Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Stone Age Coming to Digital From Acram Digital
(Edit: 8/2/23: A release date has been announced! Look for Stone Age to be coming to Steam on August 22, 2023. Don’t forget that you can put it on your wishlist now!
Five posts in a week?
It’s been a newsy week, that’s for sure.
I wasn’t going to post anything today, giving myself a rest, but then I saw something in my email last night.
Stone Age, the venerable (2008) worker placement designed by Bernd Brunnhofer and published by Z-Man Games and Hans im Glück, is coming to Steam!
Developed by the awesome Acram Digital, developers of many great games like Concordia and Istanbul, in addition to Unmatched (so Acram is full of news this week!)
No word on any other digital platforms, but you can wishlist it here on Steam.
Read MoreMarvel Legendary Update – 2023
(Edit: 10/13/23) – Nothing big, and no pictures, but apparently the Ant-Man & the Wasp expansion is due out on December 6.
ICv2 has also confirmed that Kang, Yellowjacket, and Ghost are the Masterminds.
It’s not direct from Upper Deck, so maybe not? But it’s probably all true.
Since this is a 200-card expansion, that’s probably why there are three Masterminds. Usually with expansions, there are two, but that’s in the 100-card ones.
(Edit: 9/8/23) – I don’t think there were any more blog posts about the What If expansion, unless I missed them.
But the release date has been confirmed as September 20!
(Edit: 7/24/23) – Another announcement for 2023. Funny how they announced 2099 for 2024 and now have made two announcements for 2023.
In this case, it’s another MCU set, Ant-Man & the Wasp. This set will have characters and cards from the Ant-Man movies in it.
Apparently (according to ICv2, anyway), it will be coming out December 6, 2023.
Stay tuned for more!
(Edit: 7/14/23) – And the BGG page is up for it!
(Edit: 7/8/23) – It looks like, prior to the 2099 expansion in 2024, there’s going to be a new Core set released!
That’s right, a core set based on the What If? MCU series is going to be coming out sometime this year.
350 cards! Of course, since it’s a core set, it’s going to require the starting decks, wounds, bystanders, etc.
Even with all of that, there are probably about 200 cards available for all of the new content they’re promising.
I’m also running out of room in the available boxes (partially thanks to the X-Men expansion not being reprinted yet) to store all of these small boxes that are coming out, so a big core box to supplement everything else would be very nice!
It says “Fall 2023” on the advertisement, but some people are hoping for GenCon. Doesn’t seem likely, but who knows?
Stay tuned for more information as it comes.
(Edit: 6/23/23) – No really hard news coming up recently, but somebody on BGG noticed a solicitation for a 2099 Legendary expansion for 2024.
Apparently Upper Deck said, in a livestream, that there are still expansions (at least one) coming out in 2023, so this may not be the next one.
Who knows what will be coming?
Stay locked on this page and I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
(Edit: 5/3/23) – A short but sweet final blog post before this comes out next week.
This one shows Lilith as one of the Masterminds, and her villain group, the Lilin.
It also introduces a new keyword (key phrase?), Hunt for Victims.
What is that? When it’s activated, one of the Bystanders currently captured by a Villain or Mastermind will be KO’d. If there aren’t any, then it will capture a Bystander.
The scheme that’s shown is a pretty devastating one, actually. It looks really tough!
Looking forward to this one…
(Edit: 4/27/23) – Another blog post!
Once again we have a returning keyword and a new keyword.
Plus, confirmation that two heroes and two villains (one villain group).
From Secret Wars 2, we have the “Patrol” mechanic, which allows you to do the effect if the city space mentioned is empty.
Returning, we have Elsa Bloodstone and a new Blade hero. I don’t think Elsa’s card name is different than her previous version, which could get confusing!
Secondly, we have a new keyword: Haunt.
Haunt will make recruiting heroes more difficult, and then you actually have to deal with the villain!
More information (and more pictures) on the blog post, but I have to say that Haunt looks interesting. And I’ve always liked Patrol.
May 10 will be a great day!
(Edit: 4/19/23) – News has been slow recently, but there’s an update on the Midnight Sons expansion!
First, the release date is May 10. Woo!
Secondly, there’s the first preview blog!
This expansion brings monsters and monster hunters into the Marvel Legendary mix.
They’re bringing back the Moonlight/Sunlight mechanic from the New Mutants expansion.
That mechanic means that if there are more odd-cost heroes in the HQ than even-cost, it’s Moonlight. Otherwise it’s Sunlight.
