Stone Blade Entertainment’s latest release for the Ascension deck-building game is War of Shadows ($40, now). This set contain light and dark cards with day and night triggers. Day is when there are more light than dark cards in the center row. Night is when there are more dark than light.

Of a lighter theme, Stone Blade has coming up You Gotta Be Kitten Me! ($10, September). It’s a cute card game for 2-10 players with kittens and puppies wearing hats, ties, and glasses, and it plays a bit like Liar’s Dice. Around the table, players bid up a number of hats, ties, glasses, or certain color total in everyone’s hands. When challenged, if the actual count is equal to or greater than the number bid, the challenger loses and is dealt one fewer cards the next round. If the actual count is less than the number bid, the bidder loses a card. Play continues until only one player has cards left.

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The 9th standalone version of Ascension, titled Dreamscape, will be arriving in December. This version introduces the Insight resource which let players acquire Dream cards. These cards can be used for new Visions, Heroes, and Constructs. From what I’ve seen, the set looks beautiful.

As usual, even though it’s a standalone game, Dreamscape can be combined with any previous release. It’ll retail for $39.99 when it arrives.

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Dawn of Champions, the next game in the deck-building Ascension series, will be arriving this March for $39.99. It’s a stand alone game that can be played with all previous versions of Ascension, yet offers new game play such as Champions. Champions act as a faction’s leader, and allow you to unlock more powerful cards as their reputation grows. There are also new Multifaction cards, including Constructs and Monsters.

Ascension is one of my favorite deck-builders, and it’s always great to see new products continue to hit store shelves.

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Playdek, the developer of several popular mobile tabletop games, is testing a new online organized play system that will work cross-platform and cross-game. The system, which I’m sure will eventually have a snazzy name, is planned for release within the next few months as an update within existing game apps.

While the new system will allow the profiles, avatars, chats, messages, and friend lists typical of online play spaces, its real focus will be on organizing tournaments—of various lengths—for Playdek’s competitive games such as Summoner Wars and Ascension. At the beginning, the organization of new tournaments will be automated. Eventually, though, users will be able to initiate tournaments in single-elimination, double-elimination, and other formats.

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StoneBlade Entertainment

The creators of Ascension Chronicle Of The Godslayer have just put a new electronic CCG for the PC and iOS devices called SolForge. The game is a line-based battle CCG with Richard Garfield on the design team. It’s free-to-play, but you can purchase more cards and tournament vouchers as in-app purchases. I was able to fool around with it for a bit, and even try a draft tournament out. It’s very solid, with great art and gameplay. As you use cards they’re discarded, leveled up, and eventually brought back into your hand later. Combining this deck-building mechanic with traditional CCG play is a great combination.

Mantic Games

One of my favorite games at the show that I saw was DreadBall from Mantic Games. DreadBall is a sci-fi sports games where players are trying to get a 200mph, weapons-grade ball into one of three goals. There’s a bunch of teams available to purchase and play, and an in-depth set of rules that can scale up or down depending on how complex you want the game to be.

There’s a couple ways to get into the game. There’s the base set, or you can buy one of the rulebooks and a few teams to get started.

I’m by no means a sports fan, but I can’t deny how much fun I had demoing this one.

Mayfair Games

Mayfair had a few things to show, but most has been seen before. What new game I did get to see and demo was Mad City. It’s a light game where you’re drawing 9 random tiles from a bag and trying to group the colors of the city pieces together to score the largest chains before the minute sand-timer runs out. There’s also bonuses for large parks and the longest road. It almost feels like speed Carcassonne where you’re only scoring the farmers. A single round plays and scores in 2-3 minutes, which makes this a great filler game.

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