by W. Eric Martin

Non-final coverThe character Judge Dredd celebrated his 40th birthday in 2017, probably by running over a few scofflaws with his bike, and in 2018 Dredd will appear in Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, a title from UK publisher Osprey Games that originated from Peer Sylvester's cooperative game The Lost Expedition, which Osprey released in 2017. From the press release:

Duncan Molloy, Games Developer at Osprey Games, has worked with Rebellion [Developments] to create a new Judge Dredd game using the core mechanics of Osprey's bestselling 2017 release, The Lost Expedition, from designer Peer Sylvester. Discussing the project, he said, "I'm a huge fan of The Lost Expedition, and from early in development it felt like the best example I've seen of a board game capturing the tone of a comic book. To be able to pair the system with one of the most interesting and detailed comic book worlds ever devised has been a joy. Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth will feature entirely new mechanics, such as radiation tracking and psychic abilities, to really capture the feel of Dredd's world."

Rebellion's Brand Licensing Manager, Damien Treece, commented, "We're thrilled to be working with the team at Osprey Games on this new partnership. Osprey and Duncan have a terrific understanding of the world of Judge Dredd and a reputation for publishing high quality games, leaving us in no doubt that Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth will be a perfect fit."
As for the setting and gameplay in this title, Osprey offers this description:

For years he's been the law in Mega City One, but now it's time for Judge Dredd to bring justice to the rest of America. It's time for him to venture into the Cursed Earth.

Featuring competitive, co-operative and solo player modes and brand-new, specially commissioned artwork, Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth is an immersive sci-fi western in which players must lead a team of judges against dinosaurs, mutants, and the Cursed Earth itself in search of an object of immense power before it falls into the wrong hands. As they scour the wastelands, the team will encounter a host of iconic 2000AD characters that will push their resources and abilities to their limits. On an impossible journey through radioactive hell, can even the judges survive the Cursed Earth?
By chance, Peer Sylvester's designer diary is scheduled for publication on BGG News on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017.

by W. Eric Martin

On November 29, 2017, CMON Limited and Steve Jackson Games announced a multi-year partnership deal in which CMON will publish board games based on SJG's Munchkin franchise, starting in Q4 2018 with a board game inspired by CMON's Arcadia Quest.

From the press release:

Chern Ann Ng, CEO of CMON Limited, said, "Working with Steve Jackson Games to bring fans a new vision of the Munchkin universe is an incredible opportunity. Munchkin has been a mainstay within the board gaming hobby for many years, so being able to put our touch on this iconic franchise is truly amazing. We can't wait for players to see what’s in store."

Phil Reed, CEO at Steven Jackson Games, said, "Partnering with CMON to bring a new era of Munchkin board games to our fans is exciting. With their history of producing high-quality miniatures and games, we believe Munchkin's rich history and cast of classic characters will shine."
Can Munchkin Blood Rage be far behind?

by Hilko Drude

It's been a while since I last gave an overview of new games from Latin America, but more and more interesting releases are coming from that part of the world. Here is another small collection of games that have caught my attention.

Brazil

Die die DIE from Carlos Couto and Romulo Marques just finished a successful crowdfunding campaign with publishers Ace Studios and Redbox. It's a dice-flicking area-control game. From the elevated edges of the arena, you flick your dice onto a map, trying to gain control over individual areas. The campaign and the game are only in Portuguese so far, but one particularly convincing part of the campaign video can be understood by everyone.




Chile

Niebla Games is a company that publishes both computer games and table games, both set in a fantasy world named Causa. I had mentioned their first game Careta in an earlier round-up (and have played it since — it's a clever bluffing game). For 2018, Niebla has announced a larger card game named Hegemony: Shadows of Power in which players form shifting alliances and try to be on the winning side as often as possible. It was designed by Nico Valdivia Hennig, the same designer as for Careta. Victory points are called "Cause" points after their world, and the game's illustrations are in line with the upcoming computer game (while Careta was less obviously connected to the common theme). Separate Spanish and English versions are in the making.




