Gaming News and Notes

From a Ryan Bradley article in The Atlantic:

1. Pick up the abalone. This may require prying the abalone from its hold, and using a stainless steel putty knife is recommended.

But let’s back up for a minute, because maybe you’re wondering, What is an abalone? Or, Isn’t it a board game? And maybe, Why should I care about the sex of a board game you crazyperson? To answer: It is both a sea snail and a board game. But you can’t sauté the board game in butter or sell it for $50 a pound in Japan. People don’t form international smuggling rings or get themselves eaten by great white sharks over the board game.

Au contraire, Mr. Bradley – everyone knows that the easiest way to slide those marbles down your windpipe is to coat them liberally with a beurre blanc. As for becoming a shark meal out of desire for a board game, well, maybe someone else can speak to that…

It's time to clear out our ding and dent games! Sometimes games arrived damaged from the manufacturer, or sometimes we drop one on the floor, but no matter how they got that way they've got to leave the warehouse.

We're running a first-come first-served, no holds barred sale on our slightly damaged games. Everything in the warehouse that has some damage is on sale, and in many cases there is only 1 damaged copy up for grabs. Please note that these games are completely playable and there should be no damage to the game parts themselves. However, all sales are final and we will not accept returns on these damaged items for any reason.

If you like your games in pristine mint condition this sale is not for you, but if you like good prices on slightly corner-bashed, side-creased, box-cutter sliced games then be sure to check it out!

See the full list here!

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for January! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for January are:

Military Grant Petty Officer Shaun VanAsselberg
Deployed in Southern Afghanistan

School Grant Douglas Evans
Kellybrook Elementary, Missouri

Library Grant Amy Jo Southworth
Librarian, Bay Shore High School, New York

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who is sending in applications! To apply for the grant please click here. Happy gaming!

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for December! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for December are:

Community Grant Eric A. Johnson
Detective with Pima County Sheriff's Dept., Arizona

School Grant Kent Chapman
Grant Elementary, California

Library Grant Lynn Loftus
Librarian, Southbridge High School, Massachusetts

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who is sending in applications! To apply for the grant please click here. Happy gaming!

The December installment of Mike Siggins' Gamer's Notebook has just been posted. In this edition, Mike discusses some of his favorite shorter games from this year, as well as some other recent releases.

Read the full article here!

The November 2009 edition of Mike Siggins' Gamer's Notebook has just been posted! In this installment Mike discusses some recently played games and has guest writer Chris Payne evaluate the Essen 2009 releases.

Read the full article here!

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for October & November! All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for October are:

School Grant Jeremy Pequignot
Creekview Intermediate School in Ohio

School Grant Chris & Abby McNamee
Hopkins Elementary in Oregon

Community Grant Dr. Elizabeth Gurnack
The Americus Board Gaming Society

The winners for November are:

Library Grant Joyce McPartland,
Josephine Community Libraries in Oregon

School/Library Grant Cynthia Ryman,
Dobyns-Bennett High School in Tennessee

School/Library Grant Gail Przeclawski,
Grand Ave. Primary Learning Center in Florida

Community Grant Veronica Livingston,
Whittier Community Center in Colorado

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who is sending in applications! To apply for the grant please click here. Happy gaming!

Funagain Games is proud to announce the winners of our monthly game grants for August and September. All who are eligible are strongly encouraged to apply to keep the applicant pool filled. Instructions on how to apply can be found here.

The winners for August are:

Military Grant CPT. Ian Baierlipp

Community Grant Ken Ferguson
Kensington Wods, HS in Michigan

School Grant Craig Vivian
Monmouth College in Illinois

Community/School Grant Bruce Heroux
Middle School in Woonsocket, RI

The winners for September are:

Military Grant Stephen Jolly,
USS Eisenhower

Community/School Grant David Dahari
Marvin Ridge High School (Waxhow, NC)

Community/School Grant Hans Kishel,
Librarian, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who is sending in applications! To apply for the grant please click here. Happy gaming!

Small World has won Games Magazine's 2010 Game of the Year award! Congratulations to the game's designer, Philippe Keyaerts; publisher, Days of Wonder, as well as all others involved.

Other category winners include Roll Through the Ages (Best Family Game), Le Havre (Best Advanced Strategy Game), Blox (Best Abstract Strategy Game), Amerigo (Best Family Card Game), Dominion and Dominion: Intrigue (Best Family Strategy Game), Dixit (Best Party Game), La Ora Stelo (Best Puzzle), and Fields of Fire (Best Historical Simulation).

