GameNight, the BGG video show, has posted a new video and this time they have played Istanbul – The Dice Game.
Istanbul – The Dice Game is a standalone dice game in which players are once again plunging into the bustle of Istanbul’s bazaar to collect rubies and thus secure their victory.
By cleverly using the dice, the players can make money and goods, then exchange them for the precious jewels.
We came back on Tuesday from our Summer Break to find a lot of boxes with new releases stacked up on our stock room. After getting all the pre-orders sorted and shipped, we have finally time to let you know what the new games in stock are:
Eric Martin (Boardgamegeek News) has posted a video preview for the upcoming Spring Meadow, the third game in Uwe Rosenberg’s puzzle trilogy (Cottage Garden and Indian Summer are the other two games).
Spring Meadow is the grand finale of Uwe Rosenberg’s puzzle trilogy following 2016’s Cottage Garden and 2017’s Indian Summer. The complexity of this game — the most interactive of the trilogy — is set in between those two games, and fans of the trilogy will find familiar elements combined in an innovative way.
Place your meadow tiles with 0-2 holes skillfully on your mountain board to receive extra tiles when creating or expanding groups of holes. Find your way around the burrows of the marmots because they can restrict you during tile placement. Scoring takes place depending on the players’ selection of meadow tiles from a central game board. Whoever has the largest meadow during a scoring receives a hiking pin, and the first player to earn their second hiking pin during scoring wins.
Link: Boardgamegeek
Thanks to the Easter holidays April is always one of the quieter months of the year for us. But we still had some interesting games coming in and new pre-orders going live. So here is a quick look at our Top 5 in sales and pre-orders:
Top 5 Sales:
1) Azul
2) City of Kings
3) Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
4) Escape the Dark Castle
5) Port Royal: The Adventure begins
With Azul being back in stock for the first time since December it’s no wonder that the restock took the top spot. Hogwarts Battle is a steady seller thanks to good reviews and lots of Potter fans out there. And Adventure begins, the campaign expansion sneaked in at the end of the month and just made it into our Top 5.
Top 5 Pre-Orders
1) Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles
2) The Sands of Time
3) Dragon Castle
4) Roll Player: Monsters & Minions
5) Great Western Trail: Rails to the North (German Edition)
The Pre-Orders Top 5 is dominated by expansions for three of the biggest hits of the last year. Forgotten Circles will not be available before November, but already had a rush of orders coming in for it. Monsters & Minions brings new elements into an already very good game and Rails to the North is perfect for everyone who wants to make the Great Western Trail even bigger.
Pegasus Spiele is back for this year’s UK Games Expo with lots of games. They are looking for volunteers to explain and run demo rounds of their games.
The list of games they will have available is long (subject to change) and also includes games from the Children’s games line:
Pegasus is asking for your help for 10 hours (2x 5 hour shifts) over the three days of the Expo and are offering the ticket for all three days of the Expo, a Pegasus shirt (you have to wear it during the demo rounds), the game you are explaining is for you to keep and you will get another game from Pegasus of your choice. Friday and Saturday afternoon are the times when they need the most help.
If you are interested, please send us a message and we will send you the contact details of Pegasus, so you can talk to them about the details.
Today was the release day for Sanctum of Twilight, the latest expansion for Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition.
Sanctum of Twilight is an expansion for Mansions of Madness Second Edition that unites two new investigators against the Order of the Silver Twilight in two thrilling scenarios. With new spells, items, mechanics, and a new monster, this expansion immerses players in the Arkham Files universe as they confront the dangers threatening Arkham from within.
In addition, we have received a delivery with two new games and five restocks.
The two new games are:
And back in stock are:
The same procedure as every week: this week’s new releases have been confirmed and are now (partly) online and ready to get ordered.
Incoming are:
Also coming this week, but not online yet are Mystic Vale: Conclave, Legendary Creatures, Sunset Over Water and the reprints of the Memoir’ 44 expansions Winter Wars and Eastern Front. They should go online late afternoon/early evening.
Something I’ve completely missed in the run-up to Christmas: Pegasus has signed a worldwide licence for four new games based on the fantasy classic Talisman:
2018 will be a special year for Games Workshop’s Talisman adventure board game. The mother of all fantasy board games will celebrate its 35th anniversary and the world of Talisman will be expanded by new games. Pegasus Spiele will develop four games with worldwide rights under a license with Games Workshop. The first game will be released in 2018.
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Starting in 2018, adventures in the fantastic world of Talisman can be experienced in four new games. The first game – a children’s game by Lukas Zach and Michael Palm (The Dwarves board game) – will be released in the second half of 2018. An expandable card game, a role-playing game and a dice game will follow. The release dates for these games will be announced at a later time.
Pegasus is also stocking the 4th Edition of Talisman from Games Workshop, so from next week on we will have the base game and five expansions back in stock.
Link: Pegasus announcement
November is behind us and it is time for another Top 5. This is the first one post-Essen and some of the top games were a surprise for me:
Top 5 Sales
Calimala and Santa Maria are the two surprise on this list. Both are really good games with very positive feedback after Essen, but not the big hits I was expecting here. But their success is also based on the fact, that they haven’t been on general release in the UK (yet???) and we luckily managed to get stock in shortly after Essen.
And this list doesn’t include big Essen hits like Nusfjord, Charterstone and Photosynthesis, because they have been delayed and are only arriving now.
Top 5 Pre-Orders
Again, a few surprises here: Rajas went a bit under the radar at Essen (a bit like Ulm last year, so maybe it is also connected to the publisher), but it is a new Inka & Markus Brand game, which are always quite popular. No surprise with Clans of Caledonia, it was only stopped from taking spot #1 by a limited number of copies available. John Company is another surprise: Sierra Madre Games is normally known for very heavy games that are only interesting for a very small number of gamers, but this one has an interesting theme and is apparently more on the lighter side.
And again a small footnote to this Top 5: there are none of the big hitters like Azul, Nusfjord, Charterstone etc. included, because for most or all of these the pre-orders closed shortly before or after Essen based on the high demand and us wanting to make sure that every pre-order customer will get a copy.
Another Friday, another update what game we are expecting next week. Confirmed arrivals are:
Not 100% confirmed yet is Queendomino, hopefully, we will hear more from the UK distributor (also about Photosynthesis) on Monday.
And there are also a few restocks coming in: Istanbul – The Dice Game, Merlin, Azul and all the Exit games.