Well Hello Nerds!

What's going on everybody it's me Joe, thee.social.nerd from Instagram or you can find me on the tweet machine @iamjoebrooks 

Some of you are prolly wondering where in the hell have you all been? I was literally asked that question and its a very good question! Still been nerdy just busy with life. But as the year is coming to an end and 2016 looming around the corner, seriously its almost 2016 already, we will be bringing you what you are used to seeing! Reviews, News, Trailers, Gaming... all the same! 

Ryan has been creating some great games like Pillow Fighter for the awesome company Throwboy! Plus developing other projects that I'm sure he will be telling us about!

Levi has been working on his very own card game, Creepiest Pet Shop, which is only a couple hundred dollars away from a successful KickStarter Campaign! Click here to check out and support the Creepiest Pet Shop!

Lorne turned the big 3-0 and has had to remodel his room to accommodate all of his Funko POP! figures! On top of that this guy got to spend a week in Hawaii to celebrate his birthday!

As for myself you know I've been watching the Walking Dead, Netflix and of course going to the movie theater. Also, I've had some retro game finds that i'll post about that I was stoked to pickup. The Mrs. and I also returned to Jamaica to celebrate the union of my sister-in-law and her husband where you know I had to take Jason David Frank along with me! I also ran into a fellow nerd Dustin, that will help contribute to the site with a few posts. So be on the lookout for that and definitely show him some love!

So now that you all are caught up on our lives I hope you all have a great day and we will see you soon!

Pass The Buck | Kickstarter

I had the amazing opportunity to check out Pass The Buck and let me tell you I had the time of my life! Pass The Buck is really simple, fun and interactive. It was only a matter of seconds before we were all laughing and Passing off our tasks to one another. 

Pass The Buck is a light game good for casual gamers or hard core gamers looking for a break and something fresh. The best thing about Pass The Buck is that it mimics corporate life to a T! Its super fun trying to get your friends to complete your tasks while trying to throw them off about the departments your in. 

The kickstarter is only 350$ away from being funded. The crazy thing is you can get Pass The Buck for only 15$ no I'm not kidding you! It is time you had this game in your life! Check out the kickstater now and back this game! 

Campaign Trail Review | Kickstarter

Cosmic Wombat games has grown to become one of my favorite small publishers this year. After getting a chance to play Stones of Fate and Expedite they gained my interest as a maker of solid strategy games that require a bit of intelligence to play. Their newest game, Campaign Trail, looks to continue their trend of creating easy to learn games with surprising depth of strategy. Let's see if they succeed yet again in this review!

In Campaign Trail you and up to 5 other players take on the roles of Presidential hopefuls in a battle to win the most electoral votes up for grabs in a highly competitive race. The game has an interesting team concept that depends on the amount of players. The winning strategies can vary wildly based on how players are grouped. For instance in a 2 or 3 player game players take on the roles of Presidential candidates in the Democratic, Independant, or Republican parties and the game play is a fairly straightforward campaign where there is no teamwork involved and players are free to tackle whatever concern presses them at that moment. In higher player counts, however, a Vice Presidential candidate is added to the teams, a change that requires a lot more open communication of strategy and adds a way deeper level to the game where there are fewer surprises to steal electoral votes away and decisions need to be much more shrewd and calculated to be successful.

What’s surprising is how well this type of play scales. There is never a party that has too much of an advantage over another at any of these player counts, which is very unusual. In fact in many of the playthroughs the Independent Party, a party that is put at a serious disadvantage in many other political games, managed to secure the election.

This is a testament to what I feel is the games strongest feature, balance. It is very rare that I ever get to play a perfectly balanced game, especially from a kickstarter project. In each playthrough every game was a very closely contested race with many changes in the lead. There was not a single moment where anyone felt left out and if someone seemed like they were running away with the lead they would quickly learn just how simply that lead could be taken away by a smart move in a key state. Just about every game we played was decided by a tense and hard fought last turn that had everyone at the table excited by the outcome, win or lose. Moments like this are a stunning success in game design and show how much hard work went into making this game not only a good time to play but an excellent experience that can be the source of lively discussion even after all the pieces are cleaned up.

The gameplay of Campaign Trail was also surprisingly easy to learn. Most times I need to read through a rulebook at least twice to fully internalize everything that’s going on so that I can teach it to others. This game just needed one go through to get it all down. Everything was organized very clearly and concisely in a simple to read manual along with a nice reference guide for all of the special abilities in the game. For a game with this much complexity that is no small feat and is another feather in the cap for this game.