Each year, Games Magazine lists their 100 favorite games across several categories, as well as their overall choice for the game of the year. To see the full 2010 Games 100 list, as well as older Games 100 lists, click here.

The International Gamers Awards were created to recognize outstanding games and designers, as well as the companies that publish them. The awards are truly international in scope, with committee members representing countries throughout the world.

In the Multi-Player category, the award goes to Le Havre, the creation of German designer Uwe Rosenberg and published by Lookout Games and Ystari Games. Set in the enchanting French port of Le Havre, the game challenges players to properly manage their harbour by securing goods, converting these into resources, purchasing buildings, and shipping goods to other ports for handsome profits. Le Havre is quite challenging, and the abundance of choices gives players wide latitude in pursuing their strategies. The game has earned the IGA in the General Strategy, Multi-Player category, and marks the second IGA for designer Rosenberg and Lookout Games, who captured the award last year with Agricola.

In the 2-Player category, the award goes to Day & Night, a strategic game set in a fantasy world where Lady Day and Lady Night duel for the right to remain in their celestial palace. Each player possesses a unique set of cards, and must play them wisely to gain the upper hand and thwart their opponent. Day & Night is a beautifully illustrated game with original artwork. The game is designed by Valentijn Eekels and released by Mystics. dl. This is the first IGA for both Eekels and Mystics. dl.

To view the entire 2009 IGA list, click here.

The Dice Tower Gaming Awards focus on games that have a wide appeal, help spread the boardgaming hobby, and most of all are fun! Funagain has recently started displaying The Dice Tower Gaming Awards on our site, and just in time for the latest awards!

Click here to see The 2008 Dice Tower Gaming Awards

This year, the top honors go to Dominion, by Donald X Vaccarino and from Rio Grande Games. Dominion also recently won the Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year), and has been consistently very popular ever since it was released. Congratulations to all involved!

If you're unfamiliar with the other gaming awards we display on our site, they are a great way to find amazing games in many different categories. Click here to get started!

Lookout Games has announced a new title for release in June 2010 – although the game might slip a month later or arrive in May at the Spielwahnsinn ("Game Madness") event in Herne, Germany. The new game is Die Minen von Zavandor from designer Alexander Pfister with graphics by Lookout regular Klemens Franz. (2-4 players, ages 10+, 45-90 minutes, ~€35)

Die Minen von Zavandor is set in Lookout’s fantasy world of Zavandor, but otherwise has no direct connection to Lookout’s The Scepter of Zavandor. In this game, which has a bidding mechanism at its heart, players are dwarves who try to equip their mines with buildings and people that will prove useful during the game, in addition to earning them points at game’s end. In his blog, Pfister describes (in German) Minen as being less complicated than Scepter. He also says that the bidding mechanism doesn’t feel like a classic auction: “The minimum purchase price of the buildings / artifacts is 3 gems – but with a starting income of 2-3 gems, the question is usually not how much you should offer, but whether you should even make an offer.” Bidding is handled simultaneously, he says, so the game has little waiting time and plays smoothly.

The folks over at the Obsidian Portal (makers of campaign management software – to which you could win an Ascendent membership to in our “Read a RPG in Public” context </end shameless plug>) just posted the first of a two-part interview with Matt Wilson, head honcho over at Privateer Press where he started by dropping a bombshell – Privateer Press will be releasing a new, updated version of the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Iron Kingdoms is the in-house setting for Privateer Press’ properties set in a world of steampunk mechs powered by powerful mages inhabiting a highly political and violent world of dragon gods, religious zealots and other fantasy goodness and has always been one of my personal favorite settings. The old game was based on the D20 system (party of the explosion of D20 licensed materials), but the new version will be based on a proprietary system. No word on a firm release date, but Matt seemed to indicate that we shouldn’t expect it until 2011.  

I already wrote about Klaus Teuber’s Settlers of America: Trails to Rails in my 2010 NY Toy Fair coverage, but now publisher Mayfair Games has released the cover image and clarified a few other details, so here’s the publisher’s description:

The 19th Century has arrived and Americans are heading west. Wagon trains are forming up and heading out to settle new lands and build new cities. These new cities will need railroad lines to bring in new people and necessary goods. Some head west for the adventure, some to start a new life, still others to find work.

