Friday Rules - 21.03.2014

News

Game of the Week – Nexus Ops. Nexus Ops is a brilliant futuristic game of exploration and frantic combat between fantastic alien creatures fighting to take control of the rare resource Rubium. Originally published by Avalon Hill in 2005, the new revised edition of the game showcases the high production values we’ve come to expect from its current publishers Fantasy Flight. A fast-paced war-game for 2-4 players that can be played in under 90 minutes, Nexus Ops is great for those who love science-fiction, conflict, or are looking to dip their toes into the world of wargaming. For more information, check out the video tutorial from Big Game Hunters and Fantasy Flight’s overview of the game.

Gaming Can Be Good For You. We recently came across this wonderful article on Unboxed: The Board Game Blog about how one person has used boardgames as a way to help his younger brother with cerebal palsy to develop cognitive, numeracy and linguistic skills. An inspiring and eye opening article well worth reading. The positive power of gaming has also been recently championed by Ian Livingstone (co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series). While mostly focused on computer games, Ian’s article in the Telegraphis also a great read.

Card Hunter Goes Portable. Last year, we wrote about Card Hunter, the hybrid miniatures/card game available on PCs, which has generated some great reviews and an avid fan base. The game’s publishers have recently announced that the game will be making is way to tablets later this year – allowing even more people to get to play this fantastic digital boardgame.

It's Hip To Be Square. After taking on both Cthulhu and Zombies with dice, Steve Jackson has announced that he takes on a much more frightening subject matter with his latest dice game. Hipster Dice will be released later this year, and is probably the only game whose contents list includes a smug sense of satisfaction!

Vive la Jeux de Societe. If you’ve ever been a little bit worried that your love of gaming might be becoming a little bit obsessional, check out this great video from Francis Ramond (and for any non-French speakers, don’t forget to switch on the English subtitles!).

Gaming at The Gate (with added Dismemberment!). We’ll be back at Gate Arts for our regular monthly boardgames evening on Monday 31st March from 7pm. As well as a brilliant and eclectic range of games to play, we’re also very happy to be welcoming Andrew Harman, who will be bringing along copies of his brand new game Frankenstein’s Bodies, giving you all the opportunity to create your own monsters!

International Tabletop Day. Don’t forget that itsInternational Tabletop Day on Saturday April 5th. We’ll be running all-day open board gaming in the shop from 11am, and then migrating over to The Gate from 7pm to indulge in some great games, with some fantastic freebies to give away. Hope to see you all at some point during the day!

Releases/Restocks/Coming Soon!

New in store from next week – City Council, the tile-laying economic game; the new dice-rolling game Roll For It!, and the new draft packs for Android Netrunner! We’ll also be getting in restocks of the wonderful Terra Mystica and the brilliantly twisted Kittens in a Blender!

New Releases Available Now -  Smash Up goes for the B-movie jugular with its latest expansion, Sci-Fi Double Feature; Shadows of Nerekhall, the latest big-box expansion for Desecent; new brand new 4th edition of dice-rolling space colonisation game Alien Frontiers; Blue Max, the classic game of WW1 dogfighting; the latest tracks for the brilliant Formula D, New Jersey/Sotchi; Bridget, the beautiful bridge-building game for 2 players; brave the threat of the woods in the latest expansion for the wonderful Last Night on Earth, Blood in the Forest; the super-fast and super-fun Eight-Minute Empire Legends; make aSmall World a bit bigger with the new 6 Player Map Expansion; the Crossroadsexpansion for the wonderful Tokaido; the brilliant and crafty way to get kids to learn multiplication in City of Zombies; Malefic Curses, the first expansion for the classic Wiz-War, and some fab new supplements for the brilliant FATE RPG, Day After Ragnarok and the Freeport Companion, and Weird Wars Rome for Savage Worlds!

New Releases Available to Order From Today - biblical worker placement in Ark & Noah; Arctic Bounty, an expansion for the brilliant Fleet; USA expansion for Age of Steam, and Atlantis: The Second Age RPG.

Arriving soon -  Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition; expansions for budding starship captains with Space Cadets: Resistance is Mostly Futile, Space Cadets Dice Duel: Die Fighter, and a brand-new Space Cadets game, Away Missions; Warhammer Conquest, the new card game based in the 40K universe; Foresaken Lore for Eldritch Horror; Civilizations, the first expansion for Clash of Cultures; dark fantasy adventure based on the massively popular series of novels and computer games in The Witcher; the first expansion for Relic, Nemesis; Game of Thrones: Westeros Intrigue; new ships for Star Wars: X-Wing; Seafall Legacy, from the designer of the brilliant Risk Legacy, and the return of the classics Blue Moon Legends and Prophecy. PRE-ORDERS FOR ALL THESE BEING TAKEN NOW!

Events

…are now over on the Events Tab. As always, if you want it and we’re not doing it, SHOUT!!