[imageid=9444567 medium rep]▪️ Repos Production just released their new title Spooky Tower. With the attractive price point of $25 and the quick-playtime of 15 minutes, it seems like a risk worth taking. Here is the game description from the publisher:
Spooky Tower: The ghost hunt is on!
Ghosts have taken over the city! The only way to trap them is to capture them on camera… or to restore the protective amulet of the clock tower! With Spooky Tower, Repos Production takes a playful dive into pop culture. This new clever family game combines dice rolling, risk-taking, and tactical decision-making in a fast-paced and highly replayable format.
Designed by Jonathan Favre-Godal (Who Did It?) and Corentin Lebrat (Draftosaurus, Faraway…), and illustrated byApolline Etienne (Living Forest), Spooky Tower thrives on surprise and suspense. Which location will you explore on your turn? With no unnecessary complexity, Spooky Tower focuses on quick turns, immediate readability, appealing and functional components, and strong indirect interaction through racing mechanics. It's “spooky fun” universe, brought to life by Apolline Etienne, creates an immersive atmosphere — without ever being scary!
▪️ For the Flip-and-Write fans out there, Spyworld was just released! From Don't Panic Games, this game plays simultaneously, so really any number of players can play in about 30 minutes. Don't you want to rule the world and build the best spy lair around? From the publisher:
Spyworld is a simultaneous-play flip-and-write where players build their spy lair, set traps, recruit sentries, and then send their agent to infiltrate opponents - all on the same turn. The Exploration Phase is unlike anything else in the category right now, and players notice it immediately.
▪️ New from The Op Games a small box card game called Frenzy Falls. If you enjoy a bit of frenzy and chaos in your quick card game, then look no further. You and your opponents will attempt to seize control over the different lines in the falls. If you don't win the majority of the row, no worries, you will get to spill down to the next row to try and capture that row instead. You have to look out for those special action cards that will pull and bump you from positions you probably don't want to move from. A great family game for 2-6 players, playing in 30-45 minutes.
▪️ Did someone saySimilo? OH, HELLO! Similo: Wonders was just announced from Horrible Guild. My collection of Similo is ever-growing because they keep making new editions. If you aren't familiar with Similo, it is a quick cooperative deduction game. There is one correct card in the display, and the clue-giver needs to provide clues so you don't knock out that correct card. You can mix and match sets, so having just one more set is always a good thing. We can look for this new deck in July.
From the publisher:
This deck brings together 36 iconic monuments and architectural marvels from around the globe, from ancient wonders to modern landmarks, all illustrated in Naiade’s unmistakable style.
Osprey Games, the UK publisher of tabletop titles including the critically acclaimed Undaunted series, is shutting down its board and card games operation to refocus on wargames and RPGs.
A statement from the company said Osprey’s owner, the multinational book giant Bloomsbury Publishing, had made the “difficult decision” to sell the board and card game line as part of a “strategic refocusing” on book publishing, adding that the move was “not a decision taken lightly”.
The company said it would not commission any new board or card games, but would continue to release, sell and license upcoming games according to its existing schedules while Bloomsbury hunts for a new owner for its board games.
BoardGameWire understands from two sources that Bloomsbury hopes to find a buyer willing take on the existing board and card game team in addition to its catalogue of titles, but the firm is yet to publicly comment on the sale process.
Osprey Games was launched in 2015 as part of Bloomsbury arm Osprey Publishing, which had a decades-long history of creating military and historical information and reference books before beginning to publish wargaming rulebooks in 2008.
The gaming arm’s early successes included Peer Sylvester’s The King is Dead and The Lost Expedition, as well as popular titles such as Hal Duncan and Ruth Veevers’ design Cryptid and the second edition of Martin Wallace’s London.
Those releases were followed by the high-profile success of the Undaunted series of deckbuilding wargames from David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin and the Imperiumgames from Nigel Buckle and Dávid Turczi.
Osprey also gained a reputation for taking chances on a range of titles with intriguing mechanisms and designs, such as Sylvester’s area control and trick-taking hybrid Brian Boru, highly asymmetric area control title Crescent Moon, card-based strategic wargame Battalion: War of the Ancients and small-box, quick-playing conflict title General Orders: World War II.
Undaunted: Normandy, designed by David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin
Speaking to BoardGameWire, Sylvester said the sale news had come as “a bit of a bombshell”, adding that he wasn’t aware of any problems at Osprey which pointed to a possible sale.
He said, “I dont think the decision has anything to do with how the games have sold. From what I see, there are some strong titles, like The King is Dead (which is still selling well), Undaunted, and apparently also Lost Expedition. So it’s a decision made from the parent-parent-company at Bloomsbury.
“Working with Osprey was perhaps the defining moment of my ‘career’ as a game designer. First: they always had great developers there, which was fun to work with. Brian Boru wouldn’t be as good as it (hopefully) is without the team at Osprey.
“Also, Lost Expedition was turned into a hit partly because of the great idea to hire [comics creator and illustrator] Garen Ewing. So they elevated my games, but they also published them in the first place, which helped me getting a name and contact in the industry.
“I really don’t know if I would continue working on games as much as I did, if I wouldn’t have worked with them. So I owe them a lot.
“The news of the potential sale therefore makes me quite sad. I just hope the team keeps being around in some form, so I can keep working with them.”
David Thompson, the co-designer of the Undaunted series and fellow Osprey titles War Story: Occupied France, Line of Fire: Burnt Moon and the General Orders games, told BoardGameWire, “I’ve worked with Osprey for the last 14 years. Over that time, they’ve grown to be like a family to me.
“It was over a decade ago that Duncan Molloy, then the lead of the Osprey Games board game division, took a chance on a fledgling designer and signed what would eventually go on to be Undaunted: Normandy. Over the next decade I had the opportunity to collaborate with Duncan, Filip Hartelius, Anthony Howgego, Jordan Wheeler, Rhys Ap Gwyn, and Luke Evison on the editorial staff.
“Each and every one of them are incredibly talented people, and it was through their shepherding that games like the Undaunted series, General Orders, and War Stories: Occupied France came to be. And I would be remiss if I did not mention Emily Neat, Pete Ward, Benji Corless, Benjamin Thorne, and George Barker from the marketing staff and Gareth Clarke for his graphic design.
“Amazing people, each and every one. Over the years I’ve partnered with about 15 board game publishers, but the folks at Osprey will always hold a special, unique place in my heart.”
Fellow board game designer Ellie Dix, whose tapestry-themed worker placement design Threaded could prove one of the last published by Osprey Games, said she also did not know what had provoked the decision.
Ellie Dix design Threaded, published by Osprey Games
Dix told BoardGameWire, “I’ve loved working with Osprey. They’ve been absolutely brilliant. Honestly a dream to work with. They’ve taken so much care with Threaded and done such a great job to bring it to life. I’m very sad about the decision to sell.”
The news comes a month after Bloomsbury, which has a stock market valuation of almost £500m, announced it was “streamlining its structure for further growth”, which included a reorganisation of the company’s editorial divisions and the loss of about 55 jobs.
That restructuring follows Bloomsbury’s sales doubling from £185m to £361m over the last five financial years, with profits more than doubling to £48.8m in the same time.
No mention of Osprey was made in the restructuring announcement, or in Bloomsbury’s interim results announced in October last year, which revealed revenues of £160m and profits of £24m in the six months to August 2025.
Whoever walked away from a hand of trick-taking and thought, “Hey, you know what would make this better, is if we had to guess how many tricks we would win beforehand,” has my eternal gratitude. I like to think bidding came about as a party trick. “Françoise is really good at tarot, I bet he can guess exactly how many tricks he’ll win. Guess, Françoise, guess.”
However bidding started, it has long been a cornerstone of trick-taking, and is reliably my favorite way to engage with the mechanic. Card games are inherently subject to tremendous amounts of luck, of course, but bidding shifts the balance a bit closer to skill. More skill means more agency. More agency means more investment. More investment means more fun for everyone.
Torchlit is, above all, a bidding game, though it’s a strange one. The deck is dealt out, and every player chooses a card from their hand to put face-down on the table in front of them. The numbers on those cards, which run from 0-7, correspond to a series of dungeon door tiles placed out in the center of the table in numerical order. Whichever card you put down, the matching door is where you want to end up by the end of the hand.
