News

Game of the Week – Eight Minute Empire Legends.Eight Minute Empire: Legends is a fantastic little game of conquest and control for 2-4 players. A sequel to last year’s very well-received Eight Minute Empire, the game incorporates some great art, a cool fantasy theme, clever design and modular boards to produce an intense yet accessible area control game playable in around twenty minutes (yes, the eight minutes of the title is a bit of an exaggeration). There’s a lot of gaming goodness packed into its little box, with a playing time that makes this perfect for squeezing in a quick game when you only have a few minutes spare. For more information, check out the video reviews from Tom Vasel and Joel Eddy.

The Quality of Our Test Subjects Has Risen Dramatically. We’ve recently seen a slew of high-profile boardgame announcements inspired by computer games, including The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and even Mega Man). Joining these is the announcement that Valve are teaming up with Cryptozoic Entertainment to produce a boardgame based on the massively popular Portal 2. With the original design ideas coming from Valve themselves, this could be something very special indeed (and help us forget the announcement of Super Mario Connect 4). The game should be released before the end of the year – watch this space for more details.

Power Grid Anniversary Edition. Following the announcement of a deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition of Ticket to Ride, the next classic game to get a special edition for its 10th birthday is Power Grid. German publisher 2F-Spiele has recently announced the birthday edition of the much-loved economic game, which will be based around maps of Europe and North America, add a new fuel resource, natural gas, and have updated components. There’s no word on an English-language release yet, but we’re very hopeful that this will be on the shelves of Rules of Play later this year!  

A Cardiff Gamer Gets Literary. Good friend of Rules of Play and avid boardgamer Phil McNeill has recently published his first novel, Shadows. First of a trilogy which tells of the misadventures of a group of friends who attempt to gain supernatural powers, the book is available now via Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions, and picking up positive reviews. With his love of Lovecraftian games, its perhaps not surprising to discover that Shadows is a dark and sinister tale. Congratulations to Phil, and best of luck with the next two parts!

Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary – Regional Championships. Love Ticket to Ride and want the opportunity to win yourself a luxury trip on the Orient Express? In celebration of its 10th anniversary this year, Days of Wonder are running a Ticket to Ride World Championship. We’ll be hosting a regional championship here at Rules of Play, the winner of which will get an opportunity to play in the UK championship and then progress to the world finals in Paris! Our provisional date for the event is Sunday 13th April –please reserve a space as soon as possible if you’d like to take part.

March of the Meeples. The lovely people at Counters: The Board Game Cafe are running a board gaming event celebrating the humble meeple tomorrow from 10am at Pontypridd YMCA. While the group’s long-term aims are still to set up a dedicated board gaming cafe, they’ve been really busy arranging loads of great events to help spread the joy of gaming – so if you’re free this Saturday, why   not pop along and get in some great games in good company.

Star Wars X-Wing Games Day. Lock s-foils in attack position, and get ready for a friendly day of Star Wars X-Wing at Rules of Play on Sunday 9th March. Bring along your favourite ships and meet and challenge other players for what promises to be a great day of space dogfighting.

Releases/Restocks/Coming Soon!

New in store from next week – The 5th track pack for the brilliant Formula D, New Jersey/Sotchi; Defend your colonies from your opponents in the beautifulIsland Siege; VOLT, the game of robot arena battles, or take your giants mechs into battle in the real-time card game, Hawken, and steampunk adventure for Savage Worlds with War of the Worlds: The Remains.

New Releases Available Now -  brave the threat of the woods in the latest expansion for the wonderful Last Night on Earth, Blood in the Forest; Bridget, the beautiful bridge-building game for 2 players; add some chivalry to yourOnce Upon A Time stories with Knightly Tales; 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; a twist on deck-building with the stunning Archon: Glory & Machinations; 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; hot on the heels of The Nether Realm for Talisman comes the latest expansion, The Firelands; some fab new supplements for the brilliantFATE RPG, Day After Ragnarok and the Freeport Companion, and Weird Wars Rome for Savage Worlds!

New Releases Available to Order From Today – set collecting card game, Splendour; Give It To The King strategy game; We Are Dead: Zombie Mall Massacre, and Tessen, the game of “Japanese Fan Warfare”.

Also in Stock Now - Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island; Hanabi Deluxe; Rampage; Concordia;Myrmes; Hegemonic; Nations, and loads loads more.

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; 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 forRelic, 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!!