More News from Henry's Trip to Vegas

Hello everyone,

I am back in Miami as of 11 pm last night. Those time zone differences really
throw one for a loop! Not to mention the lack of any humidity in Vegas meant
that our lips went from smooth to cracking in a 12-hr period (and our skins
dried out noticeably too).

On my business front, things look really good. I made numerous contacts as I
met and greeted nearly everyone at the convention (a process that took 12 hours
of booth-to-booth walking). Several companies expressed a real and pressing
need for my services, so I am quite excited about the prospect of developing
clients within our industry.

Well, on to gaming news... I will spill the beans on the companies as I
encountered them in my walk through the hall.

1. Chessex - they mostly do dice now, but they have some very unique dice
creations that I'd like to share with you. They have dice generators for rpg
alignment and class, as well as a 12-sided clock dice (true you have that
capability built in to the die already, but the clock graphic is nice). Most
impressive to me was a set of 4 six-sided dice that could generate dungeon
rooms, halls, etc... The graphics were really nicely done. The cost for them
to produce these dice is pretty high, and thus they may or may not pursue
selling these widely. I'll try to send a pic, but in the meantime I recommend
you ask your local game store to try and get them (improve demand). They are
that nice.

2. Upper Deck - there was some new card game coming out that I ignored, but I
could not avoid their new World of Warcraft collectible minis game. The figures
looked nice enough, but I got a rules overview. I was impressed with the timing
mechanism of the game's action system. Each turn would progress through a
10-increment timeframe wherein a figure would take 'x' amount of increments to
do an action ('x' varying depending on type of action including weapon speed).
Thus one might fire a crossbow during increment 2 (after having made 1
time-increment worth of movement earlier). The crossbow shooting might take 4
increments, thus your figure could not activate again until increment 6 in the
timeframe. To keep track of the time increment per figure, each one comes with
a large rotating base (think clix's) that one used to keep track of time and
health. Pretty cool and I took pictures.

3. Reg Juggernaut - I saw them at Gencon last year with their Battue Horselords
boardgame but did not try it out. Well, I tried it this time and it was fun. I
did not ask, but from what I recall of the mechanics, there is no direct player
interaction which might limit the replayability.

4. Asmodee - The only thing new to report from this publisher, who I like, is
that they do intend to release in the US the Fire and Water expansion for
Dungeon Twister later this year. That one is apparently their most complicated
expansion, should be fun.

5. Bandai - for those who like Dragonball Z, they are releasing a CCG for this
in the next 2-3 months (it is based on Naruto mechanics).

6. Z-man - I supposed I should have asked Zev when exactly Agricola will be out,
but instead I focused on the second edition of Ideology which should be
available at GenCon. He did have a copy of Agricola and Neuroshima Hex there (I
forgot to ask about Wasabi too).

7. Bucephalus - a new game company with an ambitious schedule of 35 or so games
to release in their first year. Two of there games stood out to me: a. An
ink-blot card game that was affordable and fun, b. Blasphemy, a high end ($100)
game with a long, thin box about one trying to be the player who first gets his
messiah-in-training to be crucified [quite blasphemous indeed] by performing
certain tasks and actions.

8. Fantasy Flight - Lots of stuff here so this will be broken down:

a. Tide of Iron will be supplemented soon by a $25 book of scenarios that
were designed by over 2 dozen respected wargame designers like Berg, Racier, and
the creator of ASL. I want it! There will also be reinforcement packs that
contain 5 painted figures, a scenario, some tiles (?), and 10 cards to add to
certain decks. I thought this was a bit expensive at $30, mainly 'cause I
didn't want to pay for painted figures for this game when the originals did not
come painted anyhow.
b. Descent is already scheduled to get an expansion based on a winter/ice
theme. The box with final art was there.
c. FFG got the license for Gears of War to do a boardgame on this console
video game.
d. The 40K rpg looked nice, both the reprint of the book and the first 2
books FFG will be releasing the next 6 weeks or so (very hefty).
e. The re-release of Talisman 4th edition will have numerous minor
modifications to the rules and balance of characters, though the basic mechanics
will be unchanged. They will be including plastic figures for the characters
and plastic frogs for those bad hair days. A reason why FFG is the company it
has become is that they will be releasing an upgrade kit for sale to the
consumers who bought GW's release of Talisman to bring that copy up to speed
with FFG's version. They do plan on releasing expansions, and one is already in
the pipeline.
f. I saw some of the latest wave of Wings of War figures. The big
two-seater planes were really nice!
g. The final box was available to view for Arkham Horror's Kingsport
expansion. The board looked really sweet, a must buy.
h. Age of Conan is expected by late fall, with mechanics based on War of
the Ring.
i. Battles of Napoleon is a huge boxed game (not long like a coffin, but
wide like double War of the Ring) by Nexus that will hopefully be out by end of
the year. It will be on a hex map with nicely sculpted figures. FFG is excited
about the mechanics, but I can't recall them. There is card play involved.
j. The Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu card games have been redesigned
as non-collectible, but expandable card games. They had present the starter
boxes for both of these games. I for one am quite happy to see a CCG lose that
first 'C'.
k. Tannhauser's expansions were there for viewing, both Novgorod and the
individual character expansions. Novgorod looks nice.
l. FFG is releasing a game called "Garibaldi" about an Italian gent during
the Napoleonic timeframe? They are also releasing a 'grand prix' type of racing
game.
m. Two new games in their small 'condotierre' box size - Red November and
Aye Dark Overlord are fun, whimsical games that should make good fillers.
n. Anima Tactics figures keep getting more and more impressive in quality,
though I know nothing about the minis game.
o. Battlestar Galactica is a semi-cooperative game with some resemblance to
Shadows over Camelot (wherein not only will one or more people be skinjobs from
the get go, but another player might find out halfway through the game that they
are an undercover cylon too). I believe the mechanics for the actual in-game
play was quite different from Shadows.
p. Dust creator Paolo Parente was present and I got to meet him. They are
releasing a Dust Tactics minis game with prepainted figures. It is effectively
an AT-43 game as they licensed the rules from Rackham. The figures I saw were
really nice. Same price point as AT-43.
q. Rackham's stuff was there courtesy of FFG and the new Ape army looks
better than I expected, especially the flying vehicles.

