This past weekend was busy as the CMON Expo took place about 10 minutes from my house. If you aren’t that familiar with CMON Expo, I wasn’t before attending this year either. But it’s a chance to demo and play a bunch of CMON games, take part in a few tournaments, and learn about new and upcoming stuff. Let’s start with the upcoming games.

Games Announced at CMON Expo

Neither of the games announced were new, per se, but they are different from what CMON has done before, in at least tome ways. Mainly reworking an older system for one game. And then building upon their biggest line with a new IP (Intellectual Property) with their biggest line.

Cthulhu: Dark Providence

This one might interest some people because it’s re-implements and re-imagines the game A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, for the story, and Martin Wallace for the game. It is well out of print now and known best for being a 4-5 player game with hidden roles.

This one is supposed to be more of a streamlined experience. The game is going to be rethemed, as A Study in Emerald being the story gave limited replayability in some ways. And it is being reworked. Part of the reworking of it is to make it better at lower player counts.

DCeased

The next one is building off the success of Marvel Zombies and working with Spinmaster for licensing. CMON, Spinmaster, and Guillotine present DCeased. And I have a promo card for that, Batman, and from what I can tell, this looks to be a very similar system to Marvel Zombies.

Now, Batman isn’t a zombie, in the picture, but I suspect like Marvel Zombies you’ll be able to play as either the heroes or the zombies. And the card I have is for Batman as a hero. But the character card is basically the same thing as Marvel Zombies, so I expect that the game is going to try and be a similar game, if not basically the same, for DCeased, which is a solid call, I think.

What I Played

This is not that small a list of what I played. I went all three days, though I came late on Friday and got in a couple of games, but then was there all day Saturday, so 9 different games were played at CMON Expo. Including a prototype. Master of the Universe and Mordred are the two big games that I missed playing but otherwise, let’s just go through everything. And I want to call out the smaller or less known games at the CMON Expo as well, though I was missing Xenoshyft being there.

Monolyth

This is an interesting 3D Tetris type of game where players race to build a 4 by 4 cube trying to get certain colors to face the outside. You score points for building, at any point in the game, a monolith of the right shape. You also score points for color scoring objectives and completing rows. For the monolith and rows you get more points if you score them first.

It is an abstract game with simple rules. And I think a solid amount of thinking. What you choose from for Tetris pieces are limited. So when you go on your turn, you want to make good decisions but you what you can pick from is not a large number of things. That is a nice system that way. And in the end, possibly different strategy, but different strategies work. It is also an abstract game where it is about helping yourself more than blocking your opponent, which I like.

Classic Art

A new version of a classic, but overlooked game. This is a game about bidding on how large art shows are going to be. And then playing out those cards to the art shows. The game is simple as you try and manipulate the shows with what cards you play out and which one you hold back.

I think the best way to describe the game is as a bluffing game. You start with a hand of cards, 11 in the case of 2-3 players, and you pick two to play out. The ones that you play out, they start to give information about what you might have in your hand. So do you play strong in an area you aren’t as strong to get others to overbid? Or is it a double bluff, and when you bid on that also informs the other players where you think it’ll end up. I like that the main part of the game is simple in this one.

Fairy Tale Inn

One of the hits, for me, of CMON Expo was Fairy Tale Inn. The game looks like Connect Four but with tiles. I like Connect Four okay as a basic classic game. And this complicates it, but in a good way. In this game, it is not about connecting four, it is about scoring points with the fairy tale characters in the game.

There are five different ones in the game, eight total so you can create different combinations, and you drop them into a grid, like Connect Four. But each character has their own powers. The powers get you coins and coins win the game. So there is interesting strategy as to how you play out those tiles in order to get points, depending on the ones you have. It is more of a take that abstract game, but only to some extent because often it’s just better to get points yourself than cancel someone else’s points out.

Project: ELITE

CMON has two games that I consider to be a bit of Starship Troopers. One is Xenoshyft, the other is Project: ELITE. Project: ELITE is a real time cooperative dice chucking game of attacking waves of aliens and creatures and trying to complete objectives. That sounds interesting, but I don’t love real time games, so is Project: Elite better than others?

I think that it is, in some ways. Now, I have only played this once, but it didn’t feel as stressful as some other real time games, Magic Maze and Fuse for example. I think it is because you are working as a team but when I do that’s good is just good, it doesn’t stop you or limit you or make you rely on others. And it is two minute chunks, then some downtime and then blasting away at aliens again.

Cthulhu: Death May Die

Now we get into the games that I own or I have pre-ordered. Cthulhu: Death May Die (CDMD) is one that I own. But like a number of games I own, it is one that I haven’t played because it’s learning new rules. And I need to be in the right mood to learn a new game. So at CMON Expo, I got to learn it and play it there, on a special scenario created by Richard Launius, designer of Elder Signs and more.

