This week we’ve got some highly-anticipated releases like Dominion: Alchemy alongside staff favorites Catacombs and the D&D Player’s Strategy Guide. Read on for the full list…

Dominion: Alchemy $29.95
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Players: 2-4, Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 20 Minutes

The newest expansion for the hit card game Dominion has arrived.  All of the Dominion expansions have added new elements to the game. Alchemy introduces the potion.  The potion is a new treasure card that is played to activate cards.  Alchemy’s cards allow new possibilities for more Action oriented decks in Dominion.  It also contains new cards that do not require the potion to add to play.

Dominion: Alchemy is an expansion, so it can’t be played by itself; to play with it, you need Dominion, or Dominion: Intrigue.  Dominion and Intrigue  provide the basic cards you need to play (Treasure, Victory, and Curse cards), as well as the full rules for setup and gameplay.  Dominion Alchemy can also be combined with any other Dominion expansions you have.

Dominion $44.95
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Players: 2-4, Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30 Minutes

Dominion is back! The 2009 deck building Spiel des Jare winner has returned just in time for the new Alchemy expansion. If you missed it the first time around, now’s a great time to pick it up.

Forbidden Island $18.00
Designer: Matt Leacock
Players: 2-4, Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 30 minutes

Forbidden Island is a new game from Pandemic designer Matt Leacock.  It too is a cooperative game and the rules will look familiar to anyone who has played Pandemic.  Players are adventurers attempting to collect the four treasures of Atlantis before the island slips beneath the waves. The map is randomly constructed with tiles. Players, who all have different roles and abilities, race against the rising tide that threatens the island to collect all four treasures before the island is completely submerged.

Catacombs $55.00 – recommended by Aaron Lawn!
Designers: Aron West, Marc Kelsey, Ryan Amos
Players: 2-5, Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 30 Minutes

Catacombs is an action/dexterity based adventure board game, similar in theme to Descent.  One player controls the Overseer, controlling the monsters of the catacombs.  The other player(s) control the four heroes who cooperatively try to defeat the monsters and eventually the Catacomb Lord.  Each of the heroes has special weapons and abilities.

The main mechanic of Catacombs involves the players “flicking” wooden discs representing the monsters and the heroes.  Contact with an opposing piece inflicts damage but missiles, spells, and other special abilities can cause different effects.  When all of the monsters of a room have been cleared, the heroes can move further into the catacomb. Items and equipment upgrades can be purchased from with gold taken from fallen monsters.  The Catacomb Lord is the final opponent that the heroes must defeat to win the game.  However, the Overseer wins if all of the heroes are defeated. The game is designed for quick setup and fast play in 30 to 60 minutes.

Forgecraft Bases $Variable
We recently brought in a large collection of fine resin scenic bases from Forgecraft.  We have a variety of themes (stone floor, steampunk, sci-fi, slate, and more) in all the sizes and shapes used for Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, Malifaux, D&D, and other 25-32mm scale miniatures.  The prices are reasonable, the detail is crisp, and the resin is of good quality; check them out on the new spinner rack near the modeling supplies.

Wild Talents 2^nd Edition Hardcover $49.99
Wild Talents Second Edition features new art by Todd Shearer, a massively expanded chapter on the history of the World Gone Mad by Dennis Detwiller, chapters on running superhero games and playing superheroes by Greg Stolze, and updated and cleaned-up rules throughout. Wild Talents uses the same d10 system as Godlike – another fine supers game that we really enjoy. The 2nd edition was developed and produced by Arc Dream Publishing, and is printed and published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

A softcover, digest-sized bare-bones edition of Wild Talents 2 is also available for only $9.99, so everyone in your gaming group can have access to the core rules without a large financial investment.

Daring Tales Compendium 4 14.99
Cubicle 7 continues to produce pulp adventures for their line of Savage Worlds supplements with the fourth in the series of Daring Tales. Quest to locate the fabled sword of King Arthur: Excalibur! Thwart a Nazi plot to recover the chalice Dracula used to become an immortal vampire!  Unearth treasure and terror in Manchuria in The Muramasa Curse! Dive into the dusty tombs of ancient Egypt to the Acropolis of Athens! Daring Tales of Adventure: Compendium 4 contains four two-fisted pulp adventures for Savage Worlds.

Dungeons and Dragons Strategy Guide: $29.95 – Finn’s staff pick for the month!
The ad copy on this book is somewhat misleading. It’s an advice book for novice and intermediate D&D players, not a min/max book for power gamers. The artwork and writing style are casual and approachable. The guide offers plain and practical advice for navigating all the 4e “crunch”: building and leveling an effective character, how the various roles function in combat and what feats & powers work best for each role, ways to develop party synergy, and tactical advice for working together in combat. The book doesn’t stop with combat, though – it also goes into the “soft” part of D&D, like developing character backgrounds, working with other players’ play styles, and helping to build an adventure collaboratively. This is an essential book for someone new or still trying to find their groove in D&D 4e.

Dresden Files Preorder and Dresdacon, July 10th!
As many of you know, we here at EndGame are fans of the Dresden Files series of novels.  We are currently taking preorders for the Dresden Files RPG, due in dead tree format July 1^st . Here’s the great news: between then and now, if you purchase a preorder of the two Dresden Files books (Players Book $49.99 and World and Character book $39.99), we will give you a pdf copy of the book at time of payment to tide you over until they arrive.

To celebrate the release of The Dresden Files Role Playing Game, EndGame is pleased to announce DresdaCon: a full day of nothing but games set in the “Dresdaverse.” Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 10!

Each game session will last roughly four hours. Your GM will provide a “mostly pre-made” city and set of characters. You will need to fill in some of the details during the session, which is half the fun. The GM will also teach the rules during play, so don’t worry there.

As we get closer to the event, we will announce some special guests from Evil Hat Productions. Currently, we have two confirmed. We are pleased to have Lead Project Developer, Ryan Macklin run one of our tables, sign books, and answer your questions.

We also have the Author of A Penny for My Thoughts, Paul Tevis in attendance!

More coming soon… stay tuned to the DresdaCon home page for the latest info.