Lost Patrol

In their attempt to give stores more advance notice of new products, rather than the 1-2 weeks we get now, GW sent out this notice about their Space Hulk variant Lost Patrol about a month before the release. I rather think they are using this as justification for not giving us advance notice:  "See, we gave you information about the game a month early and sales were poor. Our way is still best."

Moraz III – a deadly jungle world filled with danger and fear, populated by ferocious aliens who wait in the undergrowth to pounce on the unwary and mercilessly kill anyone who stumbles across them. Even the plant life itself is malignant here, constantly twisting and growing in unnatural ways to trap its prey. A drop-ship containing vitally important surveillance files has crash landed on this hostile planet. It’s up to you and your squad of Space Marine Scouts to retrieve these files, activate the dropship, and hopefully escape with your lives.

This game will be available to pre-order from 11th June 2016.  A fun and compelling two-player challenge, Lost Patrol is a boxed game set on a hostile jungle world full of sinister hidden danger! Players assume the roles of a Space Marine Scout squad and a fierce swarm of cunning Genestealers eager to end their lives. The Genestealers of Moraz III have every advantage on their home turf and will make every attempt to quickly despatch the human intruders. The Scouts will almost certainly all die. But how far can you get? Will you ever see the drop pod tile? Each game becomes a challenge to try and get further – and because you can play a game in  about 10 minutes- you can play loads of it, and swap sides and make it a competition with your friends! Inside the box, you’ll find five Space Marine Scouts, twelve Genestealers, six Infestations (the markers of imminent Genestealer appearance),thirty hex tiles and the full rules for play. $60.00  US/ $70.00 CAN

Rivals of the Pharaoh

The September 15 release of Rivals of the Pharaoh promises some pretty spectacular cards for Yu Gi Oh:

Konami Digital Entertainment Inc, is proud to bring you the latest product solicitation, Duelist Pack: Rivals of the Pharaoh.  The greatest Duelists attract the most fearsome foes, and the legendary Pharaoh is no exception! Duelist Pack: Rivals of the Pharaoh is packed with cards used by and inspired by the Pharaoh’s toughest opponents and their most exhilarating Duels from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! animated series.

Sometimes a friend, more often an enemy, billionaire Duelist extraordinaire Seto Kaiba pushed the Pharaoh to his limits from the very first episode.  His Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon’s signature move, Neutron Blast, is now a Spell Card that lets your own Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon attack 3 times in a turn – once for each head – without interruption! Duelists can also use knowledge of their own greatest rivals to their advantage with Lullaby of Obedience, a one-of-a-kind Spell Card that lets you play any monster you can name from your opponent’s Deck!

When the dust settled on the Battle City Tournament, it became apparent that Yugi’s mild-mannered schoolmate Bakura, possessed by the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring, was the Pharaoh’s true enemy all along. Fans have been requesting Bakura’s Dark Sanctuary Field Spell for over a decade, and now it’s finally here! While Dark Sanctuary is in play, every attack your opponent makes has a 50% chance of backfiring completely and damaging your opponent, plus you can also use your Monster Zones to complete the Destiny Board’s terrifying message and win the Duel automatically!

To free the Pharaoh’s soul from eternal imprisonment in the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi had to defeat him in one climactic Duel in Egypt. Yugi’s Silent Swordsman and Silent Magician monsters from that Duel represented his own personal growth throughout the original series, and now, 10 years later, those monsters have grown up too! These new monsters can shush Spell Cards while their Attack Points grow and grow throughout the Duel, eventually becoming strong enough to take down even the toughest monsters Dueling has to offer.

Last but certainly not least, you’ll even find cards used by Maximillion Pegasus and Marik Ishtar, the Pharaoh’s final opponents from Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, respectively.

Duelist Pack: Rivals of the Pharaoh contains 11 brand-new cards, and 46 cards in all: 24 Commons, 10 Rares, 6 Super Rares, and 6 Ultra Rares.

AEG and GW

This week's column on ICV2 compares the year long promotional campaign AEG launched for its lines to the 2 week blitz GW did for Warhammer Quest

AEG: A Year of Promotion

This week's column on ICV2 looks at the promotional programs AEG has put into place for their product releases for the rest of the year.

Buck Rogers Adventure Game

The Buck Rogers Adventure Game has an interesting history. HeroPress has information on the rules and content but I want to briefly touch on the backstory of the game.

Gary Gygax had just lost control of TSR, which he had actually had for a only brief period of time (read this for more details) and the reins of the company were now in the hands of Lorraine Williams, who, through her family, also owned the rights to the Buck Rogers character (do you see where this is going).

Since the rights to Buck Rogers were separate from TSR, Williams, while continuing to produce the company's mainstay D&D products, also directed TSR to produce books, boardgames, comics and RPGs utilizing the Buck Rogers license. This meant that TSR had to pay a licensing fee for use of the character to the Williams family for each publication. TSR's foray, under Williams' direction, into the Buck Rogers universe lasted from about 1988 until 1993 and, while Buck Rogers did not cause the collapse of the company (low cash reserved and high returns from the book trade did that), it did distract the company from focusing on its core product lines at a time when the company had significant penetration into the mass market but and needed management to focus on those product rather than promoting a product line based on a 50+ year old license.

Privateer Press and Free Riders

Privateer Press put out a press release today indicating that all of its North American distributors have signed up to its "no free riders" policy, which Privateer hopes will discourage high volume retailers that add no benefit to the hobby such as offering play space or conducting hosting tournaments or organized play. The stick to get stores in line is delayed access to new releases from Privateer Press.

There is no indication yet as to how Privateer plans to police the retail level to insure compliance. I assume the company will first look at those retailers with a history of egregious discounting with no in store play to support them and direct distributors to delay new releases to those stores.  No indication if the new policy applies to Amazon, arguably the most egregious "free rider" of them all.

Warhammer 40,000 The State of the Hobby

This week's ICV2 column looks at a survey of over 1000 Warhammer 40,000 players and some of the findings, such as that Eldar are viewed as the most powerful army.

Free Comic Book Day

Saturday is the 15th annual Free Comic Book Day and if you saw the news on WSIL 3, you know we have a number of events going on to celebrate:

Free comic books all day. Everyone coming into the store gets 2 free books, 2 more if you come in costume and 1 more if you have your Preferred Customer Card with you. Get 1 book for every 2 back issues you buy off the rack, 1 for every 5 cans of food you bring in for the Good Samaritan Food Pantry and 2 for every action figure you purchase.from the figure room. 2 more if you come in costume.

All graphic novels Buy one, get one of equal or lesser value, 1/2 off

10 a.m. to noonish:  Sketches by Matthew Miller of Capybara Ink
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet the hosts of WDBX's Nerd Heard
Noon to 4 Meet Stimpy, a rescue cat from the Humane Society of Jackson County. While Stimpy is here, we will donate 10% of all purchases to the Humane Society.
Noon to 4:  Meet the members of the Southern Illinois Steampunk Society and talk steampunk and comics with them.
4 to 7:  Meet the members of the So Il Roller Girls. Get autographs and photos and find out more about roller derby.

While they last cookies from Insomnia Cookies and coupons from Fat Patties. Free cotton candy courtesy of Murdale True Value.

La Unica Bakery will be selling pastries to those waiting in line prior to our opening the doors.

International TableTop Day

This week's ICV2 column focuses on International TableTop Day