Wednesday, October 28th, 2015
If you want to get something done, you have to go out and do it yourself. And thanks to crowdfunding, almost anything is possible. Check out this wonderful game that we’re featuring today. It’s called Blackout: Journey Into Darkness. Imagine taking the elements of Betrayal At House On The Hill and combining it with Zombicide and an epic RPG campaign. That, in a gist, is what Blackout: Journey Into Darkness is all about.
Here is a more detailed desciption of the game:
The game currently has 16 days to go in it’s Kickstarter campaign, but has blown away its goal of $39K by raising a little over $95K from over 1,000 backers. Needless to say, this game is going to be popular, and rightfully so. Blackout was designed by Richard T. Broadwater, a former action figure designer and Bethesda vet who worked on games such as Oblivion and Fallout 3. Talk about the perfect combination.
Interestingly enough, the game had been on Kickstarter two previous times. Each time, the campaign was cancelled. The first time was due to distribution issues for the European market, and the second time was due to an overwhelming response which prompted Broadwater to want to include more content into the game. Now on it’s third run, the game looks like it will finally finish a campaign with delivery expected sometime in December of 2016. However, the wait should be totally worth it. Just take a look at the game.
According to the report, the box will contain:
The game is for 1 – 4 players. MSRP has not been determined. FYI, the campaign has currently raised $94,828 from 1,028 backers ($92.25 /backer average). So don’t be surprised if this game ranges in the $90-$100 market.
For a more detailed look at the game as well as pledge to it’s campaign, check out the Kickstarter page here.
Source: ICv2
Tags: Blackout: Journey Into Darkness, Kickstarter
Posted in Blog, Board Games, Featured Author, Featured Post, Popular Posts | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2015
From the same company that brought you Star Trek Catan and Agricola comes two brand new games – Grand Austria Hotel and Hengist. Grand Austria Hotel is a game designed by Simone Luciani (Tzolk’in, The Voyages of Marco Polo) and Virginio Gigli (Leonardo da Vinci) and art by Klemens Franz (Agricola, Le Havre, Caverna). According to report,
Grand Austria Hotel will be for 2 – 4 players, ages 10 and up, and plays in 45 – 60 minutes. The MSRP is set at $60.00.
The recommended age for Hengist is ages 7 and up, and plays in 20 minutes. The MSRP is set at $28.00.
Both games are set for a December 1st release this year.
Source: ICv2
Tags: grand austria hotel, hengist, Mayfair Games
Posted in Blog, Board Games, Featured Author, Featured Post | No Comments »
Friday, September 18th, 2015
It’s that time again. Time for another edition of “This week in Magic.” If you hadn’t seen it already, the mother ship has spoiled the rest of the Battle for Zendikar set, and let’s just say that the future looks rather underwhelming. However, let’s not dwell on that. Instead, let’s try to make the best of things with another top 5 list. This week, we’re going to cover five cards with the most potential in Standard.
If you follow us on Facebook then you may have noticed that I shared an image of this card. Spells like Dissipate, Dissolve, and Cancel have showed us that three is the magic number for Standard counters. Now Spell Shrivel can join that club. However, there is something that I really like about this card. I think the fact that the cost for this spell is 2 colorless mana and one blue rather than the two blue mana and one colorless mana required for the others. While it may not be a hard counter, it’s a decent compromise for the easier casting cost.
One of the best parts of the spell is that fact that it exiles the spell rather than having it end up in the graveyard. Thanks to other spells like Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Deathmist Raptor, even the graveyard isn’t a safe place. Still, thanks to the new mechanics of BFZ, the exile area might not be a safe zone either.
The return of man-lands is finally upon us. The last time we saw them was in original Zendikar block. That’s when we had lands like Stirring Wildwood and Celestial Colonnade. Now we have Lumbering Falls and Shambling Vent. Out of the two, I think Shambling Vent may be the better. Although, it may still be too early to tell. Shambling Vent enters as the favorite mostly due to it’s color scheme.
