Fantasy Flight Games Once Again Wants All My Money

Well, it's Gen Con time again and once again it's time for a crap-ton of new game announcements. Now, I'm going to delve into the news that is coming out about Savage Worlds, but since there is so damn much that has come out and is continuing to hit, I'm going to wait to post about that later. Let's just say that Rifts is shaping up nicely (even though it's release has been pushed into early next year) and there is a LOT of great SW material coming out!

In this post I want to focus on Fantasy Flight Games. FFG has always been pretty prolific, and make some really great games. Much of my board game shelf space is made up of their offerings. They have announced a ton of new games and expansions that are going to bust what little game budget I have these days. Not just bust, but obliterate. It will likely be a long time before I catch up with all of these games, but at least there's always something exciting on the horizon!

First off is the next wave of expansions for Imperial Assault. Now, the next wave hasn't shipped yet (should be soon since they've been listed as "on the boat" for nearly 2 months now, and there's a wave in between the one about to hit and the one announced this week, so there's a lot of material in the pipe for IA. This wave will add Hoth-based characters, missions, scenarios, and tiles to the game. the wave will consist of a new small box expansion that will add the tiles, 3 new hero characters (including a Mon Calamarian and a 2-1B Medical Droid), 6 snowtroopers, 3 HK Assassin Droids, 2 Wampas (!), and a SC2-M Repulsor Tank! Just like with the small box expansion that is due out soon, this one will feature a bounty hunter as well, Dengar, who will be one of the figure expansions in this wave. The other figures will be Princess Leia in her Hoth gear, Echo Base Trooper ally pack, and a General Sorin villain pack. I really like IA and hope this trend of numerous expansion waves each year continues.

Next up is new material for Descent 2nd Edition. A new box expansion, the Mists of Bilehall, Unlike other expansion sets for Descent, this one won't offer up an new heroes or expansions of class skill sets. Nope, Bilehall is all about bolstering the strength of the Overlord player. The theme for this set is creepy undead menaces. Along with a new one act campaign, the set will include new rules for Tainted heroes, 12 figures: 6 Reanimates (skeletons), 3 Broodwalkers (disease-ridden zombies covered in bugs), and 3 Bone Horrors (a sort of snake like golem made completely out of bones). This set will also introduce 3 new Lieutenants for the Overlord as well as figure expansions for each. (I've never picked up any of the Lieutenant packs. Never seemed like they added much to the game.)

There's a new edition of Runebound coming out by the end of the year (more likely early next year). The Terrain Dice are still a factor, but the game is touted as being different enough that none of the earlier material will be compatible. Only 4 heroes are included in the base game, which is a big change as well. There will be differing paths that heroes can take on their journey to complete their quest: Combat, Social, and Exploration. A hero can focus on one arena to complete their goals or mix and match the three. The combat is very, very different and one aspect that interests me. Both the hero and the creature toss or roll a bunch of tokens. Depending on how these land each can use them to attack defend power special attacks/spells and so forth. I've had a love-hate relationship with Runebound in the past. The first edition was, well, it just wasn't very fun. The Second edition was much improved, but it still just didn't grab me. I like the idea of what the game is trying to do, but it just hasn't clicked yet. That said, I am interested, which is why I'm posting about it, but this is one that I will definitely wait until I can try it out at the FLGS first.

Finally we come to the "big dog" of FFG's announcements: a new Warhammer Quest. I've been a huge fan of WQ since I first laid eyes on it back in 1996. I now own two base sets, the Catacombs of Terror expansion, and several of the expansion hero packs. That's not even counting the mountains of new monsters and heroes I've either created or downloaded of the net over the years. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of WQ, so seeing the banner across the top of FFG's homepage made me giddy like a schoolgirl. However, my hopes of a new and updated dungeon crawler with a solo component was quickly dashed by finding out this version of WQ is a card game. I should have known. There is little chance of FFG putting out a new version of WQ in the style of the original game when they have the Descent line. While I would vastly prefer the new WQ be more like the old, I am interested in this new game. I've never been one for card games beyond poker and blackjack. They largely don't interest me. However, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game has shown me that such a game is possible and can be interesting. I have my doubts that a card game will be able to capture the same feel as the original dungeon crawler, but I will be itching to try this out once it hits later on this year (once again, knowing FFG's schedule it'll likely be early next year).