Look west to make your fortune. As the population grows, resources will dwindle and the smart money seeks new sources and new markets. Finance your settlers as they head west to build the cities of tomorrow. Link these cities with rails of steel and operate your railroad to supply the townsfolk with goods. To the west lie lands to settle and fortunes to be made!

Settlers of America: Trails to Rails utilizes the familiar Catan hex-tile grid to present a map of the United States. Players collect and trade resources, in order to purchase, migrate and build settlements, forge railroads and acquire locomotives. Railroads are used to distribute goods to the interconnected cities. As westward locations are settled, old sources of resources deplete. The addition of gold adds to the depth of play and increases options for the players.

As I noted previously, Settlers of America will be available only in English from Mayfair Games with a release date of June 2010. No other edition is planned at this time. (2-4 players, ages 10+, 60-90 minutes, $55)

We would be horrifically remiss if we failed to mention that Games Workshop’s newest release for Warhammer 40,000, Battle Missions, was released this past weekend. What does Battle Missions give you? Why new missions of course! This may sounds like a small thing, but ever since the 5th edition of the 40K game was released, players have had very few official mission/scenario combinations to play with. This new expansion greatly expands the total number of scenarios and adds tons of race-specific missions (which I’ve never cared for truth be told…). I got a chance to look through the book and I’m pretty excited about it (in fact, I’m so excited, that I’ll be using it a tournament I’m running at a local games store this weekend!). Battle Missions is available for for purchase right now and retails for about $25 US.

At least that’s what Alliance Game Distributors is announcing in a recent game solicitation to retailers. I’ve poked game designer Tom Lehmann about providing another designer diary about the game’s background, as he has done so ably for the previous Race for the Galaxy titles. Fingers crossed…

Hot news of game sales.

Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar stores are running significant sales on some of their remaining holiday stock of board games. Note that not all games are on sale, but if you look around you should find a table or two of games with red stickers. Last night, I purchased Masters of Venice, Travel Blokus, and Time After Time for 75 percent off! I understand that tomorrow prices might be lowered to $2 per game. Of course, stock will vary by store and is very limited. But if you hurry up, I left you several copies of Wits & Wagers, Red November, and a variety of Goliath Games in the Rockville, Maryland shop.

Besting even the Barnes & Noble discount, White Wolf is celebrating Read an E-Book Week (did you know that was this week?) by offering a PDF copy of the World of Darkness Rulebook (normally $25) for FREE!

Despite the odds, the Naruto Shippuden TCG from Bandai is going strong. It’s Bandai’s best-selling TCG. I’m guessing that the continued popularity of the manga has something to do with it.

Bandai is planning a North American championship series called Shonen Jump, presumably sponsored by the magazine in which the Naruto manga is serialized. Prizes are not exactly stellar (top prizes include a PS3 and an Ipod Touch), but there you go.

Finding Dulcinea pimps board games, Yottaquest, games in education, The Settlers of Catan, Board Games with Scott, and many other topics. (source)

The Visalia Times-Delta pimps retro board games in a column called “Down Memory Lane”. (source) Today she plays Bunco.

CrunchGear pimps Bubble-Talk, an Apples to Apples-like game of playing short phrases onto pictures. (source)

LEGO says that its new line of board games are what’s boosting its sales. (source)

The Hartford Courant pimps board games’ staying power. (source)

A blogger in the Phoenix New Times pimps the foodie board game What’s Cookin?. (source)

Dunstable Today pimps Tom Lennett, the designer of Numenko. (source)

South Africa’s BuaNews pimps Asiphile, a board game about sexual health. (source)

The Financial Mail Women’s Forum pimps girls …. hmmm, that didn’t sound right … by sponsoring a financial board game design challenge. Six girls aged 16 to 17 from Withington Girl’s school, calling their design group “Money Minded”, walked away with £3,000 for the first place design. (source) The game board is brain shaped and it has brain-shaped tokens.

An awesome interview [PDF] with Warhammer designers John Stallard and Rick Priestly in last month’s Battlegames.

The Prisoner was a popular TV show, and a card/board game based on the show and published by UK sggc Card-Board Games. You go around the board trying to find the items you need to escape.

Card-Board Games aims to reduce the cost of their game production by creation games whose boards are created by the cards as you play. I.e. tile laying games, using cards.