Thanks for pointing this one out. Denny Unger and his guys are geniuses. I'll definitely be picking this up.

I'm excited about this too, but it's gonna cost me more than $17. $60 for ink, unless I decide to get a color laser printer: that's a few hundred. Or I suppose I can get it printed at Kinko's for $1 a page (if I can convince them I have permission to print the material--I hope World Works includes that language in their pdfs?). Add construction time, and this is at least as much opportunity cost as a booster box of Pirates.

It's good value for money, but not that good...

I can get a whole set of ink cartridges (1 dbl black, 5 color) for my HP inkjet printer for about $35 (and get 8 AA batteries and a pack of 50 4x6 photopaper FREE from Office Max) and that will easily print up over a hundred color sheets at best quality. I don't know how many ship types are included, but I'm thinking I'll use AT MOST 1 ink cartridge set.

I'm still seeing this game as a total bargain.

Definitely keeping an eye on this one. I'm not the greatest with miniatures, but watching the videos definitely got me interested.

I'm part of the beta team on this one. And I can assure you that the only comparison to the Pirates(CSG) game is that :

1. It is easily accessible
2. You build your own ships


There is a quite a good balance of fast moving and easy cinematic & tactically challenging game here. I hope you take the opportunity to try it out yourself, especially if you are space combat fan.

Hope to see some of you on the WWG_Wormhole forums!

~Floyd

Some more pics...

I was really excited when I first saw this game. After seeing more of it and the recent pictures, I think it will drop off my radar.

Got to playtest this one and we had a blast with it. Look forward to getting the final published version as I imagine the game has been tightened up slightly since I first played it. Can only be a good thing!

David,

Yup, it's been tightened up. The majority of changes focused on minimizing the random elements so as to make your decisions more meaningful. A shorter variant has been added as well. The core of the game is unchanged; those who played it at BGG.con 07 played the final version, more or less, not including minor wording adjustments and card tweaks.

As for the posts asking about 2008... I can see with a good degree of certainty that it will be out this year. Mike Doyle has been moving forward with the art and I am hoping he will be done soon. I am not going to offer up promises of dates - and VG won't be either - but from what I can tell with respect to the progress behind the scenes, 08 is a good guesstimate. Let's put it this way... I'm going to BGG.con 08 and I sure as heck hope I'll be bringing a few of these bad boys with me.

Oliver

btw everyone - thanks for all of your compliments on my original art. I appreciate it as I really only dabble in graphic design; my wife is the real graphics genius in the family. Nonetheless, I'm a Leo, so enjoy the ego stroking. Heh.

2nd edit - also, forgot to mention. As far as I know, the above-linked box art is the final design. The 'techy' text might be changed to less specific stuff (it's currently HTML) but other than that, it's final.

The community has chosen the icons for the various player races in the game - check the game's page soon to see what they will be!

I played it once, so it's too early for conclusions, but I wasn't very impressed to be honest.

The system is good and well thought of, but it didn't have the "wow" factor for me.

Need to play it more to see if that feeling stays though.

So when you got the "plays games with wife" microbadge, it wasn't board games you were talkin' about, but hide-and-go-seek, eh?

Played a 'basic' game last week, but we're playing with the full complement of bits tonight. I'm hell of looking forward to it!

I played this once, and even though I got my butt kicked, I really liked this game. Can't wait for the English version to be released.

It's multiplayer solitaire, so...

#1 on my looking forward to list.

I fear I'll get a little beating for not sharing your enthusiasm about this game as I am being an owner of the AH-version. I never really liked the game for several reasons though having played it numerous times (some friends of mine love the pirate-theme). But a new edition has the potential to cure some flaws of the AH-version like

- unplayable without player-aids; the numerous important charts were distributed over the whole rulebook and

- the components (like in many of Ah-games, which I am fond of nontheless) did not support the theme very well.


But I fear my main complaint about it will remain:
It was a cumbersome complex dicefest that blocked the view at the attractive pirate theme.
So maybe testing it if it fits your taste would be a good idea.
Hope you enjoy the game - more than I did
Philipp

Number one on my list, as well. It fairly makes me jump from foot to foot while clapping my hands in anticipation. I was very stoked to see "POS DEBIT GMT GAMES HANFORD CA" show up on my bank statement today!

Being very briefly involved in the playtest of the new version I got a feel for the new version. It isn't as clunky as the old version. They went from the hex map to a sea zone style of board. They stylised the artwork more and it looks really sharp. I liked the origional but do agree it is a bit of a bear to play. The new version is much smoother and wont dissapoint.

So far, in three attempts, GMT has not successfully handled ANY of my preorders.

For this particular game, they've already screwed up my order twice.
(Once by doubling my order, then by deleting the order altogether when I tried to correct that error.) I've had it on order for more than a year now, but to their records it looks like I just got on the list a month ago.

I just hope mine COMES!

It will be interesting to see if this one actually gets released. I kind of got the impression that it was stuck in "development hell" or permanently back-burnered.

Umm... actually, I heard that it is getting re-themed to a vegas-style game where players try to have the best show in town.

They're calling it Wayne's of Power

I'm pretty sure I heard a rumor it's being M-rated and theme-tweaked into taking control of global economies by controlling the drug trade. The new name is Veins of Powder.


