Arcane Legions is a new collectible miniatures combat game from Wells Expeditions. The game, of course, comes with its own setting, a fantasy-Earth history where magical Roman, Egyptian, and Han empires battle for supremacy. Play is clearly intended to be more elegant than most miniatures games. Arcane Legions relies on a standard plastic base, not only for holding all the miniatures together (tabs on the bottom of each figure fit in to holes in the base), but also for tracking offensive, defensive, and movement capabilities. Common units come unpainted, while commanders and other special figures are prepainted. Wells Expeditions is also taking a new approach to packaging, not entirely eliminating the blind purchasing aspect of typical collectible games, but separating the commons from the uncommons and rares and offering a fully-playable, non-random starter set.

I gather these features have been chosen with the goal of attracting new fans to miniatures gaming, while also becoming a home for hobbyists wanting something simpler, requiring less dedicated time, and easier on the wallet. It looks to me like Wells Expeditions has addressed the key issues. They sent me a free starter set, so stay tuned for more info on how the game plays. But as to whether this will be a breakout hit, I remain skeptical. I tend to think that potential customers in this category actually prefer complexity and challenges to collecting.

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It’s a busy time for Richard Borg. While I wait for expansions 4 and 5 of Commands & Colors: Ancients to show up, and debate running out and getting BattleLore: Heroes, Days of Wonder announced the November release of Sword of Stalingrad for Memoir ‘44. This expansion will give players the fourth pre-printed double-sided map, but more importantly, will introduce urban warfare to the game. To accommodate this different type of fighting, Sword of Stalingrad will also include a new Combat Deck of 20 cards. I suspect these cards will give players more non-section order options. But again, I see this as a change in approach from the original game and wonder how it will turn out.

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Basket Boss, from Cwali, designed by Corné van Moorsel (as all Cwali games are), is that rare sports game that is a Euro-strategy game (and not a trivia, roll-and-move, or dexterity game).

The basketball-themed game looks a little like Traumfabrik (aka Hollywood Blockbuster), with players available for auction each round. Each player plays deterministically better or worse in each season and also brings in better or worse income. There are a few extra bonus people around, such as referees, but essentially, you score points for the best team each round. It may present a challenge to Knizia, designer of Traumfabrik and the current king of light auction games.

In addition to Basket Boss, Cwali/Moorsel is releasing other new games and several expansions to existing games. The other new games are Antarctica 2090, an area control game, and Tricky Trek, a blind bidding race game, where the bidding chips are added to the spaces at the end of the race track and you pick up the bidding chips you land on as you go. Both come with teensy ceramic animals from the dollar store.

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What? is a party game from Outset Media in the “force the players to be amusing” genre.

An unusual situation is described and each player writes what they think the character would say in the situation. Points for humor.

Like other games in this genre, the game works if your fellowship does.

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Confluency Cards are a free downloadable game from Elton Ersch of Japan (or he simply teaches in Japan). The idea is to help build conversational fluency.

To play, players maintain three cards in front of them, each of which prompts you to formulate a question or answer using certain phrases or formats. It can be played an an activity, or with a goal. After using a card, it is discarded and a new one is picked.

I must admit to laughing out loud at the sample session video, but they’re actually pretty neat and simple. The site includes instructions on how to make your own cards.

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Hot Company is a game from Joline Godfrey, CEO and founder of Independent Means, a company teaching business skills to girls and encouraging financial self-reliance.

Hot Company familiarizes players with business terminology, and the goal includes not only financial wealth, but social and environmental responsibility. Roll, move, pick a card. I couldn’t tell you if there’s any decision making in the game.

But it doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount like $200; just your ordinary $30 plus shipping.

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Wolf Fang has a new offering by
Marcin Podsiadło being released soon called 7, a fantasy game combining co-op elements in a competitive game.  Information is being released almost daily from art, to the full rulebook.

The box contains 5 boards, a bunch of counters, and a truckload of cards.  The game is available for pre-order on the Wolf Fang site at a discount (you’ll also get some special cards), and will be available to purchase at Essen for 30 Euro.

I’ve taken a look through the rules, along with other bits posted on Wolf Fang’s site and Geekdo, and I have to say my interest is piqued.  This may be one to keep on the radar.  I’d never even heard of this until today until when a wrong click brought me to the Geekdo listing.

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We called this one “long-awaited” in November of last year. But now, the BattleLore: Heroes expansion is actually available! The set represents a new direction for the game, and perhaps explains some of the difficulties that prompted Days of Wonder to sell it to Fantasy Flight. From early on, BattleLore fans were focused on expansions, and particularly interested in those that addressed the fantasy and adventure aspects of the game. This proved more than Days of Wonder could manage. Though it’s taken them more than a year, Fantasy Flight Games appears to have a good sense of what the market demands. I was happy to have the Hundred Years War expansion, but I’m not surprised to see Fantasy Flight leading off with sets that add individuals and monsters—Heroes, Creatures, and Dragons.

Heroes includes 10 unique miniatures for 5 hero classes, more than 100 cards and 40 tokens, and a rules booklet with seven “adventures,” demonstrating its move toward a fantasy RPG-style game, and away from its Commands & Colors battlefield roots. The question remains, though, has the eagerness of fans been maintained over all those months, or have they given up and learned to accept what they already have?

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