Mayfair Games has announced three upcoming releases:  a serious train game, a game about “nuns on the run,” and a game of fighting wildfires.  In Ablaze, players battle fires in three different scenarios:  “Wildfire,” in which the players try to control a forest fire while maintaining a link to water; “Volcano,” in which players try to stop a fire started by a an erupting volcano using an air tanker; and “On the Run,” in which players try to save animals fleeing a brush fire started by lightning.  The $20 game includes 48 firefighter pawns, 47 forest tiles, a volcano tile, a plane tile, and rules.  It’s designed by Heinrich Glumpler, and will ship in late February.   

 

Originally published in 1989 by Hartland Trefoil, 1853 India uses the 18XX game system in a railway building game set in imperial India. It’s designed by Francis Tresham (and revisors) and includes the board, 200 track tiles, cubes, disks, shares, train pieces, company charters, money and the rulebook.  This six-hour game (yes, that’s six hours and Mayfair says that even players familiar with the rules should expect to spend four hours) for three to six players ages 16 and up will release later this month at $75 retail.

 

Nuns on the Run takes place in a grand abbey, where novices are out of their cells trying not to be caught by the abbess and the prioress before they fulfill their secret wishes.  At the other end of the spectrum from 1853 India, Nuns on the Run plays in 45 minutes with three to eight players ages 10 and up.  Designed by Frederic Moyersoen, it includes the board, score sheets, two player figures, tokens, cards, a die, markers, and rulebook.  It will release in late February at $35.