Actually I'm fairly sure the production hell of this title is caused by the dev team playing around with the name a million times....

Vader's Chocolate rain had me on the floor laughing!! Thanks guys!!

Or the actual honest-to-god 'my what lovely hair' cover:

Hey, some of us liked Marvel Heroes, old bean.

I love Howard, I love Conan, and I have no problems with FFG, they make great games for RPG fans to slide on into without much problem... they don't always please other gamers though. This is easily my most anticipated game for 2008. Where's Solomon Kane or Bran Mak Morn? I'd buy those too... and, yeah, some of us did like Marvel Heroes. Weird game but our group had a blast with it.

Well, I can promise you it won't have been Robert E. Howard.

Considering the designers, theme and publisher I have high hopes for this one too.

Well to start off with the bad news: there is no chariot racing in the game, and any militaristic, economic, political and entertainment aspects are very abstracted, i.e. different colored factions of which you collect cards. The good news however is that the game is already out (well, ok, the German version ) and it is still quite a good game that I at least am usually happy to play!

The chariot will be auctioned; it protects the winner from being taken over in the next round. He puts it on one faction he controls to protect them. This is all. I have no clue why are there actually two chariots in the game. The guys you see are not part of the game, so this image must be categorized "creative".
Looking at the games you love, this set collection game will be too dry for you.

I'm not so sure Dan. I would put myself in a similar category of game preference to manowarplayer and I thought Tribune was a lot of fun. On paper it sounds very Euro and dry, however in action there's a lot going on. Player interaction is abundant and interesting. The multiple objectives necessary to win mean that no two players have to go after the same resources. The potential for screwage is also high. And finally the theme fits. While playing you do feel like the head of a Roman noble family jockying for influence.

I encourage every geek that likes good games to at least give Tribune a try. Now if only FFG would publish the damn thing...


-Will

Of course it's kind of lottery when I say that a player I don't know will love or hate a given game... so yes, even myself can't be sure if manowar will like it or not. I just found the probability was high enough to "warn" him or at least to set expectations lower.
Tribun is not a bad game but has the typical downsides AT-Lovers will criticise on this Euro.

I actually like both types of games.

To me the only quality that matters is if it's fun. I like the heavily themed American games that FFG and DOW puts out and I also like the Eurogames with interesting game mechanics and features that are unique. I no longer wear my AT badge due to the silliness that whole "debate" sparked.

I play a game to have fun.

I am on the fence with this one Scott. I LOVED the Mayfair version of it which I lost in a basement flood years back. I trust FF will not dissapoint with the production of the game...but I DO NOT want to see the Hasblo version rehashed!

Fantasy Flight + Cosmic Encounters = Endless Expansions

(or in FF speak 'endlessly expandable')

Well to my mind you can't have enough editions of Cosmic Encounters...

I am greatly anticipating this game as well, for a number of reasons. First, it will simply be yet another version for my collection (muhahhahaha). I'm hopeful that this will be an edition I am likely to take out to play as my own home made version (which, if I say so myself, is pretty damn excellent). I'm reallly hoping it breathes new life into CE in general. Anyway, I am sure the content on The Warp will still be applicable, and perhaps some folks will have new, crazy expansions of their own to add.

Bring them on.

You do realize that the Hasbro release was exactly the same as the very first Eon release? So no dumbing down there.

Is the main game temporarilly OOP right now? I missed it when it first came out and haven't seen it anywhere.

And I concur, per this one:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/303368

The board tiles in the latest printing of the main game match those in the expansion. Only those from the first print run of LNOE are darker than the others.

The tiles are a bit lighter then mine, but it's not really distracting.

I don't notice a difference in the cards.

Overall I enjoy the additions they've made, but have only played once.

It's a good expansion.

And to all the humans who "die everytime we play the game."

Your doing it wrong!

WOW! This is the first I've heard this. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled.

Wow I remember this one, I bought it to play with my Girlfriend back in the 80s....she didnt like it, but I thought it was a gem.

Victory?

Seriously, though, apart from Duel in the Dark, which I declined to buy, Fairy Tale, 1960, and Prophecy have had zero problems for me.

OK, when I said that Blackbeard was my #1 most anticipated game? Yeah, well Arabian Nights is my #1 most anticipated game, as well. I don't know why, but my gut's not sure we'll see this one this year.

My friend spoke to Zev on this one it may be released this year but not sure.

One of the new innovations is for the options available to the character of all choices, so you can insult everyone and sees what it earns you.

Additional paragraphs have been added from what I was told. Yes I want this especially if it spruced up from the original but how much am I willing to pay? Agri is at 70$ this might be up there if the pieces are at the same level.

It looks like it will be very good.

Agree, looks really really promising. Man, they sure know how to make good looking games nowadays.

This one is on the very short "must have" list, sharing that billing with only three others. I am REALLY looking forward to owning this baby.

Oh lordy, that board is shiny.
I want it, if for nothing else to hang on my wall.

If you have early some bad dice rolls you may be "out of the game". I am sure there will be a great discussion about luck factor on this one.

I too am looking forward to this...being a Tummelhoffer / Saint Patersburg fan and all.

I am just a little wary about how similar to Pillars of the Earth it will be.