Go to Battle with Master Monsters, Return to Nippon, and Head to El Paso on the Great Western Trail

by W. Eric Martin

▪️ In 2025, U.S. publisher <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/34846/restoration-games“>Restoration games will crowdfund the release of Battle Monsters, a new edition of Stephen Baker‘s Battle Masters, which Milton Bradley released in 1992.

Restoration notes that this restoration is “[o]fficially licensed with the Titans of the Monsterverse: Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Kong, and Mechagodzilla!”

I worked in a game store in the early 1990s and know we sold Battle Masters, but I’ve never played, so I’m curious what the appeal of the design is. Which elements must Restoration include to keep the same feel of the original game? What needs updating when viewed from a distance of thirty years?

The OG design

▪️ In 2015, Portuguese publisher <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/4303/whats-your-game“>What’s Your game? released Nippon from designers Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro and Paulo Soledade, and in the spirit of a decade being the life cycle of a game in the marketplace — an unofficial metric, to be sure — U.S. publisher CrowD games plans to release a new edition of the design in 2025.

Here’s an overview of Nippon: Zaibatsu, which will be for 1-4 players instead of 2-4 as in the original release:

Nippon: Zaibatsu is a fast-paced, area-majority economic game in which players control “zaibatsu”: massive conglomerates of interconnected companies driving Japan’s economy in the Industrial Revolution era.

During the game, players invest in new industries, build factories and railroads, and produce goods to saturate local markets and fulfill contracts — all to grow their influence and power and to become rulers of the new modernized country.

Players are free to choose their playstyle and winning strategy: They choose what they score victory points for, control the game‘s pace with income turns, and race each other to get the most beneficial factories, markets, and bonuses.

All the core mechanisms of the original Nippon are present, but the components, art, and design are upgraded, and many gameplay features are reworked to get the game in line with modern trends. Nippon: Zaibatsu features new resource types, ships are heavily revised with new Iwakura mission rules, factories are much more variable, consolidation turns provide players with new rewards, and much more. Also, the game now has an automa-driven solo mode.

▪️ In April 2020, I covered more than a dozen forthcoming titles from Bruno Cathala, including a possible new edition of Shadows over Camelot created with original co-designer Serge Laget.

Laget passed away in 2023, but Cathala has still been working on this design, posting this teaser image at the start of December 2024:

Hmm, a Bombyx logo on the box? And the setting remains the same as before, with Cathala writing, “Let’s…try to bring order back to camelot #knightsoftheroundtable v2.0 – Morgane puts sticks in our wheels.” I presume we’ll learn more once the FIJ convention takes place in late February 2025.

▪️ Following the release of Great Western Trail: New Zealand in 2023, Asmodee dissolved the eggertspiele brand, putting <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/234/lookout-games“>Lookout games in charge of that company’s catalog.

To be more specific, Lookout is now responsible for Camel Up, Village, and the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/54030/game-great-western-trail”>Great Western Trail game line. In November 2024, a Lookout representative told me that the first reprint of Camel Up with the Lookout logo was being rolled out, and the GWT titles are scheduled for reprint and will be available “soon”.

On top of that, Lookout has announced that on April 21, 2025 it will release Great Western Trail: El Paso, a scaled-down GWT design from Johannes Krenner and Alexander Pfister for 1-4 players that can be played in roughly half the time.

Here’s an overview:

El Paso at the end of the 19th century: Five railroad companies have connected the Sun City to their network and made it a major hub for the cattle trade. Ranchers from the surrounding parts of Texas and Mexico drive their cattle into the city to send them on their long journey to the north, east, and west of the United States.

In Great Western Trail: El Paso, you take on the role of the ranchers of that time and bring your best cattle to El Paso to earn money and victory points. Hire more cowboys, builders, and engineers to get closer to your goals:

— Buy cattle to increase the value of your herd!

— Construct buildings to unlock more actions!

— Participate in the expansion of the railroad and secure the most attractive contracts!

Candice Harris got a peek at Great Western Trail: El Paso at PAXU 2024, and she gives an overview of the game in her PAXU 2024 video round-up starting at 7:53:

Youtube Video



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