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Dice Tower News - March 19th, 2026

The Dice Tower Mar 19, 2026
Transcript 28:11

Heat. Heat.

Good morning everybody. Welcome to Dice Hour. I'm Tom Vassel.

I'm Z Garcia.

I'm Joey Evans.

And we are here with your weekly or in this case bi-weekly news. Although last time we did this, there was so much news. It has definitely calmed down because

a lot of the news was announced the week of the Gamma Trade Show.

You'll hear more and more as we get closer to Gen Con. Should we start doing that like the sports things? The road to Genai.

Yeah.

Like the the road to Wrestlemania. The

doomsday clock for

Doomsday Clock.

Now, weren't you the one telling me they were thinking about the Lang Doomsday? They can't because of the clock.

They haven't had a clock up there forever now.

Well, anyhow, let's just jump right into it and get to the news.

Uh there is a Southern Board Game Festival happening. Well, howdy. Now, or tomorrow anyway. It's uh Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this week. This is in It says the Gulf Coast. Where did Lafayette, Louisiana?

Yeah. I got excited till I read Louisiana.

GF Coast is a tricky thing because we're technically on the G Coast.

Yeah. There's a lot on the GF coast.

I don't think we It's not called the GF Coast here.

Ours is. Yeah.

No, but I mean,

we don't say that because it would be confusing. If you say I'm on the G Coast, people think the upper GF coast.

No. FGCU is here. Florida GF Coast University. Yeah,

we just throw that word.

I don't ever go by where a university is. I once went to Miami University and

Oh, that's a miserable.

This is smaller.

Oh, that one.

Yeah, good point.

So, anyhow, this is happening this week and so you can go check it out. That is Southern Board Game Festival.com.

All right. India has their largest board game convention. This is the seventh year of it. I did not know it is happening seven times. Uh, this is happening June 19th through the 21st.

They have much cheaper badge prices than we do in America.

How much are they?

Guess. Did you just look at it?

I did not. Uh,

did you know it?

I read the news.

I read the numbers. I skipped numbers. 150.

The highend is $27. The low end is eight

for the whole time.

Yeah. And exhibitor's bases, you can still get them for 270 bucks. Wow, that's crazy.

It's cheap.

Yeah. Well, that' be fun. As a side note, we run conventions. Conventions are expensive to run, so you expect convention prices to be high.

Um, mo many conventions are going up. I saw Board Game GeekCon just increased their prices at the first time since 2017. Gen Con single day badge for Saturday is like $120 or something like that. It's very It's just crazy.

It's like 180 for four days, right?

Yeah. Hey, you might as well if you're going to buy a Saturday, just get all four days.

All right, witchcraft. This is uh coming to iOS and Google Play from Mantita Games and Salt and Pepper Games. Would this be I have not played this game. Would this You think this would be a good app game?

Yeah. Yeah, it's a solo game already. It's very simple.

Well, maybe you'll see Z play this at some point in the future then.

Good looking game.

And then surprisingly, King of Tokyo is coming to

Nintendo Switch and PS5. You not excited about this?

No, but I don't play many board games online. I mean, I'm I'm glad it's happening.

Yeah, this would be like

I'm not going to get it.

They better go full on like battle chess. I want to see those monsters walk in there and do the fighting. And

actually, I would play it then.

Yes. Right. Remember battle chest? Oh, yeah. This is what I'm excited.

Yeah. Well, will they add all 100 monsters?

Oh, uh, you can buy them, I'm sure.

Oh, that's true. The game is $20.

Yes. Each extra monster $5 a

iron rook 20.

It just mentions the basic monsters and the power cards. It doesn't mention any expansions or anything.

Um you can compete against the AI.

I would never trust an AI in a dice rolling game. Like

I just rolled exactly what I needed.

Yeah.

You know that is a way that hard versions of games are online. The AI will just cheat.

Really?

Yeah. That's one way to make a game harder. That sucks.

All right. Dog Flux.

