What News From the Shire?

With last year's release of the first film installment of the Hobbit, the world of gaming rejoices—and of course cashes in! There have been several games released over the past several months, as well as a few upcoming that may scratch the itch you have for more Tolkien-based games; here's a short (if not completely inclusive) list of them:

The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game Saga expansions - Fantasy Flight released two Hobbit-centric additions to their smash hit LOTR-LCG: The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill, and The Hobbit: On the Doorstep

The Lord of the Rings Dice Building Game

Wizkids, who brought you the unique spin of dice building vs. deck building in Quarriors, has released (it is available NOW!) The LOTR themed game, and we have it on good word it's more than just a re-theme of Quarriors!

The Hobbit Card Game - An inexpensive, trick-taking game with a Tolkien theme from Fantasy Flight Games and designer Martin Wallace—also available now!

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring Deck Building Game -—Cryptozoic, publisher of the World of Warcraft TCG, has thrown their hat into the Tolkien "ring" (see what I did there?) with a deck builder of their own, which is just recently available!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Cryptozoic's second go at the genre, this time in board game form, this is expected sometime in the second quarter of 2013.

Sadly we have no review copies of any of these games, but as soon as we do we will post our reviews as soon as we can!

We know there are tons more of titles out there that take place in Middle Earth! We'd love to hear of any diamonds in the rough you've discovered!

Thanks for reading, and for those who were here yesterday, yes, that was an April Fool's day post; we hope you got a good laugh out of it, and if you came here today looking for the latest in crocheting news, we extend our apologies.

Give us a shout in the comments with your favorite Tolkien titles, and hit us up on Facebook and Twitter!

2012 Holiday Gift Guide - Stocking Stuffers!

Today we're completing our gift guide with a list of things to get that gamer who has EVERYTHING! These little trinkets are fun, add something to your favorite game, or just add a little geeky Christmas cheer! Catan Ornament - For the serious Catan fan, this cut-brass beauty will help you celebrate the season while settling on the newfound island of Catan. The third in the Catan Resource series, this year's ornament features wool.

Cost: $48.00

Available from: Mayfair Games

Pirates of the Spanish Main card game - Wizkids Games' latest reboot of their former titles, turns their classic consrtuctable strategy game, into a single-deck card game, perfect for the nostalgic Pirates player, with lots of art that has been re-purposed for the game.

Cost: $10.60

Available from: Amazon, or your local game store

Ages: 8 & up

When Zombies Attack - Because Attack Dice (makers of When Zombies Attack), isn't Steve Jackson Games, this fun little dice roller has been somewhat overlooked. Unlike Jackson's "Zombie Dice"—which is basically a re-themed version of Farkle—When Zombies Attack is a competitive dice game that has players trying to eliminate not ALL of the zombies, just ones attacking them! Totally worth picking up and stuffing someone's stocking with this one!

Cost: $14.99 (And they're running a special Christmas deal 2 for $25.00!)

Available: Right here!

Ages: 8 & up

Alvin and Dexter: A Ticket to Ride Monster Expansion - By far one of the coolest mini expansions for a game to come along in a while! This was released last year and is becoming harder to find! They're out there, so grab a set for your gamer and become the hero of the day! It's like a Godzilla effect for Ticket to Ride! 'Nuff said!

Cost: $15.00

Available from: Amazon, and your local game store.

Lord of the Rings card sleeves - Fantasy Flight released a series of card sleeves featuring art from LOTR: the card game, every gamer wants to sleeve their cards, but most of the time they buy the cheap clear sleeves because that leaves more money for more games. So a couple packs a snazzy LOTR sleeves is sure to make the yuletide gay! (Note- there are Star Wars sleeves available now too!)

Cost: $5.00

Available from: Amazon, and your local game store

IronDie - I saw these at Origins this year and HAD to buy one. Simply because they are so cool! There is a game that is played with them if you choose to buy the whole set, but if you play any game that requires a 6-sided die, pick up a couple of these to replace them! There are now also polyhedral designs for that role player on your list!

Cost: $5.00 (6-Sided) $25.00 (Polyhedral, 7 die set)

Available from: Amazon, and your local game store.

Thanks so much for reading and being a part of Theology of Games; we hope this guide has been helpful to you during this wonderful season!

As always stay tuned for more great features from the gaming world!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Lord of the Rings—The Battle of Lake Town!

Fantasy Flight also announced this week that The Battle of Lake Town adventure pack for their living card game The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, is now available as a print-on-demand title. The Battle of Lake Town was Fantasy Flight's Gencon exclusive this year, and promises to be an exciting addition to the LOTR adventure. Players will have to work together to save Lake Town from the Hobbit's main baddie, Smaug himself! If it's anything like last year's Gencon exclusive, it will be a brutal slugfest, with lots of action and not much questing! (My kind of adventure!) You can order a print-on-demand copy of The Battle of Lake Town RIGHT HERE! And you can read Fantasy Flight's full description of the adventure RIGHT HERE! As always, thanks for reading!

Wizkids is Making a Lord of the Rings-Themed Dicebuilding Game!

Have you played Quarriors? Well you should. Come to think of it, we should probably write a proper review of it. It's a "dicebuilding game"—where you're using dice to build an engine to score VPS. It's like Dominion, with dice instead of cards...kinda.

Anyway...Wizkids just announced that they're making a new dicebuilding game that uses some of the same mechanisms—and cool new dice! There aren't many details, but it sounds like there are cooperative aspects to it--but that someone can be corrupted by the ring. Or something. Anyway, you can read the press release here, and keep an eye out for this game in early 2013. And we'll try to get a review of Quarriors in the mean-time.