New Releases : 28th November 2009

There are loads of new releases this week, some arrived yesterday and the rest will arrive on Tuesday 1st December



I’ll start with what has arrived now (and not on general releases in the UK)

‘Pony Express’ – A race game of dice rolling and bluffing from Funforge. Very attractive to look at and has received favourable reports.

‘Horsefever’ – is an Essen 2009 release, takes betting on horses in 30’s America as it’s subject and can be played as a family game or as a more serious affair.

‘Valdora Extra’ – An expansion for Valdora, it includes a two player ‘Duel’ Variant

‘1853’ – Lookout Games revamp of Francis Tresham’s classic

‘Seidenstrasse ‘– This is the first big box game from the creators of ‘Uruk’ and it looks like an elegant set collection game. This is a German game, I will provide English rules

‘Campanile’ – also from DDD Verlag, this is a reprint of a classic filler, This is a German game, i will provide English rules

‘Maria’ – Histogames follow up to the award winning ‘Friedrich’ is a cracking game, which (i am told) fixes some of the loose ends in ‘Friedrich’. I played this last weekend and despite being trounced by two grizzled grognards I loved the game. This is in very limited supply!

More ‘Hansa Teutonica’ have arrived – having just read Ted Alspach’s review here I am going to keep a copy for myself.

I have one copy of the Ystari Box – first person to reply gets it for £18 including postage. I will try and get some more next week.

New releases due on Tuesday 1st December

‘Letter of Marque’ is a pirate ‘n bluffing game from Brune Faidutti and Fantasy Flight

‘Skavinblight Threat’ is the first Battle pack for Warhammer Invasion LCG

‘Abandon Ship’ from Alderac Entertainment and Reiner Knizia is a family game in which players herd their rats off a sinking ship.

‘Tomb : Cryptmaster’ is both a standalone game and an expansion for ‘Tomb’

‘Steel Driver’ is a 2nd edition version of Martin Wallace’s 2008 hit train game. If you missed the Treefrog edition this is worth picking up.

‘Skyline 3000’ is a remake of ‘Capitol’ – this time set in the future and with the usual Zman gorgeous production

‘Start Player’ sorts out that age old problem – how to determine the start player. It’s quite amusing as well.

‘Steam Locomotive set’ is deluxe set of wooden trains you can use in ‘Steam :Rails to riches’

Notable restocks includes Richard III, Pandemic, Uruk, Loyang.

I played quite a few games last week and highlights were Greed Inc (i hope to restock next week), Dungeon Lords and Descent

However the best of the bunch was 'A brief history of the World' - it's a brilliant stream lining of the original game and is the best empire game i have played this year (hat includes Rise of Empires). It might not be quite so brief (at three hours) but in thr game i played we had a mixture of grizzled gaming vets and one player for whom this was only their third boardgame they have ever played.all loved it - and two orderd a copy on the spot. I can't reccomend it highly enough.