In this new series of semi-regular posts, we’ll aim to shine a spotlight on some of the upcoming titles due for release in the coming weeks and try to explain why we’re excited by them!
Sam
Brass: Lancashire/Birmingham
Designer: Martin Wallace
Publisher: Roxley Games
It’s been eleven years since Martin Wallace published the first edition of his magnum opus via his own Warfrog Games. In that time it garnered a reputation as one of the the single best economic engine games ever, consistently ranking in BoardGameGeek’s Top 100 games of all time for years now and an average user rating of 8.0.
Last year, Roxley Games managed to pick up the rights and, alongside Mr Wallace, have reworked the original into a new and gloriously updated edition, featuring frankly spectacular art and graphic design from design duo Mr Cuddington (husband and wife team from Canada). The game has some small gameplay tweaks, but is essentially the same game with a fancy new pair of pants.
Not only did they rework Brass (renaming it Brass: Lancashire in the process), but spun it off with a side-quel called Brass: Birmingham, featuring even more stunning and unique art and a couple more gameplay tweaks.
The Kickstarter ran in April 2017 and successfully funded with just shy of £1m. The two games are now due to arrive in backers’ hands (like mine) and in to retail, promising a new lease of life for the previously aged game and a raft of new fans.
Why am I excited by this? Well, the art frankly. I’m intimidated by the gameplay and fully expect my head to explode attempting to parse the rulebook. However, I’m more than willing to give it a go based on the reputation of Martin Wallace, Roxley’s attention to detail and quality of finish… and that artwork! Even if I’m terrible at the game, I’m not going to get tired of looking at it at least!
Pre-order now for £44.95 at Meeples’ Corner
Lewis
Century: Eastern Wonders
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi
Publisher: Plan B Games
I’m sure most people have now heard of the century trilogy from Plan B games. They are 3 games of trading through different areas of history. The interesting thing about the series is that each game is stand alone, or can be combined with other titles in the series to deliver entirely different and new games. Eastern Wonders is the second title in the series and is set in the golden age of sail.
I own the first is the series: Century Spice Road: which is an interesting hand management and economic mini-engine builder that’s great as both a gateway game and interesting enough for more seasoned casual gamers. Unfortunately I have the Golem special edition which means it won’t fit well with the Eastern wonders components and theme so I’d miss out on the bonus extra game. But if you own Century Spice Road, or none of them: I’d look at picking up both as it’s essentially 3 full games for the price of 2.
Pre-order for £27.95 at Meeples’ Corner.
SEAL Team Flix
Designer: Pete Ruth, Mark Thomas
Publisher: WizKids
I love dexterity games. Catacombs (a dungeon crawl game where you flick little wooden character discs around instead of rolling dice) from Elzra games is one of my favourites. Here they seem to have taken that similar concept but rethemed it in a SWAT team Rainbow 6 style.
Also them seem to have developed an enemy AI that makes it fully co-op and no one has to be the lonely bad guy… which in my experience is a massive plus, as the pressure of not letting your team down and team interactions are a massive element of the joy and humour from this style of game.
It also looks like it has a campaign with varying object based scenarios which again should keep things varied.
My only reservation about this game is that Flick ‘em up: dead of winter also offered a co-op dexterity experience, and seemed to be less fun than Catacombs as all games had an inbuilt turn timer which doesn’t really fit with dexterity games of this style in my opinion: you can read my full Flick ‘em Up: Dead of Winter review here.
Pre-order for £44.95 from Meeples’ Corner.
Joel
Great Western Trail: Rails to the North
Designer: Alexander Pfister
Publisher: Eggertspiele
An expansion to a game I don’t own… yet… I love GWT and I should own it and allow it to sit gathering dust on my game shelves like the rest of my loved and not played games, but never get around to doing it. But will Rails to the north help change this situation we will have to see. If you don’t already know what the expansion brings, well let me tell you: A new rail system which travels along the northeast of USA, stopping off at Chicago, Detroit, New York and many more cities. new station master tiles, Private buildings and new expanded players boards, which all sound very cool and should more depth and replayable to the original.
Pre-order for £23.95 at Meeples’ Corner.
Legendary: World War Hulk
Designer: Devin Low
Publisher: Upper Deck Entertainment
Another expansion, to I games I do own but don’t get to play enough for my liking. I feel I am in too deep with this game. I have near on everything for this beck-builder that I have boxes full of cards for nearly every Marvel character going. I feel I should stop buying the expansion because I have so much that I could play a game for the rest of life and still not see every combination. but… I… help… myself… must have… the latest and newest… shiny. This is the biggest expansion bought out for Marvel Legendary so far (apart from the Villains, which also a stand-alone core box) it’s bigger because all the characters and villains have a new keyword “transform” which will allow the card to be swapped out with another bigger better card to add to your deck, trashing the old one. If I wasn’t for the dice tower review of it I might of past up this but I rated very high by Tom so I must add it to my collection.