though you’ll find a summary below.

Quinns: HELLO everybody! I’m back from running the board game lounge of San Francisco’s Game Developer’s Conference and am now 90% tacos and 10% flu germs. I think my skeleton was confiscated by customs on the way home.

We’ll get to the news in a second, I just have to tell you what we’ve got coming in the next two weeks, because I couldn’t be more excited.

Just to start, we’re playing the biggest UK Megagame EVER this weekend, controlling Japan in a game with no less than 47 game masters. We’ll be bringing that to you guys as a two-part documentary. Paul’s back in the UK this weekend to play it so we’ll be recording two (TWO) podcasts. Then we’ve got reviews of Mysterium, Star Wars: Armada, Imperial Assault and Alchemists all lined up.

My goodness. But let’s start, as always, with the humble Games News.

Paul: Games news, is it? You’d better step this way.

I hope you have a strong stomach.

I’m sorry that you have to see this. There’s no way to make this easy. We’re still trying to piece together what happened. Maybe you can help?

Paul: You want to know how Games News is made.

You’re barely out the taxi door when the car speeds away into the moist and misty night. No other driver would take you to this part of town, not that you even know what this part of town is. The distant splash of water tells you its the docks… somewhere? Yet there’s no water in sight, just bending, sagging buildings that leer down at you and the sickly light of one myopic street lamp.

Almost pushing through the freezing fog, you find the address you were given. A tailor, apparently. “Alterations, modifications, anything sewn rearranged.” It hits you. “Sewn,” rearranged is “News.”

Mad Bella opens the door of the low, frumpy building. Don’t look her in the eye. Hunched, she beckons, with a gurgle.

This is Games News.

Quinns: Ships! Like streets that float.

In a curious reminder of our hobby’s boxy lil’ nature, 29 United States west coast ports were shut down this week, delaying countless board game shipments. Spare a thought for the many games were stranded at sea this weekend, as well as containers of less important stuff like shoes and food.

Rumours that SU&SD’s newly-formed American division were behind the delay have been grossly exaggerated. It’s all down to a dispute between shipping companies and dockworkers.

Gizmodo has the details here. But if you were wondering why the new 6th Wave of X-Wing miniatures is taking longer than anticipated, this is why.

Quinns: Ah, you’re here! Take a seat behind the screen while I wash my hands. Injection of table gaming news direct to the brain, was it?

Not a problem. Relax and close your eyes just as I… insert the needle down your ear canal… Done! Wasn’t that easy. Now, the news will begin in just a moment.

…What’s that? You can only see Kickstarters?

Oh no. This might have been the wrong syringe. Nurse! NURSE?! Look, just stay calm. Everything’s probably going to be ok.

Quinns: Very rarely do we flaunt our being English on this site, so I think we’ve earned the following:

THUNDERBIIIIIIRDS BOARD GAME BOX ART REVEALED! And it’s got Thunderbird 2 dropping a little Thunderbird 4! F*** yes!

Back off, America! This box is ours. Oh, I vooow to theeee, my coountry, that I will buuuy this booox…

If you don’t know what Thunderbirds is (or if you know it by its name in the Czech Republic, “International Phallus Patrol”), I explained it in detail here, when this board game was first announced. And let’s be clear, this isn’t some cheap tie-in for the 50th Anniversary of Thunderbirds. It’s being designed by Matt Leacock, designer of amazing co-op games like Pandemic, Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert. It might not be shit!

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