This was actually for sale at that keeper.

This was actually for sale at um Dice Tower West cuz someone came and did a little short right because when you open Dog Flux, the first card you see is a cat.

They did that corgi wrong, man.

Uh yeah, I'm going to go with you on that one. I don't particularly love that. Poor Corgi.

Sorry, Corgi. Oh, man. Yeah. Is that Is that dog poop next to it?

It is. It is.

Huh.

Is

all right. Anyway, there's now dog flux. This here's what they say. It's the perfect companion to cat flux and a great addition to the flux line.

He's pretty excited.

He's waiting for me to get to the good news. Seven islands. This is from also from Looney Labs. Uh, there's an island hopping race game with a moving finish line. A reality TV show, which they would never allow happen because they're pretty careful about these Easter Island heads here. I'm still trying to figure out if that rumor that they have bodies is true. Every once in a while, I see a picture. They're like, they actually are bodies and they show you the far down. Like, is that AI?

I don't know.

I think they're buried.

I think, but are they buried like this much?

But they're like saying there's a whole torso. whole I saw three cabos cartoon based sto it up and it was pretty impressive.

It's based on history. You should watch it. Thanks. Anyway, this is coming. It's uh 20 bucks. Half an hour to play and it's also designed by Andrew Looney who did Flux. Katon, there's a new katan game. Zip. This is great. Why is this great?

I don't know. I mean, is it the full katan game or is it something that can be small? No, this is a rolling, right?

Oh, I look like a very full katan game of small box. I did. They make that already to be fair.

Yeah, this is coming out on May 1st. So, this is just there's 50 different layouts, tiles, and self-contained dice roll, and it's all in a zipper pouch. I don't know that I love the name, the zip thing there.

Yeah,

I don't like zipper pouches either.

You don't?

No, I mean, I don't know. was just

I like them cuz you know the stuff is not falling out that if it's a clasp it's in your bag that clasp might open. A zipper will not open.

I like if it's a zipper like what's the company that has like the boom game or the is it a bitewing that does like a zipper hard shell one.

I don't know. I imagine like a pencil case that zips. I don't know.

You're just making stuff up now. You don't even know what it looks like.

I don't but I'm just assuming things.

My problem with the word zip there is that zip looks like speedy Gonzalez.

It does look like it's a quick game. probably is compared to katan.

It also looks like the word lip with speed lines.

You always notice that stuff and then you ruin our

Thanks for ruining that. Shakes

Joan lip.

Don't give me none. All right, scurry up.

Speaking of a hard to read title, um this is from Up Games. So, I guess they they debuted last year with a game called Forestry, and then they were like, "We'll make our second game the same as the title of our company."

I do like how that looks on the side there as you're building the tree.

Yeah.

Uh this is from uh this is a designers are David Gordon and Tam. And this is a they co-owned this company along with Ammon Anderson and Greg May. That's a that's a bunch of different people there. Anyway, this is coming out in early 2026.

Cute cover.

I want to be clear. We are in early 2026. But all right,

it is cute.

I don't know. What do you think?

I don't like it. But it's the same it's the same artist as uh Sara Tang is the one who does the Flamecraft Dragons, right?

I find those have a lot more sort of personality than these. This is okay. It looks like a like an app ad or something to me.

I think it's the name that's bothering me. That scurry up font I'm not loving.

And that squirrel is going to land somewhere. They're impressive animals. When they jump, they know where they're going.

Yeah, they do. They're very good. They could be superheroes.

They should be a squirrel girl.

Cats versus cucumbers. This is from Levity Game Studios, which is also partially owned by Ammon Anderson. The other owner would be his wife. Um, we saw this game. Actually, we have this game. Uh, and I haven't played it. I believe Chris has played it. Um, and it is also was at Dice Tower West last week. They were showing this off. This is like based on that thing that cats are afraid of cucumbers because they think they're snakes or something.

Yeah, I've that was like a trend for a while throwing them out. Then people were like, "That's really mean to cats."

