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Star Wars: Legion, Starship Samurai and Terminator crashed announcements at Gen Con! Take a peek ahead with our news round-up of game releases this week - with new expansions, exciting editions and even the sneaky odd teaser for games to come!
Star Wars: Legion
Fantasy Flight Games capped off GenCon with one last huge announcement: Star Wars: Legion, a new two-player miniatures game which throws you into the commanding seat of the Galactic Empire, or the Rebel Alliance, to wage war, mastermind tactics and face off against some of the series most iconic heroes – and villains.
Fantasy Flight are clearly set to expand on Star Wars: Legion, referring to this first game as the ‘Core Set’ containing 33 miniatures, cards, movement tools, tokens, and the terrain you’ll need to start playing.
Star Wars: Legion stunned the GenCon floor with beautifully crafted terrains and minutely painted miniatures, however the 28mm-scale miniatures contained in the box itself will arrive unpainted and in need of assembly. Deft-handed painters and old war gamers will therefore get the chance to paint and customise their own troops, including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and a rebel AT-RT, as well as designing new terrains from the green depths of Endor to the snowy plains of Hoth.
It sounds like Star Wars: Legion is looking to build on previous miniature game mechanics, speeding up movement by designating troops alongside their leaders, as well as adding some flexibility to the game with upgrades to unlock not only better equipment, but also Jedi mind tricks and special abilities.
Star Wars: Legion is scheduled for release in early 2018.
Official Terminator 2 Board Game: T2029
Rule & Make have announced that they will be designing an official Terminator 2 Judgement Day board game: T2029, coming to Kickstarter later this September. Fans of the Terminator franchise should keep their eyes peeled for the official teaser trailer coming out this Tuesday (August 29) for more information.
So far we can tell that Rule & Make’s new game will be a strategic mix of rolling dice, playing the right cards and advancing an army of miniatures to defeat your opponent in a battle between Connor’s forces and the robot uprising that sets the scene for the famous movie series.
T2029 is still in early prototyping stages but we’re looking forward to finding out what more is to come from the creators of Rise to Power and Entropy, as they take on this killer franchise.
Starship Samurai
We were treated to some mysterious teasers on Twitter this week, suggesting that Plaid Hat Games are working on their own miniatures series: Starship Samurai.
The creators of Mice & Mystics, as well as the recently announced game Stuffed Fables, posted a picture of the new game box art accompanied by a show case of beautifully modelled gundam-style miniatures and spaceships, giving no comment or explanation as to the contents.
Meanwhile, Plaid Hat designer Isaac Vega tweeted his own picture and confirmed that he’s been working on Starship Samurai, meaning that fans of Dead of Winter and Ashes: Rise of the Pheonixborn can expect an exciting new game in store – whenever Plaid Hat decide to reveal a little more about their most recent venture.
All Aboard to France and the Old West
Days of Wonder have announced that the newest expansion to the classic board game, Ticket to Ride, will take players across the pond from France to the Old West. With two new maps on opposite sides of the game-board, players will have the chance to dive into France in the midst of its industrial revolution: laying tracks across the canvas from the midnight boulevards of Paris, to the sunny shores of Marseille, to the dizzying peaks of the Swiss Alps.
Of course, simply flip the board and you’ll find yourself instead laying tracks across the blistering heat of the Old West, accompanied by cowboys and racing against the gold rush, as well as… aliens?
The contents description for this expansion includes, as well as the expected tally of track pieces, bonus cards, and city markers, a rather mysterious token simply referred to as ‘Alvin the Alien.'
Ticket to Ride: France & Old West looks set to be a simple re-skin expansion of the classic game, and notably will require the trains and train car cards from Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride Europe in order to play. However, perhaps we’ll be seeing a few new additions in the form of suspect UFOs coming to interfere with our Earthling expansionism.
If you’re keen to collect all of Ticket to Ride’s editions, France & Old West will be launching for around €40 in Europe in late October this year, followed by an early November release for those in the USA.
Helen Jones is a writer, journalist and games enthusiast, you can read more of her stuff @BarnacleDrive on Twitter or follow her blog StoryFirst.