Room 25: Season 2 is an expansion to Asmodee’s popular Room 25. This new pack includes 2 new characters, the Adventurer and the Psychopath, along with new rooms and character special abilities.

The game requires the original Room 25 to play, and retails for $39.99.

To tell you the truth, I wanted to play the original and had forgotten about it. Maybe now I can swing back around to it, and possibly will be able to try out the expansion.

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Cyclades, the Greek-themed strategic board game released by Asmodee back in 2010, has its 2nd expansion released. Named Titans, the expansion features a new game board that represents large islands divided into different areas. Each player now controls his or her own area, in which buildings and prosperity markers can be placed, creatures can play their effects, and hordes of Titans can raid along. Now plays 2 to 6 players in an approximate of 75 minutes, Cyclades: Titans allows players to choose from single-player competitive mode and team-play in which teams of two will be formed.

Cyclades: Titans is now available for an MSRP of 45.00€.

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Asmodee is on a roll, aren’t they? After announcing that they were acquiring Days of Wonder only a short while ago, they’ve now announced that they’ve acquired Fantasy Flight. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Asmodee is quickly becoming one of the largest hobby game companies around.

Fantasy Flight has always seemed like the big kid on the block to me, so I’m a little surprised to see this come across my desk today!

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Yup. You’ve read that right. Days of Wonder announced today that they’d be merging with Asmodee. The details of the merge haven’t been released yet.

Days of Wonder will continue to operate as it currently does, but as an independent internal brand of Asmodee Group. You can still expect a limited release of games from them with the production value we’ve all come to know and love.

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File this one in the “I saw this coming a million miles away” category. Rampage is being redistributed as Terror in Meeple City. A much worse name, in my opinion, but one that doesn’t step on the toes of an identically named famous arcade game that also features monsters destroying a city.

Hopefully Bally Midway didn’t send Lizze, George, and Ralph over to Asmodee to strong arm them.

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One of the busiest booths at NY Toy Fair’s first floor boardgame section was Asmodée’s. Several bright yellow tables were full of games–some demos, others simply set up to showcase the game. While there were dozens of games available for buyers to examine, there were a large number of items debuting.

Two games in embossed metal tins the size of the Timeline series where demoed first: Continental Express and The Builders: Middle Ages.

Continental Express is a game about completing train deliveries. Three cards are shown, each showing the three different train cars that are needed to complete a delivery. Underneath the three delivery cards is a matrix of train cards and workers. Draft a card into your hand from the left and all cards that row shift over. You’re seeing what train cars are coming up and may be maneuvering good cards to a position where your opponent can grab them easier. Add in a secret victory condition for each player, and there’s your fast-playing set collection train game in a tin. Continental Express is due in mid-March and retails for $18.

The Builders: Middle Ages is a card game about creating buildings in the Middle Ages. Pretty simple description, no? Square cards featuring buildings, like The Mill or The Aqueduct, are up for grabs, as are the labor force. Each building requires a certain amount of work effort in four different categories while each builder provides a few levels in each. Combine workers to complete and score buildings, redistribute your workers to various projects, and become the grand architect. The Builders is available now for $18.

Moving to larger boxes, Splendor is a game of bidding on gem stone cards to create works of jewelry for wealthy clients. This game retails for $40 and will be available before summer.

The classic game Hotel Tycoon will be making a move to North American markets “soon”. Travel around the board, invest in buildings, and try to be the last tycoon standing.

Concept is an interesting party game, where players try to guess a key word based on icons that represent different elements of the item. You know what? It’s better to go with an example for this one. Jean draws a card and selects a word on it, then starts placing markers on a board covered with icons. Feminine, art. We start calling out “Mona Lisa”, “The Statue of Liberty”, but Jean places a concept marker on face. Markers in the color used on art go on red, orange, yellow… all the color spaces. Female, art, face, multiple colors… lipstick? “Makeup!” This loud, abstract party game retails for $40 and should be available on February 28th.

Lewis & Clark: The Expedition, available near the end of March, is a game of exploration geared towards the hobby gamer. Players take on the roles of an expedition force, finding passage across western North America to the Pacific. Lewis & Clark is a resource management racing game retailing for $45. 

