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Dan Street-Phillips
I have always been a huge fan of Scythe. It was one of the first heavier games I played when getting into the hobby and more importantly it was the game that got me into painting my miniatures. I have pimped up my copy, complete with metal coins, realistic resources and have played through the brilliant Rise of Fenris campaign expansion and so I feel like it was safe to say a sequel game was always going to get my interest. I have been following the blogs and the vlogs and read the rule book and watched how to play videos and could not be more excited. Expeditions, although thematically and aesthetically in the world of Scythe the gameplay feels very different. You are moving your (beautiful and huge) mech around the land from tile to tile, revealing as you go along and helping the inhabitants to fight against mystical corruption that is infecting the land. You are managing your hand of cards, building items, melding meteors and completing quests, all in aid to get ‘glory’, the recognisable stars of Scythe that will trigger the end game much like its predecessor. I was lucky enough to try this at UK Games Expo this year reinforcing my excitement for this game and my pre-ordered copy can’t come soon enough
David Ireland
Ever since playing Zombicide for the first time in 2013, this is the game I dreamed to be created and produced. It is now here! Marvel Zombies sees the Marvel Universe smashed together with Zombicide and it just looks incredible. The Zombies have plagued and overrun society, with that many of our favourite heroes have been converted in to Zombies, that’s right, super hero zombies.
You, as the players (in this set) control those super hero zombies and have to complete missions against the Agents of Shield and the remaining super heroes not yet converted. From what I gather those super heroes are the equivalent of the Abomination here, so they are going to be tough, no doubt ridiculously tough.
I’m a huge fan of the Zombicide game. It is an awesome cooperative that I have wrote about before for Zatu. Working with friends against the hordes is intense, epic fun from start to finish. So then to be able to use my favourite super heroes as a team with friends against the hordes in a new game that will (no doubt) have new missions and rule variations to Zombicide just makes me jump up and down with excitement. I also know Zombicide often doesn’t always go to plan and the hordes do win. I don’t know if I will cope if I have to watch Captain America get taken out. One thing I am convinced on is this will be the most intense Zombicide yet.
There are also plenty of expansion sets to this game making the replayability of the game absolutely enormous. Plenty more super heroes to get involved in the battle for survival.
This game is top of my Wishlist at the moment. I would truly love a copy of this game to include within my collection. One day…
Favouritefoe
This month’s pick for my wish list game was easy peasy. Easy with a capital E in fact as I have been lusting after Earth, the newest kid on the tableau creating, engine building, hand management board game block!
Having had my first taste on BGA a few months ago (with a great friend and co-blogger, Andy, who was actually involved in the development of the game!), it took me a few games to get it. And that wasn’t the game’s fault. Earth is a visual experience – it’s beautiful, but that’s not what I’m highlighting here. What I mean is that there is a lot of information and a lot of possibilities in terms of how you can earn victory points. And synergising myriad options together (or indeed prioritising some over others) is incredibly tricky when you can only see a proportion of the game space at a time. Scrolling up and down is possible (and indeed vital), but to truly fathom how all the cards, bonuses, resources, and powers are working together, you need to see everything out on the table.
Earth is one of those great games where there are almost endless possibilities and opportunities to combo actions together. It’s also one where you get to do stuff every turn! The active player chooses one of 4 actions and the passive players get to do a weaker version of the same action. There are also event cards which can be played anytime that trigger another opportunity to gain something, although it usually comes at a cost.
It's hard to encapsulate just how many different options there are in Earth (and just how delightful it is) when building your ecosystem and watching it develop into a point pumping powerhouse! Being nature themed, it also hits the mark for me on artwork and setting. I’ve just got to wait for the pennies to mount up so that I can turn this wish list wonder into a shelf settler!
Andy Broomhead
This game has become something of an itch that I can’t scratch for quite a while now. One of my earliest memories of film and TV as a kid is trying to stay up late to watch the 1986 masterpiece Aliens on the telly. I half succeeded – I remember falling asleep a few times and so the plot didn’t really make a lot of sense, but there was something gripping about that entire universe.
Fast-forward many (many) years, and I’ve got this unshakeable desire to play Nemesis.
On paper, this has a lot of things in the plus column as far as I’m concerned. First and foremost is being catapulted into the centre of that universe – although in a way that’s legally distinct from the Nostromo and Ellen Ripley.
It’s a big game too – an experience that takes a few hours, and while I love the many games in my collection that are over and done with in under an hour, there’s something different about being immersed in something for 2-3 hours that I really love about this hobby.
There’s an amazing table presence that comes with it, some incredible xenomorph and character minis and revealing new parts of the ship and uncovering danger as you go lands right on the money for me.
I think the cheery on the icing of this wonderful cake is the semi-cooperative experience, never quite knowing if, after all that work, you’re going to fall foul of a hideous alien, or a despicable traitor from within your own ranks.
Nick Welford
The first game on my wishlist I may have actually already ordered. Does that break the rules? I don’t know. Fittingly for my rebellious attitude the game is Seas of Havoc, a game of sail by canon attacks on the high seas. Combining three things I love, deck building, worker placement and combat, it looks to be right up my street. In the ‘Island’ phase you place your skiffs (workers) out to get new cards and resources, before unleashing your plans in the ‘Sea’ phase. Successfully damaging your opponents leads to infamy and the most infamous pirate will win the game!
Other than Seas of Havoc, Tiletum has been on my mind recently. I got to play this at a convention and was pleasantly surprised with the combo laden gameplay. It was very beige though. Darwin’s Journey is another game that peeked my interest coming from the same design team as Newton. I’ve heard that the expansion makes the game a lot better though so I might wait a bit longer on that one.
I recently upgraded by copies of the West Kingdom Trilogy to the collectors boxes and so I NEED all the expansions and the folded space inserts for those games to complete the series! Speaking of expansions I loved the GI Joe Deck Building Game and really want to pick up some expansions for this. It’s a really good co-op deck builder, albeit with dice rolling so there is some luck.
I’m also eagerly awaiting the retail release of Dodos Riding Dinos. I love racing games and think this one looks great and would fit a hole in my collection. Last but not least I still haven’t picked up Woodcraft. Dice placement is usually a hit for me and the abilitiy to chop dice in half with your axe sounds amazing!