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News Archive—2009
Here are the news items we posted on our website from January to June 2009.
The most recent news can be found by following the link on the left. Older news from 2008 is also available.
Price lists and info
|
Date |
Headline |
| 25th June 2009 |
Days of Steam offer and Playing Gods promotional items |
| 2nd June 2009 |
Days of Steam, Sector 41 and Sumeria—all launched at this year's UK Games Expo—plus titles from Valley Games and others |
| 11th May 2009 |
Ghenos Games's Giro d'Italia game plus new titles from Abacus and Bambus |
| 24th Apr 2009 |
New titles from Eagle Games, including the first five in their Gryphon Games range, plus Ted Alspach's Ultimate Werewolf |
| 31st Mar 2009 |
Delivery from Altar in the Czech Republic: Dorn, Greenland, Jantaris and Legion. |
| 20th Mar 2009 |
Kahmaté and Opus-Dei arrive |
| 17th Feb 2009 |
Army of Zero arrives plus various re-stocks and confirmation of our new warehouse |
| 9th Jan 2009 |
Duck Dealer arrives plus news of our warehouse move |
25th June 2009
Everybody seemed to have a good time at this year's UK Games Expo in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago—we certainly did and we trust you did, too. Of the new games launched there, Days of Steam (PDF document, 160k in size) and Sumeria (PDF, 120k) are in stock. However, our initial stock of Sector 41 has sold out and it will be a few weeks before we can get more from the USA.
If you have a club associated with your shop, we can provide a copy of Days of Steam for the club, courtesy of JKLM Games. Just let us know and we'll add it to your next order.
JKLM Games provides English and German rules with Days of Steam (Polish is also available). If you'd like to get the game in another language and can provide a translation, please contact us. JKLM is keen to make similar arrangements for all its forthcoming games (currently expected to be available in English, German, French, Spanish and Dutch).
The expansion set—extra cards—for Playing Gods arrived for the Expo and is now available. We also have a few Playing Gods promotional items: a couple of T-shirts (white, XL, showing the "Budda-Budda-Buddha"), one set of the 'Limited Edition' idols (high quality, more detailed versions of the game's playing pieces) and a couple of extra Buddhas. If you'd like to make use of these, let us know your plans and we'll send them on.
Valley Games has provided us with replacements for the misprinted parts in Supernova. The updated games will be available in a couple of weeks, once we've worked our way through all the boxes.
2nd June 2009
This weekend is the UK Games Expo in Birmingham, where several new games will be launched. We will have three new board games, launched at the Expo, in stock next week.
Days of Steam (PDF document, 160k in size) is a new railway game from Aaron Lauster and Stratamax. This was originally intended for publication at Spiel '08 (and I was very taken with it when I played it there) and will be available to customers in the UK and other European countries.
Sector 41 (PDF, 180k) is a science fiction game from new US publisher, Scimitar Games. Players compete to explore an unstable sector of the galaxy, grab stocks of 'Glynium' and get them back to their mother ships. Nice spaceship pawns and interesting gameplay make the game.
The latest Reiver Games title is Sumeria (PDF, 120k), designed by Dirk Liekens, and will be with us after the Expo. Players are jostling to get the city-states they control to the top of the heap in time to get scoring markers. As they benefit from collecting sets of scoring markers, there are lots of tactical considerations.
Now in stock is the new expansion for The World Cup Game. Due in this week (Thursday 4th June) are some Valley Games titles (notably Hannibal and Master Builder), plus fresh stock of Wattsalpoag's Jet Set and the Giro d'Italia games.
I must apologise for the lack of Abacus's Bürger, Baumeister & Co: someone (ahem!) forgot to put it on the Purchase Order. D'oh! We will get some copies in our next consignment from Abacus. We have also sold out—for the time being—of Brass, Duel in the Dark and Origins.
11th May 2009
We've just had several deliveries, so a number of new titles are now in the warehouse (not to mention the older games that are back in stock). I have updated the price lists to reflect all of this and here are the highlights.
To tie in with the start of this year's Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) cycle race, we have Ghenos Games's two Giro d'Italia games (PDF document, 220k). The board game is a special edition of Leader 1, with a "real-time rule", special cards and instructions for reproducing the stages of the race.
New to us is a selection of Günter Cornett's entertaining games from Bambus Spieleverlag (PDF, 200k):
- The Bottle Imp (aka Flaschenteufel), a clever card game based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story
- Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, a struggle between good and evil—also based on RLS's writings
- Greentown, a board game of developing the eponymous town to attract visitors
- Socks in the City, a game of reuniting separated pairs of socks!
Due in today is a consigmment from Abacus (PDF 120k), which includes several new games:
- Aquaretto, a re-themed version of Zooloretto that stands on its own or can be combined with the earlier game
- Bonnie and Clyde, a 'Mystery Rummy' game about the infamous Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
- Bürger, Baumeister & Co, a Michael Schacht game of developing the city of Frankfurt-am-Main
- Mamma Mia! PLUS, 10th anniversary, expanded version of Uwe Rosenberg's clever card game of pizza making
- Valdora, a Michael Schacht board game set in a land rich in gold, silver and gems.