It is very mean to cats. It's not very nice to cucumbers either. Delicious. Delicious cats.

I was going to say there's like a bag of cucumbers in the fridge. I know who they are now.

This isn't the only game with this theme though.

No,

this whole this definitely we are at.

Yeah, this is like a busting game. There's the cat theme is a little We're There's a lot of them out right now.

Well, the next one certainly is.

What? Cucumber catastrophe.

This is from DB Games, but this is a trick taking game. So, you're trying to avoid taking tricks with cucumbers. Would you believe this is not the only trick- taking game about cucumbers?

Freedman Freeze made one also.

We're right.

That's when you know you have too many trick taking games is when there are two

on cucumbers.

About cucumbers alone.

There's not a very popular or common theme cucumbers. So, how many rolling rides are there about cucumbers? None.

None. You don't know that actually.

That's right. That's true. I don't. But

somebody's going to make one by the end of the show today.

So, this may be the Kickstarter this afternoon. or of trick taking. This may be like where they got, "All right, we've gone too far. It's time to stop."

You think so? No.

You mean where they film in a landfill?

Oh, that's sad.

That's what happened with the ET game.

It's a good game. I had it.

It is not a good game. It's wildly derided. What are you talking about?

Well, I'm sticking to the fact that I said I had it.

Okay. Treat, please. So, a week in the life of very good dogs, says someone who's never owned one. Um, anyway, this is from Courtney Shernon. This is her debut and the publisher is Soulless Game Studios. This actually came out in February, so it's already out.

Got to be careful with that pronunciation.

Yeah, let's let's not do that cuz I was I had to look and spell it. I'm like, that's just

The funny said Soulless.

You did. I was like, that's

Oh, I thought I said something bad. I

say solace.

Solace. Sorry. Is it Is it solace?

I assume a solace. Yeah,

soulless.

Solless is kind of what it sounded like. like, yeah, a game about dogs or something from some person who's never owned one. Anyway, it's from Soulless Games.

This game feels like

the game lasts seven days. I'm assuming it's ingame. And you're playing two cards from your hand to get energy bones and take different actions. It sounds interesting. It looks good in the picture.

Yeah.

All right.

He's not catching that bone.

Three Sisters. All right. Harvest Edition. This is a new version of the 2022 game three.

Did it come out in 2022? I thought for some reason it had come out earlier than that.

Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle have done several of these games now. Great.

They did one from based in New Orleans. They did one uh they did three sisters. The original one Fleet the Dice game,

Motor City,

and then the Motor City. Yeah, I think those are the four. There might be another one. Anyway, it's called Three Sisters because there's three crops, maize, beans, and squash that are raised together. There's also pumpkins as evidenced here.

And

I really enjoy Three Sisters. It's a pretty meaty roll and right style game.

So I

It's a campaign.

Think. Is it a campaign?

It's got a campaign thing in there.

Oh, it includes a 12 chapter campaign mode. I will pay you $20 cold cash if you finish a 12 game campaign.

I might finish one of these. They're pretty quick.

I said might.

Yeah, I know.

You can way to make $20. My money is safe.

Money.

My money is safe.

That's It also has things you could add to the base, I guess. It said in there, right? It's like a campaign that's in there as well. Standalone. And I don't know. Seems like they just threw everything in this box.

It just looks like a nicer It's a It's a much better cover than the original one was.

I agree cuz the game I have to convince people. No, it's actually pretty good

because the game just looks

You doesn't have to like explain what it means all the time because you're like three sisters and there's like no people on the cover. You're like, "That pumpkin

is a sister."

My sister.

Yeah. Did you say it's called a pumpkin, by the way?

Is that what you said?

No, I think I just mumbled.

Oh, I didn't know like a big pumpkin was I don't know.

You're a pumpkin. That's a pumpkin.

I know if that was a thing. Okay. All right. Gretchen's Garden. This is from Lookout Games.

Totally stuff.