I’ve organized my fair share of group theater excursions, and I’ve always selected a block of seats either in a single row or back-to-back across two rows. How basic of me. Of course, I’ve never had to worry about packing a theater for a world premiere, ensuring celebrities are surrounded by enthusiastic fans, and convincing […]
One of my favorite wars to game is that of the Vietnam War. Part of that is because I was born in the early 1970’s and heard a lot about this war for the rest of that decade and throughout my teenage years. I remember watching the short lived television series Tour of Duty. I also read the graphic novel series The ‘Nam from Marvel Comics. But, my interest really grew after watching movies such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon. I always asked myself, how are you expected to fight a war where you don’t know who the enemy is? But also part of the attraction for me is that the war in anything but conventional. The combatants were diametrically different, the powerful and well funded United States of America and their technology and special forces versus the Viet Cong, a rag tag group of insurgents, and the mighty North Vietnamese Army funded and supported by the Chinese. This war also was set amongst the backdrop of social upheaval and cultural change at home with anti-war protests, freedom for all being sung as a marching song and desegregation and civil rights taking center stage. We have played plenty of games set in this conflict and I want to share my Best 3 Games with…Vietnam!
3. Hearts & Minds: Vietnam 1965-1975 from Worthington Publishing
We really enjoy Card Driven Games and try to play as many of them as we possibly can get our hands on. Also, as I said in the intro, we also enjoy Vietnam wargames. So, when we had a chance to play a CDG on the Vietnam War, it was a no brainer! I got this game for Christmas about 6 years ago and it was a used copy of the 1st Edition published by Worthington Publishing. There is a 2nd Edition out there but I really don’t know what the differences are. Since that time, there also is a new 3rd Edition from Compass Games and it looks really good. But that is neither here nor there.
In Hearts and Minds: Vietnam 1965-1975, players will play as either the US/ARVN forces (with some units from NATO as well as ROK) against the Communist forces which include NVA regulars and VC hidden units. The game has multiple scenarios and covers the entirety of the Vietnam War from 1965 all the way through 1975 as the U.S. forces left and only the ARVN remained to attempt to stem the red tide coming down into South Vietnam.
The ROK unit in Quang Ngai successfully Pacifies the province, placing a blue star marker that will factor in end round calculations for the dreaded Political Will Track.
Players have a hand of 5 cards each round from which they will play 4 that provide Resource Points to perform various actions including activating units to move up to their movement allowance, attacking enemy units, doing bombing missions, pacifying areas or forcing a political change. Each faction has their own deck, the Communist deck is red, the Allies is blue and then there are black cards that are neutral. Players will make their decks from their color and mix in half of the black cards. These cards represent the meat of the game and are the vehicle to make the game progress. The Resource Points are spent to perform the actions mentioned above and also can be used to buy the printed event on the card just played. Sometimes this event will have lasting effects for the entire game, such as the Commando Hunt card that allows Bomber missions to target Laotian border provinces and also allows more than 1 bomber to bomb any given province, or will have a one time effect such as Junction City, that allow you to spend more than one saved Resource Point in a given turn as long as all Battle and Political Control Change actions take place in Zone III. These cards are well done and the game boils down to the efficient use of the hand that you are dealt. Sometimes, you will be given cards with high RP’s of 4 or 5, which will allow you to make a lot of progress with various actions including moving forces, battling the opposition and making political changes. But, there will be times when your draws are not great and you have a hand full of low value RP cards but they might have interesting and very useful events that you must take advantage of. In essence, you have to play the cards you are dealt and make the best go of things. This can be both fun and frustrating but always keeps things interesting and requires that you plan and execute on that plan.
Battle is pretty simple as well as all the counters are pretty much the same for both sides. Each counter has an untried side and a veteran side (with either a 1-6 or 2-6 for ARVN and US troops or a 1-4 or 2-4 for NVA and typically a 1-1 for VC units) and then there are support units such as mortars, artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships. When a players units are located in a province with enemy units, a contested area is created where the players can fight by buying a battle round for the cost of 1 RP. If the battle doesn’t conclude, another battle round can be purchased with an additional RP until the player no longer has RP’s. Units in a province simply total up their battle factors (located in the bottom left corner of the counters), roll a die and consult their specific faction’s Battle Table. The results are the damage that must be applied and fire is considered simultaneous. The results include a specific number of units that must be eliminated but also sometimes has a capital R that means the player must either lose one unit or pay a saved RP. The blue table is slightly better than the red table, but not by much.
The really neat part about the battles is that units can evade before the battle starts with a roll, which becomes more difficult in certain terrain types and also has negative results for even attempting, such as the loss of a unit. This part can be very frustrating for the Allied player as he has finally corned the wily NVA and VC and they then slip right through his fingers with a favorable roll.
How does the game end? Well, players will be fighting each other for control of provinces and for casualties that will affect the will of the fighting powers and adjust the Political Will Track. This track factors in how each side feels about the war and their attitude to continued hostilities. Each scenario has a set level for an immediate victory, which frankly will never happen, and an end scenario number, which is more reachable. The Political Will Track really sums up the game for me and the feelings that many had about the Vietnam War. It seemed that escalation of bombing, more U.S. Troops on the ground and bloodshed didn’t equate to a victory. But simply meant the fighting would linger until one side or the other eventually would give in.
