Wizkids was back with their chimera of a booth showing off the latest in boardgames and miniatures.
Tales of the Arthurian Knights
A sequel to the narrative-driven Tales of the Arabian Nights, Arthurian Knights once again has players exploring a large world with story-based experiences mined from a 300+ page book of tales, lore, and encounters. Characters move about the map board, triggering events and encounters which are keyed off of a 4 digit code used as a reference in the lore book. Players can grow in stature and skill with four main attribute categories broken down into three sub-categories each. For example: Piety, Wisdom, and Magic are all in the same category. It can be a lengthy game, clocking in at around 45 minutes per player (it’s a 1-4 player game) but the game does allow for shorter games. The game typically lasts through 3 ages but can be played through just one or two. Look for this thematic, story-driven game to appear in shop sometime in November 2024.
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair is a solo or head-to-head game of starship exploration. I know of at least one member of the OpinionatedGamers will be excited to hear that my PR contact likened the game to Imperium: Classics. At the start of the game, each player is given a unique deck of cards, depending on their chosen captain: Jean-Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisko, Michael Burnham, Koloth, The Dahar Master, Sela, or Thy’lek Shran. Each captain has their own strengths and style of play. Players use their cards to manage resources, increase their captain’s skills (science, diplomacy, or combat), capture planets, and generally do all those things that Star Fleet captains are known to do. Look for this one in November 2024.
DC Super-Skill Pinball: Harley Quinn Ball
The newest entry in the excellent line of pinball-emulating roll-and-write boardgames is based around the DC Harley Quinn franchise. Once again there are four tables, playable by up to four players. Roll your dice and move your pinball token around the board, checking off locations as you go. Hit the flipper at the bottom and cross off the appropriate number to “flip” the ball up to the top of the board again. With multiball active, you have two tokens to manage – using the numbers on the two dice – one for each token. Standout tables include Suicide Squad where you attempt to fight Starro and the double-long The Joker Tower where your two game boards are placed together vertically to make a super long table you can traverse by hopping up to higher and higher flippers. The game released at Gen Con and should be in stores soon.
Trail Story: America
Trail Story: America a light storytelling game that has players exploring the American wilderness. As players move around the map, events are triggered (based on the location) and players collect physical “story” tokens (replacing them again when taken) hopefully using their accumulated resources to record them in their journals (a primary goal of the game). It is surprisingly more involved than I expected with players able to develop different areas on their player board. One of the options is to make camp. Other players can join you at your campsite but they must share a story first.
Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set
Wizkids is known for its miniatures and one of its newest games is based in the Star Trek universe. Based on starship combat the first release has players fighting it out between the Federation and Dominion.
Minis and plushies
Wizkids minis keep rolling in the tabletop RPG realm with a new set based around the 50th Anniversary of D&D. The set consists of 25 classic characters and creatures (like Strahd, etc…) but they appear in two versions – one reflecting the art in 1st Edition D&D and one figure based on 5th (current) Edition D&D. In addition, there are rare figures that reflect the characters in the old 80s D&D cartoon. The special figure of the set is a red dragon from the classic 1st edition era. Two races in the set can be used with the red dragon to replicate the cover image of the original Basic Rules book.
The newest cute little plush animals released are the Pit Fiend, Mind Flayer, and Blue Dragon. Seems like a rather evil set of plush animals but I can attest they’re just as squishable as the previous plushies.