Thanks to Shambling Vent, something like Esper Control can go completely creatureless and just rely on the vent to do the dirty work. Of course, that may have to wait until post rotation because how can you ignore the fact that you still have powerful dragons like Ojutai roaming the format.
This version of Omnath was one of the first cards spoiled in Battle for Zendikar. I was sitting in the Twitch chatroom when the announcement and I remember a lot of “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” scrolling on the screen. One of the first things that came to mind was that the big Red/Green machine isn’t dead yet. Thanks to this Omnath it will still be something to reckon with.
Sitting at 5/5 for six mana doesn’t look impressive, but the fact that this thing makes babies due to it’s landfall ability in a format where bringing land into play is easy as pie scares me a lot. Imagine this very real scenario, with an Omnath in play, you opponent plays one fetch lands and triggers Omnath’s landfall ability. Then they sac the land and bring another land into play. That triggers the landfall ability again. That’s two 5/5’s with one land. Eesh.
What list would be complete without an Ulamog? At some point or another, there will definitely be a debate or which version of Ulamog is better. For now, I like this one. You can probably call me a little bit biased, but this is another one of those cards that I can see fitting well in a control deck like Blue/Black. Remember how I said something like Esper Control can go creatureless? Well, maybe we can make an exception for this one creature.
Ulamog’s new ability to mill your opponent makes this creature a serious threat. There have even been talks about it being one of the best creatures in Limited. Keep in mind, though, we’re here to talk about Standard. One of the biggest strengths of this new Ulamog has to be that it only needs to attack to mill your opponent. That means they can chump block it all day long; the attack will still trigger Ulamog’s ability.
Coming in at number one is the newest version of Gideon. When Gideon first made his way into Magic, he was quite the planeswalker. This version may be his best face to date. In this game, one can usually expect some of these cards to have some kind of downside to them. However, with Gideon, there doesn’t seem to be one. As soon as he hits the battlefield, he has the ability to make a sudden impact by being able to make an emblem that will make all your creature stronger and tougher.
If need be, he can even create a defense by making a 2/2 ally. Even more so, because the the token is an ally, it can trigger the ability of all other allies you control on the battlefield. Finally, his final form as a 5/5 indestructible creature makes him, possibly, the best card in Battle for Zendikar.
Well, that’s it for this week. I know I’m not perfect, and this list isn’t perfect. If you think I’ve left something off of the list or have something in the wrong spot, let me know. I’d love to hear what you have to say. Sound off in the comment section below!
See you all next week.
Simeon is now the Community Manager for Battleground Games & Hobbies. If you have any questions or inquiries, then you can reach him at Sims@battlegroundgames.com. He is also an avid gamer who loves to play board games and video games. He graduated college with a degree in Political Science, and now serves the public by writing about games. You can check that out here. Don’t forget to “like” him on Facebook as well. It’ll update you on all of his newest content. Best of all, you can follow Simeon on Twitter (@SimeonCortezano) for some real time hilarity. Thanks for reading!
Join the Battleground Games & Hobbies community forums!
Please don’t forget to check us out on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @battleground_gh!
Tags: Battle for Zendikar, BFZ, Magic the Gathering, MTG
Posted in Blog, Board Games, Card Games, Featured Author, Featured Post, Magic: The Gathering, Popular Posts | No Comments »
Friday, July 24th, 2015
Welcome to a special edition of this “This week in Gaming.” For this week, we’re going to take a break from our usual Magic: The Gathering discussions and talk about something special to me. This week we’re going to talk about Extra Life 2015. If you remember last year, I wrote a little article about my intentions to join the Extra Life 2014 campaign. If you weren’t around for any of that, then you’ll be happy to know that we ended up raising over $2500. However, that was all done last year. This is a new year. A new year means new goal and a new goal means a new story.
I was off to the races the moment I registered for Extra Life 2014. I took to Facebook and posted about my campaign, my goal, and all that jazz. I was so ready, I even had contests ready to go to start raising money. I was like a kid in a candy store. There were all of these opportunities and feelings of excitement that I was getting ahead of myself. Almost every month leading up to the Extra Life 2014 Game Day, I was trying to give something away. This year, things are going to be different.
