I'm heavy in development on the new site with hopes of launching by July 4th.  With that in mind I've put a hold on new content for the blog. Hang in there a few days folks, I think you'll like the new site.

Finally, a Print-on-Demand announcement from the folks at FFG that I can get excited about:

From the release:

"A bright young Miskatonic University student has disappeared, having checked in to an infamous Arkham boarding house to study its reported supernatural properties. Now, as the celebration Walpurgis Eve approaches, you and your fellow investigators are tasked with venturing into the decaying Witch House and solving a mystery that has plagued Arkham for generations. But are you prepared to face the horrors that await you?

Season of the Witch, a Print on Demand story expansion for Mansions of Madness, is now available through our webstore! Designed by Richard Launius (Arkham Horror, Elder Sign), Season of the Witch sends players on a tense and terrifying race against the clock. Can you solve the mysteries of the Witch House before they consume Arkham forever?"

When FFG first announced a line of print-on-demand expansions back in march they debuted with a pair of releases for the expansion-unnecessary Death Angel card game, leaving me a little Meh over the whole deal. Then there's this, for $15 a whole new Mansions of Madness story, 58 total cards plus reference (setup?) cards. Not a bad deal and will certainly be on it's way to my home in short order.

More info here and here.

First let me apologize for the slow updates this week and warn that they may continue for another week. I'm converting the site to a more traditional website layout but also trying to make it so the other contributors can easily update.

In doing so I am creating the site in 3 different systems and evaluating them for what I want to do now and in the future. This is very time consuming but I have a lot of new content I'm just holding it until I determine what format to go with. It's my hope that people come to our site for the quality of the reviews and features not the timing. We'll typically not be the first to post a review because we like to play the game a few times and we seldom get review copies. So stay with us because shortly this site is going to get a lot better. Enough with the site update on to the news.

FFG
Fantasy Flight was busy this week with announcement. First we had the information on 2 new walker expansions for Dust Tactics. I'm going to come clean I bought this game recently and it is sitting in shrink wrap behind a stack of new games that need to get reviewed and video shot for them but it sure looks pretty.  Continuing on the Dust information was the announcement that Operation SeeLowe was on sale.

Another Adventures preview (here is hoping this is for sale at GenCon) was posted. The Elder Sign preview I linked to the other day A whole bunch of LCG announcements and finally the rules for the next Arkham expansion were posted.

AEG
I love AEG they make some wonderful games and they push out a ton of news on a daily basis. The downside is that 99/9% of that news is L5R related and this week was no different so if you want to catch up on everything L5R then head here.

GMT
I was really excited when I got my charged email for Space Empires this week, I was then really bummed when a day later GMT posted that they are having shipping delays due to floods in China.  Which means Space Empires and No Retreat are going to be delayed to sometime in late July by my estimates if not longer.

In happier news they have announce 3 new P500 additions and you can find that information here.

Mayfair
It's Origins this week and yes OBGB is not there unfortunately but Mayfair is and well you know they are running some big competition for this little game called Catan.  If you want a little update on day 1 of the convention Mayfair has you covered.

WOTC
Big news this week is Conquest of Nerath is finally out. I'm hoping to get a group together to play this very soon so I can get a review. Great components in this package.

Godzilla News
Well the big green guy is not attacking. If you read my column earlier this week on quality control you'll note that I said designer Richard Berg was putting together new rules. Well he did and they are much better and I highly suggest anyone thinking of buying this game grab them.

Everyone enjoy the weekend and do some gaming. 

Over the next few weeks I'll be moving away from blogger and it's many known issues and failure to add new features to a full fledged site. I'm currently investigating both Drupal and Joomla.

If anyone has any input on either and wants to drop me an email I would appreciate it.

There is a new preview of the upcoming Elder Sign game up this morning.  Hope to see this one at Gen Con seems like they are pushing to have it there.

I was really excited for the release of Gozilla Kaiju World Wars, really excited. However after having played the game several times I'm not so happy. I'll be posting a review this week along with a video but the game leaves a lot to be desired especially on the rules front.

So I was a little surprised to see this post on the board game geek forums by the designer Richard Berg. For those not so inclined to follow the link or to see why Richard is going to be re-writing the rules lets just say that Godzilla is suffering from poor reaction. There are some good components in this game and somewhere there is an enjoyable light game but the rules are possibly the worst I have seen.

