New Releases 27 October 2009

‘Battlelore : Heroes’ is the first expansion for Battlelore since Fantasy Flight bought the system from Days of Wonder.

‘Witch of Salem’ is a co-operative game based Wolfgang Hohlbein’s Cthulhu novels. I played the German version of this some months ago and think it is a terrific game. It has an Arkham Horror feel to it, but plays in side an hour. The only comparable game of this length is Pandemic and Witch of Salem has a far more immersive theme. Highly recommended.

‘A Brief History of the World‘is the first Essen release to hit the UK. This is a revamp of the classic ‘History of the World’, the Ragnars have updated and streamlined the game play and added lovely new art work. If you are fan of the 1991 original or like sweeping games of map domination then this is an essential purchase.

‘Richard the III : Wars of the Roses’ from Columbia games is also released this week.

'In Memory of Day' is the latest Asylum pack for Call of Cthuhu LCG>

The Vixentor dice towers are back in stock Including some new designs) , these are the ‘Rolls Royces of dice towers; beautiful, handmade and sturdy designs.

I had a great time meeting gamers, designers and publishers at Essen. Over the coming months the Import section is going to have a lot of interesting games added to it. ‘Stronghold’ should be here later this week with others very close behind. I managed to play a few games and was blown away by ‘Shipyard’ from Czech Boardgames Edition. This is being released by Rio Grande in November. I also played Dungeon Lords and thoroughly enjoyed it, very different from Vlaada’s last two releases it is a complex Euro with a fun theme. Cwali’s ‘Basket Boss’ is a worthy follow up to ‘Powerboats’. I will be trying other releases over the coming days.

Edit : I played At the Gates of Loyang yesterday and it's fantastic, different from Agricola and Le Havre, pared down and faster but a great game.

Best wishes

Paul