Twilight Imperium - Unboxing

By: Dozer

Twilight Imperium has a new edition.

I was at GENCON 50 when they showed it off. Where they let people play it and later on buy it.

It looked awesome. I waited in line and by the time I got into the Fantasy Flight games booth proper someone had bought their last copy.

Yet I knew I would get it. Twilight Imperium has shaped all board game experiences since I played it. All great games are not just great by themselves. Instead they challenge the everyone. They challenge the industry to do better and go bigger, they demand more of their players, and the experience is so defining that it shapes all other game experiences.

So I picked it up when I got back from Toronto. I was sick all week and I stopped by Out of the Box and there it was. The owner offered me at no extra cost a poster and the deluxe rule book plus the 15% off from the Black Friday sales.

So I picked it up.

Now lets go look inside and see what's new with this beast.

Scythe: Wind Gambit - Unboxing

By: Dozer

Scythe is the best thing I ever picked up on Kickstarter to date. It is one of my favorite games for my table. It's gorgeous in style and craftsmanship. The game play is simple, varied, and slick.

Slick has been the only word I've been able to describe the feel of play in Scythe. No matter what thing you want to do, mechanically it feels like a well oiled machine. So smooth you forget the mechanics and yet you feel in control of the action on the board.

The world feels alive with the art of Jakub Różalski, who is how I found out about the kickstarter for Scythe. His art and the small bits of world building fiction we get with the game makes it so easy to love Scythe.

By the by it looks like his next project is called Wolfpack and looks like Vikings and Werewolves themed project.

Wolfpack concept art by Jakub Różalski

Wolfpack concept art by Jakub Różalski

Man does he do such good work and I hope what is next works out well.

After the break I have an unboxing of the expansion that just dropped Scythe: The Wind Gambit.

A few days ago I and the other backers of the game got an e-mail update from the creator of the game - Jamey Stegmaier.

I've got it posted below:

"My general philosophy behind Stonemaier Games is that if enough people want something that we think we can make well, we'll make it. That's why we have a form on our website where people can literally tell us what they want."

"For Scythe, there's an endless stream of things that thousands of people want. Just look at all the different promos we've made. Or look at the Legendary Box."

"I love that you've shared your passion for this game through your purchases of these expansions, accessories, and promos. But at a certain point, I feel like I have a responsibility to you--especially you backers who brought Scythe to life--to bookend the world of Scythe."

"That's why we've decided that the third expansion to Scythe will be the final expansion. It likely won't be the final product, as we have a few other things in the works and some possible games set in the Scythe world. But we'll be concluding the Scythe story in the third expansion."

"The only details I've released about the third expansion are (a) that the box is the size of the first two expansion boxes put together and (b) we'll be announcing the name and box art in our January 1 e-newsletter."

"However, today I'm going to drop a small teaser for you. The illustration below is from The Wind Gambit, but it features a hint of things to come in the third expansion."

Art from the expansion The Wind Gambit

Now lets look inside The Wind Gambit.