2017 Games That Excite Us! Part 1
Earlier this month Laura & Brian went to the GAMA Trade Show, the industry show where game manufacturers let us retailers know what’s up and coming over the next year. We are really excited about a bunch of new games! In Part 1, we’ll talk about strategy games.
Element – Rather Dashing Games
Fire, water, earth, wind — these four elements have driven mankind’s mythology, philosophy and science for eons. Now, master the power of these primal forces in this abstract game of capture and area control.
We previewed this game and not only is it high strategy a-la Onitama, but it’s the same designer – Mike Richie! The pieces are heavy resin and the sculpts are great. I can’t wait to actually play this one. And… it’s in stock right now!
Pandemic Legacy Season 2 – Z-Man Games
We can’t wait for Season 2! It’s 71 years later and things are still super bad! It HAS to be great!
Shadowrun Zero Day – Catalyst Game Labs
This new Shadowrun card game looks really cool! You are the contagion. You are the fear. You are the thing that makes the megacorporations of the world tremble. In the world of Shadowrun, the corps think they have everyone and everything under their thumb, but they don’t have you – the hacker in the Matrix, the fly in the ointment.
You know where the world’s deepest secrets are buried, and you have the weapons needed to fight to bring them out.
Wasteland Express – Pandasaurus Games
In Wasteland Express Delivery Service, you take on the role of drivers inhabiting a post-apocalyptic wasteland riddled with outrageous, unhinged, and otherworldly characters who are set on unleashing mayhem at every turn. We loved the graphics (think Borderland video game type graphics), the very cool bits (little trucks with commodities you put in the back), and are fans of pickup and delivery games (e.g. Firefly), especially when there is some chaos involved!
Valletta – Stefan Dorra; Z-Man Games
Valletta is a classic big-box Euro-style game from Z-Man Games scheduled to come out very soon. It looks very fun!
In 1566, Jean Parisot de Valette, 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, laid the foundation for Valletta, the future capital of Malta.
In Valletta, players take inspiration from Jean Parisot de Valette in order to procure raw materials; hire merchants, bricklayers and roofers; and build their own version of the magnificent capital, with its mighty bastions, baroque buildings, and a right-angled street network. Cultivate your contacts with the Order of Malta to improve your reputation.
Players are supervised in their work by de Valette, who patrols his streets as a building inspector. When he reaches the end of his patrol, the game ends and a winner is determined.
Cottage Garden – Uwe Rosenberg
In Cottage Garden, you are a gardener competing to completely fill in your garden plots for points. This is one of Uwe Rosenberg’s (Agricola, Glass Road, Bohnanza) most approachable games. It’s got a 7.2 rating on boardgamegeek.com and the art is amazing. We got to touch and feel this one, but we didn’t get to play – yet! – but this one’s going in our personal library for sure.
Dead of Winter: Warring Colonies – Z-Man Games
Z-Man brings us another expansion for Dead of Winter in the 2nd half of 2017. I can’t imagine what this one is about (lol), but we know it will let you play both the previous base game versions together!
Voyages of Marco Polo – Z-Man Games
Is coming back this year!!!
Stay tuned for the next part of our GAMA report, and call Meeples Games at 206.535.7896 if you want to pre-order any of these games!
