When We Last Left Our Heroes!

It's been another fabulous week here at TOG, filled with game reviews, and some juicy news about one of our favorite games! I know, I know, we've been banging the "The Resistance" drum pretty hard lately; truth is we're hoping to get lots of entries in our contest to give away a free copy of it! That and we really do enjoy the game! Anyway, once again we've compiled our week's posts all into one easy-to-use clickable list for your viewing convenience. Enjoy! Go Go Godzilla! Here's our Review of King of Tokyo!

Petals to the Metal: A Review of Flower Fall

Battlestar Galactica - By your command!

An Expansion to The Resistance Is On Its Way!

Your LAST Chance to WIN!

Once again we are so grateful for your support and ask that you follow us on Twitter @Firestone, @JeremiahIsley, and @TheologyofGames, Like us on Facebook and share and retweet EVERYTHING we do! Okay, maybe not EVERYTHING, but every little bit helps!

Thanks!

In Case You Were Waiting for the Last Minute!

Well this is it! The last minute!! Tonight at the stroke of midnight we'll no longer be excepting entries for our contest to win a free copy of the Resistance!! What's that you say? You STILL haven't entered, but you want to? Well never fear. Just follow this link and a few simple steps, and you'll be all set! We'll announce the winner on Monday, July 23! So be sure to check back to see who the lucky winner is, it could be YOU! Thanks so much for being a part of this contest, and for telling your friends about our little blog here! We've had a great kickoff so far and look forward to informing and entertaining you all in the days to come!

A Resistance Expansion Is On Its Way!

This one's from the rumor mill--but it comes from a reliable source. The Resistance is getting an expansion! The owner of Indie Boards and Cards has swooped into a couple of threads on boardgamegeek.com, and hinted that an expansion will be going up on Kickstarter soon. He also said it won't just be more plot cards, but some new ways to play the game. We can't stop crowing about this awesome game, so more ways to play has us super excited. We'll keep you updated, and post a link to the Kickstarter project once it officially goes live. In the meantime, make sure you sign up to win your own copy of The Resistance. The contest ends tonight, and right now your chances are REALLY GOOD. Thanks for reading!

Petals to the Metal: A Review of Flowerfall

One of the sleeper hits of Origins was a game that didn’t even exist just a few shorts weeks before the event. Carl Chudyk is the man behind the very good game Glory To Rome, and the good-but-ridiculous-ending game Innovation. And just before Origins he had an idea for a game about dropping cards with flowers on them onto a table. So they printed up 100 copies on simple card stock, and one of my friends was able to score one.

There are five different colors of cards, and each person gets an identical set of cards with their color of flowers on them. Some cards have only one flower on them, while others have five or six.

The object of the game is to create “gardens” by dropping your cards onto the table, and having the majority of your flowers at the end of the game. Of course, the other players are trying to do the same thing.

You drop the cards from shoulder height onto the table, so it’s pretty hard to drop them with any amount of skill. Every game feels like a little bit of skill mixed with a whole lot of luck.

Despite that, the game is pretty unique and fun. It’s a good filler for the beginning or end of a night—or when you’re waiting for other people to wrap up a game. And it’s really portable. And it’s about flowers, so the likelihood of my wife playing this over…say…a game about the Lord of the Rings is huge.

If you weren’t fortunate to be one of the 100 people who scored a copy of the 1^st printing, there’s good news: There’s a Kickstarter campaign for a proper edition. You can find it here, but be aware it ends Friday at midnight. It’s overfunded, so it will be produced, and you can get a copy for a mere $15.

When We Last Left Our Heroes... July 13

Hopefully you enjoyed the news and reviews from the past week. Just in case you missed anything, here's a handy recap... We talk about the announcement of this year's Spiel des Jahres winner, Kingdom Builder.

We review the Spiel des Jahres winner, Kingdom Builder.

Mayfair announces a version of Catan based on the classic show Star Trek.

Kingdom Builder already has an expansion out. Here's our review.

Beardarangs and puking turtles: It's a Kickstarter campaign for Pixel Lincoln!

Days of Wonder is reprinting its classic game Mystery of the Abbey.

We'll see you next week, when we'll review the semi-cooperative game Battlestar Galactica, and the fun, family monster-mayhem game King of Tokyo.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Mystery of the Abbey to be Reprinted

Days of Wonder recently announced that they will be revisiting their inaugural big-box board game, Mystery of the Abbey. An award-winning whodunit game, full of intrigue, mystery and monks, very loosely based on the acclaimed novel The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It's been out of print for a few years now, but nostalgic gamers can expect to find it on the shelves of their favorite game stores in late August. You can see Days of Wonder's official press release here. I've always been intrigued by the mixing of faith and deduction; throw gaming into the mix and you've got the recipe for a great evening. The only thing missing is Brother Cadfael on the tele!

