Latest news with #boardgame
CBC
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
A St. Thomas woman is launching a new board game!
Carole Coplea of St. Thomas created a new trick-taking board game called Finesse. Coplea told London Morning about her game and what it was like to create a game from the ground up.
CTV News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Saskatoon takes part in Catan national qualifiers
WATCH: Saskatchewan's Catan community gathered in Saskatoon on Saturday to find the board game's best player. WATCH: Saskatchewan's Catan community gathered in Saskatoon on Saturday to find the board game's best player. Saskatchewan's Catan community gathered in Saskatoon on Saturday to find the board game's best player. 'It's simple, but it also has a strategy to it. So, it's more strategic than Monopoly, but less complex than chess,' Tyrel Wilgosh, the event organizer and founder of Sask. Catan, explained. Catan, formerly known as The Settlers of Catan, is a strategy board game that originated in Germany in 1995, where players compete to build the strongest settlement. When Wilgosh first began planning the event, he didn't expect a turnout of nearly 50 players. The strong attendance even prompted the tournament to move to a larger venue, Gather Local Market. 'It's very surprising Saskatoon had this big of a community. but they're very who don't know how to play the game are taught very easily,' Wilgosh said. The qualifier will determine who is Saskatchewan's best Catan player. They will then go on to compete on a national level, in the hopes of heading to Germany for the world finals. Saskatoon takes part in Catan national qualifiers Rylee Moody, Skylar Elliot, and Hannah Kearnan often play the game with one another. They said what makes it so appealing to so many. 'My favorite thing about playing Catan is that it's a new game every time you play, so every time you're not playing the same board, it's completely different. So, I find it's a little bit hard to strategize because you're playing a new game every time, but that's what makes it fun,' Elliot said. Moody explained that the simple concept makes it easy to share the game with others. 'It's a very approachable game. Anybody who's new to board games tends to really enjoy Catan, so it's a good one to really get people into good board games,' Moody said. Of course, the drive to win is certainly a motivating factor for many. 'I find it's a little addictive as well. Every time I play with these two, they're always winning, and I just want a chance to win,' Kearnan said. Catan lovers can be found across the globe, and events like this one allow the community to connect with one another. 'Sometimes you just want to mix it up and play with new people. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to play with some different strategies, different people, and just mix it up a little bit,' Elliot said. Sask. Catan has additional events planned during the summer. The next one, called 'Connect the World,' will be live streamed across approximately 30 countries.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A new board game simulates how a US-China war would be fought
A board game depicts how a kill chain is intrinsic to combat with precision weapons. Players race to detect and attack their opponent in a simulated US-China war in 2040. The game's designer is a Marine veteran who designs war games for a think tank. America and China may go to war someday and no one knows what that war between superpowers will be like. How can armies survive on a battlefield laced with so many lethal weapons like hypersonic missiles and hunter-killer drones? Answering those questions is the genesis of "Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific," a board game that depicts combat between American and Chinese forces around 2040. Based on Fleet Marine Force — a tactical-level training simulation for the US Marine Corps — "Littoral Commander" is now used by the US Naval Academy and various US and foreign military schools. The game is now available to the general public for about $75. "Littoral Commander" is part of a genre known as "serious games," which are educational tools for teaching complex subjects such as healthcare and foreign policy. The idea is that games offer a more immersive experience than manuals and PowerPoint lectures. "Littoral Commander" is intended to illustrate what has emerged as the crux of modern warfare: the "kill chain" in which sensors locate and identify the enemy, developing targeting data that operators use to attack the enemy target before it does the same. Think of it as a more realistic version of the game of "Battleship." Already in the Ukraine war, the F2T2EA (find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess) process has become crucial as Russia and Ukraine race to speed up the sensor-to-shooter connection. "The game at its very deepest core is about the F2T2EA process, whether kinetic capabilities such as missiles and drones, or non-kinetic capabilities such as electronic warfare and cyber," Sebastian Bae, designer of "Littoral Commander," told Business Insider. "Littoral Commander" resembles the paper wargames that date back to the 19th Century kriegspiel used by the German military to train staff officers. Units are rated for firepower, range and speed. Players alternate taking actions such as movement, initiating combat (resolved with a 20-sided die). and resupply. Depending on the scenario, victory conditions include destroying enemy units, seizing ground or preventing the enemy from taking territory. An "Influence Meter" reflects how popular support may affect a campaign — for example, destroying at least three enemy units in a single turn, or if the enemy conducts a missile attack on friendly units in a city (presumably injuring civilians), then the Influence Meters shifts in your favor, resulting in benefits such as additional resources. "Littoral Commander" comes with multiple maps, including the Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa), the Taiwan Strait, the Philippine island of Luzon and the Luzon Strait, and the Malacca Strait between Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Also included are several scenarios, such as battling for a key island or attempting to stop enemy ships passing through a strait; players can also devise their own battles. The American forces include Marine infantry platoons, backed by amphibious combat vehicles, rocket artillery, air defense and logistics units, as well as