There are a few mechanics at work in this game that make it gel very nicely and recreate the feel of a heated political race. The first is a standard of most election based games and that is a territory control aspect. To win a state for your party you need to have a majority of registered voters, represented by colored cubes, in the states you wish to win. These voters can be placed in a wide variety of ways, which brings us to the excellent action selection mechanic at work in Campaign Trail.

The method of taking actions in Campaign Trail are an interesting mixture of luck and strategy. Each turn players will draw a hand of up to five cards. Each card has a wide variety of uses and making good use of them is critical to winning the election. Cards can be used to Travel to different states, Gain more money for your war chest, Register Voters, Advertise, Campaign, or perform special effects that can potentially have lasting effects on the game. Despite a card having a variety of all of these choices on them a candidate can only choose one action to use and discard that card, never to be used again. This results in a lot of agonizing decisions since at any given moment there are multiple needs that need to be taken care of. It requires a good deal of thought to figure out what you need to do each turn in the short term to put you in good position for a victory.

The final mechanic that I also really enjoy in this game is the asymmetrical play aspect it provides. Each player gets to choose a candidate card that gives them a special strength or weakness that they can use in the game. You may end up with a Master Orator that can sway the masses in a debate, a member of a wealthy and powerful family with endless finances, or an honest candidate with no skeletons in the closet that can’t have her character assaulted but in turn can not run smear campaigns on her competitors. Each of these cards add another layer of depth and will give you strong advantages that will guide you towards an ideal avenue of victory in a game. This is very important since it is easy to spread yourself thin across all of the possible methods to win a game instead of focusing on a few methods that work well for you. The designer also made these candidate cards double sided to represent both male and female candidates. This keeps the game inclusive to males and females alike which is something that I would like to see more of in the gaming community and in politics.

The components in this game are hard to judge based on the preview copy that I received. However judging by the good quality of their prototype and the company’s commitment to making a tight well made game lead me to believe that they are not going to cheap out on this aspect of game design. I am confident that the final product will be made of good sturdy materials that will hold up to many plays. Further contact with the publishers have confirmed this. I have also been assured by them that they will have some exciting stretch goals to include some unique components that will improve the already high game quality even further.

The game board looks very sharp. It is pretty large and allows you to see each state clearly and gives you enough room to stack up all of your voters without obstructing any key information. All of the text is very clear and easy to read from any part of the table. All of these things are good and standard for a board game but what Cosmic Wombat does that is not standard board game fare really makes this game cool.

The four piece, gigantic sliding scoring track does an amazing job of immersing players into the theme of Campaign Trail. Each party has a grooved row on the scoring track that they can place cardboard chits representing the number of electoral votes for each state snugly into this track when they are acquired. These chits are easy to move and switch between players so that gameplay can remain fast paced and not bogged down by having to keep constant track of numbers. The person with the longest score track is obviously in the lead and it is very easy to determine which states you will want to take from your opponents to cripple them the most. This is by far my favorite component in this game. It is attractive, useful, convenient, and really makes you feel like you are a part of a political rally watching the ticker on a giant screen reporting results to you as you await the reporting of all the districts votes. 

Another cool part of the board is the War Chest Dial Mat. This part of the board allows players to track their finances by using an easy to turn two tiered dial system. Instead of bogging down play by having to keep track of a lot of fake money, possibly between multiple people, everyone can clearly see what funds are available to all players. It only requires a simple twist of the dial to add or remove funds and since everyone can see what’s going on the potential of having a cheating banker is strongly diminished.

The theme of this game is probably Campaign Trails only possible drawback. Playing a game with a political theme can be a scary proposition. Many people like to steer away from political discussion with friends and family mainly because of the potential for arguments. However this game does an excellent job of staying away from controversy where it can and does a great job at softening the blow of things that could stir up controversy.

For instance, even though all players are representing real United States political parties there is absolutely no reference to their stance on issues. States are marked with different icons representing topics that are important to them, while many of them are very controversial such as gun control, immigration, and reproductive rights, not once during the game does anyone have to take a stance on them. You merely have to state that you are “advertising” or “debating” about the issue, nothing more. This helps to deflect tension away from the subject and keep the focus on the game and the competition to get the most votes. Not on the issues.

Depending on your reasons for playing this game I would caution against playing this with people who are quick to anger about even the slightest mention of political views. Try to remind people that this is just a game and that it has no impact on real life and you will have a great time. You may even find yourselves chuckling a bit if the Independants manage to win win Texas and California or the Republicans win the entire North East, that’s when you learn that the game is about having fun, not being an election simulator.

