The Pursuit of Von Spree is a new board game from Grenadier Games.

You are put at the helm of the German or Allied fleet. Your goal as the German commander is to disrupt Allied shipping, raid Allied possessions, sink Allied warships, and survive for as long as possible. As the Allies you are to capture the German colonies and seek out and destroy the German raiders all the while trying to keep your merchant shipping en route to their destinations and afloat.

This sounds similar to a slew of Nazi-era board games put up for auction last year [1]. In one, for instance, you played a German bomber trying to bomb England, earning more points for hitting bigger cities. The auction made a splash in the world media, because these were considered “propaganda” games. The English had parallel propaganda games for their own kids to play.

When is playing one side in a war propaganda, and when is it simply an historical war game? Is it the graphics?

Update: [1] Similar in theme, not in mechanics. PoVS actually looks like a good game.

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Monsterpocalypse is a new collectible miniatures game from Privateer Press.

The game is a tactical urban warfare game with d6 combat. The monsters are so cuddly and cute, I could just eat them up.

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Digiboard is the latest to enter the field of interactive tabletop computing technology. Here is their video demonstrating some sort of electronic game interaction on a table surface:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSnRb2XsAHI]

Their competition includes Intuilab’s DIgiTable, Phillip’s Entertaible, Mitsubishi’s DiamondTouch, and Microsoft’s Surface, to name a few. Gizmo Watch lists 15 technologies in this area.

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