Valley Games Newsletter
Happy Easter!
This is the first newsletter of 2010 and we have been pretty busy since the last update. We have 4 titles printed and out on store shelves, we have been to a couple of conventions in North America, and our Canadian Olympic team won a couple gold medals for us. All in all a good start to the year!
Let’s start with the games new to store shelves, first we have Republic of Rome, a great game from the Avalon Hill days about politics and war and power struggles and deceit. A great game to play with friends! We had a couple of glitches there but those are being worked out right now. From the feedback out there, the game is really striking a chord with those that have been waiting for it and they love the new production.
Days of Steam, some of you saw this one at Essen and picked up a copy. What a great game that bridges the hardcore train game with a lighter tile laying design. It has all of the facets of those games in a game that can be played in under an hour. The reviews that we are receiving on this title are all excellent and that this game will appeal to a wide audience. Congratulations to Aaron Lauster on this design and word has it he is working on some other ideas at the moment, so stay tuned.
Beep! Beep! and Habitat have made their return finally after some production delays caused us to move to different printers. The new redesigned layouts of the games are a really nice touch from the first editions. Both of these titles are now available through our distribution channels and you should see them on store shelves everywhere. Habitat has a new ruleset that has been refined to make the game easier and quicker to pick up and play, and the artwork is unbelieveable.
We just got home from Las Vegas where we showed a number of games that are due out this year. Master Builder is finally ready to go and will be printing here shortly. The folks that saw the game at GAMA and got to play it were very happy with game and excited to see another Wolfgang Kramer game due out on store shelves. Players take the roles of building contractors recruited by a small medieval town to costruct the buildings and walls of the small hamlet. Players bid on contracts, hire employees and erect the actual structures by building components and putting them together. It’s not that easy because your employees all have personalities and events can happen where some might get sick or the Count may need some of your people to help with a personal project. This can delay your projects and increase your costs! At the end, you have this quaint little town on your table, smiles on everyone’s faces and all under an hour for play time.
We also debuted the first game from local designer Rob Bartel in Two by Two, this is a wonderful title of collecting animals along the storyline of Noah and his Ark. Players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs to rescue stranded animals. The goal is to find matching pairs of animals and bring them onto your ark before your opponents raise the waters. There are six animals of every type, except for the unicorns, of which there are only two. The game has two variants for play, for the younger crowd a simple matching and collecting method, where the more advanced version adds different scoring options that makes the game competitive right from the beginning! The artwork is fantastic and vibrant and the game plays in under an hour which is a must for every game shelf out there. Nice work Rob!
And finally, we signed another game…Stronghold, yes the famous title from Essen 2009, and it will be reprinted by the end of 2010!
This is a great game that has really not been done before in this way. The game is about a siege, Humans defending a castle, Orc Invaders storming the walls with all sorts of war machines and dark magic. The epic battle of good versus evil, the odds of survival is low but the story is absolutely glorious. How long can the defenders hold out? Is there no end to the horde attacking? I can’t wait to read this story!
The game has settings for 2, 3 or 4 players and each variant has multiple scenarios possible that make the game very dynamic and gives it great replayability. Players take the role of either Invader or Defender. The Defenders are fortified in the castle, waiting, the Invaders start off the board but move in quickly. Each side builds war machines and calls for divine intervention and blessings that offer bonuses to their respective side. There are ways to sabotage your opponent by sending spys in muck up the works in the castle or scouts out to mess with war machines. Traps and cauldrons of oil or war banners and ladders, there are so many different things that the game brings to the table that whether you be the attacker or the defender you are making choices on the fly and hoping your opponent doesn’t have an answer. Each turn glory from the story book is being earned by the defender holding out the Invaders, but if the Invader can breach the walls quick enough, victory is theirs.
We have modified and refined the rules from the first print run of this title and it will be available to all once they are complete. From there we are gunning for later this year to have it reprinted and out on store shelves.
The game is currently out of print, there may be a few more copies drifting around but the first print run is sold out to our knowledge in North America.
From there we are looking at a few more titles to be released this year and we will announce them as we know more. Once again, we thank all of our supporters out there and we are really excited about 2010 and the great things that will happen. We will be travelling to some other conventions this year and we look forward to meeting some of you at those shows. Until then, we’ll keep bringing great games out and we just ask you have fun playing them.
Regards,
Torben Sherwood and Rik Falch