9. Score - is releasing a new CCG called "Bleach" based on some anime it looked
like...

10. Wizkids - is struggling with Pirates, HorrorClix, and Mechwarrior.
Horrorclix will only get new stuff when licenses are obtained from popular
horror properties. Although Mechwarrior is planned to get a movie in the
future, the game is close to death. Because of this, a new ordering technique
will be implemented. Basically, it will be like GMT's P500 system. Retailers
will be integrated somehow though. And Pirates sales have slowed down a lot,
not to the point of death, but marketing changes are in order. Heroclix is
going stronger than expected.

11. Games Workshop - They have implemented a new system to provide product to US
retailers that should facilitate an increase in GW's market presence. The fact
they were present at GAMA is evidence enough that a new policy of engaging the
industry at all levels has been implemented (too little too late?). I did get
to seem some new figures, came away with a pair of 40K insider dice, and saw the
contents of 40K's 5th edition starter box that is to be released in October.
That starter is super awesome...for $60 one gets at least (memory poor) 10
marines, 5 terminators, 1 dreadnought, 20 orcs, 3 plastic dethkoptas (supposedly
@ $320 retail worth of figures).

12. Flying Frog - They are continuing on their success by introducing a cool
classic horror monster boardgame. I haven't picked up Last Night on Earth yet,
but I will be procuring A Touch of Evil. Keep an eye out for that one. I was
explained the mechanics, but can't remember the details.

13. Valley Games - I obtained confirmation that the Hannibal general figures
will be in our mailboxes on or about May 15th! I saw the first Titan production
sample. It looks good, though there will be some changes to the coloring
(making it lighter) and possible board structure (to jigsaw instead of folded
board). I did see the Titan figures too, they look good. Oh, I asked about
Supernova and they hope to have that one out by early fall.

14. Days of Wonder - I got to see in hand the Ticket to Ride card game, Shadows
over Camelot expansion, and the Memoir carrying bag. The bag looked nice and
the foldout paper board with built-in scenario was pretty cool.

15. Your Move Games - I got to see several samples of the Monsters & Mercenaries
armies (that one can add to other armies). Very nice units available, including
overlarge Hydra and Red Dragon units. I will be getting some at Gencon.

16. Battlefront - additional news, the Cobra army book looked real nice and
includes a new SP artillery unit for the U.S. The figure was present too, and
it looked sweeeet. In addition to the info on Bagration I noted before, it
appears that they are giving Russians some real nasty off-board artillery that
will employ a barrage template that equals 4 of the current templates put
together into one huge square. I might go commie pink now!

17. Privateer Press - some nice figures as always, but a new game is being
lauched called "Monsterocalypse." It is a collectible minis game that also will
include collectible buildings that also have variable stats. Think Monsters
menace America in CMG format but with really cool figure sculpts and a stronger
anime influence.

18. Osprey - They introduced to me there new historical (ancients) miniature
game that looked intriguing. The rulebook was nicely formatted and at a $35
pricepoint. Worth checking out.

19. Mongoose - Not too much new, but they did show me their new WWII squad-based
game ruleset. Could be interesting.

20. Mayfair - Got to see the Pillars of the Earth expansion. Looked good and
will be out around September.

Well, that is all I can remember. I'll be posting pictures on my BGG account
sometime in the near future. Here's the link to my gallery:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/user/45560

Henry R.

Hehe, I'm real excited for this possible off-table artillery piece!

yay GO GW!

Yeah, everyone is going to turn pinko commie when those rules are added!

Any other info you have on the 40K MMO is appreciated. i CAN'T WAIT to see that.

I'm sure it's gonna be crazy expensive, but I wonder if they'll be rules out for things like aircraft to take out the artillery.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.