This is going to be a whole week thing to get through all of Gen Con, let’s just say that there’s a lot to talk about. Overall I played 43 different games and some of them multiple times. To talk about them all in one post, plus other events that I did would be too much. So let’s talk about it split up, and start with the scheduled events that I did at Gen Con. It’ll be missing one that I signed up for, because I thought it was a 9 and it was at 8 in the morning, so I missed it. I still did get to demo that game though.

Scheduled Gen Con Events

Lost Ruins of Arnak – Missing Expedition

This was my first event during the madness and rush into the dealer hall. So no issue missing it. Now, this event didn’t go off without some hiccups. I was playing the first chapter of the cooperative two player (or solo) campaign and not all of that was setup correctly.

Once it was setup correctly, though, it was a lot of fun. I like the two new characters, both of them offer something interesting. The one I played I don’t think was too challenging, but it still was unique. The campaign offers some cool elements that you track. And while you mainly unlock new cards that could just to start out with, it works well and is fun.

Dice Tower Awards

This is one of those events that you just kind of hangout for. It was fun, though. Not as exciting as the Top 5 list that they did last year, that had more laughs. But for an awards show, it was good and I thought that they did a really good job with the winners. Heat won game of the year, so eventually I’ll be getting my pre-order of that one in. I don’t know when, but eventually.

Splintered Lands

This sold itself as a thematic head to head game. I don’t think I’d call it that thematic, but it was fun enough. I’ll talk more about it with the games, but out of the two head to head card games that I played, it’s my second favorite. It’s not that thematic, the mechanisms work well, though. And while there are over powered combinations, it takes work to get them. Overall a fun system, and I liked the life and currency being the same thing.

Floodgate Celebrations

Another event that I could kind of chill for. It was mainly sitting there listening to them talk about some stuff that had just come out. But there were some cool elements to it. First off, they did a playthrough with some content creators of their game Everything Ever. I’ve since played it because they also gave away swag bags with it in it. It’s an okay party game, it can be silly, but also generally one trick.

And then they talked about a new game, Skyrockets that is coming up. It’s a real time game, but it’s one that doesn’t feel as real time as there is a turn order. I got to try it at the event and it was fun. I also like that it is a campaign game, or mission based game, kind of like The Crew. So you can play whatever you want, but there are also missions.

Burncycle

Then a game that I bought at last years Gen Con. I simply haven’t learned it yet. But Burncycle was a ton of fun to play. A game of taking robots into a corporation to try and avoid the other guard robots and get out of their with the information you need. It’s a big game, but a system that works well and really flows smoothly once you start to get going. Probably one that I’ll showcase coming up on Malts and Meeples sometime in the future.

Star Wars Unlimited

Finally we have Star Wars Unlimited. The other two player head to card game. It’s Star Wars so it has a heads up over the other one. But it is a fun game as well. The complexity isn’t too high, which I appreciate. And I can see where more complexity will come in. I think there are elements of the game that they haven’t tapped into yet.

The big thing is that you have a regroup phase where you can, if you want, play out generic resources. But then you take actions one at a time alternating. So you might play a card that comes in exhausted, then your opponent does the same thing, then you declare an attack with another unit. I’ll go into this more later, in its own post. But I very much enjoy the system.

Final Thoughts

I don’t mind that I missed my one event. But I’ll talk about that more when I think about games. But overall the events I went to were a really fun time. And it was a nice number of events. If I were to change anything up, it’d be to schedule my Friday daytime event on Saturday. That way I could have gotten in another game or two demoing. Granted, I still got in 43 different games so not a big deal.

It is as always an amazing time and I can’t wait to do it again next year. If you went, what was your favorite event?

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