Colombia

A very friendly geek brought a whole bag of Colombian games to SPIEL '17 at my request, and I have rarely seen so many unusual game boxes at once. Three of these games came from publisher Creo mi Juego, with Pesadilla en R'Lyeh ("Nightmare in R'Lyeh") by Maikol Homero Bello and Juan Pablo Alzate-Granados being probably my first game in a pentagonal box. What seems impractical at first — how can you possibly stack this? — turns out to be a clever design when you see the box bottom unfold into a game board. Innovative for sure.

In the game, you try to get rid of your nightmare cards first. To achieve that, you roll a die and place a card to a corresponding field on the board, or in some cases, take what's there. To avoid the latter case, there are cards with which you can force mischief on other players instead.





The same designers created a game with a more family-friendly theme: watermelon seeds. SandiaMix comes in a tin box, but is innovative in another field. Players place cards with watermelon seeds on the table in a seemingly random array, but they have to make sure that with each new card, the number of seeds visible on the table changes. If the number of seeds on the table matches the number of seeds in anybody's hand, those players score a point. The underlying math is rather simple, but I've played the game three times now and found it more mesmerizing than expected, due to the unusual layout of the cards. The game can be turned into a speed math game by downloading a 30-second timer app.




Also in a tin box is Carlos Reyes' Pyramidice, in which — you guessed it — dice need to be stacked to form pyramids. The goal is to gain control over two pyramids, meaning having more dice of your color in them than other players do. (There is always one more pyramid than players.) Dice are taken from a pool in the middle, and a pyramid always has to be started with a 6 and topped off with a 1. When the dice in the middle aren't to your liking, you can invest cards or sacrifice one of your own dice from a pyramid to reroll some or all of the dice in the pool.




Eco-Marketing by Mariacaro Aldana isn't even in a box at all, but in a pouch with a button and a zipper. Another way of packing up a game that you don't see often. It's an educative game in which children (and adults) can learn about recycling possibilities. Players trade with trash, from egg shells to tires, and score points if they can turn the waste material into recycling products. The rules are available only in Spanish at this point, but the game aims at being an inspiration in other countries as well.




When it comes to unusual game boxes, Victor J. Duarte's Sacrificio clearly takes the cake. I'm sure I have never seen a box in the shape of a step pyramid, and the impression is enhanced by the colorful artwork. The box might not be terribly stable, but it certainly gives a great first impression that belies the grim theme of the game. Priests are competing to get most sacrificed hearts. It might not be something I want to play with my kids, but I can't wait to try it. (English rules are coming soon, according to Duarte.)





Costa Rica

iN'sanity Games has launched Animator vs Animation on Kickstarter (KS link), reaching its (modest) funding goal in just over 24 hours. The game is based on Alan Becker's series of videos (see here for an example), and you can play a stick figure and massacre other stick figures with fancy weapons unless they have fancy protection. A stretch goal promises cute fighting meeples.




Ecuador

Every once in a while I hear there is a country completely devoid of a gaming scene, but there always seem to be some determined people working on changing that. Ecuador is such an example, where two guys created a publishing company named Juegos Misi a little while back and have now released their second game, SOS Galápagos by Carlos Soto Power. It's a set collection game with a dice-placement element in which you try to protect endangered species on the famous archipelago.

The Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador, so it seems to be a fitting theme to boost the industry in the country. Designer Carlos Soto Power has written something about the game and wants to release print-and-play files so that people abroad can get a taste of the game without going broke on shipping costs. He'd like to get feedback, so you're welcome to head over to that thread. The video about their first game ends with the question "Who says that when you want an excellent board game you have to import it from Europe?" Good question — who says that?




Mexico

Kickstarter hasn't been active for all that long in Mexico, but of course some people have used it for their games projects already. The first successfully funded Mexican game was Tricksters, published by Aether Tower. This company has now completed a second successful project which is scheduled for delivery in early 2018 (and can still be ordered). Cooking Rumble by Emilio Gerardo Estrada Lucero is a short bluffing game for two players. In front of each player are three dishes, each requiring several ingredients that have to be added in a certain order. One player places an ingredient card face-down and the other player must guess which ingredient it is: if correct, the move is forfeited, and if wrong, the active player can add the ingredient to the dish. The first player to finish six dishes wins.




If you have information about new Latin American games to share, you are welcome to contact me at gamenews /at /lidude.net. Thanks!

by W. Eric Martin

• At BGG.CON 2017 in November, I mostly goofed off and played a few games, but I did check out the games forthcoming from one publisher and one distributor on site, those being Matagot and Surfin' Meeple, both overseen by Arnaud Charpentier.