Formula D will have a new race circuit board, New Jersey on one side, Sochi on the other. This will be available in March. While no price was mentioned at Toy Fair, past expansions retail for $30.

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Eurazeo has announced that it is in exclusive discussions to purchase French game company, Asmodee. Eurazeo is a multi-billion euro, growth-oriented, French investment company with holdings in diverse industries. Of the transaction, Eurazeo’s Chief Investment Officer said:

Growth profile of the company and its significant transformation potential both in terms of new products and new geographies perfectly fit with Eurazeo investment strategy. Together with Stephane Carville’s team we have the ambition to transform Asmodee into a world-class publisher and distributor of games.

If completed, the transaction would value Asmodee at €143 million ($193 million).

The deal still requires corporate and government approvals. However, the plan is for Eurazeo to invest €102 million, and the management and founders of Asmodee another €13 million.

According to the announcement, Asmodee has 180 employees and had €110 million in sales in 2012.

[via Reuters]

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Asmodee has announced a ship expansion to Eclipse, their galactic conflict game. The expansion, Ship Pack One, includes a full set of ships for each of the six alien races from the base game. Although the look of only one race’s ships has been revealed, the designs look similar to the ship artwork found in the iOS game. The expansion also adds a few additional elements to the game, including a new technology, a Security Council development, an additional discovery, an upgraded Galactic Center Defense System, and a new race to play.

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With beautiful posters for Timeline and Takenoko, how I could I just pass by Asmodee‘s booth? I couldn’t, and I was well rewarded with a slew of new games to check out, and even a chance to try my hand at Timeline.

River Dragons: A family game where players are trying to build bridges using planks of wood to cross a river. The trick is that you can’t touch other players’ bridges. Oh yeah, there’s also dragons to worry about. 2-6 players, ages 8+.

Cardline Animals: Try to place animals in the line by either weight, age span, or size in this variable logic and memory game. Place all your cards down first to win. Educational, and very simple to teach and play. The game has beautiful art, and comes in a pretty slick tin. 2-8 players, ages 7+.

Takenoko: Grow bamboo to care for the royal pandas. The game features a modular board, and some stunning artwork. Players compete to complete 7-9 objectives (depending on number of players), and then add their score up to determine the victor at the end. 2-4 players, ages 13+.

Timeline: This fun little card game comes in 4 different sets that can all be combined into one: Inventions, Historical Events, Discoveries, and Diversity. In the game you’re trying to place down your cards into the timeline in their correct locations. Place a card in a wrong spot and you’re forced to draw another. First player to be rid of their hand first wins. 2-8 players, ages 8+.

Kemet: Battle it out in Ancient Egypt! A territory control came in a mythological Ancient Egypt. Take control of gods and armies to take control of choice areas. This game just oozes theme, and is a wonderful overall package. 2-5 players, ages 13+.

Room 25: A sci-fi reality show where the players are trapped in a futuristic prison. The first person to find the exit, Room 25, wins the game. Along the way the rooms can shift, and various traps can be run into. Can be played solo, cooperatively, or competitively. 1-6 players, ages 8+.

P.I.: An interesting twist on investigation type games. Each player must solve a case that the person to their right is orchestrating. Set in the 50’s, the game has a very noir feel to it. Solve the cases before other detectives, and don’t be wrong in your deductions! 2-5 players, ages 13+.

Lady Alice: Another deduction game, but this one completely different. Players must determine the time, place, and the culprit of a kidnapping. The piece that makes this game interesting is that each player has evidence tokens to use. They can use these tokens during their investigation to earn extra points once the mystery has been solved. This means that the person who solves the mystery may lose out to the one who did all the leg work. 3-5 players, ages 8+.

Gentleman Thieves: The box is also the game board in this game about high profile burglary. Make deals and gain the most loot to be victorious. 2-5 players, ages 8+.

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While at Asmodee‘s booth at Toy Fair today, I learned there’s a Dungeon Twister card game in the works. This is excellent news for fans of Dungeon Twister who were disappointed with the discontinuation of the Dungeon Twister board game in the the US.

It took a bit of talking to get this info, but man am I super excited about it. An official announcement is planned for Gen Con this year.

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