US Navy destroyers and submarines. They face Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps mechanized infantry and reconnaissance platoons, supported by light tanks, howitzer and rocket artillery, air defense, and logistics units, as well as destroyers, frigates and submarines. This order of battle reflects the many small-scale fights in a US-China war. Rather than the massed armies or huge fleets that fought at Midway or Okinawa, a new Pacific War would likely be waged by relatively small but heavily armed amphibious units battling to establish missile bases, airfields and listening posts on strategic islands. Indeed, the US Marine Corps has radically revamped itself for this mission by adopting Force Design 2030. The Marines shed their cumbersome tanks and created mobile littoral regiments armed with anti-ship missiles, which can interdict Chinese warships transiting waterways such as the Luzon and Malacca Straits. Games like "Littoral Commander" are meant to spur thought and imagination, rather than create a surefire plan to defeat China. "It is not a depiction of warfare of the future, because I cannot predict the future nor can any game," said Bae, a former Marine sergeant and Iraq War veteran who now designs wargames for the Center for Naval Analyses think tank. "I created 'Littoral Commander' to be an intellectual sandbox for people to explore, engage, and learn about capabilities. How these capabilities work and what challenges and opportunities they may offer." "Littoral Commander" illustrates the panoply of current and future capabilities through 200 "Joint Capability Cards", complete with separate US and Chinese decks. Cards include drones, bombers, cyber operations and signals intelligence, minefields, special forces raids, naval gunfire and other extras that players purchase using a limited number of "command points." The mechanism is somewhat gamey — battalions commanders don't get B-52 strikes on demand — but the practical effect is to allow players to experiment with a wide variety of capabilities. "As a tactical leader, you only get a tiny sliver of them at any given moment," Bae explained. "But I wanted players to think, plan, and assess how and what they needed to execute their plan." Winning at "Littoral Commander" means mastering a few key variables. Perhaps the most important is detecting the enemy: as the Ukraine war has shown, what can be seen can be destroyed. Counters on the "Littoral Commander" map are considered "concealed:" flipped upside down so that the opponent can't see whether they are an infantry platoon, a missile battery — or a dummy piece simulating the fog of war. The dilemma is that concealed units can't be fired at. Yet they lose concealment when they fire, or when their locations are scouted by enemy reconnaissance platforms or ground troops. Thus "Littoral Commander" becomes a contest of hide-and-seek, where the combatants try to pinpoint enemy troops for missile strikes. All while screening their own forces from enemy reconnaissance or, if spotted, changing position in order to vanish. As the Ukraine war has shown, long-range fires dominate the modern battlefield. Missile and artillery units in "Littoral Commander" have enormous firepower and range, but the combatants only have a limited number of guided munitions. The same applies to air and missile defense units, which have a limited supply of interceptors. Players have to carefully decide not just when to fire their long-range weapons — and lose concealment — but also whether to expend munitions or save them for future battles. Picking the right Joint Capability Cards is crucial: for example, the Chinese CH-901 drone swarm cards offers additional long-range strikes, while the US Space Satellite reveals concealed Chinese units. Bae already has published a commercial sequel — "Littoral Commander Baltic States" — with expansions planned for Australia, Japan, Norway and other nations. In addition to teaching military professionals, he hopes these games will educate the general public. "I want people to learn various capabilities of modern warfare and how they interact," said Bae. "Like how having a long-range missile means nothing if you cannot find the enemy, and how sequencing and timing matters in the types of actions you do at the tactical level." "I wanted to make the game accessible to my professional community, which is the Department of Defense," Bae said. "But I also wanted normal people to understand our community better in an engaging way." Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Read the original article on Business Insider
Malay Mail
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Hasbro marks Monopoly's 90th anniversary with Malaysia-themed edition and three fast-paced expansion packs (VIDEO)
KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Hasbro has launched the Monopoly Classic Malaysia edition to mark the board game's 90th anniversary, along with three new expansion packs aimed at offering quicker and more dynamic gameplay. The special Malaysia edition features updated graphics, larger tokens, and game pieces, as well as improved storage, and is priced at RM99.90. 'Whether you're a seasoned player or just discovering the game, Monopoly has something for everyone,' the company said in a statement. Hasbro noted that Monopoly has sold over 275 million copies worldwide since its 1935 debut, and is now available in 47 languages and played in more than 100 countries. The three expansion packs — Free Parking Jackpot, Go To Jail, and Buy Everything — are each priced at RM44.90 and are designed to add unique twists to the original game while reducing playtime to about 40 minutes. The three expansion packs — Free Parking Jackpot, Go To Jail, and Buy Everything — are each priced at RM44.90 and are designed to add unique twists to the original game while reducing playtime to about 40 minutes. — Picture courtesy of Hasbro Free Parking Jackpot turns the Free Parking space into a spin-to-win jackpot, allowing players to collect bonuses like free properties and cash. The Go To Jail expansion introduces Corruption and Super Corruption cards, giving jailed players ways to disrupt opponents or escape by rolling special dice. Buy Everything lets players purchase previously unavailable spaces such as the GO square and Jail, while also offering Sale Vault cards with abilities or instant-win conditions. The new Malaysia edition and expansion packs are now available at major retailers and online stores including Toys 'R' Us Malaysia.