This game will launch on Kickstarter in mid September with a goal of $37,500, a reasonable expectation for a game of this size. The minimum pledge tier to get a copy of this game will be at $49 which is a pretty good deal for what you get. This game is expected to retail for $65 so I would suggest backing this product as opposed to waiting for it to potentially arrive in stores.

There will also be some enticing premium pledge tiers for those looking to get a little more out of their game. Cosmic Wombat is offering a $75 pledge level to not only get a copy of Campaign Trail but also a copy of their last game, Stones of Fate. I purchased a copy of Stones of Fate at Gen Con this year and can personally attest to it’s greatness as a quick, clever, and fun strategy game. This is a solid reward tier if you are interested in seeing what else this great young company has to offer.

They will also have some interesting tiers that will allow you to personalize the game. For $64 dollars you will be able to get the name of your own Super PAC printed on a card. If you are interested in seeing “Paid for by Citizens United for the Protection and Domestication of Interstellar Marsupials” in a board game, this is your chance.

For $125 you can create one of the candidate cards. Your idea for a name and backstory as well as an artists depiction of the candidate’s appearance will be put into the game for all to see.

I wholeheartedly recommend backing this game when it comes to Kickstarter in September! The game is great fun to play for people who enjoy highly competitive games where everyone has a chance to win. It is tremendously easy to learn since most people have at least some idea of how the election process works. The theme may seem a bit dry at first and it may cause people to balk at playing this but once play begins the game really shines and is easy to get wrapped up in. The price point is fair and is definitely worth it for acquiring an excellent game that has a lot of replay value.

To back this project on Kickstarter go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmicwombatgames/441255236?token=64c2d5d7

Thank you very much for reading this review! For more board game reviews, previews, and news follow Living The Nerd Life on all of your favorite social media services!

Also be sure to follow me on twitter @levithepirate.

Caveat: All images in this review are from a preproduction review copy of Campaign Trail and are not indicative of final production values. This copy was provided free of charge to the reviewer in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of the game. No financial recompense was offered or accepted in exchange for positive or negative reviews.

GemPacked! Cards | Kickstarter

One of my biggest gaming surprises this year has been from Edo Baraf’s newest game, GemPacked cards. At first glance I thought the game was a cute looking app like game, something along the lines of bejewled or candy crush, a bit basic and uninteresting, a game that I would almost instantly lose interest in. I was so very wrong about that.

The game of GemPacked deceives you into thinking it is more simple than it really is. This is how it draws you into it’s lair and puts you under its charm spell. What you find when you get into playing the game is that there is a challenging, competitive, and fun mental exercise that you can enjoy with your friends! 

When you play GemPacked your mission is to end the game with the highest value of Geminos. You will start each turn by acquiring two valueless pips of various colors. During the game you will be trading these pips in for squares and diamonds that are worth more points depending on what combinations are used. The trick is being able to judiciously choose which cards to trade for off the board in order to make great combinations and create more points.

There is not a whole lot of interaction between players in this game. Mostly you will be focused on what combinations you can put your Geminos in to get the highest supply of points. The exception to this is in the rocket and action cards.

Each game will have a small set of rocket cards that are very high in value. To gain these cards players have to spend the exact combination of Geminos shown on the rocket to gain them. If you are a highly competitive player like me you will be keeping an eye on your competitors to make sure they don't get the cards they need to complete these objectives and gain them for yourself.

The game also has some fun action cards that help shake the game up a bit. The Chomet card can destroy and replace the cards around it often laying waste to all your plans and forcing you to adapt to all the new options it lays in its trail of destruction.

Asteroid cards also come along from time to time sprinkling extra Gemino pips upon other players. These cards really help ramp up the game where there is a potential for staleness and gives a swift kick in the pants to the in game economy.

One other interesting tidbit is that Gem Packed is also available as an app version that has been released concurrently with its kickstarter launch. It is currently only available on IOS and as a droid user I have yet to have an opportunity to try the app version of this game but I'm sure that it could give you a glimpse at how well you might enjoy the tabletop version of this game.

The game plays well with both older and younger players and the game balances nicely to allow everyone a chance to win. It can also double as a great learning lesson to teach children the color wheel and a bit of basic math.

The math bit can be a double edged sword though. Even though trading things in and constantly upgrading can be a fun activity some players felt like the game was just doing the same bit of "color math" over and over. As a teacher of this game it falls on you to inject some theme and story into this game of collecting cute little gem people and potentially sending them off into space. Since the game has stellar graphic design and artwork but prefers to leave it's gameplay in abstraction this can be a difficult thing to explain.