We also get a new keyword: Blood Frenzy.
Blood Frenzy gives you +1 fight for each different VP value in your victory pile. But also can give villains with Blood Frenzy that bonus as well!
The post shows us three new heroes and one scheme, demonstrating that most (if not all) of the heroes will have the Marvel Knights group affiliation.
Read the blog for more information, and I will be updating as they post. May 10 isn’t that far away so there will probably be one or two more previews.
I’ll update when there are!
(Edit 3/2/23) – The news is coming fast and furious (until Endgame releases, anyway). There’s a new blog post up! That was a surprise.
And it introduces the Thanos Mastermind along with the Infinity Stones villain group.
And yeah, Thanos is pretty badass.
There’s also a new scheme shown, which is Thanos’ attempt to reduce the population of the universe.
Finally, a couple more hero cards are shown, including another Bruce Banner one.
There’s also confirmation that the makeup of the Hero decks will once again be abnormal, with a 1/2/2/3/3/3 makeup from rares, uncommons and common cards.
And we have a release date! March 8 this will be available.
Of course I put it with another pre-order that won’t be shipping until July, but I still have to play the last few expansions, so the wait won’t kill me.
(Edit 2/28/23) – The Avengers: Endgame set isn’t even out yet and I just realized that they announced a while back (and there’s even a BGG page for it) the next expansion: Midnight Sons.
The information on the BGG page is from the solicit, so it’s probably true but it’s not necessarily true.
The set contains the normal 5 heroes, 2 Masterminds, 2 Villain groups, and 4 Schemes.
The heroes listed include Blade (already in the game so probably will have another affiliation), Morbius, and Werewolf by Night.
Here’s the box!
More later as things develop.
(Edit 2/23/23) – The third and final blog post is up!
This one reveals a new hero, a new villain group, and a new keyword.
The new hero is Captain Marvel (of course) and the new villain group is the Children of Thanos (which makes sense, considering Thanos was kind of big in the Avengers: Endgame movie.
The new keyword, though, sounds really interesting.
“Endgame” comes into play when the villain deck is almost depleted (most of the time).
Whenever the villain deck has 8 or fewer cards left in it, this keyword is triggered.
Sometimes it doesn’t have to be depleted, though, like when this Corvus Glaive card comes out.
If you happen to have some Endgame trigger cards in your hand, bonus!
This is the last blog post for this set. Usually this means the set’s release date is imminent, but no announcement about that yet.
Stay tuned for more when I know it!
(Edit 2/8/23) – The first edit of the year!
The second blog post for the Legendary: Marvel – Infinity Saga is up and it clarifies what exactly “Sacrifice” means.
Essentially, the keyword along with the class tag allows you to sacrifice (KO) the card and do the effect on the card.
So this Dr. Strange card will allow you to KO the card to take another turn and not have to turn over a Villain card. Combine this with the Phasing that other Dr. Strange cards have and you know something of what will be coming in that next hand.
Even one of the schemes brings a sacrifice to mind.
These look really neat and I’m looking forward to this expansion a lot.
Other cards are in the post so check it out!
More to come (and hopefully a release date!)
2022 was a busy year in the Marvel Legendary universe. A ton of expansions came out because of the backlog that was 2021.
This year, with the backlog cleared out, won’t be nearly as eventful.
But it will still be fun!
As I did last year, I’ll keep this post updated with news as I get it. Feel free to keep checking back!
This year’s first expansion release is an MCU expansion, which means it’s based on the Marvel movies with stills from the movies and not original artwork based on the comics.
Legendary: Marvel – Infinity Saga (no cover reveal yet!) will apparently be another 100-card set with 5 heroes, 2 Masterminds, 2 Villain Groups and 4 Schemes (so the standard).
From the card reveals, we definitely know that Dr. Strange and Black Panther are two of the Heroes.
If they keep to these 100-card expansions, will we ever see new Henchmen?
Anyway, there’s also no release date yet, but the first blog post is up!
Read MoreTeotihuacan Deluxe Coming to Kickstarter in April
(Edit 4/18/23) – and it’s now live! Go here to back it in whatever fashion you want.
Received the exciting news from Board & Dice this morning that one of their great games, Teotihuacan, is getting the Deluxe treatment in April.
In addition to having a storage solution that actually works rather than tons of different bags and boards scattered around, barely fitting into the base game box, this Deluxe version will have all new artwork as well.
This beauty will come with new art from artist Olek Zawada, deluxe bits, and all that good stuff.