For starters, last year, I tried to run almost a year long campaign. This year, I decided to wait a little longer before I got things started. I only recently sent out Facebook invites to the Game Day. In case you didn’t get one, don’t worry. It’s not a private event that only my friends are allowed to go to. Everyone can come! In fact, I encourage everyone to come. Oh what’s that? You have no idea what Game Day is?
First, let me start off by explaining what Extra Life is all about. Extra Life is a charity that was started several years ago by a bunch of gamers. Their purpose was to help make life a little bit easier for kids who are in hospitals for extended stays due to illness, treatment, etc. It started out as gamers donating games to keep the kids entertained. In the following years, with the help of Twitch, gamers took to the internet to stream themselves play video games for 24 hours. Now, thanks to the tabletop boom, Game Day has evolved into a 24 hour gaming marathon of people broadcasting and gathering in real life to play games.
Last year, both Battleground Games & Hobbies locations took part in the Extra Life 2014 Game Day. I honestly have to say I was surprised. I was grateful that the Abington store was gracious enough to open it’s doors, but to have both stores was somewhat overwhelming. This year, we plan on doing the same thing – both locations will be hosting a 24 hour gaming marathon. One thing that will be different though will be the starting time.
Having been the first year, I thought it would be a good idea to have Game Day fall directly after Friday Night Magic. On paper, the idea made sense. Why go home only to come back and open the store for 24 hours? Just get it all done right then and there! Somewhere in the world, someone is hitting a big red buzzer. I was wrong and many people reminded me throughout the day as kindly as they could. I totally forgot that some people live normal lives and have jobs. Some of those people came straight from work and stayed as long as they could. This year, we’re shooting for a 10 AM start time and a 10 AM end time. This should give people enough time to go home, get some sleep, and gather enough energy to stay awake for the next 24 hours.
The change in time is probably the biggest change we’ll be making for the the 2015 Game Day. Something minimal I’d like to see is a corner we can call home base. This is a set up where we can stream live on Twitch. I’d like to either broadcast a board game being played or someone playing a video game. This would allow us to extend our reach and allow those who couldn’t make it in person to be there digitally. Did you know that that Twitch has an app? So if all goes according to plan, if you can’t make it to the event, you’ll be able to at least watch us via the internet.
One more piece of important information you’ll need before we part ways. The Extra Life 2015 Game Day will be celebrated on November 7, 2015 and will carry over into November 8, 2015. For more information, you can click on the banner at the top of this page.
Well that’s it for this week. I hope you’ve been motivated to help out with an awesome cause. If you’d like to help out in some way, don’t be afraid to get in contact with me. You can always e-mail me at Sims@battlegroundgames.com. Until next week…
Simeon is now the Community Manager for Battleground Games & Hobbies. If you have any questions or inquiries, then you can reach him at Sims@battlegroundgames.com. He is also an avid gamer who loves to play board games and video games. He graduated college with a degree in Political Science, and now serves the public by writing about games. You can check that out here. Don’t forget to “like” him on Facebook as well. It’ll update you on all of his newest content. Best of all, you can follow Simeon on Twitter (@SimeonCortezano) for some real time hilarity. Thanks for reading!
Join the Battleground Games & Hobbies community forums!
Please don’t forget to check us out on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @battleground_gh!
Tags: Board Games, Card Games, extra life 2015, games, Simeon Cortezano
Posted in Blog, Board Games, Card Games, Events, Featured Author, Featured Post, Popular Posts, Role-Playing Games, Store Related | No Comments »
Saturday, June 6th, 2015
Battleground Games & Hobbies – Plainville, MA. Battleground Games & Hobbies is proud to announce that the 2015 Star Wars X-Wing Regional Championship on Saturday, June 6th at our awesome Plainville, MA location is TODAY! We hope that you’ll join us for this exciting event. Details below.