I recommend this game wholeheartedly for anyone that likes CDG’s and for anyone that is interested in a holistic approach and treatment of the Vietnam War. My only negative about this game is that it appears to be very hard for the Communists to win. That is probably an assessment after only one play as we both really didn’t know what we were doing but it is a concern of mine that I would like to see in future plays. It just felt very difficult to do anything that was meaningful with the resources they have and they are also outclassed in combat so that is a concern as battle is a big part of the game. Still a very solid representation of the Vietnam War and frankly a very interesting design by John Poniske.
2. Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam from GMT Games
The COIN Series uses cards in a very different way from other CDG’s. These cards are not necessarily the driver of the action but more assistive to the actions of the players by setting eligibility and also providing powerful events. The Event Cards are more often than not, very powerful. They either give you a continuing bonus on future Operations and Special Activities (as in the case of the volumes that include the various Capabilities) or allow you to take Operations and Special Activities more times that round than you would normally have been able to had you not chosen the Event and more often than not, at no cost! Also, because of the power of the cards and their ties to one or more factions, you can take the Event which allows you a huge advantage, only to see that very powerful Event reversed with the next Event or with a regular Operation. This is very frustrating but is one of the major reasons that I love the card-assisted element of the COIN Series.
Fire in the Lake from GMT Games just really sums up the the Vietnam War experience to me and Volko’s magnum opus is Fire in the Lake, without a doubt, as it attempts to answer the question of who the enemy is and does a fantastic job. Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam is Volume IV of the COIN Series and teams up two amazing designers in Volko and Mark Herman. The game is an asymmetric treatment of the Vietnam War and pits four players against each other, as even allies want to win the war, but win it in their way. The US Player has control of lots of powerful forces that can utilize Air Lift, Assaults and Sweeps to drive the insurgent guerilla forces of the Viet Cong and NVA back into the jungles but the VC and NVA have tools at their disposal to evade these heavy handed tactics such as tunneled bases, the terrain itself including jungles, rivers and mountains, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The US Player must also watch his own back as his ally, the ARVN, is more interested in patronage and lining their pockets with US dollars than necessarily winning the war through brute force. This game design takes into account all of the difficulties with this quagmire of a war and time, and through the cards used to assist the game moving forward, inserts key events such as drug use, protests at home, booby traps and the Tet Offensive.
The US forces are on the move to try to eradicate the VC stronghold in Tay Ninh province, which will not be an easy task as that tunneled VC base is really hard to kill.
If you haven’t played Fire in the Lake, please do yourself a favor, and do so. It is an exquisite experience that will test you on so many levels and leave you exhausted at the end of the effort while yearning for more. But, don’t go into it thinking it will be easy as it will not be and is sure to have you pulling your hair out as you attempt to win this war. Great theme. Great game play. High quality components and a well thought out design. To get a little more insight into why this game is so great, please read my article on Why I find the COIN Series to be Fantastic! I use several examples of the game play from Fire in the Lake to prove my point.
1. Silver Bayonet: The First Team in Vietnam, 1965 from GMT Games
I own and have read the book We Were Soldiers Once..and Young by Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and was fascinated by the story he told of his brave soldiers who fought the first major battle of the Vietnam War. How they went into the Ia Drang Valley and ran into nearly 2,500 NVA regulars who were spoiling for a fight and who outnumbered them 2.5/1 and how that fight lasted 5 days from November 14th through November 18th. I was also amazed at the new tactics used by the 7th Cavalry in using helicopters to jump from landing zone to landing zone to remain maneuverable enough to fight a conventional war that we were comfortable with against a non-conventional enemy in the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army who didn’t want to fight our way. When the new 25th Anniversary Edition of Silver Bayonet was announced I was excited to experience this war and was glad when my friend Alexander P500’ed the game and we got a chance to play it.
So, this isn’t some monster game that covers the whole of the Vietnam conflict, but covers the entirety of the Silver Bayonet campaign. The initial landings of the 1st Cavalry Division are just 1 of 11 or 12 scenarios/campaign games included in the box. It covers 4 days and uses a handful of units in brutal close assaults.
NVA troops try to surround Free World Alliance forces and use numbers to overwhelm them.