Have fond memories of the game? We'd love to hear your stories! Leave 'em in the comments below!

Pixel Lincoln Kickstarts!

Springboard, which is powered by Game Salute, has been running (and very successfully) a Kickstarter campaign for gaming's newest addition to the family of 8-bit, side-scrolling, deck-building, card games based on a fictional video game, which is based on a historical figure. (I know, another one of THOSE!) Who's Backing the Beard Built of Blocks? - There are nearly 600 gamers who have caught wind of this unique game. I mean, who doesn't want a chance to take on the role of our emancipating and proclamating president to fight various baddies, like Puking Turtles and Throwing Luchadores, with a variety of weapons, including the Sausage Link Whip, and Abe's favorite means of self defense, the Beardarang!

So, Why Back it? - The question came up here at TOG: Why would we back this now; why shouldn't we just wait for the retail release? So I emailed Springboard and asked what backers were going to be getting that folks who just bought the title after release wouldn't. And Dan laid it out like this:

Motivational Factor #1 -

Backers will receive the following:

The Game - Which continues to be upgraded as stretch goals are met!

The Bonuses Pack - Which currently includes, a button, the Sentinels of the Multiverse Pixel Sentinels cards (which look sweet!), the Celebrity Cards Pack, and a shiny new penny!

There's a good breakdown on the Kickstarter page, and lots of cool options and add-ons you can choose to pick up if you back the game.

Motivational Factor #2 -  It's mutually beneficial, in that with every stretch goal they meet, it adds more features to the game's base set; once the campaign closes, what you get is what you get, so backing now helps everyone win!

The good news in all of this is that they have met their base goal, and the project will be funded. That means Pixel Lincoln is on his way! The bad news is that you only have until midnight on Sunday, July 15, 2012 to scrape together your shiny pennies and back them to get all the extra goodies!

You can see all the fun videos, and backer levels by clicking RIGHT HERE!

Have you backed this? Have you demoed the game? We would LOVE to hear your thoughts! Leave 'em in the comments!

'Give You Brick For Ore? Highly Illogical….'

Mayfair Games, who never met a franchise that couldn’t use the word “Catan” attached to it, have recently announced Star Trek: Catan. The game will feature resource collecting, a variable board, and the help of the original series’ characters through the play of support cards. How, exactly, it differs from the original we won’t know until GenCon next month, where Mayfair will be previewing the game. Perhaps the most interesting piece of the announcement is that the new game will be sold exclusively through Target stores.

We hope to have a review of this once it’s released. Stay tuned to Theology of Games for more board game news and reviews. Thanks for reading!

And the Spiel Goes to...

The German news wires have confirmed what many believed to be a no-brainer for this year's Spiel des Jahres—or as we American types would say, Game of the Year Award. The Spiel is one of gaming's most touted and prestigious awards, with a selection process that is akin to that of a pro sports hall of fame, or an Academy Awards selection. A group of writers (from Germany) nominate a few select games from the scads of games released in a single year, and then pick one of the nominated games to receive the Spiel des Jahres. The game that wins the award is the one that is most likely to "promote games as a cultural asset to encourage gaming amongst family and friends." It's also a virtual guarantee that that the game will sell a jabillion copies.

And the Spiel goes to.... Kingdom Builder! Designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, published by Queen Games.

This gives game designer Donald X. Vaccarino his second SdJ award (his first came from his incredibly popular Dominion). It just so happens that I've been playing the snot out of this game in the past few weeks, and will be reviewing it tomorrow! So check back here in the next 24 hours and see what all the hub-bub is about!

When We Last Left Our Heroes - July 6, 2012

Just in case something slipped by your watchful and keen eyes, we thought we'd give you a nice, one stop shop for all things TOG from our first week in the Blogosphere! Thanks for all the support, we've had a GREAT first week, and look forward to many, many more!

Boom Goes the Dynamite!

Carcassonne - We're Not Tiling the Bathroom!

Spies Like Us: Reviewing The Resistance

Win a Free Copy of The Resistance!

X-Wing – Stay on Target!

I’m A Liar: Hesitance About the Resistance

Can You Feld the Love Tonight?

A Comic Book, Card Game? Yes, Please!

Next Week - We'll be reviewing Infiltration and Kingdom Builder, along with more news, deep thoughts and general mayhem! Join us won't you!?