News from Italy: early September update
Hi gamers
as told I’m decided to move here (for a while) my News from Italy column since now, in the Essen preview whirlwind is too difficult to post something in BGG news. Of course in these days my column will be most focused on Italian Essen releases but there are also usual news about Italian market.
Here the details …
Asterion Gaming Days and Asterion-Days of Wonders partnership
Asterion, one of Italian most active publishers, announced Tuesday the collaboration with Days of Wonder that will start bringing in Italy products (new and old) from the Ticket to Ride and Small World series (some DoW games already got Italian edition in this years thanks to KDS first and Giochi Uniti next).
Asterion is also close to realize the first edition of Asterion Gaming Days, the first time in Italy a publisher has the strength to organize a convention all about his games. From 13rd to 15th of September more than 300 people will attend the event in Admiral Park Hotel, a four star hotel close to Bologna. An huge demo area, events and tournaments of most of the Asterion games including the first edition of the Italian Twilight Struggle Championship with more than 25 qualifier tournaments in the last 6 months.
For all people attending the event Asterion will offer 3 great promo including Referendum NATO card for Twilight Struggle.
I’ll write a report with pictures and details after the event.
Venetia (Stratelibri)
Some weekd ago Stratelibi announced that Passport Games Studios will be the English language partner for our upcoming new game Venetia designed by Francesco Nepitello & Marco Maggi that it will be released this autumn.
The Mistery of the Templars (Stratelibri)
I’m also got today a review copy of The Mistery of the Templars and I hope to write a detailed preview/review of this long time attended game.
Dice Run (Kaleidos Games)
On official Facebook page, Spartaco Albertarelli announced that the new edition of Dice Run will be ready for Essen 2013. The designer told me there are many changes from the Kidult edition, starting from the box size. In this new edition the players will draw 4 objective cards right in the beginning and will decide how to complete. The box will include 110 cards and 30 dice in 5 different colors.
Probably I’ll have something ore to say about this game in the next days.
dV Giochi will attend Essen 2013 with two new releases: Bang! The Dice Game (dV Giochi) (you can read news about it on W.Eric Martin’s BGG news and probably i’ll write a preview in the next weeks thanks to a review copy dV Giochi will send me) and The Great Persuader.
The Great Persuader is an exciting new party game for 3 to 8 players, ages 12 and up. This all-new game will be premiered at the Essen game fair, SPIEL ’13, in Germany, from October 24th to the 27th. It will be available in the U.S. in the next months.
Each turn, two players—the “Persuaders”—will try to convince another player—the “Customer”—either that their “bad” offer (“Working as a scarecrow”) is good for him, or that their “good” offer (“Winning the lottery”) is not what he is looking for.
The Customer listens to both Persuaders, then must choose one of them
In the meantime, all the other players bet on which Persuader will prevail. The goal of the game is to get the highest score, proving that you are The Great Persuader!
The game is quick, interactive, social, and—thanks to the 220 unique offers—it guarantees a high level of replayability.
Actually I’m not been able to try this games but if I’ll got some news before Essen I’ll write some previews/reviews.
Floenza: the Card Game
Placentia Games announce it’s new release for Essen 2013: Florenza the card game. It looks like a nice stategic card game. Probably I’ll not be able to play it before Essen but I hope to write a preview from the rules (English rules available in pdf) with he help of the designer/publisher in the next weeks.
The team of creative talents from Milan (Cranio Creations) this year aim to strike Essen with one major release and two expansions: Steam Park, Dungeon Fighters: fire at will and (still to be confirmed), the first Sheepland Exp (Lupus ?)
Steam Park (Cranio Creations)
A family game, where each player must build and manage its playground. A system of actions based on speed: the players have 6 dice with symbols of actions they can do and have to roll them as quickly as possible, when they get the desired results may take one or more dice and set them aside and roll the remaining. When you get the desired combination you can stop and take the token of the turn order. The faster/lucky therefore plays first. (it seems that we have to wait not too much to see Escape mechanic revisited).
Actions are very simple, you can build new carousels (of 6 different colors and sizes), you can try to attract customers in the park (drawing from a central bag) and allocate in a carousel of their color to get money, you can enlarge the par. since some of the actions increase the dirt in the park, you need to keep it clean if you do not want to suffer penalty, we can play the bonus cards that make us earn money if we reach certain goals (eg: x money / red man in the park), and finally you can build stalls (cotton candy, games for young children, …) that activate special powers.
All the components are made in 3d cardboard.
Dungeon Fighter: fire at will (Cranio Creations)
The idea is to make 4 small expansions that will come at a cost of about 10€ each. They will be about the 4 spheres of magic in the 4 elements: fire, water, earth and air. The expansions introduce a new resource called (at the moment) concentration. When rolling a ower symbol on a dice you can decide not to use the power and put in the treasure chest two concentration tokens.
At shop you will turn 3 Ability Cards, which can be bought using a concentration point. Ability cards will grant a power that can be activated by the player spending Concentration points.
The expansions introduce new monsters, new equipment, new heroes and new sections of the Dungeon. Each expansion will be themed, for example the Fire increase the attacks, while the Earth defense. And all introduce new special moves, special power silhouettes and special dice.
The silhouettes are thrown on the Target and are mini targets on the main target that activate special powers. The special dice are characteristic of each element and come in different sizes, the fire has a d8, while earth giant d6. The special dice are likely to activate different special powers.
Sheepland Expansion (Cranio Creations)
The small expansion introduces the Wolf, a pawn that moves on the map depending on the throw of a dice (other than the black sheep). The wolf moving leaves traces that can be collected by players with an action. In addition, players can buy new cards hunter (1 for each terrain type), which have the cost of 4 less than the number of tracks in that kind of terrain. Each hunter’s tile will score a number of coins equal to the number of traces collected.
This expansion adds a new very simple mechanics but greatly increases the strategic choices that players can take each turn.
Probably this expansion will not be presented in Essen this year but it is nice to know Cranios are working on it …
The Big Game Theory (Podcast)
The web-radio Radio RV1 will start to tramist, every secondo wednesday in a month, a new program about games called The Big “Game” Theory. Conducting the program together with Carlo Emanuele Lanzavecchia, Gianfranco Buccoliero andAna Lizaso Gallego, Andrea Chiarvesio, one of the greatest Italian game designer. more informations on the official facebook page.