Uh, let's see. This is a two to four player game from Jay Benixen and Ryan Bucher Boucher. I'm not sure how to pronounce his name.

Bobby Bucher.

You're going to buy plants and put them out. I'm telling you, we really have just went wholehog on nature gardening.

I agree.

There's so many games about this. If you like it, it's great. It is very mass markety, too. And this game is from asthma/lookout. It looks mass market. And I got to say it doesn't use Lookout's normal artist,

right?

So, are they layers layers? Lars, however you say you talking about

their covers are usually like one. They just have that ghost galore. I think they have a very distinct cover style, but this is totally different.

Layers. What are you talking about? Layers.

Layer. The one you played L A I R. Apparently, I can't say that word.

So, layers.

They were a monster hides. Get the game from Kid.

Oh, my ears just popped.

Finally.

From Kid Table Board Games.

Oh, is that who did that one? Okay.

What about that game?

I haven't played it. He's played it a lot.

What's it got to do with

It look like a cover of Lookout. They look like Lookout covers. They're very like big, bold,

creature forward. This is like very unlike their covers.

I'm really confused now.

Yeah. You talking about

Lookout covers a gria cavern. Isn't Ghost Galora them too?

What the heck is Ghost

Galor? I just played it. Maybe it's somebody else.

Maybe. Can we please?

No, we had to figure this out. I want to go back to bump one cover. We're talking about Lookout, the line of games that people

I just want to play layers

and learn to say it.

All right. Quebec. Hey, this is a second edition of this game which originally came out in 2011. And for a moment I was scared because I thought that box was a hexagon. It's not. It is. It is a square box, but it's Spiel Works. And I got to say that may be one of the nicest looking Shielworks games I've ever seen.

It's a great cover.

It's a good cover and the game itself looks good.

Thank you, Robert, for the super chat. Anyway, this is uh coming from Capstone Games/Spiels. Capstone does most of Spiel's games in the US. The Royal Society of Archaeology.

That's a good name.

I'm trying to figure out what's going on in that picture. Is that kind of like saying

Oh, every time every movie has somebody like that sitting there watching the dig.

Are you sure they're there or is that kind of like

he's in his office and the guy's talking to him and he's imagining that he's there?

That might be what that is. That's

the floor. There is floor there. You might be right.

Yeah,

there's like a big rug, a floor, a desk.

I don't think you would.

You wouldn't have the hat rack in the desert,

right?

No, I don't care how fancy you are. You don't bring along the hat rack.

And no tint. Yeah.

It also looks like It really threw me off. I think I understand what's happening now. The chair across from him looks like there's a weird cat on it, but it's a statue, I think, leaning on it.

Yes.

It looks like the shadow of a cat sneaking in the back. It's just it's it's very strange. The more I look at this cover, the less I like it. I'll put it that way.

This is originally from Talia, but there's another game Capstone coming. It definitely looks like a heavier Euro style game there. From the way the pieces are, we'll find out more about it.

Yeah.

La coeta. What does that mean?

It means the harvest.

The harvest. This is a Lran game. If you see it down there in the bottom, those grapes look

really good.

Kind of delicious, but also like they're made out of clay.

Little bit of mold on them, too. A little bit.

What?

They look very moldy.

Oh, I don't know about that. I never eat I've never eaten grapes that were that color.

No, that's

Anyway,

they look like plums is the thing. They kind of look like plums.

This is another Works Games. Um, and yeah, it's harvest time. So, it says it's a Lana game. It looks a little like LRA on there, but not completely. It definitely looks like another Europe style game. Look at all those tracks.

It's like a rolling right looking game. I mean, it looks pretty standard rolling right to me.

It looks good to me.

You're right. It is roll right. I was imagining it as a large board.

Tracks, lots of little dots to cross off.

All right. Abroad. This is coming from Portal Games. is another becoming very popular theme. Uh, travel traveling a travel game that inspires real journeys.

