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Games News! 09/02/15

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!

You are humanity’s last hope.

In XCOM: The Board Game, you and up to three friends assume the roles of the leaders of the elite, international organization known as XCOM. It is your job to defend humanity, quell the rising panic, and turn back the escalating alien invasion coordinated by the game’s innovative, free digital companion app.

Where the world’s militaries have failed to stand against the alien invaders, you must succeed. To do so, you must make strategic use of the resources available to you. You must launch Interceptors to shoot down alien UFOs, assign soldiers to key missions, research alien technology, and use that technology to defend your base, all while you try to keep the world from collapsing just long enough that you can coordinate one final mission to repel the invaders for good.

Destroy UFOs. Research alien technology. Defend your base. Uncover the alien invasion plan. Should you fail, humanity is doomed.

It’s here! XCOM: The Board Game is now in shops the world over, with its computerised component, its little plastic snipers and its starched lil’ navy blue box. Oooh. You want it.

OR DO YOU? Let Quinns and Paul cut a path for you through the jungle of hype around this game, all the way to the UFO crash site of truth. “Welcome to Earth,” indeed.

First things first, huge thanks to Vitaliy Zavadskyy for gifting our podcast with some magical intro and outro themes. The UK finally has a second radio show to be proud of after the BBC World Service. In this episode Paul’s been hard at work testing Spyfall, Panamax and The Witcher Adventure Game as well as … Read more

Spyfall is a party game unlike any other, one in which you get to be a spy and try to understand what’s going on around you. It’s really simple!

Spyfall is played over several rounds, and at the start of each round all players receive cards showing the same location — a casino, a traveling circus, a pirate ship, or even a space station — except that one player receives a card that says “Spy” instead of the location. Players then start asking each other questions — “Why are you dressed so strangely?” or “When was the last time we got a payday?” or anything else you can come up with — trying to guess who among them is the spy. The spy doesn’t know where he is, so he has to listen carefully. When it’s his time to answer, he’d better create a good story!

At any time during a round, one player may accuse another of being a spy. If all other players agree with the accusation, the round ends and the accused player has to reveal his identity. If the spy is uncovered, all other players score points. However, the spy can himself end a round by announcing that he understands what the secret location is; if his guess is correct, only the spy scores points.

After a few rounds of guessing, suspicion and bluffing, the game ends and whoever has scored the most points is victorious!

The Witcher Adventure Game takes players on a journey across the world of the critically acclaimed Witcher franchise. Based on the best selling novels and award-winning video games, the Witcher universe makes its way to your tabletop with The Witcher Adventure Game.

You and up to three friends will take on the roles of beloved characters from the Witcher universe and travel across the dangerous wilds, battling monsters, completing quests, earning gold and victory points, and vying for ultimate triumph. Along the way, you’ll craft an unforgettable narrative, unique to each and every game.

In Panamax each player manages a shipping company established in the Colón Free Trade Zone. Companies accept contracts from both US coasts, China and Europe and deliver cargo in order to make money, attract investment and pay dividends. At the same time the players accumulate their own stock investments and try to make as much money as possible in an effort to have the largest personal fortune and win the game.

Panamax features several original mechanisms that blend together; an original dice (action) selection table, pickup-and-deliver along a single bi-directional route, a chain reaction movement system – “pushing” ships to make room throughout the Canal and a level of player interaction that is part self-interest, part mutual advantage and the freedom to choose how you play.

Quinns: Board games go in and out of print all the time. It’s like a party where sexy new friends arrive in a steady stream, only for each one to fall through a network of trapdoors.

But to quote patron saint of board game reviewers Tom Vasel, if a game is really good, it’ll always get another print run. The theme of this week’s games news is, apparently, an awful lot of sexy people arriving back at the party, dusting themselves off and grabbing another fistful of canapes.

Let’s start with the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition of El Grande! Or as we call it in my house, 50 Shades of Beige.

This week, Matt and Quinns peek into the paperwork of Last Will, a game that challenges you to declare bankruptcy faster than your friends. A game of champagne, boat cruises, fabulous mansions, horses and you in the middle, trying to get rid of all of it.

But wait! There’s more! We’ve also played the expansion Last Will: Getting Sacked, which sees you having to do away with that beastly job of yours that insists on paying you every turn. A fabulously expensive marriage might be just the thing.

Trains returns with all-new cards and strategies for you to build the best rail system in Japan. Trains: Rising Sun not only features all new cards, it includes three entirely new boards. Two of the boards are designed specifically for two-player games, while the Nagoya map is for 2 to 4 players. This standalone game can mix easily with the original Trains game for even greater replay possibilities!

Trains: Rising Sun also introduces Route Bonus Cards, allowing you to score additional points for being the first to connect specific stations. Route Bonus Cards are included for the original Trains game as well!

Finally, Trains: Rising Sun includes the Trains: Nagoya Map expansion that was first produced only by the designer for use with the original OKAZU Brand production of Trains. (This item is not linked to in the information box for database reasons.)

Games News! 09/02/15

XCOM: The Board Game

Review: XCOM: The Board Game

Podcast #25: Stop! Let’s Banana

Spyfall

The Witcher Adventure Game

Panamax

Games News! 02/02/15

Review: Last Will & Getting Sacked

Trains: Rising Sun

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