Next week we expect to have the fifth (and final) expansion for Shaun Derrick's World Cup Game. Due in June (after its launch at the UK Games Expo) is Reiver Games's Sumeria. And lots more.
24th April 2009
It's been a few weeks since my last news bulletin—I blame this on my visit to the States (which was good fun, thank you) and being buried in paperwork as I wrestle with our accounts. But you don't want to know about that, what's new on the games front?
Our latest consignment from the USA has now arrived and includes the first Gryphon Games—a series of 'bookcase' format games from Fred/Eagle:
- For Sale—a new edition of this classic auction game;
- Gem Dealer—a Reiner Knizia bidding game (formerly Attacke);
- High Society—a simple, but clever bidding game from Reiner Knizia;
- Money—another new edition of a Reiner Knizia classic where players swap banknotes;
- Worm Up!—is a personal favourite: players manoeuvre their chain of 'worm segments' to win the race.
There are also two new games from Eagle:
- Brass is the second edition of Martin Wallace's terrific, challenging business game of the early Industrial Revolution in Lancashire.
- The Club comes from Finland and is set in a disco where players manoeuvre 'dancers' across the floor in an effort to make the perfect couple. Eagle give it a 'PG-15' rating.
There are more details of all these in our April 2009 list (PDF document, 375k).
Also in the delivery is Ted Alspach's Utimate Werewolf: the Ultimate Edition (PDF, 170k). This is a professionally-produced and packaged set of playing aids for Werewolf players: character cards for 40 roles, scenarios, scorepad and a comprehensive guide. The artwork is gorgeous.
We now have fresh stock of Attack!, Cluzzle, Galactic Emperor, Incan Gold, the Puerto Rico PC game and Wits and Wagers as well.
And finally, our drawstring cloth bags (follow the link for a picture) are now available in purple, orange and black as well as the three primary colours.
Coming soon is Giro d'Italia, a special edition of the cycling race game, Leader 1, that covers Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France.
31st March 2009
We had an unexpected arrival last week: a consignment of titles from Altar Games (PDF Document, 253 Kb) in the Czech Republic. Follow the link for more about the games, but they are:
- Fresh stock of Dorn, the strategic fantasy role-playing board game;
- Greenland (Grænaland), a game of grabbing land to settle the eponymous island;
- Jantaris, competing guilds struggle for market share in a medieval city;
- Legion (Legie) is a 2-player combat game.
Our pending consignment from the USA is indeed due in after Easter (assuming no delays in transit or Customs), but we're getting much less than we expected. In particular, the consignment does not include any Roll Through the Ages, which is now out of print (a re-print is due in August).
Other recently out-of-print games are Confucius and Railroad Tycoon.
20th March 2009
First off, two new games will be in the warehouse on Monday (23rd March).
- Kahmaté (PDF document, 96k) is a fun board game version of (6-player!) Rugby from France that's already got a bit of a following.
- Opus-Dei: Existence After Religion (PDF, 76k) is a card game of competing philosophies from Denmark (and, the designer is keen to point out, has no connection to the Catholic organisation, 'Opus Dei'). This comes in display boxes of six copies and there is a discount for buying a full box.
Follow the links for more information about the games.
It looks like our pending consignment from the USA will finally ship soon, which means a number of titles should be available after Easter. Speaking of which, I will be in the States for the week before Easter (6-10th April) attending the Gathering of Friends. It should be business as usual, but there may be some delays where I need to deal with things.
17th February 2009
The first thing to mention is that we moved to our new warehouse at the end of January without too much trouble. This gives us plenty of room and we have got it pretty much organised now. We're still waiting on BT re-instating the phone line though. The address, should you need it, is 22 Springwood Drive, Braintree CM7 2YN (note this is the warehouse only, all correspondence should still go to the usual address).
Secondly, we have reduced the prices on a few titles, notably Phoenicia, which now has an RRP of £20. The full price list (243k) has been updated with these changes and the latest availability of all titles.
As far as new arrivals go, we now have MAG's Colors (PDF document, 122k) in stock along with fresh supplies of Duck Dealer, Duel in the Dark (and expansions) and Wind River.
Fresh from the London Toy Fair is Army of Zero (PDF, 153k), a two-player combat card game. While the game is aimed at pre-teen children, the cards also provide a series of puzzles for older children and adults with a prize in the offing.
And don't forget our colourful cloth bags...
I'm sorry to report that we won't be getting the copies of 1861 I mentioned last month as there is a dispute over who owns them. We'll have to wait until this is resolved.
9th January 2009
Splotter's latest strategy game, Duck Dealer (PDF document, 113k), arrived earlier this week along with fresh supplies of Indonesia. Note that neither of these games is shrink-wrapped, so the boxes can be a little worn.
We have found some copies of After the Flood tucked away in the warehouse, so this is available again. We also located some copies of 1861 in Germany. We're getting these shipped back to us and they should be available later in the month.
I have updated our price lists to show current availability and latest prices (I'm hoping the pound is now on its way back up again).
We will again be moving to a bigger warehouse later in January. The precise date depends on finalising the contract, but be aware that we'll probably be closed for a few days while we move.