Something that I was pleasantly surprised about was that a good number of the scenarios can be played solitaire because most of them don’t involve using the hidden aspects of the game (NVA hidden movement, US secret helicopter basing and staging, etc.). The complexity of the rules, and sub rules, as well as all of the different phases means that the game is very cerebral. There’s a lot to consider, and units/combats might not function in ways that you’re used to in other games. With one stack attacking another you are very unlikely to wipe the other player out. The CRT just isn’t built for that. If you use maneuver combat then the NVA will flee to the hills and then just come back at you. However, NVA assaulting American troops is also deadly, because in assaults the defender inflicts hits first. We found ourselves often in bloody stalemates, with the Americans just barely hanging on for dear life. The US had access to big artillery pieces as well as many points of airstrikes, which learned through hard experience need to be stacked all together in precision strikes in order to do any kind of damage. All of these things lead to just a fascinating, and in my opinion, extremely accurate representation of the type of combat, fought on the jungled hills of South Vietnam. This game felt real and as we played we could really begin to get into the narrative of the situation and even in some small manner, feel the same frustration and disappointment that the US must have felt in fighting an un-fightable enemy! For that alone, I am extremely impressed and cannot wait to play more and just explore the depth that the rest of the scenarios have to offer.
If you can’t tell, I love this game. It’s deep, rich, and flavorful, just like a good curry. There’s volume in the box, so much stuff to play with. The components are unbelievably good value. Something that didn’t feel too great was the importance of the coordination rolls. The NVA would have handed the US their ass early on day 3 if they hadn’t utterly failed this coordination roll. In failing, they were unable to attack with their best stacks that had been meticulously moved into position for the final assault to take LZ X-Ray. And while I understand what it represents, which is is great, but it seemed very ‘swingy’, because it happened on several of my activations during our plays. Coordinating the amount of NVA troops commanded in the jungles whilst being bombarded day and night isn’t an easy thing to do, but that it boiled down to a single d10 roll felt like a little bit of a let down. I might be house ruling a 2d6 method to make that roll less randomly distributed. I also get that over the course of a full campaign those kind of things would have evened themselves out, but in a short scenario like that it kind of felt like bad luck. That being said: It’s still a good model for the command situation, so there is that. Just maybe find a way to be less random?
Well, those are my 3 favorite games focused on the Vietnam War. I have played several others but feel that these 3 best demonstrate what it is like to be in an unwinnable and unmanageable situation that quickly spirals out of your control. What are your favorite Vietnam War games?
As an added bonus, here are links to a few Vietnam related posts that I did during the pandemic on the Music of the Vietnam War:
Post Publishing Edit: I was asked why Purple Haze from PHALANX didn’t make the list and here was my response:
Oh no. It was amazing. We absolutely love the theme and the feel of that game. Fantastic representation of the Vietnam War. Warfighter Vietnam from DVG is also very good.
A few other smaller games I have played and liked on the subject was Fortunate Sons from High Flying Dice Games, Long Cruel Woman from High Flying Dice Games and Dien Ben Phu from Legion Wargames (although not the US war in Vietnam but a great game). Just only wanted to spotlight 3. -Grant
Root publisher Leder Games has unveiled four new hires as it continues to rebuild from a staff exodus earlier this year that included star designer Cole Wehrle and style-defining artist Kyle Ferrin.
The Minnesota-based publisher has brought in experienced operations director Johnny Dale as executive director, who will take on responsibility for day-to-day operations, and former Trick or Treat Studios graphic and production designer Jody Henning as senior graphic designer.
Jesse Wertz, who previously worked in operations and finance in the software and banking sectors, has been brought in as director of operations, while Adam Jury has been hired as a graphic designer.
Leder agreed to sell Arcs and Oath to Buried Giant as part of the shake-up, while keeping hold of its huge-selling star title Root – a game which despite its complexity has broken out of the hobby game bubble and onto the shelves of major retailers such as Walmart and Target.
Kyle Ferrin artwork for Root
Other Leder staff who moved across to Buried Giant included Josh Yearsley, who designed the most recent Root expansion Homeland, senior graphic designer Pati Hyun, event coordinator and community manager Matt Martens and graphic designer Megan Ganey.
That left Leder with a design and development team comprising company founder Patrick Leder – the co-creator of its debut release Vast: The Crystal Caverns and co-designer of multiple Root expansions – Nick Brachmann, who has worked on expansions for Root, Ahoy and Fort, and solo game design specialist Liz Davidson.