Richard has made multiple posts indicating that rules were either removed or re-written. In fact the monster cards are missing a range attack defense rating. Richard indicated it was removed but not necessary for play. If that is the case why was it included in the first place and why was he posting about it on the forums?

It really raises an interesting question. How much say does the designer have on the final input of his game? I'm sure this varies by company. For instance I find it hard to believe a designer associated with GMT doesn't see the final rule book before it goes to print. However in the instance of Godzilla if you read a lot of different threads on the subject you get the idea that the system and rules delivered by the designer to the publisher were different then what shipped.

Publishers make calls all the time on making games easier or more accessible but do they do so without consulting the designer? Perhaps I am putting too much of the blame on Toy Vault the publisher. This was a licensed game and by Richard's own account in our interview with him they contacted him. Maybe the designer washed his hands of what happened after submitting the rules and now that the game is taking some well deserved critical hits he is making it right. I find that hard to believe though based on how Richard is responding in the forums.

Whatever the case may be we as gamers are suffering because of the lack of quality control. A company like Fantasy Flight is a much large organization then Toy Vault yet their games lately ship with numerous errors. If you bought the initial version of Civilization you have cards with printing errors. If you bought Mansions of Madness you have a game that has so many errors in some cases it is unplayable out of the box without the faq. In the latter case you have to buy the first expansion to get the fixed mistakes. In fact FFG is re-reprinting an Arkham Horror expansion because, and these are my words not FFG's, the original expansion was pretty much useless.

Wizards of the Coast one of the largest publishers of gaming products has shipped some of their latest games with really poor quality control. The new edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill had such terrible components that I couldn't even play the game because of the warping. Wrath of Ashardalon had cards that warped minutes after unpacking the game. To their credit WOTC replaced the components for free and in the instance of Betrayal actually had them redone on better material.

7 Wonders second edition printing has color errors on the age 3 cards that they are now going to replace. I could name many other games here. These aren't instances of one or two products being damaged in shipping because as gamers we know that can occur.  These are instance of poor quality control and lack of testing.

The average board game cost more then the average video game and the cost continues to rise as the quality goes down. Even though once in a while you get outstanding components for your value in games like Claustrophobia and Dust Tactics the norm lately is damaged products and cheaper material.


Board gaming has been on a recent resurgence in the last five plus years which has allowed companies like FFG to grow and prosper. However if costs continue to rise and quality continues to go down the hobby is going to take a step back.

As gamers we deserve better.

Never heard of Legend of the Five rings well that's ok it;'s been around a while. I'm not sure this is a big surprise since I've been hearing about it for a while but AEG has finally announced the L5R themed board game called Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan.

This game looks pretty interesting and will be for sale at Gen Con so we'll definitely try and get a look at it down there. In the meantime head on over to the official announcement. I do like the fact it comes with over 2 dozen miniatures.

I started laying out my GenCon schedule this week. Trying to secure appointments with various companies and designers. GenCon is always a mad house and as press you don't get much more time then the average attendee in the exhibition hall.  I like this because GenCon should be about gaming and not something crazy like E3.

I haven't attended an E3 in years but I still have bad memories of it. Anyway the openness of GenCon makes it very hard to get people's time on the floor so I like to set up as much as I can ahead of time. So I'm throwing this out to all of our OBGB readers who can't descend on Indy in a few short months.

What do you want to see? Who do you want me to talk to? Get me those request either in the comments or via email and I will try and make it happen.

Also it's been a rather slow week for reviews on OBGB because I've been spending much of my free time looking at converting the site off of Blogger into a more traditional site. This is taking a lot of time but in the end I think it will be worth it.

It's Wednesday so that means we're half way home to the weekend. It also means I've been sick officially for 1 week now. Summer colds and sinus issues aside lets see what is happening in the gaming world.

WOTC has posted a little preview article of Conquest of Nerath. This game comes out on the 2st and I have it on pre-order so we can do a review.

GMT has posted a video overview for Fading Glory on their site. 

Those wanting a good preview look of Battleship Galaxies can head over to heroscape.com and look at the nice pictures.

Finally FFG has a preview of Arcana posted.

