Meople News: Rampaging Zombie Monolith

Another weekend with lots of gaming has come and gone. We’re lucky that basically everyone who comes to our house is into boardgames, even people we knew long before we started Meople’s Magazine. So when we had friends over this weekend, we had Kennerspiel des Jahres theme for Saturday and Sunday and played Village and K2 extensively. I still don’t want to guess who’ll win the award, though, it’s close for sure.

Z-Man Games

Due to a naming conflict with another game, Equilibrion had to be renamed. The solo/two player cooperative game by Shadi Torbey about keeping the balance between dreams and nightmares in Equilibrion City – presumably also renamed – will now be knows as Urbion. The new, renamed edition will be available in September.

Alderac Entertainment

Tenacious Z (image by Alderac entertainment)
Tenacious Z (image by Alderac entertainment)

Alderac is keeping the preview train rolling, but one of their many preview tracks is coming to an end now: Dark Rages has previewed its last cards because it just doesn’t make much sense to preview cards after the release on 25th on June.

The Smash Up previews also can’t last much longer. If I remember correctly eight factions were announced, and we must have seen them all soon. Has anyone been counting? This week were getting Zombies. Because everything is better with Zombies! To no one’s surprise, the Zombies signature ability is bringing minions back from the discard pile. I still love the art, by the way. Did you notice the Zombie Lord in the second preview is holding the Evil Dead edition of the Necronomicon?

The previews for Thunderstone Advance: Caverns of Bane this week first show us another weapon that I would have called The Great Equalizer because it’s stronger on weaker heroes. The second preview is about the new uses of an old mechanic: Light. It’s always been a core mechanic of Thunderstone, but in Caverns of Bane you get to play with it in entirely new way.

Game Salute / Island Officials

Our first Kickstarter project of the week has an interesting history already: Pixel Lincoln by Jason Tagmire started out as a card game that was available and well-received at conventions around 2008 but was never widely available. Since it was a side-scrolling, 8-bit graphics card game already, a conversion to a video game was a pretty obvious thing to do, and that’s what Island Officials set out to do: the video game will soon be available for Nintendo DS. And now, influenced by that video game but still designed by Jason Tagmire Pixel Lincoln: The Deckbuilding Game is on Kickstarter. Honestly, I’ve seen many movies recently with a less twisted story than this game genesis. What is it about? About a time-travelling 8-bit Abraham Lincoln using weapons made of meat – or his trusty beardarang – to defeat wacky enemies. Yep, it’s that kind of game. An extra thumbs for the Kickstarter video having an actual Power Glove!

Gryphon Games

Not as concerned with historical accuracy but with games that are a piece of history is this Kickstarter project.  Three classic games by Sid Sackson – that’s kind of redundant, anything with that name on it is a classic – are comic back. I’m relieved about that for personal reasons: it saves me from trying to find them on eBay. Sleuth, Monad and Venture are three typical Sackson games: very simple rules, but strong requirements for strategy and logic. And in the Collector’s Set Deluxe Case, they will look great on your bookshelf as well.

Fantasy Flight Games

Not much new this week at Fantasy Flight Games, except the rules for Descent: Journeys in the Dark and Sky Traders are now available for download. If I’m reading the FFG cycle correctly, we’re going to see new games announced by next week, two weeks tops.

Goblin Army Games

Monolith is a worker placement game where the workers are dice you roll and you place them on rune cards. Besides five base rune cards six random ones are available in every game, a fate card that is drawn at the start of each game adds more variability. Add power and skill cards to the mix and the claim of “near endless variability” sounds quite believable. Since this is a dice placement game, not just plain old rolling, the emphasis should still be on strategy, not luck. Another very interesting Kickstarter project.

Really, if the number of Kickstarter projects I would really like to back increases any more, we need a term for the mental distress caused by not being able to back them all. I suggest Backer’s Anxiety.

Rampage (illustration by Pierô)
Rampage (illustration by Pierô)

Repos Production

Not really news from Repos Production about Rampage yet, but there are news about the Bauza/Maublanc game, and the news are awesome. Illustrator Pierô, the very same who created the art for Ghost Stories among quite a long list of other games, posted some Rampage art on his blog, and it’s awesome! And I’m not only saying that because it has Meeple, although that is definitely a plus.

 Mindwarrior Games

Between all those Kickstarter project, lets add some variety and post an indiegogo project. A fight between vampires and werewolves may not be a completely unused theme anymore, but that doesn’t count as a point against Bad Moon, great games still fit into that corner. And there are new twists in Bad Moon: the phases of the moon determine what you can do, and you’re not tied to one of the factions for the whole game either.

Kosmos

Earlier this year I posted a cover photo of a new game based on Tolkien’s The Hobbit designed by Martin Wallace, without much information to go with it. Now it turns out the game will be published in German by Kosmos – publishers in other languages did not come forward yet. The game is creatively titled The Hobbit: The Card Game, but is fortunately more creative inside the box. A trick-taking team game (Good versus Evil, obviously) where you distribute your tricks among the other players, but depending on your character they have different effects like damaging or healing the others. Doesn’t sound like a heavy game, but could be a lot of fun.

Visible Hand Games

City Hall is not a title I expected from a company called Visible Hand – to me, that’s more invisible hand. Nevermind my views on politics, though, in City Hall you’re using your personal influences and the seven offices of the city administration to further your own goals, attract residents to the city and aid you in the upcoming mayoral election. All perfectly clean political business.

Golden Egg Games

The first game by Golden Egg Games and Elad Goldsteen is also about politics and growing your city, but in a slightly different setting. The Fallen City of Karez needs a new ruler after it’s rebuilt, and as the master of one of the guilds you’re in a prime starting position for that office. Unfortunately – and obviously – so are the other players. You want to rebuild the city and keep it safe from wandering monsters, because city growth benefits everyone, but you want it to benefit you more than anyone else. And somewhere in there, you may build your own private dungeon, a fun activity many games with a medieval or fantasy setting neglect.

The photo of the week this time shows the temple of Luxor in Thebes, Egypt. It was taken by Nina Hale and shared with a CC-BY license. Thanks, Nina!

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