When I found out that there was a new Stonemaier game on the near horizon, I’m not ashamed to admit that a bit of wee came out. I then found out what it was all about. “Not designed by Jamey”…okay… “card based”…oh. And so my enthusiasm fell apart. I was then, as we say on the podcast, greyscaled uninterested. However, Stonemaier’s reputation kept me with half an eye on the ball here. After all, I was pleasantly surprised by Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, so perhaps the metaphorical lightning would strike twice.

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 It was Forrest Gump who famously said “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get”. Which is clearly nonsense as the list of contents is on the box. And even if it’s not, there’s a contents sheet inside. Anyone who buys a box of chocolates at random is obviously either blind or a Grade-1 moron. I raise the possibility of unknown or potentially unpleasant content as we at Polyhedron Collider regularly are sent pre-production, pre-kickstarter or prototype games to assess, review, cast judgement upon and playtest ahead of any proposed release. This process does yield some genuinely good games, some games that have a great idea, but need a bit of improvement plus a spit and polish and then there are the games that, like an albino Vampire, should never see the light of day. Thankfully the games in the latter category are, like the coffee cream in the box of Terry’s All Gold, relatively few and far between because most designers don’t want to release turds rolled in glitter.

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The News Ferrets have returned from their week-long news-pilgrimage with a bountiful array of news morsels for you to enjoy.

They return asking questions like "Where IS the home of Tabletop gaming?", "Should we join the Acquisition Incorporated franchise? Do they have medical insurance" and "Should we be Arthurian Knights or Cavemen first?" 

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As always, we at Collider Towers have our collective fingers pressed to the pulse of Kickstarter Board Games.  We are on the very bleeding edge of what is hot and that is why we can tell you about amazing current Kickstarters but also campaigns that begin in the very near future that we think you'll want to keep your eye on.

This week we look to defend the body from infection in Trouble in Templetown, explore new ways to win with the expansion for the rather excellent Endeavor.  There's polyomino cats in Isle of Cats and a reprint for the very first game entered into the BGG database.

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Congratulations!  You escaped the computer that was stuck in “Kill All Humans” mode.  You managed to build an escape shuttle and now you’re headed back to Earth.  Time to put your feet up (especially easy in zero-gravity, you don’t need a footstool or anything), sure there’s an asteroid field between you and home but the autopilot can deal wi...I beg your pardon, did you just say “malfunctioning sensors”.

Ah crap!

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This week's News Collider, bringing you the best in board game news we start with a story about the owner of a board game cafe who was taken to court for not paying his staff, we have a sneaky peak at what Wizards of the Coast are bringing us with their new Essentials Kit, Metal Gear Solid board game pre-orders and some highlights from the Origins Game Fair Awards.

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You visit the Polyhedron Collider website looking for some game recommendations and you know that not only do those chaps have excellent taste in boardgames they are also on the very bleeding edge of what is cool in board gaming.

After reading the weekly Kickstarter highlights do you:

1. Back all of the games mentioned
2. Back all of the games except that really dodgy looking one.
3. Make your own, careful, considered and informed choice.
4. Stuff it all and go balls deep for the T-Rex mini that you are absolutely sure you'll get...one day.

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Towards the end of last month Modiphius announced they would be launching a new tabletop skirmish game in partnership with Bethesda Games Studio, and that game was Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms.  The announcement came with images of a Dragonborn miniature which would then be on a limited sale during the UK Games Expo.

To say I was very excited about this news is an understatement.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with the founder of Modiphius, Chris Birch to find out a little bit more about the game during the expo.

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There was something about this year's expo that made it very special for me.  Perhaps it was the excellent company I kept.  Perhaps it was the now legendary map or perhaps it was the standard of games on offer.

We've already spoken at length about some of the games we saw on episode 63 of the podcast, and both Andy and Jon have put fingers to keyboard to tell you about the games they enjoyed, but here are a few more of the games I played.

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They say, quite accurately, that Christmas comes but once a year. Writing this article in June, that may seem like an odd thing to open with. However, there are a lot of things that Christmas has in common with the UK Games Expo. They both get a lot of people excited; both have enormous expectation, are inevitably exhausting and both leave the adults completely skint after a flurry of purchasing the latest and greatest. I may or may not be speaking from experience on that last point.

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This week’s board game news is predominantly talking about growth.  Not just the swelling of our collective board game collections after Expo, but about how the hobby and everything attached is just getting bigger and bigger.

So sit back, relax and come and celebrate some good news and success in our little hobby in this week’s News Collider.

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We all want Batman.  

Of course we do.  It goes without saying.

In fact, we all want to be Batman - just imagine how many games you could fit into the Batcave (not to mention always having a butler to play games with). Although you’d probably never make game night.  Anyway, Aside from the Gotham City Chronicles Season 2 campaign that will set you back just over £500 (for seasons 1 & 2 or as I like to think of it “half a thousand” - just to help remind myself that I can’t possibly spend that much money on a board game) there are a bunch of other fantastic looking games for your consideration.

Pirates, war heroes, robots, fancy-pants poker chips and a desperate race through space are all offered up from our ramshackle panel of judges here at Collider Towers for your Kickstarter considerations.

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We are back from three (and a bit) days of awesome gaming and meeting awesome people at the UK’s largest tabletop gaming convention.  Join us as we discuss coping with the Mondays, being utterly knackered and sampling as many board games as we possibly could at the UK Games Expo 2019.

Yet again we would like to thank the awesome people behind the UK Games Expo for making the best convention yet!

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The dust of another UK Games Expo has settled and I'm now back to news ferret wrangling.  As it so happens the news ferrets managed to root out some delicious tidbits of upcoming releases.

In this week we can tell you a little about the games we know are coming, unfortunately there is a still some fallout to the whole Projared stuff and how the UK Games Expo organiser's threw the ban-hammer hard at the DM who just wanted to shock and upset people.

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