And I would scoff at that title, but I have definitely heard of people using um the Japan that

oh yeah

thing and say, "Oh, I'm going to let's go to Japan and I'll figure out how to go to Japan from there. I won't use the internet. I use this board game."

And then the I just played that other game. Um

Oh,

you were in it, too. the one that

the one where you're sketching urban sketches.

Another one where it's like, "Hey, go travel and see things." So, this is another one here. You explore Europe

with location cards. And who is the designer of this? Does it say I don't see

I know this is one that was not originally from Portal Games. It was One More Games or something.

One More Time. Yeah. Uh it's Rodrigo Rego and Danilo Valente. These are Brazilian design duo. So, it was from them originally because I know I've seen the cover floating around online, but now I guess Portal Games is picking it up.

Okay.

Yeah, they released a German version of it and it sold out before the Essen had closed, it says. Um, and it was it was praised as a hidden gem. It was very hidden, I guess. I I didn't see it there at all. Did you?

I don't think I saw it there. I've seen it online.

Okay. It looks the cover looks good. That board looks a little old timey. Like it reminds me of some of the '9s games,

but we'll see.

Very risky.

I'm assuming since uh he's bringing out Yep. It's going to premiere at Gen Con and then Worldwide September.

That's cool.

Uh Lord of the Rings, Circle of Conquest. This is coming from Office Conflict.

This was floating around.

Yeah, sorry. I wrote the wrong I said the wrong thing. Circle of Conflict. This has been floating around for a while at our conventions because Mr. Steven Bonikor is one of the two designers. Yeah. So, he has been showing this off.

Uh Jeff Anglesen, the other designer. Um, in this game, you roll two dice. Everyone uses one dice for their shadow forces and for the free people and then there's a battle board between each pair of players. I don't know much more about it because it was a prototype, so I didn't look at it. Did you ever play it?

No. But I That's a great cover. Yeah, I like the cover a lot. Like the artwork in there.

That guy's going to die in that cover though, right?

Not in the cover, I think, because I don't think it'll move, but um in the game probably. Yeah, it is from Office Dog. I like what they've been doing lately.

I do. I I think Office Dog is is on fire. They have some good stuff. And this is more They're continuing this whole

pushing the Lord of the Rings theme.

Yeah. So, that's good. They got a thing going.

All right. And that's our last piece of news is sad news, per se. And we mentioned this yesterday when we found out suddenly in the middle of crowd surfing that altered is gone. Um they didn't raise the amount of money that they needed which they lied in the game found and said they needed 50,000 but apparently they needed 2 million.

Now the argument is they also needed money from retailers. No, they raised uh 420,000. No, 420,000,

but they also collected money from stores and distributors for 600,000. That gave him 1.1 million, but they need it 2 million.

Oh, wow.

Mhm.

They're saying this is over. Do you you know CCG's more? Do you think this is over over? They're saying it's over or they're going to be like

over.

You really think so?

Yes, I do. If they say it's over, I don't see

I don't I just thought that a year later they're like, "You know what? We've heard you and we'll give another try." You think it's

You need a dedicated player base for a collectible card game to be successful. A year is a death now. So, on that note, also I didn't we didn't put it up here, but I just went and found out versus has also just Upper Deck announced yesterday versus is done. Now, to be fair, that was a more slower death. Yeah,

that they haven't put out a new set for a year.

Okay. Plus, it was already like the second edition of Versus. It was the Vers.

In 2017, they announced that it was over. Then they brought it back. This was specifically versus the two-player TCG.

Yeah, it's got a different name.

It was not a great name ever. The whole

It's not a better game. It was like a It was like a simpler game. They kind of gutted the game and put it out again to try to re revive it and didn't really catch on. I'll tell you what though, both of these games are good games

with Versus had major intellectual properties behind it. Altered had amazing artists and a pretty strong studio with Asthma Day floating in the back round helping.

