The Inaugural Week in Review – July 7-13

Donald X. Vaccarino Madness

All eyes have been on Donald X. Vaccarino since he captured all of our hearts and our wallets with his deck-building titan Dominion along with its eight expansions. While his last effort, Kingdom Builder (published by Queen Games), may not have impressed all critics, this month has been especially exciting for Vaccarino fans. His mafia themed card-drafting game Greed (also published by Queen Games) has been reported to be arriving at the front doors of Kickstarter backers, which means that it should be available in stores soon as well. But is the game any good? Check out Ryan Metzler’s review to find out. Earlier this week it was announced that Rio Grande Games will be releasing another new Vaccarino game entitled Temporum. In this hand-management card game for 2 to 5 players, you play as time travelers trying to change the past in order to improve the future for your own personal gain. While I can think of plenty of great uses of time-travel in other mediums, there aren’t enough board games that use the classic sci-fi invention. Temporum is expected to be available at Gen Con next month. Speaking of Rio Grande Games, if you've watched our coverage of the Origins Game Fair, you know that the new Prince Promo Card for Dominion got a lot of screen time. To be fair, it is a really cool card. While only available for purchase at Origins, it is expected to be released to the public within the next week or two.

Tile-laying Games Unearthed

Yeah, yeah, we may have gotten the new Carcassonne Hills and Sheep expansion last week, but the sad fact remains that there just aren’t very many tile-laying games being made any more. The tried-and-true mechanic may finally be getting the revitalization that it deserves with two new games that were announced this week. New publisher out of Canada, Roxley Games, announced Super Motherload (by Gavin Brown and Matt Tolman) based off of the 2013 Xgen Studios video game of the same name. In the Jules Verne inspired video game, you play as a miner tasked with finding rare resources under the surface of Mars. You can sell what you find underground in order to get the funding necessary to buy fuel for your drilling vehicle, as well as upgrades that allow you to dig through the harder rock layers of the red planet. The announcement of the board game adaption states that the game will utilize a unique mix of tile-laying and deck building-mechanics. Super Motherload is expected to be in stores this November. German Publisher TF Verlag UG has kicked off a Kickstarter campaign for another tile-laying game called Canopy Walk, designed by Dennis Kirps and Gérard Pierson. You and another person play against each other as explorers looking for elusive red diamonds in the rainforest by building the largest amount of completed trails of your color. The funding period ends on Sunday, August 10 2014. If funded, the game is expected to ship in October.

What’s New with the Dice Tower?

- The wait is over, the winners of the 2013 Dice Tower awards have finally been announced! Each year the Dice Tower recognizes the games, developers, and publishers who best demonstrate how great the hobby can be. 14 awards were given out for categories such as Best Game Reprint, Most Innovative Game, and of course, Game of the Year. I won’t spoil the list of winners by posting them here, so do yourself a favor and check them out for yourselves. - Board Game Geek user s4rc4st1c was not being sarcastic when he called out the Dice Tower for not having enough love for frequent Miami Dice and Top 10 co-host Zee Garcia. He noted that Zee has not been featured in any of the title sequences for Miami Dice and that he was not a playable character in Steve Avery and Tom Vasel’s game Nothing Personal. Zee fans rejoice! The Dice Tower has posted 5 new reviews with Tom and Zee including Imperial Settlers, Battle Sheep, and Shadowrun Crossfire. Also for anyone who is still wondering; a character based on Zee will be playable in one of the recently funded Nothing Personal expansions. - Of course it may be a little bias to say that the Dice Tower News website leaving beta was one of the biggest stories in gaming this week, but come on. Have you seen how many articles we’ve published already? If that isn’t enough to keep you coming back, we also have a weekly giveaway; join our mailing list, and you’ll be in the running every week for $10 gift certificate for Cool Stuff Inc.