The game could also benefit from offering some player aids. There was a good deal of rulebook passing as we all needed to study the conversion chart for certain Geminos. This process created a bit of a slowdown in a game that shines best when play is quick.

GemPacked cards is currently seeking funding on kickstarter and is moving along at a nice pace, sitting at 25% nearly a week into its campaign. The $25 dollar price tag is a bit close to what this would retail for in stores but I think it is still a very fair price tag and is worth backing to see this on store shelves. I think this game would thrive excellently in a retail environment but it needs a push from people like you and I to get it there.

I recommend backing this game. The charming artwork, quick play time, and simple yet challenging mechanisms click together well to form a great game that you can play if you want to idly kill a small amount of free time. It's cute theme will work well to introduce new and young gamers to tabletop gaming and it's small size aids in making this an ideal game to travel with for play in restaurants, flights, and hotels.

The kickstarter page can be found at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ebaraf/gempacked-cards/description

Thank you very much for reading this review! For more board game reviews, previews, and news follow Living The Nerd Life on all of your favorite social media services!

Also be sure to follow me on twitter @levithepirate.

Caveat: All images in this review are from a preproduction review copy of GemPacked cards! and are not indicative of final production values. This copy was provided free of charge to the reviewer in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of the game. No financial recompense was offered or accepted in exchange for positive or negative reviews.

Bloxels Gameplay and Review

Do you want to build something, or play something?
Most games make you pick. But now, you can do BOTH – build your very own video game, AND play it with the Bloxels™: Video Game Building System.

Bloxels Kickstarter -https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelpress/bloxels-build-your-own-video-games-with-blocks
Bloxels - http://www.bloxelsbuilder.com/home

Pixel Press - http://www.projectpixelpress.com

Steam Court | Kickstarter Review

Steam Couts Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2126359157/steam-court?utm_source=Reviewers&utm_medium=LivingtheNerdLife&utm_campaign=Steam%20Court

Ghost Town: A Mystery // Kickstarter

Our own Living The Nerd Life content creator, Jesse Kwe (@ShoPow11), is starting his new career as a comic book artist and his first big project is a graphic novel entitled "Ghost Town"! It will be a series of 3 books with the first one, subtitled "A Mystery", being comprised of 4 issues. This will be Jesse's big break into the comic book industry so please check out the Kickstarter page and if you like what you see, pick a reward level to pledge, and support Jesse's dream by sharing it with anyone else who you think might be interested in seeing this comic get made. Thank you!

Back this project now on KickStarter!

About this project:

Ghost Town: A Mystery is the first book in the Ghost Town series. It follows Arthur the Auditor and his mission to Treble City to "Investigate recent disturbances from unknown assailants."

The Story: 

America is not who she once was...

When the debt became too much and the will to fight was too little, they took her from us. They, The Lollipop Corporation, with their promises of freedom from our troubles bought her out from under us. We wasted her and they took her away.

Now we are only Share Holders, owning a fraction of the company that owns all of it; our land, our resources, and our futures. 

So just like our brother Arthur Saulos, the Last Man Born in America, we gave up trying a long time ago.

Arthur took his job as Auditor, gave up his birth hands for metal ones, and put on the suit and tie for Lollipop.

Now he works the job.  He does the missions that are provided to him by a faceless machine, written in a code he didn't bother to learn. That's okay, he'll let The Librarian translate it for him. He's the only kind face in this company anyway.

The next mission that The Librarian hands him is Treble City, a Lollipop holding on the east coast. "Recent disturbances by an unknown assailant," is all Arthur has to go on, but he's used to that. It's been a long time since he's been to Treble City and he'll soon learn that things have most certainly changed in "The City That Never Sleeps."

Because, just like his mission, things in Treble City are not as they seem...

...but what ever really is...

...in Ghost Town...

Back this project now on KickStarter!

A Glimpse at the panels:

Back this project now on KickStarter!

Bottom of the 9th - Kickstarter

Bottom of the 9th

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dicehateme/bottom-of-the-9th-a-dice-and-card-game-of-classic?ref=nav_search

Welcome back! This is the 2nd part of a look at some exciting kickstarters coming out of my neighboring city of Saint Louis.

Bottom of the 9th is a new kickstarter out from Dice Hate Me games. The game is based around an epic duel between a tiring pitcher and the final batters of a tense baseball game. The game is pretty lightweight in complexity and supports one to two players and can be played in 5-15 minutes. The company also has rules to lengthen the game to cover an entire nine innings and also supports season long league play.