Leder named Davidson as the company’s new creative director in February, while former customer support coordinator Andrea Francisco has become a junior game developer at the studio, and Alita Robertson has been promoted from production assistant to producer. The company also brought in Tyler Exsted as a game developer two months ago.
New Leder executive director Dale has had a long career in director roles across advertising, media and pharmaceutical companies – and has also spent many years running the popular Eize Basa social media account, in which he jokes about board gaming and other subjects.
Dale initially announced he had been hired by Leder on his Eize Basa BlueSky account on April 1, which given the nature of the account was widely laughed off as an April Fool’s Day prank.
Speaking of Dale’s hire, Patrick Leder told BoardGameWire, “Bringing Johnny on as executive director is a perfect fit. He’s spent his career building and leading teams like ours, he’s passionate about board games, and anyone who knows him knows how creative he is.
Leder Games founder Patrick Leder
“Johnny has been a friend of Leder Games for almost ten years now, so having him join the team feels completely natural for me, Liz, and the rest of the team.
“For me personally, having Johnny take over day-to-day operations will be a huge benefit: it means I get to spend more of my time doing what I love most, which is designing games.”
Dale added, “I’ve been a fan of Leder Games for a long time, so stepping into this role is a huge honor. I bring nearly 20 years of experience leading creative teams, and I look forward to putting that to work alongside Patrick and this group.
“We have a great pipeline of games in development, and I think players are going to be very excited about what’s coming.”
Some of those in-development games were recently showcased by Leder on its YouTube channel, with Alita Robertson showing off backyard soapbox racing game Kart, and Nick Brachmann demonstrating a prototype of a Taylor Shuss dexterity-based mech and monster battle design with the working title Creature Control.
In the same video Patrick Leder revealed he had been working on a lightly-asymmetric economic euro game called Fish based around catching, canning and delivering fish, which he said might be renamed to Trawl – something which would break a long tradition of Leder games all having four-letter titles.
Catan Zip! Designer: Klaus Teuber Publisher: Catan Studio Players: 3-4 Age: 10+ Time: 60 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4tVMLCs Played with review copy provided by publisher Welcome to the unexplored island of Catan! As you and your fellow … Continue reading →
I was interviewed by Dan of Monkey Plays at the Asian Board Games Festival in Manila. The full video (mostly English, some Tagalog) was her experience at the fair, and other designers were interviewed too. The video also shows Pinocchio being played. Link: https://youtu.be/WJ1WzEpplpw?si=VShCuwwhvFwZk8VH&t=667
Paul Bender and Christopher Badell, who launched the business in 2011 alongside Adam Rebottaro, said they have reacquired the brand and the rights for the Sentinels of the Multiverse titles alongside their other original IP such as the Sentinel Comics RPG.
The deal comes just under a month after Flat River Group sold the Greater than Games brand name and the Sentinels range to digital developer Handelabra Games, which had spent more than a decade creating digital versions of the Sentinels of the Multiverse and its expansions – as well as for Greater than Games’ best known release, Spirit Island.
Two new titles have been announced by the company slated for a summer release, in the form of Badell-designed party game Digital Detox and social deduction title Crime Scene Tamperer, from Homestar Runner creators Mike and Matt Chapman.
Greater than Games co-founder Christopher Badell || Photo credit: Greater than Games
Badell, GtG’s chief creative officer, added on the livestream that the publisher is “in the development process on a high-single-digit number of games right now”, while creative director Matthew Kroll added that the company has two “heavy hobby games in the pipeline” – one co-operative, one competitive.
Bender added on the livestream that Bottom of the Ninth designer Darrell Louder had recovered the rights to the game, which had previously been published by Dice Hate Me and GtG, “and would like us to publish it again, so we’re excited to do that”.
The relaunched company’s five-strong team comprises Greater than Games veterans SaRae Henderson as art director and chief operating officer Katie Nale, in addition to Badell, Bender and Kroll.
GtG’s third co-founder Adam Rebottaro, the original artist and co-creator of Sentinel Comics, has also rejoined as a “creative collaborator”, the publisher added, “helping to shape the next generation of Sentinel Comics releases alongside Badell”.
That will see the pair working together on new content in the Sentinels range, beginning with reprints of all existing definitive edition products for Sentinels of the Multiverse and then moving on to a new expansion, which is expected to come to crowdfunding in 2027.
Badell said in a press release announcing the GtG revival, “A year ago, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to come back to this. Sentinel Comics has been the defining creative work of my life – fifteen years of stories, characters, and worlds I love – and watching it become uncertain was genuinely painful.
