This recent release from Compass Games is the latest in the company’s Napoleonic series, The Eagles of the Empire. To give players a strong feel for that historic period’s style of battle, the game’s maps are divided in to areas that reflect terrain’s effect on movement and control, and the counters come in square and rectangular versions to differentiate between units and formations. Spanish Eagles includes scenarios for the battles of Talavera and Albuera, as well as alternate versions of each.

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One way to make a hacker laugh: hold a red index card in front of him/her with “GREEN” written on it, or vice-versa (note, however, that this is funny only the first time).

- From the New Hacker’s Dictionary

Hue Knew? is a game based on this principle, but it doesn’t look like it captures the spirit as well as it could have.

The game comes with forty disks, on which nine color names are printed in nine colors. Two of the color names are in the correct color. Reveal a disk, the first to grab the pawns corresponding to the correctly colored color names gets a point. Repeat.

I guess I was hoping for color names to be revealed one at a time, and players have to shout the right color (as opposed to name) to gain points.

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Candy Land Castle is something akin to Bingo. Each player takes a gingerbread-shaped card with spaces for four items of different colors and shapes. The items are dumped into the castle.

On your turn, you push a lever and an item falls out. If it fits on your card, great. Otherwise, drop it back into the castle. The winner is the player who first finishes his or her card.

Only $8 at Amazon right now.

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Passport to Australia is a trivia game, but in order to even get the questions, you first have to gain the money to buy the questions. So it appears to be twice the length (or more) of the usual trivia game.

It’s for 2-4 players, costs $60 (I assume that’s Australian dollars) plus $35 worldwide shipping, and was designed by Bruce Barker.

(source)

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OK, I made fun of these on my blog, but even when I was doing it I had to admit they’re kinda cute.

For a limited time, when you buy Pandemic from Best Dang Games, you get a free plush giant microbe.

Your choice of Hepatitus C, HIV, Flesh Eating, or Common Cold.

(source)

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From the Telegraph:

19) The French play all competitions with a version called Duplicate Scrabble where each player plays with the same letters for each move.

24) The world’s largest game of Scrabble took place in Britain’s Wembley Stadium to mark the game’s 50th anniversary in 1998. Each tile measured an enormous 6ft square and took two strong men to lift. The game is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

27) A ballet called Scrabble had its premiere in South Africa in the 1980s.

(see them all)

I want to play me some Duplicate Scrabble.

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Give Kids the World is a combination amusement park and vacation package for children with life-threatening illnesses. Its aim is to ensure that children with severe illnesses, such as Leukemia, have the opportunity to experience a fun-filled vacation where cost is not an obstacle. Trips can be arranged within 24 hours.

They produce a special version of Candyland called the Give Kids the World Village edition. Unlike the original, the game features children in wheelchairs. Sales of the game support the program.

(source)

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The Moneywise Youth board game was created by Ms Jasmine Lim, a 22 year old student at Singapore Management University with support from the South East Community Development Council. It is designed to help kids learn how to budget.

The game features the usual roll-and-move mechanics and trivia, but the object is to be the first to save $500.

(source, image (pdf))

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It’s amazing to me how the Traveller roleplaying game can be so unifying and polarizing at the same time. You see, for some the game’s main attraction is the Third Imperium setting, while for others it’s the hard-science fiction ruleset. And then, there’s the question of which rules? Over the years, the game has seen many versions, including the little black books of Classic Traveller (CT), Mega Traveller (MT), Traveller, The New Era (TNE), Marc Miller’s Traveller (T4), GURPS Traveller (GT), d20 Traveller (T20), and Traveller Hero (TH). Now, you may have thought that the recent publication of Mongoose Traveller (MGT) was supposed to clear all that up with a definitive current version. No, no. If only life were that simple!

While licensing Mongoose to proceed at maximum jump, Traveller’s creator, Marc Miller, is also working in parallel on what’s being called Traveller5 (T5). System-wise, it’s apparently a descendant of T4 (that is, task resolution is accomplished by rolling a variable number of six-sided dice) with a fair amount of added detail to accomplish such things as custom designing weapons, armor, vehicles, and alien races. So, if you still haven’t found the perfect Traveller for your tastes, or you’re one of those who’s trying to maintain a complete collection, head on over to Far Future Enterprises, where as of now you can order a CD containing a prepublication draft. (And in celebration, at this version of the web site, you can order CDs of other former GDW products at 50% off.)

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