This is a game of trying to control how quickly you go insane, fighting monsters, and completing objectives. And the cool thing is as you go insane you get better at things. You level up your character for that scenario and you roll more dice. Of course, as you go insane, the closer you get to death as well. So it is a balancing act, but one that is a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed my play of this. I think that it’s a good system. Plus I like the pressing your luck, I like how the monsters all chase you. And I like that characters level up in their own way. There are base stats that are all the same, and some skills that might overlap, but each character has something special that they can do. Now I want to play my copy.

Stranger Things: Upside Down

Next up another game that I own, the Stranger Things: Upside Down. This is one that is hard to describe. It’s scenario based and the scenarios are based off of the seasons of Stranger Things. Right now it is just Season 1 and 2 in the box, so it is probably safe to guess that more expansions will be coming with new seasons.

But Stranger Things: Upside Down is a cooperative game, and for season one, you want to rescue Will. Of course, it’s not that easy, he’s in the upside down and the demogorgon and the lab are all getting in your way and making that hard for you. But it goes with a pretty standard method of you take your turn then something bad happens.

I like the timer in this game. It is an action deck that you draw from. When that deck hits empty three times, well, game over. Of course, terror might take you out sooner. But it is a balancing act then. Your hand is limited to five cards. If I play out five to guarantee I do something, that burns the deck faster, but I am more likely to succeed. A very fun system.

Zomicide: Undead or Alive

Now let’s get to the two Zombicides I played at CMON Expo. First let’s talk about Undead or Alive. And I want to say, this is one that I should play more. The scenario that they demoed is short and because of the objective my team got, it was over fast, though not to our advantage.

This is the wild west version of Zombicide. And like other versions, it is about blasting away at zombies and completing objectives. It uses one rule difference that I don’t like as well as compared to the other Zombicide game, Marvel Zombies. You blast into an area and each shot is a shot. You don’t stack hits, so if you might not kill a bad guy as easily.

But I really enjoy the aesthetic and setting of the game. And like I said, I think there are other scenarios that I would enjoy more. This scenario, I thought, is just an okay scenario. Mainly because some objectives, mine with my teammate, killing 20 zombies with melee is a bit harder and opens up a nice path, for those people who just get an objective and have to run to an exit.

Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies, for me, is the better of the Zombicide games. I even demoed it twice because I liked it that much. You get in there, and you start trying to beat down heroes as the zombies, it’s fun. You need to devour bystanders, take out heroes, and deal with SHIELD Agents. It’s goofy and it is fun, and sometimes just feels a bit wrong to devour Mary Jane Watson.

The one rule that I like that is different, and I think would have made more of a difference in Undead or Alive, is that you attack an area and you total up your damage. You still need to hand out damage in a particular way, so the tanks, 2 HP, might keep you from killing the weaker ones if you only roll one damage, but if you roll 3 damage, it’s not a wasted damage.

And I got to see a painted Galactus there. I have Marvel Zombies coming, hopefully soon, but I didn’t get Galactus. Now I want to get a giant Galactus.

Metal Gear Solid

Finally a game coming next year, I think pre-orders are still up, Metal Gear Solid. This is the game I hoped to play most at CMON Expo. I played this one twice and had a blast both times and each time what I did was different because of my character. But let’s talk about the game.

Metal Gear Solid is a stealth based game, at least the scenario I played. You can knock out or kill guards, but there are some issues possibly with that. And sometimes there are just a ton of guard everywhere. I played a VR Mode scenario. Basically a standalone scenario that isn’t part of the campaign.

And I love this game. I had pre-ordered it prior to playing it, and I am glad that I did. The game is a good balance of simplicity and complexity. What you do on your turn is easy to follow and the action point system is simple. The game has complexity as you debate about when to potentially make noise or where the patrols might go. But even running the enemy AI is complex but not that complex.

Final Thoughts on the Event

Let’s wrap up by talking about the overall experience. CMON Expo was a lot of fun, but it could have been run better. There were times of just hanging out and waiting for a game to wrap up or seeing who else was around to play another game. That is a difference with a smaller event. I’m not sure they could have run it better or not but we’ll see next year as this was the first one at the GameZenter in Minnesota and the first since 2019.

That said, with a smaller size and space, it is fun because you get to try a ton of games. You saw the list and I played Fairy Tale Inn, Metal Gear Solid, and Marvel Zombies twice each. And when you get a demo sometimes they were shorter scenarios, Zombicide: Undead or Alive, while others were a bigger one, but you always got to play a whole game.

I think if you like CMON games, CMON Expo is a great. And I do like CMON games, mainly, so it is a good time. And you do get a fun swag bag at CMON Expo. Is it as great as the rumors, probably not, but I did get some nice promos for Marvel United some other fun stuff and they do give away some games, so stick around until Sunday if you decide to come.

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