2012 kicked off in a big way for the board gaming community, as Gary Games finally unleashed the next standalone edition of Ascension in the form of Storm of Souls. Much like Chronicle of the Godslayer, Storm is a hundred-card center deck and enough “always available” and starter cards to accommodate up to four players. Storm can also be combined with Chronicle and/or its expansion Return of the Fallen to hold six players. As this is a “base” release, Storm also includes a new and slightly-revised playing board, along with the usual array of red and white honor crystals. Sadly, a more streamlined version for those of us who already have more crystals than we could ever possibly need and little interest in the board is not offered. READ MORE

One of my non-gaming passions is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and other writings. I own over forty of his books (most of which I’ve read multiple times), two animated adaptations, three BBCTV movie adaptations, and even a couple of point-and-click computer games (although I still need to give Discworld Noir a try…). So when I learned of not one, but two Discworld board games coming out this year to say I was thrilled would be a gross understatement. READ MORE

Somewhere in the unlikely Venn diagram overlap of Dominion and Race for the Galaxy rests Seth Jaffee’s Eminent Domain, a Kickstarter-funded project published by Tasty Minstrel Games. In this deck-building game, two to four players are each given a starter deck of nine role cards and one politics card (a one-shot effect that replaces itself with a role card of the player’s choice) and one randomly-dealt start planet tile. READ MORE

One-half expansion and one-half revision, Dixit Odyssey continues the fine quality of Jean-Louis Roubira’s award-winning Dixit gameplay. Like the original Dixit and its expansion, Odyssey contains 84 cards depicting dreamlike images, bringing the complete Dixit arsenal to around 250 cards. Fortunately, Odyssey‘s box insert was specially designed to hold all of these cards, with three divisions meant to contain each release’s stack of cards individually if that’s the way you have them organized. This insert comes at the expense of the idyllic scoreboard of the original, which is a minor loss at best. The new scoreboard is literally more straightforward, just thirty spaces arranged in a row on a simple folding board. READ MORE

The political struggles of 12th-century Japan set the backdrop for Ninjato, a Z-Man Games publication designed by Adam West (no, not that one) and Dan Schnake. Ninjato combines elements of push-your-luck, set collection, and a limited number of actions (and rounds) to provide an engaging strategic experience for two to four players. READ MORE

Last year, as part of my Halloween-themed columns, I discussed Fury of Dracula, a cat-and-mouse deduction game that featured four heroes chasing the elusive vampire across Europe in a race against time. While I enjoy Fury when I have the chance (and time) to play it, the combat mechanics and certain event cards occasionally detract from the experience and cause the game to run much longer than necessary. Letters from Whitechapel (published in the US by Nexus) takes the same hidden-movement concept of Fury and streamlines it, allowing for quicker — and more strategic — play. READ MORE