Fantasy Flight Games
The third new school of magic in Bestial Forces, the next Wiz-War expansion by Fantasy Flight Games, is Draconic Magic. It deals with all things dragon. You can, almost obviously, summon a dragon to guard treasure for you, but that’s only the start. Draconic Magic also has some really strong defenses, dragons are close to invulnerable after all, and it has an odd penchant for making other players drop their treasures, because dragons also love to collect the shinies for their hoards. It actually doesn’t sound as fun as the other new schools to me, but it does have dragons, and that makes it cool enough. Now there’s also a preview for another new school: Totemic Magic, the art of putting fragile sticks with strong spells on the ground.
Phantasio Games
Philip duBarry, designer of Revolution (Steve Jackson Games, Pegasus Spiele) and Courtier (Alderac), is kickstarting the first game under his own label Phantasio Games (aided by Game Salute). In Skyway Robbery, players and their gangs travel around the world in an airship and commit daring heists at all the stops of their little crime cruise. From a choice of specialist cards, they assemble a crew that can defeat the defenses of their target. Stealth is paramount in these endeavors, be too noisy or bring too many people along and you risk discovery and arrest. The winner is, of course, the player getting the best haul.
Portal Games
Just this week we reviewed Theseus: The Dark Orbit, and today I find the news about the coming expansion. Release date in October probably means that Bots will be available from the Portal Games booth in Essen. As an entirely new faction, the amok-running robots join into the fray on space station Theseus. We currently have no clue what their modus operandi will be, but it’s safe to say it won’t be pretty. The expansion is not going to increase the number of players, the maximum is still four, but with another faction to choose from.
dlp games
This year’s Essen release by dlp games is, by their own opinion, their most complex game to date. Reiner Stockhausen’s Orléans is a game about the French city in the Loire valley, where players compete for points by means of construction, trade and science. Each action you can take in this game is tied to a type of person in your employ, so you’ll need craftsmen to build trading stations and produce tools, scholars to advance the sciences, knights to protect your traders on the river and so on. In all those options, many different ways to victory are possible and the game is described as very strategic – just the way I like it.
Czech Board Games
Czech Board Games have announced a very weird cooperative party game that I assume they will bring to Essen. In McJohny’s you work for “the world’s most popular crab-based fast food chain”, and they really put the fast into fast food. Every round each player is assigned a different mini game so that the whole team can bring some crab-based food to the counter and satisfy customers in no more than one minute. At least that’s the theory, but as not everyone is getting their salary not everyone will want to cooperate.
Lookout Games
Inka and Markus Brand (Village) are the designers of Murano, a Lookout Games Spiel 2014 release. The game takes place on the seven islands of Murano that any Venice tourist knows as a place of glass manufactures. Playing Murano, you will produce glassware and sell it to tourists for victory points. The famous Venetian gondolas also come into it, serving as transport between the islands, but also as the mechanic for picking your actions. Gondolas move around the board, and where you land tells you your action for the turn.
The featured photo shows natural rock formations – yes, it appears no one put those things like that – in Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe. The photo was taken by Mike, who’s Flickr username squeakymarmot I love, and shared with a CC-BY license. Thank you, Mike!