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Greetings! Well, this has been one interesting month! As of last week, I am no longer the leader of Games Nation, but rather a free agent, hell-bent on getting you the news on what's cool and what`s out on the gaming front. To begin this month, let us turn to Germany and Kosmos games.
As many of you may be aware, Klaus Teuber is one of the best damn game designers of our time, creating the classic Settlers of Cataan, Seafarers of Cataan, Cities and Knights of Cataan, and now_Starfarers of Cataan. This game rocks. I mean rocks. You get four cool 1900s style mother ships as your main playing piece, hundreds of little plastic game bits, an event deck, resource cards, and alien encounter cards. In much the same way the other Cataan games are played, resource production has been left to chance, but building has gotten easier, even though travel is harder. The best part of the game is the event deck, which comprises over 20 different events, each with a question, and depending on your answer and the abilities of your opponents ships, you could end up with free stuff_or a partially damaged mother ship. Starfarers_expensive, but worth the price!
Happily wandering down import lane, we encounter King of the Elves by Rio Grande games. KOTE is a neat, inexpensive game about politics and money. You see, each of the players is travelling through the realms trying to gain support from the commoners to become king, and the support is in donations to the cause. He with the most cash wins. But in true German style, the opponents have a small say in what happens to you, and your strategy overall determines who gets to be king.
Ah, sweet Games Workshop. As many of you know, GW has the reputation of being one of the nicest, and most expensive companies in the mini business. This being said, let us look at Lilith Haruspex, the new Dark Eldar character model from GW. This little lady is one of the nicest minis from them for a while, but the tag of $12.49 makes one wonder what the great GW is thinking_I'll tell you. She, and the new characters from Mordheim represent the new pricing strategy from GW on their minis. Actually, it makes sense. They are keeping their rank and file troops at affordable prices, and making the character models expensive to cover the lower than expected sales. From a business standpoint, this is good sense. From a gamer standpoint, it hits hard in the pocket book. But before anyone begins to harp about their prices, just remember_it's a hobby, and you vote with your dollar. (Sorry for the soapbox, but I get cheesed off at people who whine about miniature prices!)
WOTC has announced the next expansion for Magic_Nemesis. Yes, a sub-expansion for Mercadian Masques, this will add another hundred and fifty cards to the mixer. On the bright side, we are seeing more variants of the older cards in the recent sets, and if you're an old Magic hound like me, you know what's going on there. On the Pokemon front_Team Rocket in April, Core series 2 next month, and from Japan_Demon energy. Yes, I realize that its being translated Dark energy, but the literal translation is evil/dark, and that means demon. But, as it's a kids game, Dark it shall be. Incidentally, for you fans of the Japanese sets, Neo Pocket Monsters will have over 250 cards, and two more mammoth expansions are planned for Japan this year. Meanwhile, WOTC has announced the retiring of certain Pokemon cards. They just don't get it, do they?
Now, for those of you who are used to my blatant plugs, here's a new one. As I am no longer affiliated with a game store, I can make recommendations of other nifty places, and the first one is the Crazy Mage. Located at HYPERLINK http://www.crazymage.com www.crazymage.com , they have a ton of stuff available at 30% off. All the time. Period. And before anyone asks, yes, they have a storefront, a rather large one, and this is merely a portion of their business. So check `em out for inexpensive gaming.
Well, until next time, matane!
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