News

Game of the Week – Empire Express. Rail travel has been the inspiration behind some of the most popular boardgames available. Empire Express is the latest iteration of the Empire Builder series of games. In the game, 2-4 players compete to build rail networks to amass the largest fortune through delivery of goods between cities. For a game of such strategic depth, the game is surprisingly accessible, helped hugely by the novel mechanism used for players to build their rail networks. Using crayons, players draw their routes on the special erasable board, which is both intuitive and remarkably satisfying. If  you’re looking for a new strategic challenge, Empire Express is a great game and a brilliant introduction to a the wonderful world of crayon railway games. For more information, check out the unusual video introduction to the game by publisher Mayfair Games, and Tom Vasel’s video review.

Ticket to Ride is Ten Years Old! While the Empire Builder series of games is almost 35 years old, it might be surprising to find out that Ticket to Ride will be 10 years old this year. In celebration, Days of Wonder are producing a special anniversary edition of the game, with brilliant new artwork and absolutely fantastic components. We’re excitedly waiting to get copies of this beauty on the shelves, which we’re expecting to sell out, so please let us know if you’d like to pre-order a copy! We’ll be looking to host our own birthday party for Ticket to Ride later in the year – watch this space for more details!

Cthulhu Gets Cuddly. The dark and macabre horror of H.P. Lovecraft was original written in the 1920s, but only became popular after the author’s death. Lovecraft’s vision of unspeakable powers, forbidden knowledge and ancient god-like beings has been the inspiration behind some of the best-loved and seminal board and roleplaying games, including classics such as Call of Cthulhu and Arkham Horror. While some modern works stay true to the original feel of Lovecraft’s work (such as the excellent Cthulhu Cymraeg), in recent years, Cthulhu has become something of a pop culture icon, being appropriated, for among other things children’s books, wedding cakes and cuddly toys! While purists might be horrified about the lack of horror in modern Cthulhu (see this article from The Guardian), we’re happy to see anything that might help people discover Lovecraft’s original scary stories.

Family Games Day with Save The Children.We’ll be running our first Family Games Day of 2014 in conjunction with Save The Children on Sunday 23rd of February from 12pm. Bring along the whole family to try out some great games for all ages, and help support the brilliant work of Save The Children Cymru. As well as our usual range of family favourites, we’ll also be demoing the brilliant new City of Zombies, which sneakily helps teach maths skills while you fight off the zombie hordes!

Gaming at The Gate. We’re back to our regular last Monday of the month for this month’s gaming event at The Gate. Following the last-minute date change in January, we were unable to get along Chaos Publishing to demo their brilliant strategy game Medieval Mastery. However, they will be here this month, so come along for a chance to have a go at this great game. Don’t forget, we’ll also be hosting a special Gaming at The Gate session on the evening of Saturday April 5th as part ofInternational Tabletop Day – put it in your diary for a chance to play some great games, meet some new friends and get your hands on loads of fab goodies we’ll be giving away!

Releases/Restocks/Coming Soon!

New in store from next week – clever and beautiful dice-rolling space strategy in Quantum; the brand-new 6 player map expansion for the brilliant Small World; the wonderful Eight Minute Empire Legends; an ingenious twist on deck-building with the stunning Archon: Glory & Machinations; more Talisman with The Firelands expansion; Munchkin Apocalypse: Mars Attacks boosters; Fear & Loathing, the latest data-pack forNetrunner; an expansion for the marvellous Tokaido, Crossroads, and some awesome new roleplaying books, including Cultists Under the Bed for Laundry,Day After Ragnarok and the Freeport Companion for  FATE Core, and Weird Wars Rome for Savage Worlds!

New Releases Available Now -  the brilliant and crafty way to get kids to learn multiplication in City of Zombies; loads of great new games and expansions for classics, including Malefic Curses for Wiz-War; The Nether Realm for Talisman; take to the stars in Firefly: The Boardgame; Voyage of the Beagle, the first expansion for the brilliant Robinson Crusoe; Origin, the stunning new game of evolutionary exploration; Nations, the fantastic new Civilization game; Rampage, the monstrous game of city destruction; Middle-Earth story-telling in Hobbit Tales; beautiful coffee-cup conundrums with Cappuccino; a sequel of sorts to Agricolawith Caverna: The Cave Farmers, and Level 7 [Omega Protocol], one of the Dice Tower’s favourite games of 2013.

New Releases Available to Order From Today – L5R RPG: The Book of Water; Shadowrun 5th Edition Gear and Magic cards; Torchbearer RPG; Karnikel; Dangerous Waters for Flash Point: Fire Rescue; and Heroes Unite DC Deck-Building Game expansion.

Also in Stock Now - Roll dem bones with a great selection of brilliant games involving dice, from the classic Yahtzee to its modern-day monstrous sibling, King of Tokyo, the simple but always fun Zombie Dice, the marvellous Trains & Stations, wild-west party fun in Bang: The Dice Gameoii, aim for the heights inLas Vegas, deep and accessible strategy in The Castles of Burgundy, or the sublime and deep Troyes.

Arriving soon -  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!!