Building Treehouses in Suburbia

January 14, 2015

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Welcome to our first news post of 2015! Last year was a great year for the hobby and we are all looking forward to what 2015 has to offer. I will be posting frequently in the coming months as boardgame news updates are available from the Nuremberg and New York Toy Fairs. And for your reading pleasure, if you’ve missed our recent Top 5 games of 2014 lists, have a look! I’m amazed that no two lists contain the same 5 games.

Top 5 of 2014

Tiny Epic Treehouse

Green Couch Games, headed by awesome designer Jason Kotarski, recently announced Best Treehouse Ever, designed by prolific designer Scott Almes. This will be the second title from Green Couch Games following the success of their first game Fidelitas (check our preview here). From the press release:

Who hasn’t dreamed of building the best treehouse in the world? Now it’s time to live that dream! In Best Treehouse Ever, players compete to build the best treehouse in the neighborhood. Players will outfit their treehouse with the coolest rooms, all while making sure their tree doesn’t tip over…and that their rooms are the most impressive at the end of the game. Building takes place over three weeks/rounds, and at the end of the third week the winner will be the player with the best treehouse ever! Each round, players use card drafting and spatial reasoning to add 5 new rooms to their treehouse. Players must pay attention to the other treehouses being built since they will take turns determining which types of rooms score for everyone at the end of each round.

Best Treehouse Ever is another small box card game that appeals to a wide audience. This game will satisfy gamers and families looking for a quick, easy-to-teach experience that provides player interaction on every turn. The game includes 72 Room Cards, 4 Starting Tree Cards, 6 Scoring Cards, 4 Scoring Tokens/Score Track Cards, and 4 Balance Cubes. The game will feature playful illustrations and graphic design by the talented Adam P. McIver (Council of Verona, Dead Drop, CoinAge) for his design studio THE CRE8TIVE DEPT.

Best Treehouse Ever is a game for 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up and is designed by Scott Almes (Tiny Epic Kindgoms, Tiny Epic Defenders, Tiny Epic Galaxies, Kings of Air and Steam, Martian Dice). The game is set for a March 2015 Kickstarter campaign with a Q4 2015 release.

We’ll hopefully have a preview of this game before its launch on KS in March so stay tuned!

The Disease that keeps on giving

Z-Man Games teased, via their Twitter account, the upcoming release of the hotly anticipated Pandemic Legacy. As noted in the photo, it appears that they will be releasing the game in installments/expansions called “Seasons.” Season 1 looks to be ready for release at Essen 2015 (don’t let the funny European date format fool you…that’s October 8 not August 10). Not much else is known about the game so stay tuned as the year progresses for further updates.

There goes the neighborhood

Bezier Games and Ted Alspach recently announced a second expansion for their hit game Suburbia titled Suburbia 5★ (finding the star to type was a real pain in the ass…I’m glad that W. Eric Martin had the same problem). From Bezier Games’ website:

Now that your town is up and running and is acting like a proper township, it’s time to start growing even more rapidly by turning your borough into a tourist destination. Build landmarks, monuments, and tourist traps to increase your reputation and income while determining the player order each turn. In addition, the metropolitan area has expanded, allowing up to five players to build the city of their holiday dreams simultaneously.

Suburbia 5 Star adds elements for a 5th player, 50 unique tiles, 6 new borders and more!

Pre-orders for the expansion are currently taking place on their website for $29.99 with an expected delivery of August 2015 (Gen Con).

Is your crescent fertile?

Fantasy Flight Games announced the reprinting of the classic Reiner Knizia tile-laying game Tigris &Euphrates. This extremely dry yet extremely satisfying game is going to maintain the game’s original mechanics while giving it a refreshed look based on the art of ancient Sumer and Babylon. It will also feature additional components to play advanced variations, from a double-sided game board and civilization buildings to a wonder tile and accompanying idol. This excites me as I have been holding out for this one to receive a makeover and reprint. Look for this to hit your FLGS in 1st Quarter 2015.

Also, neatly tucked away in the Tigris & Euphrates announcement, Fantasy Flight eluded to their new Euro Classics Line. From the announcement:

Our new Euro Classics line is dedicated to making select Euro-style games widely available and introducing new audiences to them. Its immense popularity and elegant marriage of mechanics to theme make Tigris & Euphrates an excellent game to launch this line. Stay tuned for news about the games that will follow it.

Specter Pre-Op

As I’ve mentioned in a prior Boardcast News, Plaid Hat will release Specter Ops: Shadows of Babel this year from designer Emerson Matsuuchi (he also designed one of our favorite games of 2014, VOLT). A brief description of the game from Plaid Hat’s website:

Specter Ops is the ultimate stealth action game. On one side, a lone A.R.K. agent infiltrates a Raxxon facility, seeking to retrieve three mission targets and escape alive. Equipped with unique skills and tools, the agent moves in secret.

On the other side, two or more genetically enhanced Raxxon hunters, alerted to the intruder’s presence, take no prisoners as they attempt to eliminate the A.R.K. agent before a successful escape. Super-human mutations and keen coordination aid them in their duty to destroy Raxxon’s enemies.

Specter Ops: Shadow of Babel features a streamlined ruleset great for veteran and rookie gamers alike. Several game modes accommodate 2-5 players who must utilize strategy, deduction, and stealth to win. Plot your moves in secret or hunt down the intruder. Featuring 8 detailed miniatures, Specter Ops is an exciting stealth game that belongs in every gamer’s collection.

The game will be available at Gen Con this year and can be pre-ordered for the ridiculously low price of $34.95 (which includes estimated April delivery and 2 promo cards). Like Sir Mix-a-Lot, jump on it!

Until next time, stay classy and keep your games tight!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/PODCAST CO-HOST : Allow myself, to introduce myself. Boardgaming since the womb, I have an unsound infatuation with buying, playing, discussing, photographing, and writing about boardgames. As a boardgame aesthetics enthusiast (say that 5 times fast) you'll typically find that I spend a large majority of the game examining the design, art, and components. I prefer strategic eurogames but will play just about anything these days (except Arkham Horror). And I love Pearl Jam.