Every time I see an announcement about Dust Tactics I kick myself to prevent me from getting into this game system. I have enough really cool games involving miniatures that don't get played.  Operation "SEELOWE" is a campaign expansion for the system and FFG have posted the rules.

If you're on of the people like myself who purchased the second edition printing of 7 Wonders and have the mis-colored cards then you're in luck...maybe.

Asmodee is offering a full replacement deck of Age 3 cards however you need to get them from the store you bought the game at. For someone like me who ordered online I may not be able to do that as a lot of times online retailers don't support this. I would check with your local store if you want these new cards.

Read more here.

FFG has released another preview of Gears or War. This game is really starting to get my interest.

Last month, Fantasy Flight Games announced the upcoming release of Gears of War: The Board Game, a fully cooperative board game for one to four players. Designed by Corey Konieczka, this action-packed battle against a cunning AI opponent is based on the wildly popular series of third-person shooters by Epic Games.

Today, we’ll take a brief look at the chief protagonist of Gears of War, Marcus Fenix, and we’ll see how his COG Character card conveys his unique stats and abilities. Then we’ll examine several Order cards, discussing how these versatile components are used to execute a broad range of tactical options.

Full news as always at their site.

Well this is curious and unexpected. This game seems to leverage the Arkham license and reduce the game time.

Fantasy Flight Games proudly announces the upcoming release of Elder Sign! This fast-paced, cooperative dice game by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, the designers of Arkham Horror, is loaded with supernatural intrigue for one to eight players.

Find the full news here.

Yesterday being my birthday and the 1st day of E3 had me pretty busy. Here is some of the news I missed. Remind me to beat the people who are helping me with this site :>

Fantasy Flight

They announced another adventure pack for the LOTR LCG. I think that puts us at 5 announced packs and zero released.

A new preview for the Adventures sequel is up. I can't help it I'm very excited for this game.

The rules for the revised Arkham expansion Curse of the Dark Pharaoh are online. I'll save my snarky comments on how FFG is milking customers by making them pay to fix mistakes, look at the recent Mansions of Madness FAQ if you don't believe me.


MayFair

Has announced that they are going big at the Origins convention. You can read all about it on their site. I wish we could attend as I would like to see Bull Run being done by Martin Wallace but it doesn't work with our schedule. If anyone wants to play reporter for us drop me an email.

WOTC

Besides recently announcing they would be a sponsor of GenCon (Is anyone surprised) G4TV had an unboxing video of Conquest of Nerath. That's right I said G4TV! Unfortunately we weren't given a review copy so we'll just have to buy it and review it like we do with 99% of the games we cover. I promise we won't film a slow motion segment of board flipping.

Today this old gamer gets a little older. At 45 sometimes I get strange looks when people come to our house and see my gaming room. With shelves full of games with titles like Combat Commander, Starcraft, Ticket to Ride and Descent to name just a few. It's always the same question. "These are your games?"

Once in a while I'm surprised in that the people are genuinely interested. They ask a few more questions and I can see they are thinking to themselves. "Is it ok to still play games as an adult?"

What's really surprising to me is it is usually the wives who have more interest. Of course most of the husbands just have a funny comment and go about there way probably thinking me a geek. I've long since ignored what people think. I was a three sport athlete in high school and also the guy who had the nerds over on the weekends to play D&D or Axis and Allies.

I'm the guy who at 45 will play in a golf tournament on a Saturday morning and then head over to our 3 times a year local convention to play games the rest of the day (did I mention I have an awesome wife). I love gaming it's as simple as that and I hope I continue to game for another 45 years.

*******

In site related news I filmed videos of Ascending Empires, Godzilla and Claustrophobia over the weekend. I need to spend time this week editing those and will post them for you as time permits. This week is E3 week and while not a big board gaming event, it is a big gaming event so I'm interest to see what comes out of there.

Well a nice surprise for the weekend as Godzilla has arrived at my house. I've got to finish work and then have the girls soccer tryouts to head off to but I'll do an un-boxing video tonight.

Here are a few pictures I took with my iPhone.

So today, I get to finally announce my full-time return to weekly gaming.

As a big fan of Smallworld (I've played about 643 games on the iPad), I'm really excited for the new release of Underworld that I'll likely order as part of my upcoming birthday haul.

FFG details the new Talisman expansion.

