Essen SPIEL ’18 Live Blog – Thursday

We’ve explored the Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert, now it’s time to take to the skies!

We continue the survival adventures as we take a look at Matt Leacock’s Forbidden Sky from Gamewright.

A lot of you will have played these games yourself as they are a great gateway game for both younger gamers and the old veterans looking for a new window into tabletop gaming.

As quite the fan of dinosaurs when I saw this game pop up at the press event yesterday I just had to take some snaps and have a better look at the game.

Jurassic Snack has you playing as Diplodocus who are trying to eat more goodies than the other team. However, all is not safe in the dinosaur kingdom as you can also call in the T-Rex to hunt down your opponents and stop them enjoying a nice, safe meal!

Each grass token has a special ability that you will reveal when you eat it and they are randomly dropped onto the board making it different each time you play…AND this game comes with some of the coolest game figures!

As we mentioned in the introduction to today’s Live Blog, we’re here at the Mythic Games stand at Essen SPIEL ’18.

They are showing off a few of their games here including Joan Of Arc, Solomon Kane and their newest big project called Reichbusters: Projekt Vril.

We’ll be catching up with them later to find out more about the game but if you’re coming to Essen SPIEL ’18 over the next few days make sure to call in at Hall 2 F113.

7 Wonders Armada takes the format of 7 Wonders, a nice gateway game which introduces many different initial concepts in board gaming, and adds a whole new layer to it as you go trading on the high seas.

Players will now be able to not only interact with their neighbours but also set sail across the seas to interact with people across the other side of the tabletop.

This adds a whole new dynamic into the game, developing it into one of adventure and exploration as well as one of warfare and culture that we’ve seen before.

Pandasaurus Games have talked about Nyctophobia with us before on the website but it’s great to see that the game is coming together nicely right now.

This game has you playing blinded (using those snazzy glasses) whilst the murdering crazy man will be chasing you around the woods.

You will have to feel your way through the woods which can be ever-changing and see if you can survive…this is an awesome new concept that we’d love to find out more about.

The folks at Brain Games have done some awesome games in the past including, as many of you know, Ice Cool. One of their newest games is Pyramid Of Pengqueen which continues with the idea of a Hunter (the Mummy) and a bunch of Treasure Hunters!

The penguin treasure hunters will be rushing forth trying to avoid the Mummy in a crazy chase to grab some goodie before being spooked!

The almost ‘Battleship’ style looking set-up makes this a great game of cat and mouse…or penguin and errr…undead penguin.

KOSMOS has been working on a game this year which takes you back into the world of Prehistory called Tribes. It allows you to play out 30,000 years of civilization in 45 minutes.

The players start with a small tribe with the immediately surrounding area explored. They discover new land and send the members of their tribe out to discover valuable resources. Who will be the most tactical leader and guide their tribe to victory?

This game has been revamped from its Kickstarter release and looks very pretty indeed.

Come and check out the rather fantastic looking Mystical Seeds from Two Plus Games which has players working as botanists collecting and grafting together seeds to understand their mystical properties.

Once you have worked out your findings you then publish them to gain prestige amongst those in the botanist world.

The game LOOKS beautiful and I am quite a lover of nature and the wilds so plants are always for me.

We got a chance to talk to Isaac Childres of Cephalofair Games about what is happening in Founders Of Gloomhaven and what lies ahead for him as he explores the expansion to the original (and expansive) Gloomhaven.

Founders Of Gloomhaven allows you to find out what happened when the city was created, introducing the races that became popular in the massive dungeon crawler all with the aid of euro-mechanics.

The new expansion for Gloomhaven also throws into the mix a new character class which will make the different combinations and card plays of the game even more deadly for the foes you encounter.

The whole of SPIEL ’18 is jampacked with happy gamers. It’s pretty insane that even today, on a Thursday, in the middle of the week, there are people here playing games and getting really stuck into everything tabletop.

It’s quite inspirational to see people of all ages playing old games, new games, big tough games and even smaller fun diversions.

We’ve still got lots to come for Essen SPIEL ’18 so watch this space.

We stop in with Jane from Medusa Games to talk about what’s happening with Magnificent Flying Machines. This is a game that we’ve been looking at before at events like UK Games Expo and the like.

Win A Copy Of Magnificent Flying Machines

This game is a lot of fun with plenty of room to expand and change it as you see fit. Taking flight with your exceptional pilots in their incredibly haphazard planes makes for a game which not only looks towards the inspirational age of flight but also the funny daring calamity which befalls you in this game.

I thought this would be an excellent time to ask what YOU do when it comes to conventions.

Do you go out of your way to see as many games as possible or do you focus in on just a few?

Do you sit down to play demo games that you’re interested in, or do you prefer to do some shopping and make sure those shelves groan when you get back home?

Everyone approaches conventions differently and some people even come along JUST to take part in tournaments and events of a competitive nature.

What do you do?

PlastCraft Games is exploring EXO now that the Kickstarter is over with a Late Pledge Manager and soon after the game arriving on peoples doorsteps.

Win A Crashed Plane Terrain Set

We have done some great Let’s Play content with the guys for EXO over the last year or so, so make sure to check it out in more detail HERE.

For now, though you can win yourself a great piece of terrain from the PlastCraft Games guys for use in your post-apocalyptic games.

We have been seeing a lot of people having fun with Reichbusters: Projekt Vril here at the show and TOMORROW we will be doing a gameplay video with the folks from Mythic Games!

With that in mind, we thought we’d close in on some of the awesome looking miniatures for the Nazis which have been hitting the tabletop.

The quality of this game is looking great and we hope to be able to delve into it a lot more over the coming weeks as well with the team.