The game features some very cool components. The old fashioned baseball cards that will serve as the avatars for your roster of players are especially neat. The cards use 1mm punchboard to replicate the feel of old baseball cards and feature terrific artwork of players in classic baseball regalia. The backs show the special abilities of the players and also have the monocolor stat printing reminiscent of vintage cards as well. Dice Hate Me clearly went through a lot of work to make the game capture the feeling of old time baseball and it really shows in the beautiful punch board cards that they are including.

The gameplay involves the use of a few different mechanics that look like they will combine well to make for tense strategic duels. The first mechanic involves a guessing game using tokens to determine where the pitcher is planning to place the next pitch. Two tokens, one with High or Low, and another with Inside or Away will be used to determine where the pitch is being aimed at. If the batter can correctly guess the locations on one or both of these tokens he will get an advantage to hit the ball into play. After this guessing game is played both sides will roll their sets of d6’s depending on the results and modifiers certain effects will take place. The batter may swing and miss for a strike, take a ball, find his way on base, or knock the ball out of the park and win the game.

Each time this exchange takes place the pitcher runs the risk of becoming fatigued. The more fatigued a pitcher gets, the less likely he will be able to pitch effectively. This will make strategic pitch selection a crucial component of the game.

The price on the base game is only $20 which is a spectacular deal. It includes 20 cards, a game board, some dice, and some nice wooden components.  The All Star pledge tier at $50 is, in my opinion, a slightly less valuable option. It adds a clipboard game board that will give you a fresh scorecard on every game sheet so you can save your records for posterity, as well as a numbered box signed by the designers and a limited edition mascot card.

At the time of writing this article Bottom of the 9th has amassed $26,000 of its $20,000 goal so no matter what the project is a go and you can back it with confidence.

The prices on both versions also include all stretch goals which at the time of publishing include upgraded dice (As seen above) and an improved game board (below). Future stretch goals will include expansion packs featuring new players, custom baserunner meeples, and a special expansion featuring characters from the Sentinels of the Multiverse game to celebrate Dice Hate Me’s recent merger with Greater than Games.

This game is another game that I am personally backing. I think the price tag is more than reasonable and provides a great value for all of the components that will come with this game. I also like how inexpensive it is because I am fairly unsure of how many plays I will be able to get of this game. Most of my games will probably, sadly, be solo since I am the only baseball fanatic in my game group. On the plus side this may inspire some of my friends that aren’t particularly interested in games to take up the hobby, who knows! Either way $20 is a pretty small risk to take.

Dice Hate Me has a marvelous track record of producing very well reviewed games by the community and I don’t see any reason that this game will not deliver the same type of success that they have received from their other titles, Brewcrafters and Belle of the Ball. I have also had the opportunity to meet some of the staff from Dice Hate Me at Gen Con last year and I can attest that they have a passion for the tabletop hobby that runs very deep and will go to great lengths to help their customers.

Finally I would like to clarify that I am in no way associated with Dice Hate Me games. I am not receiving any sort of compensation for this article. I am simply a passionate fan of the hobby and I want to share that passion with as many people as possible. If however any gaming companies do want to submit games to me for review I will gladly accept them and promise to give an honest and thorough review.

Thank you very much for your interest in these articles. Look forward to seeing more Kickstarter Updates here on Living The Nerd Life in the future.

Between Two Cities - Kiskstarter

Greetings gamers! I just wanted to take the opportunity to spotlight two games from some terrific local board game companies, here in the city of St. Louis that are running some very interesting kickstarter campaigns right now.

The first game that I would like to mention is a game from Stonemaier games called Between Two Cities. You may remember this from a preview that I posted in board game news but to refresh you, Between Two Cities is a semi cooperative tile laying and drafting game that will challenge players to construct the best cities they can by cooperating with the players on their immediate right and left. The twist is that a player can only score as high as their lowest scoring city so players will want to do well but make sure their competitors aren’t doing too well to win the game.

An example of a section of a city featuring homes, parks, offices, taverns and factories.

I’m mentioning this game again because I am truly thrilled by the ingenuity of it. Many tile laying games often feel like solitaire games being played in a group without any real interaction. This game will encourage you to work with or sabotage your neighbor to build strategically while keeping an eye on what all of your opponents are doing. I haven’t seen a game where a player is so dependant on others but also must be so wary of their motives at the same time. It looks like it will not only be challenging but also very satisfying given that it provides a ton of interesting gameplay in a short time frame.