Playing with The Dragon expansion, players will encounter even more choices and strategic challenges, including a new, dual-sided Inner Region for their heroes to conquer. The alternate sides allow you to face familiar terrain along a path that requires all new tactics, or to venture into the Dragon Tower, where a hero’s every step meets opposition by the Dragon King’s minions and leads him ever closer to an ultimate confrontation with the Dragon King, himself.

Head over to their website for more information

.

I promise I'll eventually get a review of this fine game done. I'll just say upfront if you enjoy WW2 games and are a fan of Chad Jensen this game is a no doubt purchase. Anyway an official FAQ was posted today. It's fairly small because the rules are really solid but it is there if you need it.

I would like to thank everyone who followed us and tweeted about the contest but we have randomly selected a winner and they have been notified. They will be receiving their prize shortly.

We have other goodies to give away in the future and we'll make sure of two things in future contests.

1. They won't require twitter.
2. They will require some creativity.

Now excuse me while I go clear out the tunnels in hell of these demons.

Hope everyone had a fun filled holiday weekend in the United States. It was 90+ here yesterday after being in the 50's the day earlier...ah Spring.

On tap this week I have the following reviews.

Ascending Empires which is really more of a game then I expected.

Claustrophobia which causes me to smack myself for not trying this game earlier.

The Port-a-Party lineup of games which went through extensive testing over the weekend.

I'll also be picking the winner of the LOTR contest tonight and once contacted will post here.

Well there new to me anyway. The following games all arrived this week.

Space Infantry - This is a solo game from Lock n Load publishing.  The rules are just not very well organized which has been my typical experience with L&L but the game plays nice. I've already ripped through 3 scenarios as they take about 20-30 minutes each.

Ascending Empires - A new one from Z-man games which is getting a lot of buzz. Haven't even ripped off the shrink on this one yet but it is on tap for this weekend.

Dwarf King's Hold: Dead Rising - I've already mentioned my disappointment with the components in this $60 game. The components in Space Infantry are better produced and that game was $20 cheaper.  Setting that aspect aside there is a really good game here for two players. I'll get to a review at some point but there are other items ahead of it.

Claustrophobia - Another two player game similar to Dwarf King's Hold but this one is just has lots of atmosphere. I really like the components and the simple rules. I hope to play this over the weekend as well.

Yesterday we spoke with Jim Krohn the designer of the upcoming Space Empires 4X. Today we speak to Jim about his other game nearing release Band of Brothers.

• Rommel's Obsession - the battle of Crusader
• Medieval Empires - multiplayer medieval wargame
• Time Changer - a family euro
• Starships - a clever, family, space game
• No name yet - A starship fleet combat game

It's going to be a long, long wait until the 3rd quarter of this year for me. The original Adventurers was a personal favorite of mine and a big hit in the house with the wife and kids. This game seems to come out every time we have people over as well.

FFG has put up a preview of the upcoming game and well the wait just got a little longer for me. I know some people aren't happy that this game is a stand alone product and not an expansion to the original but I'm not one of them.

GenCon is going to be mighty costly to my wallet this year.

Recently OBGB had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Krohn the designer of the much anticipated Space Empires 4X. Because Jim was so gracious with his time the interview is rather large so we're going to split it up into multiple postings.  Check back tomorrow for part 2.

Some of the bits from Space Empires 4X

• There are not a lot of space games that have a strong wargame feel.
• On the other hand, it is simple enough so that non-grognards can play.
• The mounted map has certainly helped to make the game accessible to more people.
• GMT has done a good job with the game.
• It has to help that, although they primarily publish wargames, GMT has a number of excellent games that are appreciated by non-grognards.  Space Empires fits in that mold.

• There is a combat bonus if you outnumber an opponents fleet by 2:1.  This abstractly represents how a larger fleet could more easily maneuver to fire on downed shields or damaged parts of a ship.  You don't want to be on the short end of that stick.  Therefore you are always encouraged to build escorts for you capital ships.
• Some technology is only available on some smaller ships.
• Ship Yards are needed to build fleets and available ship yard space sometimes constrains you to build  a smaller ship than you would like.
• Money - it is always in a short supply and that can often cause you to build a smaller ship.

Near final map

I suppose the fact that it is fairly simple and quick helps too.



Check back tomorrow for part 2 of the interview where we discuss Band of Brothers.