In this week's news round-up; there is a new expansion on the way for Flash Point Fire Rescue, Charterstone is going digital, and there are new games on the way from Arcane Wonders and Board and Dice.
It's Getting Hot in Here
Things are heating up for the Flash Point series, with the announcement of the Tragic Events Expansion. This expansion adds the fire and event decks to replace the hot spot mechanism in the experienced version of the base game.
As part of the set-up of the game the Fire deck is created which includes Fire Rage and Accelerate card. Flare Up cards are set aside. During each Advance Fire step a card is drawn from the Fire Deck and resolved. When an Accelerate card is drawn Flare Up cards are added to the deck and cause an Event to occur. Flare Up cards can also trigger Events to occur and add even more Flare Up cards to the deck.
The expansion also includes new Interest Tokens and three new specialists. The expansion is due to be released July 24th 2019 so if you are a fan of Flash Point then this is an expansion that is worth checking out.
Eruptions from Arcane Wonders
Arcane Wonders have announced a two to four player settlement/village building game called Volcanic Isle. In Volcanic Isle players will build their village and raise Moai statues across Easter Island. Easter Island is unstable though with the risk of volcanic activity and a constantly changing landscape. Raising Moai statues risk volcanic eruptions which destroy settlements and sections of the game board.
Not much else is known about the game but it is set to release on July 10th 2019.
Legacy goes Digital
Arcam Digital is known for its digital release of poplar modern board games. They are responsible for bringing Istanbul, Eight Minute Empire and Steam: Rails to Riches to the digital platform and they have just announced that in 2020, Charterstone will be released.
The very popular Charterstone is a worker placement, legacy, campaign game where the worker placement spots and the board changes from game to game. Players construct buildings to populate a shared village with these buildings being represented by permanently added stickers. Charterstone contains 12 campaign games and once finished players will have a unique game board that can be played again and again.
Arcam Digital have already had some big hits with the digital adaptations and imagine that Charterstone will be no exception.
Sierra West is coming
Board and Dice have been teasing images of their latest game, Sierra West, for a while now and they have announced that this will be released at GenCon in August 2019. Sierra West is a unique game that combines deck building, tableau management worker placement and multi-use cards. They seem to have thrown a lot of mechanisms at this game. Players will move pioneering workers through the mountain paths, claiming cards and actions and collecting resources.
The interesting use of the multi use cards and the notched board has me intrigued and this is sure to be a fantastic game. Sierra West also comes with four modules that can be added in as players choose giving rise to a high degree of flexibility and replay-ability in the game.
Nominations
The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design have announced their 2019 nominees for the Origins award. The categories include Board Games, Family Games, Card Games and Miniature Games, and feature some of the hottest titles from last year! Examples include:
- Brass: Birmingham
- Root
- Everdell
- Rising Sun
- Space Base
- Spy Club
- When I Dream
- The Mind
- Villainous
- Star Wars: Legion
- Fallout.
The winners will be announced on June 15, 2019, at the Origins Game Fair. Players will be able to try out all the nominated games and cast their vote to determine the winner in each category.