The game does have some cool wooden meeples featuring various global landmarks. I love having different tiny pieces of wood to mix and match in other games. This one features a tiny version of the Gateway Arch, the symbol of my city, which excites me because I don’t feel that St Louis gets a lot of positive notoriety in different types of media, especially games. The other miniatures included in the base set are also very neat and feature the Roman Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, and Sydney Harbour Bridge among others. They are also offering a deluxe version of the game that will include many other monuments.

A preview of some of the cool monument’s that will be included in the game as player score markers.

Another thing that has me really pumped about this game is the way it will scale for multiple players. I have a weekly game group that can sometimes suffer from agonizingly slow turns due to some over analytical players (Mostly from me, apologies) This game will have all players drafting and playing at the same time which will vastly cut down on playing time. Play tests with inexperienced gamers playing without a designer or teacher other than the rulebook have clocked average playtime between 25-30 minutes. This is absolutely perfect for so many game groups that want to get in a quick game that has some very meaty strategy elements and not feel like they have to devote an entire evening to one game. Often times I feel lucky if I can get two games played in a night and if this game goes over well, like I think it might, I might be able to squeeze three in.

The price point on this kickstarter is also very fair. For $30 you can get the base game (With shipping within the US included!) This a great deal for how much custom material you are getting. The tiles and meeples all look fantastic!

Between Two Cities kickstarter will end on Monday, March 16th so I encourage you to jump on board quickly. As of writing this the project has already eclipsed it’s goal of $20,000 and is sitting on a nice chunk of change at nearly $160,000 and is starting to unveil some very enticing stretch goals such as variable art on all of the tiles and a single player variant.

Stonemaier games has built a strong reputation within the gaming community and is well known for delivering projects quickly, often within a few months of funding without sacrificing quality. I can’t recommend these guys enough.

I would like to add, as a caveat, that I, and Livingthenerdlife.com are in no way associated with Stonemaier games. We have not received nor asked for any advertising money or promotional items for any of the above comments. (Though if Mr. Stegmaier would ever like to offer some review copies of upcoming games I would greatly appreciate them. :) I am simply a huge fan of board gaming and the board gaming community and I genuinely believe that this is worthy project to get behind.

Thank you very much for reading. Keep checking Livingthenerdlife.com where I will be posting a follow up to this article showcasing Bottom of the Ninth by another St Louis board game company, Dice Hate Me Games.

Kickstart this gamer here 

Board Game News 3.5.15

Tail Feathers

Plaid Hat games finally released previews of their closely guarded secret, “Project TF” at the NY Toy Fair. The game will be set in the company’s popular Mice & Mystics universe featuring anthropomorphic Mice and Rats battling in the skies on winged mounts. Jerry Hawthorn, a designer for Plaid Hat games has been mentioning his playtesting for project TF for months on the Plaid Hat Podcast and it is wonderful to finally see some information coming out. The game will be a head to head skirmish game with a possibility for some crossover with the Mice and Mystics fantasy adventure game. Below are some images of the miniatures that will be included in the game.

Chew The Card Game

IDW announced a card game based on the graphic novel “Chew” by Rob Guillory to be released this May. The game will allow players to use different characters with special food related powers and cyborg animals to solve cases for the FDA. Chew is one of my favorite comics and I am very excited to play a game based on the franchise.

Repos Production leaked the above image for their expansion to Cash n’ Gun$. The Cop expansion will add 2 new guns to the game, a revolver and a deringer. A new character will also be introduced, the cop, whose job will be to send an alert the rest of the police before the criminals discover him.

Tabletop Day 2015

April 11th will mark Geek and Sundry’s 3rd annual table top day. To celebrate they will be offering promotional material from a wide variety of game publishers. They are offering a regular promo kit that carries $250 worth of merchandise and a premium kit values over $600.

The regular kit contains

1 custom Geek & Sundry card deck

1 Reverse Charades Geek & Sundry edition

1 Dead Man's Draw TableTop Day edition

2 Dead of Winter Felicia Day Survivor Promo packs

1 Evolution Promo Coaster Pack

1 Boot Hill Extra Character Promo Sheet

3 Castle Panic TableTop Day Towers

20 Munchkin TableTop bookmarks

14 Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day Fluxx Promo Packs

1 Three Cheers for Master TableTop Promo Card

8 X-Wing Promo Cards

4 Sheriff of Nottingham TableTop Trophy of Awesome Promo Cards

2 Cash n Guns Blackmailer Cards

2 Dixit Card Packs, 4 Terror in Meeple City Space Cowboy Shuttles

1 Roll For It! Owlbear Promo Card

1 Batman Love Letter

2 Geek Out! TableTop Edition Promo Packs

4 Killer Bunnies Promo Card Packs

1 Zombie Romeo & Zombie Juliet Promo Cards

1 Where Art Thou Romeo?

1 Krosmaster Promo Figure

1 Custom International TableTop Day 2015 Poster

While the premium kit will contain:

1 Reverse Charades Geek & Sundry edition

1 Dead Man's Draw TableTop Day edition

1 Dead of Winter TableTop Day edition

2 Dead of Winter Felicia Day Survivor Promo Pack,

1 BioShock Infinite The Siege of Columbia

1 Clubs

1 Evolution Promo Coaster Pack

1 Boot Hill Extra Character Promo Sheet

3 Castle Panic TableTop Day Towers

20 Munchkin TableTop bookmarks

1 Munchkin Premium Hoodie

1 Fluxx 5.0

14 Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day Fluxx Promo Packs

1 Three Cheers for Master TableTop Promo Pack

8 X-Wing Promo Cards

4 Sheriff of Nottingham TableTop Trophy of Awesome Promo Cards

2 Cash n Guns Blackmailer Cards

2 Dixit Card Packs

4 Terror in Meeple City Space Cowboy Shuttles

4 7 Wonders Wil Wheaton Cards

6 Roll For It! Owlbear Promo Cards

1 Batman Love Letter

1 Dark Seas

2 Geek Out! TableTop Edition Promo Packs

1 Geek Out! Alternate Cover

4 Killer Bunnies Promo Card Packs

1 Zombie Romeo & Zombie Juliet Promo Cards

1 Where Art Thou Romeo?

1 Council of Verona Collector's Edition

1 Krosmaster Jr.

1 Krosmaster Promo Figure

1 TableTop Collector's Coin Pack

1 Custom International TableTop Day 2015 Poster

Catan The Movie

Gail Katz, notable producer of Air Force One, recently purchased the TV and Movie rights to popular board game, Catan. I’m not entirely sure how a story will be made from the game but if it doesn’t involve Harrison Ford screaming at a robber to “GET OFF MY GRAIN!” I’m not that interested.

Above and Below - Kickstarter

Red Raven games started a kickstarter for their new game, Above and Below. The game will have players building cities and exploring a cavern system with their workers. Based on which workers are exploring the labyrinthian depths different stories will develop guiding interesting choices to be made by the players that will affect the course of the game. The kickstarter has two pledge levels for $42 you get can get the base game and $50 will get you the game plus all stretch goals. There’s a reason there is only one backer at the $42 level and FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EIGHT at the $50 level. It’s a far better deal for just eight bucks.

Hitman Holiday Ending March 12th - Kickstarter

In other kickstarter news, Hitman Holiday will be ending it’s campaign on March 12th. The game is a deductive logic game where each player will be given a secret target to kill before that target can figure out who is out to murder them. Lots of reviewers have been giving Hitman Holiday very positive reviews despite mediocre artwork (no one on this box looks like they’re from the same game) and muddled looking miniatures (see below). The game is very close to reaching its target goal of $18,000 so if you want a chance to straight up murder your friends in a fancy paradise hotel the time to get on board with this project is now.

Board Game News!

The world of table top gaming had another big week. Announcements for some anticipated new releases were dropped. One of the most influential games in recent history is getting a reprint. Wiz Kids announces a big change to their organized play structure for D&D Attack Wing, and some exciting new Kickstarters hit the ground running.

Hans Im Gluck announced a rethemed Star Wars version of Carcassonne to be released in the Fall of 2015! Carcassonne is one of my favorite games and introduced me to the world of board gaming. The addition of a theme starring my favorite film franchise is very exciting, however I’m not entirely sure how it will work out. The above image is a prototype version of the game showing what appears to be some type of hyperdrive lane to replace the road system and some planets to replace the cities. I’m not sure what this will do to the city building and farming mechanic of the game or what the Imperial and Rebel Alliance logos will have to do with the gameplay but I am very excited to find out and will definitely be keeping my eye on this project.

Speaking of Star Wars, Fantasy Flight Games released an in depth look at the Rebel Alliance faction from their upcomming Star Wars Armada miniatures game. The game looks to build on the foundation of their massively popular Xwing miniatures franchise by introducing much more large scale combat featuring capital ships and squadrons of fighters in favor of the dog fight skirmishes that are featured in Xwing.