“So when I say this feels like coming home, I mean it. I’m back in the Multiverse. We all are. And we’re just getting started.”
Greater than Games co-founder Paul Bender || Photo credit: Greater than Games
Bender added, “Greater Than Games has always been about more than just publishing games — it’s about building experiences and communities.
“Over the years, the brand has grown and evolved, but its heart has always been with the people who create and play these games. Being able to steward that again is both a responsibility and a privilege.
“We’re excited to reconnect with our community and continue building something special.”
Greater than Games is also set to return to Gen Con this year, the publisher added, underscoring its rejuvenation as a business with a booth in the Entrepreneurs Avenue segment of Hall G – an area dedicated to companies making their debut at the event.
Flat River Group, a distribution and e-commerce specialist, had bought Greater than Games in 2021 after picking up private equity investment from Guardian Capital Partners a year earlier.
It followed that expansion into board game publishing with further deals for Canadian publisher Synapses Games and hobby game distributor Luma Imports in 2022.
Close your eyes and imagine the United States of America on the verge of collapse. Greed, selfishness, and dark deeds are running rampant. Now, open your eyes and experience it firsthand. Cthulhu Dark Providence harkens back to the post-Great Depression era of the US and adds in a sinister twist—great old ones. In this game, […]
Oh, there is something deliciously slimy—smarmy, even—about the game Pax Illuminaten, designed by Oliver Kiley. (BGG says that Pax Illuminaten is based on Kiley’s earlier title Emissary, a game I have not played.)
One pass of the rulebook for Pax Illuminaten had me very excited. I’m not a dedicated scholar of Pax games, having only played Pax Pamir Second Edition (although Pax Hispanica, Pax Emancipation and Pax Porfiriana are currently on deck here at Casa de Bell). I HAVE played Pax Viking Junior, although I am sure a purist would not count that one.
But the core Pax system of historical, card-driven play with multiple end-game conditions and a closed economy is on full display with Pax Illuminaten, and I was further excited by the relatively straightforward rules and a playtime listed as 20-30 minutes per player.
A Pax game, in about 90 minutes? Sold, I said out loud to no one after that rules readthrough.
Then I got the game to the table…and I was mostly impressed. Pax Illuminaten is for a certain kind of player, especially one who likes to understand what is mostly possible in a strategy game, with ample space for a few surprises and a boatload of secondary actions.
Co-op designs The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship and Vantage put in a powerful showing in this year’s Golden Geek Awards, winning five categories between them and scoring another five runner-up successes.
Pandemic creator Matt Leacock’s spin-off creation The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship took home the awards for medium game of the year, best thematic game and best co-op at the 20th annual Golden Geeks, which are selected and voted on by BoardGameGeek users from games released in the prior year.
Co-op open-world exploration game Vantage, designed by Scythe and Viticulture creator Jamey Stegmaier, won the innovative game prize and best solo game awards, while Jon Perry’s chaotic mascot racer Hot Streak triumphed in the best party game and light game of the year categories.
Jamey Stegmaier’s design Vantage, from Stonemaier Games
The much sought after heavy game of the year title went to Galactic Cruise, while The Old King’s Crown secured the artwork and presentation award, Toy Battle took best 2-player game and Star Wars: Battle of Hoth best wargame.
All of those Lord of the Rings titles were published by studios at board game giant Asmodee – which last October announced it had been named manager of the hugely lucrative Middle-earth licence for tabletop games and accessories.
Fate of the Fellowship winning the co-op award marked the second year running that a Lord of the Rings game has triumphed in the category, after Bryan Bornmueller’s The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game took home the prize in 2025.
Despite the high-profile successes of two co-operative titles in this year’s Golden Geeks, the results were less positive for co-op fantasy adventuring game Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread – which failed to convert any of its six nominations into wins or runner-up placings.
Sci-fi and space-themed games were notably everywhere again across this year’s awards, continuing a trend from 2025 which ended in multiple wins for Arcs and SETI.
Speaking about Vantage’s multiple wins and nominations, designer Jamey Stegmaier – who spent about eight years designing and playtesting the title – told BoardGameWire, “I’m just happy for the opportunity to bring a little joy to people through our games, and I’m honored that my labor of love, Vantage, was able to do that for the people who selected it for the Golden Geek Awards.”
Fate of the Fellowship creator Matt Leacock said, “Designing The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship was such a rewarding experience for me. I’m so pleased that players are continuing to enjoy it and using it to write their own stories with each other.
