Back From London

My wife and I just returned from London where we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. I also managed to meet up with Jackson Pope and play a little Sumeria! I found him to be a kindred spirit, and I really enjoyed the game. Sumeria, like all great games, forces you to think in a number of directions all at once. The art is beautiful and the production values are excellent. Be on the lookout for this new Reiver Games title at your FLGS soon!

P.S. - I also highly recommend the steak & ale pie!

Spring Gathering 2009

For those not in the know, Greg Smorey hosts an annual event for the Axis & Allies faithful. The Gathering is held in Cincinnati, but people come from all over to attend (one as far as Las Vegas). The new Anniversary Edition of A&A (known to cool people as AA50) got a lot of time at the table this year. Unfortunately, it looks like it might end up being too long of a game for regular tournament play (we'll see what the NEW new version looks like when it comes out this fall).

I had to come by myself this time, but my old buddy Tom J. volunteered to partner up. We faced off against veteran opponents Geoff and Steve. We gave them the Allies and five IPCs for the bid. Things went downhill for them from the start. The dice gods were not cooperative. Germany came at Russia with everything. The Allies chose to ignore Japan, to their ultimate peril. I was able to expand the co-prosperity sphere to a substantial size.

But things were not so easy. Five allied bombers reduced Germany to a crawl. Their invasion forces took up permanent residence in Paris. We lost the Luftwaffe in a successful, but ill-planned, naval operation. We were forced to retreat from Caucasus. Not good. Then . . . Germany and Italy held on. An Allied attack on Italy was just barely thwarted. Meanwhile, Japan started pushing massive numbers of tanks into Persia and India for the push north. After seven brutal hours, the Allies conceded their defeat.

Thanks for the game, guys! And props to Greg for another great SG event! Hope to see you all at Origins.

SJG: Where We're Going

Revolution! figures prominently on the back of the spring newsletter from SJG. You might notice something interesting about the game there, but I'm not supposed to mention anything about it. *Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more.*

To the Printer

I have been informed that Revolution! has been officially sent off to the printer! I have no idea how long this will end up taking, as I believe there will be a few proofs sent back and forth before the final job gets done. Then, they have to be shipped to various places. A June release seems possible. I also don't know how many will be printed for this initial run, but I did hear that the number has been increased based on positive reactions at the recent New York Toy Fair. Sounds like progress to me!

Amazing Article: Monopoly Killer

This Wired article is about Settlers of Catan, but it is jam-packed with information about Euro-games. I knew something big was happening when I saw Catan at Toys-R-Us last December. This article confirms it--Euro-games are on the way up in America. There is a very high tide heading our way--just the sort of thing to lift some of the smaller boats (e.g., Revolution!) as well.

BTW - this article also justifies my family's long-standing Monopoly rule about properties going up for auction if a player chooses not to buy it. Apparently, it cuts the play time in half.

(H/T - Purple Pawn)

Revolution! At New York Toy Fair

I just happened to see this post over at Phil Reed's blog. It seems to indicate that Revolution! went to New York last month. I had no idea. You can see a little bit of my game in this picture. Phil also mentions that they are now planning a larger release based on the positive response there. The only thing people didn't like was the cover, so that's being tweaked. I happen to like the cover, but we'll see how it turns out. One bit of disappointing news is that it looks like all this will push the release date back just a bit. I can't get any confirmation on that (probably because they don't know for sure themselves). Making board games is a complicated business. Delay is the rule, not the exception.

Interview with Eric Martin

Well, over email, that is. But he did post our "discussion" on BGN today. Just one more month to go until Revolution! makes it out into the world. Thanks for the preview, Eric!