Our long-running Tuesday Boardgame night wakes up after a year off, and is quickly spreading through the store. Right now it’s a lot of players turning up and picking what game they want to play. It’s pretty much run by the Berkeley Boardgamers, so thanks go out to them, but for more store info contact Ralph (ralph_colby@hotmail.com).
BELLY UP TO THE BAR, BOYS
Congratulations, you’ve found your way to Games of
Berkeley’s official bulletin board. You will find, here, various store
announcements, tidbits of information, assorted gossip and opinions, and, most
to the point, almost anything that anyone of you might want to post: Looking
for a group to game with; looking for players for a game; offering reviews;
comments (not too rude) on the store or related subjects; opinions on game
matters, and replies to them. Drop them off at the store, or email them (events@gamesofberkeley.com), and,
as often as we can prod Ralph from his lethargy, we’ll post them.
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
World of Warcraft Tuesday will begin alternating between booster drafts ($10.00) and Constructed Tournaments ($2.50), beginning with constructed on Tuesday the 1st, at 6 PM. There’ll also be a couple of sanctioned events in July. Contact Brian at the store for more info.
5th ED
Since everyone will be waiting around for the release of the Warhammer 40K 5th Edition, we figured that we would give you something to do. Friday, July 11th, at 9 PM (that’s at our usual closing), join Charles and Nik (buyer@gamesofberkeley.com, ‘5th Ed info’ in subject line) for a little 1000 point action—scoring for paint—to idle away the hours until Midnight when we’ll crack open the case and begin selling the books. Regular prizes, folks, on top of the fun a little play and an early chance to see what’s new in the universe.
MARVELOUS EVENT
On Monday, July 14th, at 6 PM, our VS crowd will be celebrating the release of the latest set, ‘Marvel Universe’. Format will be determined by product availability (it’s looking for hen’s teeth, trying to find more of that stuff). Contact Brian (or John) at the store for more info.
EVENIN’ ALL
Saturday, July 26th, 11 AM, will be our Eventide release party. $20.00 buys you into a sealed event. Special prizes and a foilly card for all entrants. Contact Ralph (Ralph_Colby@hotmail.com) for more info, and be sure to ask him just what the hell a ‘foilly’ card is.
XECO!—XE-WHAT?
Save the world! Xeco’s a nifty little CCG where the point is to save endangered species. Krissy (hypercombofinishko@gmail.com) will be running demos on Thursday nights, at 6 PM, for anyone interested in a collectable card game with a theme other than magic, power, and who’s-got-the-biggest-sword.
FIRST 4.0 THE STORE
Our own Marv (miniony410@gmail.com) started up GoBs first 4.0 on Fridays, at 6 PM. He’ll be working with what material’s at hand, at this early date, and wants me to let you that it’s BYOM (bring your own minis) for now. He’s just starting up, and still has a few openings, so if you want to get in on the ground floor of one of the first 4.0 campaigns to launch...
ALWAYS WHAT I LIKE TO SEE (being an RPG guy…)
A D&D Forgotten Realms campaign (17 years and over) started back in June, on Saturdays at Noon. But it’s going to be 3.5, so put away those new books. I lean a bit to the old system myself, so good luck to Travis Harrison Adcock (mellowmaveric@yahoo.com for more info).
AND NEVER FORGET…
Every Monday, at 6 PM, the Berkeley Go club will be here teaching and playing Go. It’s one of the oldest games around, and one of the best ever. It’s the only game I know where aesthetics plays a major part—if it looks like the board needs a spot of white or black, just there, that’s probably the move you want to make. Amazing…
SCREAMIN’ STEEN’S PICK OF THE WEEK—Jungle Speed!
Match the patterns on the cards; grab the wooden idol—simple, slap-jack kinda game, but loads of fun. I spent a convention selling it for Asmodee, and everyone who played it picked one up and went off laughing
SCREAMIN’ STEEN SEZ ‘CHECK IT OUT'
7/5
Big one for Catan: ‘Traders and Barbarians’ came in as the 4th ‘big box’ expansion. * Traveller continues it’s return to the living with ‘Spinward Marches’, and the latest installment of the Paizo’s Curse of the Crimson
Throne’ rolled in as well. * ‘Settlers of Canaan’ (no misprint) returned to us for those of you who like a little biblical theme in your play (take over the Holy Land instead of the island). * And I thought that I would put in a plug for one of the off-brand RPGs—‘Weapons of the Gods’, in our Misc section—give it a look.
