Our friends at The Malted Meeple like to give extra attention to their favorite board game publishers and designers. In their Publisher’s Spotlight they provide a bit of a background on the publisher, discuss a few of their games, and may even announce a visit to The Meeple by some of the publisher’s representatives!
Publisher: Ares Games
We shine our spotlight on our friends from Ares Games. Originally specializing in war games, this Italian-based company was founded in July of 2011 by a group of entrepreneurs interested in the gaming world. Ares engaged the design and production team of NG International and brought them on board along with the licenses for the War of the Ring and Wings of War. They immediately began working on new editions of each.
War of the Ring: Second Edition was released in December of 2011. It quickly sold out and has enjoyed several reprints since. The War of the Ring line now includes two expansions: Lords of Middle-earth and Warriors of Middle-earth, the stand alone Battle of the Five Armies, and a new game to-be-released Hunt for the Ring.
Wings of Glory, the rebranded Wings of War, was released in March of 2012. It now includes both WW1 and WW2 lines and offers a wide range of products from starter kits to squadron packs and even gaming mats. The system also inspired the award-winning Sails of Glory a game of naval ship-to-ship combat set during the iconic Napoleonic Age.
Other famous games by Ares include Galaxy Defenders, and the recently released Sword & Sorcery. Their catalogue includes everything from Family Friendly Games and Card games to Euro and Thematic Games. The company decided to take their name from Ares, the Greek God of War which is fitting as many of their games tend to deal with conflict on a massive scale, such as the War of the Ring and Wings of Glory lines.