Freshly Added to BGG - August 25th, 2023

With the ever-growing number of games creeping in the database, a terrifying truth is becoming increasingly manifest: the availability of each individual game is doomed to dwindle. Which means, if you have something on your radar, the window of opportunity for you to grab it is thinning with every passing day, so, go get it, back it, buy it, otherwise you may face...

Note that you may have deep regrets just as much if you do not research enough and end up "fishing" an over-expensive, unsellable game not to your liking. Anyway. Deep Regrets is a game about fishing and making money out of it. You play as a ship, alone in the ocean; each turn you roll dice to determine your strength. Will you stay at sea to get a better haul or will you return to port? You also need to feed, and it's a good thing you have fish, but eat too much and there will be nothing left to sell. And as you go deeper into the sea to find better fray, be careful not to awake what sleeps below... Nothing for sure, but I'm willing to bet this game will be crowdfunded through KS (the previous game of the designer/publisher is currently getting crowdfunded there, hence my guess).

Okay. That was for my introduction. But today, you'll have a bit of everything; history, mundane themes for euro games, the occasional Fantasy pasted-on flavor, and some SF even. Starting with history in its full glory: nautical gladiatorial fights in Ancient Rome! Colosseum: Ave Titus is a reimplementation of the older Colosseum by Kramer & Lübke (yes, Wolfgang Kramer do occasionally design games with other people than Kiesling), bringing in Johnny Pac to the team (Coloma, Merchant's Cove, Unconscious Mind) for an additional layer of euro heaviness. With graphic design and art by Ian O'Toole, because these days, you can't be a serious euro game if you don't have graphic design by Ian O'Toole. Oh and guess who got to design the AI? (Johnny Pac, of course. Why bring in another designer when you already have one?)

But, you know, the Roman Empire hasn't been all about having fun in the sand. There were downsides as well. War even. Especially when these pesky people just couldn't let themselves be conquered in peace. Hispania is about these grim realities. The time is 200 BC, and the goal is to take over Spain. When I had a glance at this picture I immediately got reminded of Tetrarchia. That's no coincidence. Same designer, same system, same publisher. These titles are full co-operative games about fending off an invading threat (or a resisting rebel presence apparently) and as such lean themselves easily into solo gaming. I don't know for the US, but in Europe the game is fairly available from retail, and at the very least you will be able to order it with reasonable shipping fees from the publisher's website in due time.

To linger in the Hispanic world, I offer you Tequila, a game about a small city in Mexico where the blue agave grows and farmers cultivate it. And yes, yes, it is used to make tequila, that's why they do it, not just because it's cool to grow blue stuff out of the soil. This is a relatively complex roll and write game about managing the various aspects of the farming life, from arranging plants on a grid to selling stuff in town, enlarging the farm with newer buildings to produce a wider variety of tequila beverages, and so on. Detestable Games is involved and they are used with worldwide distribution, so if this game it's up to you, there should be ways to get it.

After booze, comes the food. I might have used the Roman Empire Colosseum game for the transition but it felt a bit stretched. Anyway, Pizza King is a game about making pizzas. To do so, you have topping cards in hand, and after performing a series of technical operations to arrange your hand as you deem fit, you try to fulfill as many pizza orders as you can with these toppings. The BGG page lists no designer, no publisher, no distribution plans, but I figured out everyone likes pizzas so, who cares.

Everyone likes pirates, as well. They are anarchistic (so it pleases the anti-system people), they are a bunch of misfits usually more inclusive than the society they revolt against (so it pleases the left), and they have a large wealth that is subtly buried so they can avoid any taxation upon it (so it pleases the right). They also sail in low-carbon, wind-powered ships, and they might use the occasional smashed coconut as cannon powder to avoid carbon-based products, so it pleases the greenies, as well. They also have Krakens, so pet-lovers are happy, too. Really a crowd-pleaser. No wonder then that we have so many games about pirates, like Raiders of the Cariddean, for instance. And just like pirates, this game is multilingual, translated into most of the languages that were involved in the Atlantic merry-go-round of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Dutch is shockingly missing though). Oh but you wanted to know what the game is about? It's a fast-paced card game about drafting and set collection. And that's all I got about it.

And now, some euro Fantasy beauty, with custom wooden tokens, lovely silk-screened meeples and colorful art all over the place. Welcome Fabled: Spirit Lands, a game about moving across enchanting lands, but mostly converting red books into blue books into yellow books because those grant you points. Fantastic creatures will help you along the way, providing you with their magical, thematic effects full of if-conditionals, because magic is a matter of quirky rules and mystical restrictions, after all. Anyway, if you want to start your pilgrimage across the Spirit Lands, the game is already available in retail, at least in the US.

Ah! Now that we are in the Fantasy department, I am not too keen to move on to something else. So allow me to present you a fully co-operative game, Fate: Defenders of Grimheim by Jonathan Fryxelius - they are all designers in the family. Well, not all fourteen of them perhaps, but we have at least six of them listed as designers on BGG. Anyway, why am I bothering you with the Fryxelius family? Because Fate: Defenders of Grimheim is inspired by the ancient sagas, that's why! And as you can see, it offers a very cartoony and parodic take on it. The goal is, once again, to thwart Loki's evil plans by killing monsters. Level up, gear up, and slay these by the dozen. To be Kickstarted.

I did say there would be some SF. That's because Dune: Imperium - Uprising is coming (don't tell me how they will fit the name of the first expansion for this one)! You even get a sandworm mini because no Dune game is complete without one. Ask CMON if you want to see how it's done when you get really serious about that. Anyway, this game is not Dune: Imperium, but it's a bit like Dune: Imperium, and it's not an expansion, but it can work like one. It's also fully compatible with the other Dune: Imperium expansions. New mechanics involve stomping the meeples on the board with the sandworm mini while shouting "Shai-Hulud" in the face of the AI players, and flicking spice tokens from the top of the tower deck of cards that you can only erect if you own all the Dune: Imperium contents.

And, to conclude in accordance with the ceremonial, I will end with a PnP, Destination Dash. It's a University project, solitaire-only design, with AI-generated art, it's free, and it's available here on BGG. The goal is to ferry passengers to eight different destinations onboard your private jet, before you run out of fuel. Just like I did, right now.