Format: 100 points
Date: June 6th, 2015
Time: Round 1 begins at 10:00 am, Doors open at 9:00 am
Entrance Fee: $25.00
Address:
25 Taunton Street
Plainville MA 02762
508.316.1195
Google Maps
Battleground’s Facebook Page
We do require participants to submit squadron lists to us by Wednesday, June 3rd. We will varrify each list before the tournament begins in an effort to avoid any problems during the event. They will be kept confidential. To submit your squadron list, please click here or contact us.
The tournaments will follow the standard Fantasy Flight tournament rules. Each round will last 60 minutes. The number of rounds will be based on attendance, followed by a cut to a top eight single-elimination playoff.
TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT:
Preregistration is REQUIRED to participate in this event. We are not registering potential participants at the door. Please click here and use our online shopping cart to preregister. You will not need to produce proof of purchase on the day of the event (you don’t need to print out and bring the receipt). At checkout please select “Event Registration – X-Wing Regional Tournament” for your shipping method.
Please use a real email address when creating your user ID for the online store. We will be using this to contact you should the location of the event change (larger space) or to collect your squadron lists as the date approaches.
If you are registering multiple people please include their names in the comment section at checkout. Thank you!
If you’re traveling to join us for the 2015 X-Wing Regional Championship, please find below some useful information.
Local Hotel Accommodations
Holiday Inn Express Plainville-Foxboro
Holiday Inn Express Providence-North Attleboro
Battleground Games & Hobbies – Plainville is local to numerous restaurants and convenient to shopping. In addition, Battleground Games & Hobbies is only miles away from Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots!
Contact:
Please click here to contact us if you have any questions. You may likewise visit our forum for any further details and discussion.
Tags: Fantasy Flight Games, Miniatures, Regional Championship, Star Wars, Tournament, X-Wing
Posted in Blog, Board Games, Events, Featured Post, Miniature Games, Store Related | No Comments »
Saturday, May 30th, 2015
Battleground Games & Hobbies – Plainville, MA. Battleground Games & Hobbies is proud to announce that the 2015 Star Wars X-Wing Regional Championship on Saturday, June 6th at our awesome Plainville, MA location is just one week away. Please be sure to preregister for this amazing event! We hope that you’ll join us for this exciting event. Details below.
Format: 100 points
Date: June 6th, 2015
Time: Round 1 begins at 10:00 am, Doors open at 9:00 am
Entrance Fee: $25.00
Address:
25 Taunton Street
Plainville MA 02762
508.316.1195
Google Maps
Battleground’s Facebook Page
We do require participants to submit squadron lists to us by Wednesday, June 3rd. We will varrify each list before the tournament begins in an effort to avoid any problems during the event. They will be kept confidential. To submit your squadron list, please click here or contact us.
The tournaments will follow the standard Fantasy Flight tournament rules. Each round will last 60 minutes. The number of rounds will be based on attendance, followed by a cut to a top eight single-elimination playoff.
TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT:
Preregistration is REQUIRED to participate in this event. We are not registering potential participants at the door. Please click here and use our online shopping cart to preregister. You will not need to produce proof of purchase on the day of the event (you don’t need to print out and bring the receipt). At checkout please select “Event Registration – X-Wing Regional Tournament” for your shipping method.
Please use a real email address when creating your user ID for the online store. We will be using this to contact you should the location of the event change (larger space) or to collect your squadron lists as the date approaches.
If you are registering multiple people please include their names in the comment section at checkout. Thank you!
If you’re traveling to join us for the 2015 X-Wing Regional Championship, please find below some useful information.
Local Hotel Accommodations
Holiday Inn Express Plainville-Foxboro
Holiday Inn Express Providence-North Attleboro
Battleground Games & Hobbies – Plainville is local to numerous restaurants and convenient to shopping. In addition, Battleground Games & Hobbies is only miles away from Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots!
Contact:
Please click here to contact us if you have any questions. You may likewise visit our forum for any further details and discussion.
Tags: 2015 Regional Championship, Fantasy Flight Games, Star Wars, Tournament, X-Wing
Posted in Blog, Board Games, Events, Featured Post, Store Related | No Comments »
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