Ho, ho, ho, they’re baaaaack—‘Trailer Park Wars: Yard Flamingos’, hun’erd of ‘um, and they’re pink. * Oooooo…gotta check them out: ‘Wicked Cthulhu dice’, and ‘bag’, from a wickedly weird Polish dice company. Ask for them up front at the dice counter. * ‘Dunwich Horror’ is back for Arkham (see last week), and FoG’s ‘Rise of Rome’ is in stock again. * ‘No Quarter 19 has popped up for you Warmachine and Hordes guys. * And, after a bit of a computer-inspired boo boo, we got in, finally, some more of the ‘Rise of the Fiends’ boosters for the Pirates of the Spanish Main punch-n-play game.
But I want to end with the ‘Origin’ award winners. Now, I kinda like this one because it seems, to me, a little more player oriented, and less mover-n-shaker guided. So, here goes: Miniature Rules of the Year—Classic Battletech. Yeah—the grand, old warhorse of little pilots in ass-kicking robots! Collectable Card Game of the Year—Legend of the Five Rings. Can’t argue—you can’t beat the world shaping and Diplomacy-with-cards aspect of the play. Roleplaying Game of the Year—Aces and Eights. An interesting one. Looks like a nice game, but it’s a western, and I’ve found that when you live in the west (yeah, California’s close enough), those RPGs just don’t tend to do well. We’ll see… Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year—Codex Arcanis. I’m going to have to check out that whole Arcanis system. It’s always looked kind of interesting. Traditional Card Game of the Year—Zombie Fluxx. Yeah! And as the cards collect on the table, the zombies will ‘horde up’ and beat ‘the brains’ out of all the players. Boardgame or Expansion of the Year—Starcraft. Another gloriously over the top ‘chrome monster’ from Fantasy Flight Games. And more, but I’m running out of room.
6/28
We got in the rest of the Dragonfire fleet—Sloops, a Galleon, a Longship—all suitable for 25mm. Grab them quick, though—our table-top guys were slavering all over them. * A bunch of new minis rolled in from Dark Sword, with the provocative names of ‘2003 Elmore Amazon’, ‘2004 Elmore Amazon’, ‘2005 Elmore Amazon’, and…you guessed it, ‘2006 Elmore Amazon’. * Stocked up on the ‘5&6 Player Expansion’ for Catan, after hearing out-of-stock-manufacturer rumors. * And a nifty little Pagan adventure for Call of Cthulhu, ‘Final Flight’, dropped onto our new rack.
Restocks on trusty old ‘Zooloretto’ rolled in, along with some copies of ‘1960 Making of a President’ (with the Tricky One himself). * ‘Tribune’ (Boardgamegeek 7.6) mines the rich grounds of cut-throat politics in the Roman world, while ‘Nefertiti’ (bgg 7.7) moves the action over to ancient Egypt. * ‘Fae Noir’, a wild looking RPG that matches elves with Sam Spade, reappeared after a bit of an absence. * And ‘Torres’ (bgg 7.4), which I have long been seeking, brings back to us its goofy tower building game-play.
We got restocks on the new ‘Metropolys’, and on the old ‘Hansa’ (both interesting games), and received many copies of the Yu-Gi-Oh Light of Destruction special edition (a neat little bonus card tossed in with 3 boosters, all at a good price). * And the Zombies!!! franchise expands with the arrival of the circus, or at least a portion of it, include a swarm of appropriate new Zombie minis, with the wonderfully named, ‘Send in the Clowns’.
6/21
I got my hands on a few more Cosmic Wimpout ‘tubes’. My main order was bounced with an ominous ‘re-doing dice’ kind of note. You might want to grab what I have now… * Ah…summertime, when the games, they are played. Ticket to Ride is leading a pack of the usual suspects with swelling sales, and we received a restock to bolster our shelves. * The boys are back, with ‘KODT #140’, and the big convention run. My avatar, WeirdPete, has a bit of a situation, having trusted his fates to Gordo and the store ape (I have a few of those here with me).