We're seeing the 1996 crash all over again. I'm telling you, when it when the smoke clears in a few years, there will be very few of all these trading cards left. We always have Magic and Pokemon, the the biggest two with uh Yu-Gi-Oh right behind them. And new ones come out and are very strong. You know, we saw um Lord Kana come out, was very strong. It is now normalized. It's okay still.

It's doing okay still. Yeah.

Star Wars, same thing. Started out strong, doing okay now. And then there's other ones. Flesh and Blood and um

what's the new one? Riftbound just came out. I think our review of that's going up today or tomorrow.

So today is going up today.

One Punch is still doing pretty good, right?

One Punch that

just came out.

No. Is there a trading card game for that?

I think so. Yeah.

You mean One Piece?

One Piece. Sorry. One Piece.

Yeah. One

so disappointed.

I don't do anime.

I'm so disappointed. I really thought it was going to be a one punch trading card game.

That would be awesome.

The whole deck is only five cards. You're just holding a hand of card.

It's like one punch. One person has this gigantic deck. They're like the other one. The other one has a card. I got to cancel one of your cards at some point.

Go ahead. No, not that one. Keep playing.

No. Go ahead. It's very exciting. It takes about an hour and a half.

Yeah. So, you're going to see a lot of them that come out and they will fade out as time goes by. Even Magic is kind of They're doing better than they've ever done before. They are,

but at what cost? at the cost of Magic's soul.

It really does feel that way.

Um because you never know what

Did you ever look at that that TMNT deck?

I do. I have it here. Yeah.

Yeah. It just

Yeah. It's

pick pick an IP. Magic has done it. Which I think also Magic doing Spider-Man doesn't help the fact that versus is never coming back.

No. No. And they're and they got more that was Spider-Man was like a first salvo. Now they've got

Marvel. Yeah. That's next. And even though you make a lot of money on these TCGs, they are a lot of money to produce. I still they it's a pretty closely kept secret on how they actually even randomize the cards in them.

Wouldn't even know.

You got to print that, randomize them, make sure you have the right amount out there. You have to get people to continually buy them for it to do well.

Um, so I don't know. Magic is soulless. Uh, yes. Anyway, that's it, folks. Sorry to end on a bit of a downer. If you like Alter Dough, you can still play it. I mean, you can

you can still play it.

There's three or four sets for it.

They made quite a few, but it was like a big set and two little ones, I think.

And then they went a big They got like five or six out. And in fact, they they crowdfunded the last time they they scared everybody that they were going to pull the plug on this. Everybody rallied and they made money enough on that one and they scared everybody on this one again, but actually pulled the plug this time. Well, that that last one it's not out.

Oh, really?

It's supposed to be published. I mean,

are they canceling that one then?

No, I don't think so.

They probably already pressed the button on that.

I'm sure it's being made. I don't

unfortunately.

Wow.

The people who back that one are probably Okay, good. I'm getting it. The people who the stores are probably like, crap. Yeah,

because they just had the value kicked out underneath these cards. It's kind of a bummer, but if you play a collectible card game, you just got to go into it knowing that it could be cancelled anytime and just enjoy. Like, I have Star Wars. I love it a lot. If the set that just came out was the last set, I'd go, "Well, that's kind of a bummer. I'd like to see more sets, but

I can still play with what I have. I still have old CCGs. I have Warlord."

It's more if you're into like the scene, you know, that this hurts. Otherwise, you're fine.

Yeah. All right, folks. Well, that is the news. Join us live of sorts at 2 o'clock today. We're going to be uh premiering our top 10 gambling games that was up at Dice Tower West and you can see a bit of gambling in it. Some of us made a lot of money. Or did we?

We'll see you then. Until then, I'm Tom Vassel.

I'm Zarcia.

I'm Joy Evans.

Bye.

Hey everybody, thanks for watching this video. If you like this review or whatever you just watched, wasn't it amazing? Uh, check out our channel, Dice Tower. We have all kinds of things. We review games, we do top 10s, we play games live. It's all about board games, but especially the people who play them. Check out Dice Tower YouTube channel.

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