Czech Games Edition premiered a number of new game titles at the Spiel international game fair in Essen, Germany earlier this month. 

In addition to Vlaada Chvatil’s Codenames (see “Vlaada Chvatil’s ‘Codenames’”), the new Through the Ages:  A New Story of Civilization and Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends – Nethervoid, both from Chvatil, joined Vladimir Suchy’s The Prodigals Club to round out the publisher’s new offerings

Popular with fans and critics, 2004’s Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization challenged players to build the best possible civilization through different historical periods.  Through the Ages:  A New Story of Civilization is the revised version of this modern classic.  Based on feedback from the game’s many fans, the new edition has been modified with improved game mechanics and numerous changes to the game cards, all intended to improve game balance.

Tash-Kalar, Chvatil’s game of arena combat (see “CGE to Handle Its Own English Language Distribution”), is expanded by the Nethervoid player deck, designed around demonic forces that have been pulled through a gateway from the Nethervoid.  In addition to the cards and tokens required for the game, a special Gateway token is added to the game, which can influence the power of the demonic forces in the expansion.

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Designer Vladimir Suchy’s (Klondike 1896, Last Will) new title is The Prodigals Club, turns the world of Victorian gentlemen on it head, with players competing to lose elections, lose all of their possessions, and offend as many people as possible.  While The Prodigals Club is a stand-alone game, it includes rules for combining it with 2011’s Last Will (see “'Power Grid' and 'Last Will' Expansions”).

Czech Games Edition will be bringing the new titles to the U.S., but release dates and MSRP have not yet been announced.