In addition, if you already own everything (like I do), there will also be included the option of getting a “Beauty Pack” which will have the upgrades and deluxe components without actually getting the new game and expansions.
Details on that will be coming soon.
For a bonus, there’s a free add-on that will come with the Kickstarter if you subscribe to their Teotihuacan-specific newsletter.
Details on that here.
This is kind of exciting. I’m a bit burned out on “deluxe boxes” because they are hard to transport and get to game days, but we’ll see what happens when the Kickstarter goes live.
Keep an eye on the Board & Dice newsletter for more information as this approaches.
Are you excited?
I’m kind of wait and see, but the excitement is definitely there.
You know I’m signed up for the newsletter!
Unmatched: Digital Edition gets full release date with DLC timeline
(Edit: 2/28/23) – It’s out! I’ll be buying it when I get home so that I can play on my iPad and will definitely be checking out the season pass. Check out the review of the Early Access version to get an idea of how it works, with the caveat that there could have been changes since I wrote it, but I did write it only a couple of months ago.
Some exciting news from Acram Digital!
I was going to just add this to my review of the digital version of the great Unmatched game (boardgame published by Restoration Games) but this news is just too big to keep to that.
Yes, Unmatched: Digital Edition now has a release date from Early Access and onto other digital platforms!
It was announced today and the Steam page has been updated with everything you need.
Unmatched will be hitting iOS and Android, as well as leaving Early Access on Steam, on February 28, 2023.
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report – Scenario #67 – The Orient Express
It’s a brand new year and time for another adventure from the ongoing saga of the Combat Commander ladder.
The ladder, run by the remarkable Patrick Pence of “Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials” fame (you really should go check that channel out), is the only way I’m able to play a monthly game of one of my favourite games of all time.
No, not Chutes & Ladders.
Combat Commander!
The January scenario comes from the Combat Commander: Resistance expansion (which I sadly do not have yet, but can play on VASSAL with no problem).
In The Orient Express, a force of Greek Partisans along with some British Commandos faces off against some Italian units, trying to blow an important bridge to kingdom come.
(I’ve often wondered where that expression came from…is there a kingdom go? Should I be writing while drinking?)
Anyway, this month’s opponent was Scott K, somebody who I had seen on the Ladder Discord channel often but never had the pleasure to play against.
We got the game set up, played for about an hour, and then the VASSAL server went down.
But we regrouped and finished the scenario the next day!
Scott played the Partisans (Yellow and then Tan when the British arrive) while I played the Italians (some weird kind of Green? Not Yellow, that’s enough).
(Keep in mind you can click on the pictures to blow them up a bit)
The Italians set up with two bunkers, but then all units have to be either in the bunkers, on a road, or in a building.
Thus their setup is quite prescribed.
The Partisans can only set up from columns H through L, and only two hexes deep, so it’s a bit prescribed for them too.
Since I had 5 Wires, I decided to set up three of them to prohibit any Partisan fire groups in the forest. In many scenario AARs that I saw, and from what I expected anyway, I thought there would be some major firefights between Italians on the hill and Partisans in that forest. Best to preempt that!
Another Wire was set up to make moving toward Objective 4 more difficult.
The Partisan/British side, when the British come onto the board during Time Check 4, can move one British unit and the satchel charge off of the side of the board over the bridge and water hexes in order to get 10 points (that simulates blowing the bridge).
Most allied players try to do that…keep that in mind.
Objectives 4 and 5 are worth a 12-point swing, and the other objectives are a 6-point swing, so it’s good to try and defend them.
The Partisan rules are sometimes hard to internalize. When Partisan units would die due to breaking, they might just be reduced. Also, melees only happen at the beginning of the Axis turn so if the Axis advance into their hex, they can move out before it happens.
One thing to keep in mind too: there is a Night special rule, which reduces the firepower of all attacks by 1 for each hex of range. So if you’re firing at somebody 3 hexes away, you have -3 firepower.
Another thing is that the Italians, who usually can only discard 2 cards anyway (which kind of sucks) can only discard 1! What are they, French?
Also just a note. Scott thought that the Partisans only got 3 cards instead of 4 for almost half of the scenario.
Having four cards would have made the scenario move faster (favouring the Italians in our case) but it would also have given him more options (favouring the Partisans). I think it all came out in the wash, but it’s good to keep that in mind.
Were my Italians able to prevail?
Let’s take a look!
Read MoreHighlights From the January 2023 GMT Games Update
It’s been a few months since my lost post about the monthly GMT Update!
That’s not GMT’s fault. They do it monthly.
I just haven’t had a lot to say about the more recent ones.
At least nothing that really seemed blogworthy.
How many times can you say “That looks so cool!” in an interesting and readable manner?
Hey, that’s not nice.
Anyway, I thought this month would be a good one to do an update for since there’s actually a bit of news that I can comment on!
Not much, but some.
Of course, this also means that GMT is costing me more money.
I don’t hear them complaining about that…
Here’s the link to the update, and I do encourage you to subscribe to it on their web site.
On that note, let’s begin!
Read MoreReview – Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition
One of the common words I hear to describe some games with lots of upkeep is “fussy.”
That’s when there’s a bunch of stuff on the table, you’re trying to keep straight multiple different abilities and tracks and hopefully you don’t forget anything.
From what I have heard, the original edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse was the picture you see in the dictionary when you look up “fussy.”
I used to love playing the app version of the game because the app did all of that tracking and calculating for you!
Now, however, (and when I say “now,” I mean “in 2022”) they have released Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition which is supposed to greatly aid in all of that.
The game is designed by Christopher Badell and Adam Rebottaro with artwork by Adam Rebottaro. It was published by Greater Than Games.
Sentinels of the Multiverse (just assume I’m talking about the Definitive Edition unless I say otherwise, ok?) is a cooperative superhero game where players are a number of heroes (from 3-5) taking on a dastardly villain in some kind of environment, trying to stop their master plan from coming to fruition.
What is that plan?
Well, that’s not actually stated anywhere, but ultimately their plan is to defeat all the heroes!
And your plan is to defeat the villain.
You can defeat the villain even if only one hero is left.
How does that work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreTOP 10 GAMES PLAYED IN 2022 – #5-1
Wow, the second part of my Top 10 Games played in 2022 is being posted just a week after the first part.
I’m already scoring a blog win!
Last week I posted games 10-6 of my Top 10 Games played in 2022, and there were some great games on there.
So this one has to be even better, right?
I played 111 games in 2022, and there were some games that just missed the cut and would be in my 11-20 list if I was making one (maybe I should?).
I mentioned Underwater Cities last week, but I would also have to give an honourable mention to Fantastic Factories and Dune: Imperium, two games that I greatly enjoyed.
But enough about that.
You want to know what my #1 pick is.
Did you guess it last week?
You can find out after the break.
Read MoreOrcaCon 2023 Retrospective
OrcaCon is a convention held in Bellevue, Washington in January every year. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go last year and the two years before that…well, something happened. I’m not really sure what.
I went to my first OrcaCon in January 2020 and then everything went to hell so I wasn’t able to make it back again until this year.
I just got back on Sunday and thought I would give you a report of what happened and how it was.
I did mention the 2020 OrcaCon in my post about convention experiences, so you know I had a blast then.
Did I have a blast this weekend?
Well, except for the rain, it was actually pretty good!
The drive down to Bellevue from Vancouver on Friday morning was beautiful (cloudy and spitting rain when I left but by the time I had crossed the border, the sun was out) and I got down there just before Noon.
The rain started just when I got to Bellevue. It was ok the rest of the weekend, raining off and on (but never too badly when I went out to the parking lot for the food trucks) but the drive home on Sunday was hideous with rain.
My voice was a bit hoarse from singling along with the music I had been listening to on the way down, which made teaching a game first thing a bit rough!
But I persevered.
You don’t want to know about the drive, though.
You want to know about the games!
So let’s take a look.
Read MoreTop 10 Games Played in 2022 – #10-6
(Edit – Now check out the Top 5!)
It’s been a while since I’ve done a true Top 10 list.
Last year’s Top 10 was rolled into my Top 25 Games Played of All Time.
I didn’t play enough in 2020 to do a Top 10, so it was a Top 5 instead.
We have to go back to 2019 since there was a Top 10 list!
I know you’ve missed it, haven’t you?
You know you have.
As I mentioned in my Blog in Review post, I played 111 unique games in 2022, definitely enough to get a Top 10 list going.
As I was putting together the list, I realized that I left off a game that I thought would be on it.
Underwater Cities, played for the first time this year (and twice in the same month!), is a phenomenal game.
When I realized I left it off the list, I went looking to see what it would replace…and decided it wouldn’t replace any of them.
I would definitely say that it’s my #11, though.
It could move up in the future, especially if I play it some more.
With that all being said, let’s get into the first half of the Top 10 Games Played in 2022 list.
You know, so you can get on with your day.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 