I wrote a bit about Micropolis, a Charles Chevallier and Bruno Cathala design due out in Q2 2018, in mid-November 2017, but Arnaud ran me through the game in more detail, and now it all makes sense. Each player starts with an ten-sided anthill tile bearing a few ants, and in each round of the ten round game you'll draft one tile and add it to your anthill. You draft from a face-up row of tiles, and Small World-style you can place an ant on a tile to skip it, with whoever takes the tile later collecting that ant.

Some tiles have fruit on them, and the wider variety of fruit you collect, the better your score for them. Other tiles have barracks that lock ants on them to score points, but ant generals on other tiles will let you move those ants out for another purpose. Queens, architects and nannies show up on other tiles, and you tally points for many things at the end of play, with each ant being worth 1 point and the largest army being worth 5.




• Matagot had donated an advance copy of Roberto Fraga's Princess Jing, due out in Q1 2018, to the BGG library, so some con attendees got to try out this two-player cat-and-mouse game ahead of its release. I recorded an overview of the game with Fraga at the FIJ fair in Cannes in February 2017, and the game will debut at FIJ 2018, along with Micropolis.

• Another title due out from Matagot in Q2 2018 is Bruno Faidutti's Dragons, a 3-6 player card game. Here's an overview of the gameplay:

In Dragons, you get to experience life as a dragon, swooping down from the sky and swooping up all types of things. You want treasure, of course, because what dragon doesn't like shiny bling? You need food as well, though, so pick up a few cattle or sheep along the way to keep your belly full. Grab some armor or shields as treasures from fallen soldiers who thought they could take you down, perhaps put your claws on one fancy ring, and beware cursed items that look nicee but bite your points in the end.

To play the game, you shuffle the deck of cards, then divide it into a few smaller decks. One player picks up the first deck, places the top card face up on the table, then passes the deck to the next player. Players keep laying out cards and passing the deck — with a number of face-up piles equal to the number of players — but players can also claim one of the piles by placing their dragon figure on it. Once all but one player have claimed a pile, the remaining player takes any cards remaining in the deck along with the final pile. You then grab the next deck and repeat this process until all the decks have been split among the player-dragons.

Players then compare their hauls, and whoever took the least food is eliminated from the game. (In a five- or six-player game, you separately determine who took the fewest sheep and who took the fewest cattle, with both of those players being eliminated.) The remaining dragons then tally the value of their loot to see who wins.



• Asger Johansen's Combo Fighter is a quick-playing 2-4 player card game that will debut at Gen Con 2018 in which you try to beat up your opponent before they can beat you. The main game features head-to-head brawling, but the rules also have a two-vs.-two team fight and a "Battle Royal" variant in which one player fights multiple opponents.

The game includes four character decks, with each character having their own style of attack. You start a turn with five cards in hand, with each player choosing and revealing a card simultaneously. Red beats yellow beats blue, and whoever wins has initiative and starts throwing hits — but the cards you can play are determined by the card you led. If I led with "Rush" in the hand below, I can follow that only with card bearing a blue square or circle, and I have none of those in hand, so my "Rush" would be wasted (unless I was sure that my opponent was playing red, and I just wanted them to waste that lead card).

The first card you play does damage to the opponent equal to the first number listed, while each subsequent card does damage equal to the second number. I might want to lead with that bottom card, but it does nothing if my opponent plays blue or a higher-valued red (since some colors have tie-breakers for initiative).

When a player takes damage, they discard cards from their hand or their deck equal to the damage dealt. Some played card combinations result in additional damage, as you can see on the player aid on the table. If you run out of cards in your deck, you lose the game.




• Other titles in the works from Matagot include Virtual Revolutions, Dungeon High School, Treasure Island, Giants of Easter Island (this being a new version of the 2008 release Giants), and an expansion for Inis that allows for play with up to five players thanks to additional action cards created solely for play with that number.

• As for Surfin' Meeple, that company will distribute the SPIEL '17 release Amun-Re: The Card Game from Super Meeple in North America in Q1 2018, with Bombyx's Catch the Moon sometime in the first half of 2018.