‘Shadow Chronicles’ came back in for Robotech, along with ‘Carcassonne the City’ and the ‘Explorer’s Edition’ for Savage worlds. * On the new side, ‘GM Screens’ came in for the Star Wars RPG. * Got a big restock on ‘No Quarter’ Magazines, pret’ near everything that’s still available—Warmachine (and Hordes)-heads, take note. * The latest Pokemon themes (Majestic Dawn) are selling well, and we received in a restock on both the decks. *
The mighty have fallen! Our miniatures guys have broken down and we’ve brought in an initial stock of ‘AT-43’. The section will grow as demand dictates. The ‘lead-heads’ of Sunday, grudgingly, hesitantly, reluctantly, admit that, you know, once you pull the plastic out of the box and put it on the table, and get the gaming going, well, gee…it’s pretty fun. Screamin’ Steen says, come on by and check it out. If it passes muster with our grognards, there has got to be something going on.
6/14
Somewhat more jolly this week, though the work is as burdensome as ever. ‘Killer Bunnies’ seems to be coming out of hibernation, and we restocked the wacked-out ‘Peeping Cthulhu’—suction cups on the appendages so that the Big Green One can boggle the minds of the kiddies in passing cars. * We got in a few more ‘Ground Assault’ boosters for the Star Wars punch n’ play, and we received a whole passel of ‘Fudge Dice’—six siders, two blank, two +, and two - . Roll a handful, and see how they average out. A little more intuitive system than the old numbers and charts of D&D.
‘Burning Wheel’ returned to us, and we now carry the granddad of all the ‘Werewolf’ games (one or two ‘Werewolves’; everyone closes their eyes; the werewolf (s) pick a victim; open your eyes and try to pick out who’s the werewolf)—‘Mafia’ (just substitute Lucca Brazzi for ‘werewolf’). Great paranoid fun (though there is an apocryphal story that the game originated in the Russia in the thirties, as ‘KGB’—and that just can’t be funny enough to laugh at).
The big D&D release brought a lot of players past our Order of Stick books, and we have received, subsequently, a large restock. * ‘Carcassonne: Abbey & Mayor’ and ‘Primordial Soup’ came back in, and the ‘Ticket to Ride’ card game along with the Euro ‘Metropolys’ showed up for the first time. * But maybe the coolest things were the new Reaper ‘50000’ series—figures spread through all genres of time, with a vague sci-fie tie-in, which just gives the exquisite Reaper sculptors and molders a chance to do things like cowboys and Victorian explorers. We’ve set up a special section (the ‘silver’ cards) for them, and, Screamin’ Steen says, you gotta at least take a look at them…
6/7
Ya know, some days are good, and some days are bad, and I guess in the end it all evens out. But today’s been one of the ‘low’ ones, where my mind is constantly pestering me over why my body isn’t laying in the sun somewhere. Discussions are ongoing, but here goes:
‘Red Russia’ came in from Avalanche for those hex-gridders out there who want to pit the red against white (and don’t forget those Minnesotans up there in Murmansk). * AT-43 is finally cracking open our lead-only crowd, and’s getting some play (got your apes in boys). * Arkham Horror celebrated the release of its ‘Kingston’ expansion with the re-release of the earlier ‘Curse of the Dark Pharaoh’ expansion.
I brought in some of the ‘Inquisitor’s Handbooks’ for the 40KRPG, but wasn’t sure how many of you they’d pissed off with the ‘sorry we’re out of rulebooks’ problem. Not many, I guess, so I’ve brought some more in. * Had a guy clean out our ‘Treehouse’ tubes; got ‘um back in (Rainbow and Xeno). Gotta try that game some time. * And scored a few more ‘Samurai Banzai’ boosters for L5R, for those of you looking for them.
A plug for Tanya’s favorite game—‘Testimony of Jacob Hollow’, back in, and getting harder and harder to find. * Rio came through with a nice restock, getting us copies of the long-absent ‘Caylus’, along with a nick-of-the-time restock on ‘Lost Cities’. * A friendly distributor found some copies of ‘Servants of the Betrayer’ boosters for the World of Warcraft CCG, and I stocked up on a few extra ‘Keep on the Shadowfell’ for the 4.0 rush. * And the highly-popular ‘Pandemic’ trickled in to us in woeful numbers; it’s gone already, but we’ll be getting some more next week—FLASH; next week came in early—we’ve got them.
Main Page
News/Events
Gaming Calendar