Here’s some of the latest arrivals here at the cafe.
Fantasy Flight Games Archive
New Lord of the Rings Game From Fantasy Flight
Expanding upon their series of Lord of the Rings board games, publisher Fantasy Flight have announced the “Middle-Earth Quest” adventure game.
From the publisher:
Middle-earth quest is a game of adventure and conflict set in the time leading up to the creation of the Fellowship. One player will adopt to mantle of Sauron and do his best to spread his evil influence across the lands. Up to three players become heroes and will do their best to foil Sauron’s foul plots, and rally the peoples of Middle-earth to their side.
Set during the time of the Hunt for Gollem before Frodo leaves the Shire, this game promises more of an adventure game experience as opposed to the large army scale of “War of the Ring”.
While we’re big fans of Fantasy Flight’s, “War of the Ring” here at the cafe, we’re the first to admit that the rules and playing time are daunting. Let’s hope that Middle-Earth Quest can deliver the huge scale of Tolkein’s work without the huge rulebook to go with it.
Innsmouth Horror Expansion Announced
Fantasy Flight Games has announced Innsmouth Horror to be the latest expansion for their Arkham Horror franchise. Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s novel, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, this will be a big-box expansion, with16 new investigators, eight new Ancient Ones, over 30 new monsters and an expansion board featuring the town of Innsmouth.
Here’s a description for their web site:
Innsmouth Horror introduces several new game concepts to the Arkham Horror board game. Among these are the Personal Stories, a new way for each investigator to contribute. These will provide a bit more of the back story for each investigator, including the 16 new investigators found in the Innsmouth Expansion. Another new feature is the Innsmouth Look deck. These cards represent the dangers inherent in staying in the town of Innsmouth any longer than necessary, and can spell the end for an unwary investigator.
In Arkham Horror, players take the part of investigators discovering clues, fighting monsters and trying to close gates to other dimensions before Cthulhu or another of the Ancient Ones awakens. Arkham Horror is a cooperative game, in which players must work together to succeed. There are currently two large expansions and three smaller expansions for this game.
Read the announcement at this link.
Call Of Cthulhu Card Game Rises from the Depths
Fantasy Flight Games has recently revamped their venerable Call of Cthulhu The Card Game with a new 165 card boxed set. This game, along with A Game of Thrones The Card Game, has changed from being a collectible game to one based on expansions. This is part of the company’s move away from collectible games. At the end of last year, Fantasy Flight also changed their collectible miniatures game, Mutant Chronicles, from a random selection in each box to a fixed selection.
Box Cover
Michael Barnes, still holding his own against all the video game writers over at GameShark, gives an excellent overview of the game’s history as well as a review of the latest version:
“Now, here it is five years after the game’s initial release, and FFG is giving the game a new lease on un-life as part of their new “Living Card Game” initiative which also includes a revision of their popular GAME OF THRONES card game. The LCG idea is that a core set of cards- essentially a complete game for two players- is released and then supported by small expansion packs with fixed sets of cards. No random purchases, no boosters, no money sink—at least not in the same way as the classic “starters and boosters” distribution model.”
Cracked LCD 8.6: Call of Cthulhu: The Living Card Game Review
