As Billy Idol once wrote in a famed poem from the 1980s, “In the midnight hour, babe, more, more, more”. Game publishers are happy to indulge the whims of Mr. Idol and others who want more of what they have to offer, as with the announcement from Flatout Games for Cascadia: Landmarks, an expansion for the 2022 Spiel des Jahres-winning Cascadia.
In this expansion from Randy Flynn, Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, and Shawn Stankewich, players create sprawling habitats and place beautiful natural landmarks within them. Landmarks give each environment its own look and feel, while also providing dynamic endgame scoring bonuses. What’s more, this expansion includes more unique wildlife scoring cards and habitat tiles to add variety and enough components to play Cascadia with 5-6 players.
Flatout Games expects the expansion to be available in Q4 2023, and German licensee KOSMOS plans to have it available at SPIEL ’23 in October.
• Revive was one of the most talked-about games from SPIEL ’22, and its world will expand in 2023 thanks to the Revive: Call of the Abyss expansion from designers Helge Meissner, Eilif Svensson, Anna Wermlund, Kristian Amundsen Østby and publisher Aporta Games:
Aside from 16 Scyphoz cards, 18 journey cards, 3 lakes, and the devotion track, this expansion contains 15 new machine tokens, 9 slot modules, 9 new citizen cards, and four new tribes, with all of the content (other then the Cordycephians tribe) being compatible with solo play. The four new tribe boards feature only an advanced side, and each has its own unique rules, advanced abilities, and technologies:
—The KAIROS have two modes — day and night — and their abilities depend on the current mode. Switching between the two modes at the right time is crucial to this tribe’s success.
—The GIB’WARKS has access to powerful gadgets that boost their switch actions, and they may unlock more gadgets for even more flexibility. Their tribe ability lets them reset their switch, which is powerful because the switch action is even more important now that it lets you initiate journeys.
—The OSTARIUS build huge gates which they can switch on and off, either helping or hindering other players. Gates require quite some space, but if placed well, OSTARIUS may temporarily block off parts of the game board, possibly securing them for themselves.
—The CORDYCEPHIANS leech other players, taking advantage of their cards, their buildings, and even their technologies. The CORDYCEPHIANS must therefore adapt their strategy to the opponents they are facing.
• Spanish publisher Devir has announced a SPIEL ’23 release for Bitoku: Resutoran, which features three modules that can be used individually or in unison for 2021’s strategy game Bitoku from Germán P. Millán. From the publisher:
