In this issue:

- Welcome
- New Distributor Relationships
- NAG Magazine Reviews
- BoardGameGeek Website
- International Gamers Awards
- Rosebank Rooftop Market

- Out and About
- Featured Game of the Month
- Competition
- Special Offers
- Subscribe
- That's a Wrap

Welcome

Thank you for subscribing to our Newsletter and for your interest in our board games. This is the second issue of our monthly newsletter. We have just had a very exciting month where we exhibited at both WIKID and RAGE. NAG Magazine has also reviewed two of our board games, WarCraft and Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation.

We have also expanded our list of available board games to include games such as Risk: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition, Settlers of Catan, Runebound, A Game of Thrones and Tigris & Euphrates. This diversifies our game offering and you are sure to find a game appeals to you.

There are also some very exciting developments in store for November, where we will have many more exciting products for you to choose from. Keep checking our website for details.

New Distributor Relationships

We are proud to announce that we are now also the South African distributors for Mayfair Games and Days of Wonder.

Mayfair Games are the publishers of the multiple award-winning game Settlers of Catan and the highly rated Tigris & Euphrates.

Days of Wonder have recently garnered the very prestigious board game award, "German Game of the Year 2004", for Ticket to Ride. In the same month, they were also awarded with the International Gamers Awards' "Strategy Game of the Year" Award for Memoir '44.

We are extremely excited to be able to offer these new games for you to enjoy. Look out for the arrival of these games towards the end of October.

NAG Reviews

NAG Magazine Reviews

New Age Gaming (NAG) recently reviewed two of our board games, Warcraft: The Board Game and Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation in their October issue. Here are those NAG Reviews, courtesy of NAG Magazine.

WarCraft: The Board Game

"At one point I though that board games of the strategy kind had been replaced by PC titles. In the early days, a number of PC titles took the lead from these board games - and the overtook them. Now the shoe is on the other foot, with PC titles influencing and inspiring board games.
Take the WarCraft Board Game, for example. Based on Blizzard's WarCraft 3, this game is for two to four players, and uses a stylised version of the computer version's play dynamic.
The game is well produced, with wooden and cardboard counters, as well as "press out" style board pieces. A collection of cards is also used by the game, to define upgrades, represent effects and that sort of thing.
Because of the dice rolling element, the game is far more "random" than the PC version, but is nonetheless a great amount of fun to play. Its simple approach allows for fairly complicated strategies to be formulated easily. It's basically Risk a-la WarCraft, but features surprising play depth."

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

"This board game introduces some interesting elements to the whole strategy board game idea. At first glance, it is a very simple game for two players only. But, after playing for a while, the complexity of the game shows itself in an unexpected place...
One player controls the forces of good, while the other the forces of evil. They move markers towards each other - these markers contain concealed character information that only the controlling player can see. Additionally, cards are also used.
But the true beauty of the game comes to the fore not in the movement of the pieces, but in the bluffing element that defines the play dynamic. Players can try to outdo each other with bluffs and sneaky tactics to gain the upper hand in the situation.
This high quality game is a must for strategy fans who like their playing experience to be less than honest!"

BoardGameGeek Website

We would like to introduce you to the premiere board games review and resource site on the Internet, http://www.boardgamegeek.com. You will be able to find user reviews on board games, additional game downloads and be able to interact with gamers around the world. Board Games Designers also frequent this site for feedback and to reply to some of the questions that are raised.

If you would like more information on board games, which ones are good and want to get additional information about the games, please make sure you visit this site. This is our favourite board game site on the Internet.

Here is the current Top 10 Games List from their website:

Click here for the full games ranking.

International Gamers Awards

We are proud to be associated with the International Gamers Awards (IGA) as promotional sponsors. The IGA do a great job of recognising outstanding board games through their annual IGA awards. These are highly coveted awards and you can be assured that a game that has won this award is truly a great game. Here is a bit of background regarding the IGA from their website:

"The International Gamers Awards were created to recognize outstanding games and designers, as well as the companies that publish them. The awards are truly international in scope, with committee members representing countries throughout the world. As such, it is our belief that these awards will truly select the ‘best of the best’ and come to be respected by not only hobbyists, but the general public at large. We hope that this will lead to greater exposure for these wonderful games to more and more people and help spread the word of the "wonderful world of gaming" on a global scale."

The IGA have recently announced their 2 winners for the 2004 Game of the Year. These are Memoir '44 in the 2 player category and St. Petersburg in the General Strategy category.

For more information, please check out our IGA 2004 Award Newsflash.

These 2 games will be available from us at the beginning of November.

Rosebank Rooftop Market

We were recently invited by B&B Markets to offer our products at their flagship market in Rosebank.