The ships featured are the Correllian Corvette, the Nebulon B Frigate,and the Assault Frigate MKII. For more info on these ships visit the announcement page here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5348

Wiz Kids announced a change to the organized play structure of their D&D Attack Wing miniatures game. Originally the company had each player bring a prebuilt 120 point value faction to the event. New rules now require the players to bring a prebuilt 90 point faction that will be supplemented by one of fiver blind box miniatures to be provided at the event.

Wiz kids offered a preview of three of these new miniatures along with the announcement featuring a fighter, druid and a ranger.

This new announcement is going to add a good deal of randomness to organized play events and will not only give a bit more balance in favor of gamers with less impressive factions but will also be a good source of sales for the stores hosting the events.

Stonemaier games released new artwork for my most anticipated game of 2015, Scythe! Scythe is a asymetrical miniature wargame combined with a worker placement economic game. The setting is in an alternate 1920s WWI scenario where players will have to harvest resources on a game map and construct different mechanized walking machines of war to defeat their enemies and defend their territory. The game features absolutely stunning art by artist Jakub Roalski who inserts giant terrifying mechs into scenes from the era. More artwork for this game can be found here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/digital/fact-vs-fiction/jakub-rozalski-killer-robot-paintings?click=pm_news#slide-1

El Grande, the game that introduced most of the world to the concept of the worker placement game is getting a much much deserved reprint. This big box reprint does not only give you a much upgraded version of the game featuring meeples instead of giant cubes and a nicer tower but you also get every expansion ever made for it.

The game communities excitement around this release is palpable and I am very excited for new information about a release date and price to come out in the future.

In Kickstarter news Stonemaier games announced that they will be launching their partner driven city building game, Between Two Cities, on February 25th. The game features an interesting mechanic where one player will have to build two cities collaboratively with the player on their right and left in an attempt to build the most impressive city in the world.

I am very intrigued by the mechanics of this game which will include a bit of co-op play, drafting, and tile laying. The artwork looks like a really appealing mishmash between Suburbia and Machi Koro and the miniature meeples featuring The St. Louis Arch, Taj Mahal, The Roman Coliseum, The statue of Christ the Redeemer, Eiffel Tower, Sydney Harbor Bridge, and the Great Pyramids all look really fun to play with.

Reportedly both standard and Deluxe versions of the game will be available at less than $40 pledge tiers which seems like a decent value for the game.

Slaughterville is a cooperative survival horror game featuring a group of college students exploring the haunted town of Slaughterville.

Each player will take on the role of a college student archetype such as the nerdy one, the angry guy, the goth girl, etc. They will be investigating the town of Slaughterville which is being haunted by a random horror movie monster like vampires or bodysnatchers. Throughout the game players will be finding powerups and different survivors to help them combat the different spooky events that will be randomly occurring throughout the game until finally they get strong enough to take on the big bad monster.

The artwork and style of the game is fairly reminiscent of Flying Frog’s a touch of evil. I like the combination of photography and illustration. It gives off a sense of realness to the terror that is going on in the game and seems like it will help bring the character further into the world.

The text on the cards looks a little small and wordy but it does look like it’s trying to add a lot of theme to the game and is adding some story elements to give a more immersive experience. Small text is never good for playing in dimly lit rooms which this game is pretty much meant to be played in.

The downside is that the game is currently hovering at about $2,000 of its $15,000 goal and has some pretty unimpressive stretch goals. The price point of $55 is fair for a game of this type and quality and I think that having a $10 print n’ play option is a nice touch so that you will at least get a playable version of the game at the end of the campaign.

The designer seems like a first timer and doesn’t seem to have a lot of game design credentials. Some rookie mistakes do seem to be getting made on this campaign by having some plain video work to describe his goals and game, small card text, and undervalued stretch goals. But the game itself does look solid and seems like a lot of fun.

Look for yourself at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2138513287/slaughterville-a-game-of-fun-and-horror

Finally, on kickstarter are these giant 40 sided spindown dice for use primarily with magic the gathering. I’m not really sure why Magic players prefer using dice to keep track of their life instead of pen and a piece of paper but these dice look like they would be very useful for the EDH and Two Headed Giant formats that require multiple dice to keep track of life.

The $20 price tag seems a bit costly, but then again just about everything is with Magic. If you are looking for a cool way to keep track of your life points and have a good conversation piece for your game then go fund this project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxstats/40-sided-spindown-dice-life-counters/

 Thank you for checking out Board Game News here at Living the Nerd Life. Keep checking back for more great reviews and news on your favorite geeky hobbies!

 -Levi Bushue