“So many things came together with this product: the creative direction, development, illustration, paper engineering, graphic design, sculpting, and marketing. I want to extend my congratulations to the entire team that brought it to life.”
The 20th Annual Golden Geek Awards results in full:
With this My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.
#77: Schmalkaldic League from Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation, 1517-1555 from GMT Games
Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation 1517-1555 is an experience packaged in a game that attempts to boldly cover the political and religious conflicts of early 16th Century Europe. The game focuses on the struggle of religious reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli as they battle the Papacy for changes in their views of God and religion. But it is more than just the Holy War as it deals with the other European countries involved in the affairs of the time including France, England, the mighty Hapsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire in the east. They all played a role in the process of the Reformation and the design brilliantly weaves this all together into an interesting and engaging experience. The game also covers other plot lines and events of the period, including wars, marriages and ascendancies to thrones, using a unique Card Driven Game (CDG) system that models both the political and religious conflicts of the period.
Today, I want to take a look at a very interesting Mandatory Event card that really shakes things up for the Protestant player in the Schmalkaldic League. This Mandatory Event basically transforms the Protestant player and changes their focus slightly as they now become somewhat of a military power. I use the term “military power” here lightly as they really are not that powerful and this event is really more of a wet blanket thrown onto their spiritual bonfire as they now will have to worry about gearing up for attacks from their neighbors to try and take away their victory points through wresting control of their Electorates from them, which grant extra Victory Points. The Schmalkaldic League Mandatory Event is only triggered when the Protestant has religious influence in 12+ spaces from Turn 2 on, or if not, then automatically by the end of Turn 4.
The Protestant player gaining the ability to create and command military units, including both regulars and mercenaries, is somewhat of a boon as you can now move your troops around the board gaining additional dice for Conversion attempts if those units are adjacent and also the electorates under Protestant religious control, specifically those marked as Protestant home spaces, instantly come under Protestant political control and grant 2 VP for each Electorate up to a maximum of 12 VP total if all 6 are under control. Talk about a turning point…albeit a turning point with some difficulties. The leaders granted to the Protestants are also not very good and do not gain extra dice during combat and frankly cannot command large armies. These leaders include John Frederick and Philip of Hesse.
John Frederick I of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Younger.
Frankly, I try my best to hope and pray that the Schmalkaldic League card doesn’t come out during the first 4 turns and then will be triggered only during the Winter Phase of Turn 4. This gives the Protestant player some time to expand and attempt to get all of those important VP generating Electorates under their control to set themselves up nicely. But once it happens you will find that you are spending your scarce resources in the form of Command Points on things like recruiting units, moving those units and preparing for attacks. This takes away from your ability to focus solely on spreading the faith and can be a real drag on that effort. But, you take the good with the bad in this game and I have learned to deal with it over the years and turn it into something that benefits me.
The Schmalkaldic League was a military alliance of Lutheran principalities and cities within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. It received its name from the German town of Schmalkalden, where the group was founded in 1531. Although created for religious motives soon after the start of the Reformation, its members later came to have the intention that the League would replace the Holy Roman Empire as their focus of political allegiance. While it was not the first alliance of its kind, unlike previous formations, such as the League of Torgau, the Schmalkaldic League had a substantial military to defend its political and religious interests.
The League’s members agreed to provide 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry for their mutual protection. They rarely provoked the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V directly but confiscated church land, expelled bishops and Catholic princes and helped spread Lutheranism throughout northern Germany.
Martin Luther planned to present to the League the Smalcald Articles, a stricter Protestant confession, during a meeting in 1537. He attended the critical meeting in 1537 but spent most of his time suffering from kidney stones. The rulers and princes even met in the home at which Luther was staying. Though Luther was asked to prepare the articles of faith that came to be known as the Smalcald Articles, they were not formally adopted at the time of the meeting, but in 1580, they were included in the Book of Concord.
Throughout human history, stories have been a way for people to share the concerns and ideas of their time. I think we can all agree that books and films are often shaped by the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they were created, whether deliberately or not. Readers and viewers will usually be able to see reflections of real-world anxieties, hopes, and tensions within them. Board games, while also being a form of entertainment, alongside books and films, work differently. In this article, I want to look at whether they still reflect the times in which they were designed.
PLAY – The Game Festival, the international event dedicated to Board-Games, Role-playing Games, Miniatures Games, Live, and Collectible Card Games returns from May 22nd to 24th at Bologna Fiere with more than 40.000 square meters of covered area in five different … Continue reading →
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