Having carefully considered this opportunity, we decided that this would allow us to improve our offering to our customers as this would allow you an opportunity to see the games physically and chat to us about the games.

We will be there every Sunday and Public Holiday from 9-5 starting this Sunday, 17th October. Look forward to seeing you there.

Out and About

We recently exhibited at Wikid and RAGE, and got the opportunity to meet some of you in person. They were both fun events and we thoroughly enjoyed being there to demonstrate and create more awareness around our board games.

RAGE was extra special given that NAG magazine had just reviewed 2 of our games. We had a tremendous response at RAGE, so thanks for all your support there.
 

Featured Game of the Month

Every month we will also be featuring a game in our newsletter. This month it is Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation.

The Confrontation is the 2003 winner of the IGA 2-player Game of the Year.

This game uses the themes from the Lord of Rings storyline very well. The game pits the forces of Good against the forces of Evil. The good side's goal is to get Frodo into Mordor to destroy the Ring, the evil side's goal is to capture Frodo or get 3 characters into the Shire before the One Ring is destroyed.

The forces of Good are represented by the good characters from the book; Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry and Boromir each with unique special abilities. The forces of Evil are represented by Saruman, The Orcs, Shelob, The Flying Nazgul, Balrog, Warg, The Black Rider, The Witch King and The Cave Troll.

As you can probably tell the player controlling the forces of Evil has stronger units, while the player controlling the good side relies on stealth and cunning to reach Mordor. This mirrors the storyline in the book. The game is very easy to play and learn, with a few basic rules.

The game mechanic includes each character having a special ability and a strength value. The dark player has characters with generally higher strength values than those of the good player, while the good player has characters that have special evasive abilities. Also, the character statues are single-sided which means that your opponent has no idea how your forces as spread out initially and unfortunately you do not know how the oppenents forces are allocated either. The only way to find out who is where is to pick a fight with one of them which then reveals their identity.

In order to successful defeat your opponent, you will need to play to the strengths of the characters you control. The game board is divided into two halves separated by the mountain range. The good player lines up on one side of the mountains and the dark player takes the other. Characters can only cross the mountains in single-file which means that they are more exposed at that point than at any other time in the game.

A critical part of winning for the good player is to get Frodo across the treacherous mountains safely. Once Frodo crosses the mountains, the good player generally has a significant advantage. Frodo's special ability of being able to retreat sideways when attacked allows him to effectively dodge conflicts and move around dangerous opponents. However, he is especially vulnerable to the Warg as the Warg's special ability is to negate Frodo's special ability which prevents Frodo from being able to retreat.

This is just once example of the various combinations that need to be understood to succeed in the game. Each player also has a set of cards that are used when there is a battle that takes place. These cards allow both players to add to the strength of their character involved in the battle or to execute on a special action such as retreating or ignoring the number of the strength card played by the dark player. Care must be taken when deciding on which card to play as once a card is used in a confrontation it is then discarded for the rest of the game. This could easily lead to a very weak selection of cards remaining when the game is nearing the critical end stages.

It is also very important to remember which cards have been played by both players (which have now been discarded) and to then update your strategy of how to win. There are also some nice touches that add additional depth to the game. For example, the Tunnel of Morder allows the good player to travel under the mountains to reach the dark side of the board quicker. However, should the Balrog be in Mountains while the good side is using the tunnel, the good player immediately loses the character in the tunnel.

The game is well packaged with high quality components and a well written rule-book.

This gives you an idea of the different strategic elements of the game and also of the gameplay mechanics. This game is great if you are looking for a strategy game with simple rules but great strategic depth. The game plays out in 20-30 minutes, which makes this a short game. Once you get started, you will want to continue playing the game time and time again. The Confrontation is designed by Master Game designer, Reiner Knizia.
 

Competition

Every month we give away a board game to one of our lucky subscribers.

This month the winner is Verita from Cape Town. Congratulations on winning! A copy of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation is being shipped to you and will arrive shortly. Enjoy!

Special Offers

From now until the end of October, we are offering a special on our featured game, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, to all our newsletter subscribers. By clicking on this link you will be able to buy The Confrontation for R259 (including VAT and Shipping). This offer is valid until the end of October (while stocks last). Hurry, hurry!
 

Subscribe

To subscribe to this newsletter, please click here.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click here.

Remember that subscribing to this newsletter gives you a chance to win a board game EVERY month. So stay tuned and WIN!

Please forward this mail to anyone who would be interested in receiving this newsletter.

That's a Wrap!

That’s all for now. We will be sending out another update next month. Until then, happy gaming! Hope to see you at the Rosebank Rooftop Market. Please also give us any feedback that you may have.

Happy Gaming,

The Crazy Boardgames.co.za Crew

crew@boardgames.co.za