The first round of the US vs. China trade war went past us board gamers. But this will change soon: whereas in the first round of the trade conflict between the US and China board games were not included, this looks no longer the case.

The US government published a new set of proposals after the last round of talks with China failed. And in this proposals board and card games are included and would be subject to up to 25% import duty from the end of June.

This could turn into a potential problem for Kickstarters for which the funding phase have already ended but haven’t been delivered to customers yet. But it could also lead to a wide-ranging price increase across the industry.

At moment nobody can say how high the tariffs on games will be and if they will be imposed (there is still the possibility of a last minute agreement between the US and China), but it is definitely something I will follow closely in the next few weeks.

Links:

• Tabletopwire report
• BBC guide to the US-Chine trade war

The UK Games Expo 2019 is less than three weeks away and fast arriving. Time to have a look at all the games available at the show.

Helping with this is Tom Heath’s (aka slickerdrips) Big UK Games Expo list on Boardgamegeek. The list is eleven pages long and lists all the games available to play (as demo / prototype copies) and/or for sale.

Another great tool is Tabletop Together which allows you to make your own list of interesting games.

Links:

• slickerdrips’ Big UK Games Expo List
• Tabletop Together

Boardgamegeek News has just started publishing video previews of the games that have been presented at the GAMA Trade show in Reno.

Here are a few interesting ones:

More videos can be found in the Youtube playlist for the GTS 2019.

The new arrivals for this week have been confirmed and are now online. Available from tomorrow will be:

• Armageddon War
• Dead & Breakfast
• Hand of Fate: Ordeals
• Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game – Venom
• Small Islands
• Space Gate Odyssey

Splotter Spellen is working on a 5th Edition of Roads & Boats for the 20th Anniversary of the classic game (ETA: August). We can place a pre-order for the game, but we need to place our order next Monday.

If you are interested in the game, please place your pre-order until Sunday evening, so we know our numbers. All orders coming in, before we place our order with Splotter Spellen, are guaranteed.

Wizkids Games has announced a new board game based in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar universe. The Designer of The Rise & Fall of Anvalor is Rustan Hakansson (Nations), the planned release date is April:

The Rise and Fall of Anvalor has players helping to build and defend the city with other factions, at least officially. Each player’s real goal is to gather the most influence in Anvalor and dominate the city, even if it means its ultimate fall. Players build city buildings to gather influence, or sometimes just to block allies from strengthening their position; and fend off enemies during attacks, or let allies weaken them, and then swoop in to deliver the killing blow. The player with the most influence at the end of the game wins.

Link: ICv2 News

Just in time for the weekend, we have two more new games in stock for you:

• Axis & Allies & Zombies
• Kings’ Struggle

Inis: Isle of Seasons and Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles are two highly anticipated expansions which originally were announced as October/November releases.

Unfortunately, both are now delayed and won’t be available before February/March 2019. We have updated the listings on our website and contacted all customers who have pre-ordered these two expansions. If you have any questions regarding your order, please contact us!

We have received the first five new games for this week:

• Chronicles of Crime and the Virtual Reality Module
• Clank! Expeditions: Gold and Silk
• El Dorado: Heroes & Demons
• Gunkimono
• Prehistory