Erik's Board / Card Games Blog

GameTable Online plans to make Axis & Allies and at least some of its other online versions of games published by Wizards of the Coast available on the social network site Facebook. "We haven't finalized the order in which they will appear (or the precise dates) but A&A is high on the list," said Jay Adan, GTO's director of marketing. "I love our current implementation of Axis & Allies, but imagine having the ability to play that game like you can play GTO Backgammon on Facebook -- asymmetrically or live. A&A is a game that really begs for that kind of flexibility and GameTable Online has always been about trying to give people more opportunities to play the games that they love."

Adan said that GTO plans to add some non-WotC games to Facebook as well. "The short answer is yes," he said. However, "there is some work involved in doing the transition from GTO to Facebook, especially for some of the older games. So, priorities for which will get moved over will depend on the ease in which we can do it and whether or not specific publishers come forward to express interest in helping to offset the costs involved in doing the transition."

Some of the games available on GTO may not be suited for the Facebook platform, particularly those in which opponents can interrupt the current player's turn. Games like that, Adan said, "can bog down as each player needs to decide if they want to interrupt, then the current player has to respond to the interruption. A single turn could take days or weeks." GTO is working to address that problem, but it may not always be possible.

^{Image courtesy of Wizards of the Coast}

After more than 5.6 million votes were cast, Montreal has replaced Boardwalk in a new international edition of Monopoly known as Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. Scheduled to go on sale in 50 countries on Tuesday, August 26, Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition was designed after a worldwide vote in early 2008 to determine which cities would be included on the board. Montreal received the most votes, thus earning its spot on the board's most expensive property. Riga, the capital of Latvia, finished in second place and will occupy the spot of Park Place. Read more about Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition to see what other cities are represented.

^{Image courtesy of Hasbro}

Ted Cheatham (designer of Silk Road, Gumball Rally and President) attended the Gen Con game convention this year and has filed two reports (one video, one audio) for BoardGameNews.com. If you want to catch up on some of the highlights from Gen Con 2008, I highly recommend Ted Cheatham's Gen Con reports.

Five games published by Wizards of the Coast -- Acquire, Axis & Allies, Guillotine, Robo Rally, and Vegas Showdown -- will be available for free online play on GameTable Online later this month. GTO had developed the games for Wizards' web site. However, WotC recently announced that they will focus their online efforts on Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering.

"GameTable Online did a terrific job of creating online versions of our games," Randy Buehler, vice president of digital gaming at Wizards of the Coast, said in a press release. "With GTO's recent switch from a subscription model to free play, this became a great way to let our fans continue to play our games online, for free and whenever they want."

GameTable Online's lineup also includes 10 Days in Africa, Battle of the Bands, Tigris & Euphrates, Kill Dr. Lucky, Lord of the Fries and New England, along with classic games such as Backgammon, Checkers and Chess.

^{Image courtesy of Wizards of the Coast}

Tom Vasel, host of The Dice Tower, a great podcast about board games and card games, recently announced the winners of The Dice Tower Gaming Awards for games published in 2007. The winners, chosen by a panel of 14 judges, are:

• Best Game of the Year: Race for the Galaxy (designed by Thomas Lehmann, published by Rio Grande Games)
• Best Family Game: Zooloretto (Michael Schacht, Rio Grande Games and Abacus Spiele)
• Most Innovative Game: Cutthroat Caverns (Curt Covert, Smirk and Dagger Games)
• Best Reprint: Thebes (Peter Prinz, Queen Games)
• Best Small Publisher: Smirk and Dagger Games (Cutthroat Caverns)
• Best New Game Designer: Friedemann DePedro (Duel in the Dark, Z-Man Games)
• Best Game Expansion: Memoir '44 Air Pack (Richard Borg, Days of Wonder)
• Best Game Artwork: StarCraft (Christian T. Petersen and Corey Konieczka, Fantasy Flight Games)

I think the selections are generally outstanding. Race for the Galaxy also won a Meeples Choice Award from the members of the Spielfrieks discussion group. Cutthroat Caverns was my pick as the #6 card game published in 2007. Zooloretto was my pick as the #2 board game published in 2007, while Thebes was #7 on that same list. My only real quibble with the winners StarCraft's victory for best artwork. It just feels too busy for my tastes.

Winda Benedetti, whose MSNBC.com byline identifies her as a "Citizen Gamer," posted an interesting article yesterday about playing games on social networks. I recently joined Facebook and the first thing I did was to start browsing the games section. (I'm now involved in a game of Scrabble and the word-search game Scramble.) What else should I be trying? Please post a note in the comments section below to tell me about your favorite games on Facebook.

The annual game convention Gen Con is now in full swing as gamers have converged on Indianapolis, Indiana. Although I was not able to attend this year, I've been keeping tabs on Gen Con news and events here: Indy.com's Gen Con Group, GamingReport.com, and PurplePawn.com.

The Indianapolis Star has posted a couple of interesting articles about Gen Con:

• Indy welcomes 85,000 gamers for '08 Gen Con
• Gen Con Draws Gamers to Indy

Game publisher Days of Wonder has announced new expansions for the fantast battle game BattleLore (scheduled to be available in October) and the World War II game Memoir '44 (scheduled to be available in September).

Two Memoir '44 expansions were announced: Operation Overlord and the Hedgerow Hell Overlord BattleMap.

The Operation Overlord expansion was designed to help play multi-player Memoir '44 Overlord scenarios. It includes two special decks of updated Command cards, two punchboards of Army figure tokens which represent figures from different nations and make it possible to play Overlord with only a single copy of the base game, eight dice, and an updated version of the Overlord Rules. Operation Overlord should sell for $20 to $25.

The Hedgerow Hell Overlord BattleMap, the first in a planned series of BattleMaps, includes a large-scale (57 x 27.5 inches), double-sided paper map with two new Overlord scenarios, six new Dodge truck miniature figures, scernario rules, terrain and unit summary cards, and historical background. This BattleMap is designed for 2 to 8 players and requires either one copy of Memoir '44 and the Operation Overlord Expansion, or two copies of Memoir '44. The suggested retail price for this expansion is $18.

The BattleLore expansion is a Troll Map Epic Adventure. The large scale (47 x 34 inches) paper map features two Epic Adventures: For Troll & Country and Troll Bridge. It includes a new Troll Creature figure (pictured). The suggested retail price for this expansion is $18.

^{Images courtesy of Days of Wonder}

The 2008 Million Minute Family Challenge is underway. Sponsored by game publisher Patch Products, the Million Minute Family Challenge is designed to encourage families and friends to play more games. Participants in the challenge record the number of minutes they spend playing games, and the Million Minute web site tracks them by state. Last year, the top-playing states were Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. A total of 1.1 million minutes (about 18,333 hours) were logged.

An English language edition of Agricola, my pick as the #3 game published in 2007, is finally available. Publisher Z-Man Games quickly sold out of its initial print run, but as of this posting the game is still available at some online retailers. The theme (farming) may not sound exciting, but Agricola has won praise from many strategy gamers. At the start of the game, each player has a spouse, a shack and not much else. From there, everyone tries to build a successful farm through the game's 14 turns and six harvests. Agricola was designed by Uwe Rosenberg, the creator of Bohnanza, which is a clever card game about bean farming.

^{Image courtesy of Z-Man Games / Lookout Games}