Keep Looking at Events

When Gen Con events catalog went live, I think there were just shy of 20,000 events on the catalog. That is now over 21,000 events, so around 1,500 events have been added. A lot of them won’t interest you and a lot of them will be hard to track down when they are added. But if you missed out on events, about now is when I’d start looking to see what new events there are in time slots that you maybe want an event. I’ll get into why you want to do that now.

Review the Gen Con Game List

Another thing that you can start doing is reviewing the games that’ll be at Gen Con. Every year Eric Martin and others work and create a list on Board Game Geek. You can find that here. That is going to be hundreds of games that you can demo or buy at Gen Con that will be there for the first time in whatever state they’re ready for.

This is a list that grows a lot from now until Gen Con and just went up about a week ago. More publishers will be adding things to the list. And, especially, as they know stuff can or can’t make it to Gen Con because of shipping timing, companies will keep the list updated. Every Gen Con I go through the list over on Malts and Meeples but that is closer to when I leave for Gen Con.

Tickets

Yes, you should already have your tickets and your housing and your transportation figured out by now. And some elements, like getting into the Gate Ten parking, those are done, you can’t get into them anymore. But what I mean by this is know how you’re going to get your tickets for the events you signed up for. I always have them shipped two me but you can also do will call and pick them up at Gen Con.

The benefit of doing will call is that if you add events late you might need to pick them up there anyways. But the downside is, you go to get your tickets at the wrong time, it’s going to be line. The upside of shipping, you avoid that line and you avoid the line for getting your badge, it comes to your door. Downside, it costs extra to get it shipped. Know what works best for you, I prefer shipping, but that is just me.

Double Check Your Housing

If you are in a hotel, this is not an issue. But for people who are AirBnB or VRBO like I do, double check it. Odds are no issues, but there are some sketchy people out there. And there are some people who get out of the AirBnB or VRBO and might just drop it. So keep an eye on that, the odds are extremely thin and you’d know if that was the case. But double check your housing, if you are flying, make sure you get your travel confirmed, but these are big and obvious things that you should be doing so I won’t harp on them.

Final Thoughts on Early Gen Con Prep

This is about when I think you can start ramping up for Gen Con again. Especially with the Board Game Geek preview and verifying your events. Events in particular, I didn’t mention it but with the tickets and badge shipping, your time to get event tickets shipped to you is limited. So if you want to get all your events shipped, you need to add them now. Otherwise some will ship and some will be at will call.

And then with the preview, use it to plan what you want to see and track down. I like it for knowing some things that I want to demo, I’ll have a list of 10, and some things that I might want to buy. Both of those lists will come out closer to Gen Con, but when it comes to the dealer hall, that’s going to be one way to plan your attack browsing knowing what some things are that you want to find.

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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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Gen Con vs Smaller Conventions

I think that this is worth starting off by discussing the difference between a Gen Con and say a Dice Tower East or West or Board Game Geek Con. There are similarities. They are game focused conventions. The difference between is how people focus on the games.

Dice Tower East or West and BGG Con are much smaller and about playing games. Gen Con has an element of that, but it’s much less built for people to come along and sit down with a random group of people and play a game.

Now, you might think, what about ticketed events or the dealer hall? That is true, Gen Con, you play with random people at your events or in the dealer hall. But it’s specific spots and specifically planned spots. And that kind of leads into the crux of what I am talking about with today’s article.

Coming Up With Your Plan

In general, Gen Con offers two different plans that can be blended together as much as you want. They are the scheduled event or dealer hall plans. Let’s talk about these two ideas and how they compare and contrast and how you end up blending them at Gen Con.

Scheduled Event

This is what it sounds like, when people schedule a large number of the Gen Con event calendar events. And I see reasons for doing it, even though I tend to float towards the other extreme. But for some people it is about planning out enough events to keep them busy throughout, basically, all four days.

The big reason for doing this is that you always have an event to do. You aren’t wandering around hoping to find a demo table for a game that you might be interested in playing. Instead you know that you will play the game that you want to play, because you paid for an event ticket.

A reason not to do this is that you play in, let’s say, an average of 5 events per days over four days, that’s between $50 and $150 extra dollars spent on your trip. Maybe, to avoid the stress of finding a random game, it is worth it. But it is an increased cost to think about. And it limits flexibility in what you are doing.

Dealer Hall

The other big way is to schedule almost no events. Your event is walking around the dealer hall of Gen Con. There you find hundreds of games to demo and play. And if you are patient and wait a little bit, you often can get into a game of almost any type.

The advantage to this method is you play more games. In 2021, I think I played 40 different games or so at Gen Con. And that is a ton of games. With my example of scheduled events, I think 20 events is reasonable. That is 20 different games versus the dealer hall with 40. But I play whatever game, and that might not work for you.

Another potential downside is that there is downtime in this. You need to wander around until you find a game that looks good. And sometimes that might take a while, or even a bigger one, you find a game you like and now you need to wait for it. Potentially the newest and hottest games, or some, won’t be for demo on the floor as well.

Blended Approach

So I think that the combination approach is what most people take. I see some people clearly there only to demo on the dealer hall or buy games. That is their goal. On the other side of things, I see people who just play events. But most people try and do a blended approach.

This is gone about two ways, I think. The first is to schedule events around the dealer hall. That dealer hall has limited hours, so schedule events before it opens or right when it opens, and then in the evening after it closes. I kind of did that. I only have one mid day event. Otherwise I play at 8 AM to 10 AM for my early events or 4 PM to 7 PM for my late events. I believe the dealer hall is either 10 to 5 or 10 to 6. Either way, I keep my time generally free to wander and play games.

The other plan that I have done, this I did at my first one in 2019, is to leave a day free. I think we picked Friday as our mainly free day. But that is the day that you spend your time wandering the dealer hall and demoing games. You fit in times to wander throughout other days between events. But you specifically set aside a single day to do that. And you schedule your events the other three days.

Which Approach Is Best?

I think that any of the approaches can work out best for people. And this might sound weird because it’s very wishy-washy on how I approached it. But I think a lot of it depends on your personality. For myself, I am not outgoing, perse, but I like being around people. Gen Con gives me energy. So I see no problem in sitting down and playing a game with random strangers. In fact, I like that element of Gen Con. And it isn’t a stress because we are all there to play board games.

But if you find that very stressful, then my approach is not the one for you. You might find it much better and easier to schedule events. It gives you a fixed plan for playing games. And even though you might still be playing with strangers, it is a pre-agreed upon contract, by getting the ticket, that you’ll be playing those games.

So experiment. See what is going to work for you. Because it likely will be somewhere along that spectrum. It is really a situation where there is no right way, but what is it that works for you.

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The 6 – 2 – 1 Rule

So what is this rule that I’m talking about? 6 – 2 – 1 must mean something and it does. It’s the number of hours you should try and sleep, meals you should eat, and showers you should take, per day at the convention.

Try and get 6 hours of sleep per day, you’ll have more fun when you do. Eat two actual meals per day, though even I cheat on this one. But I set aside time every day, one real meal either lunch or dinner. For breakfast I do a granola bar. And for the meal that I skip, I don’t skip. I stop and get out jerky, fruit, trail mix, and basically make a meals worth of food out of foods like that, easy to carry and non perishable. And then shower, once per day, don’t care when you do it, if you’re an evening shower, or morning, or you go back to your hotel at noon. Shower once a day.

Why You Don’t Skip

I think this one will be pretty obvious for some of them. And the one that is the least obvious or the most flexible, I think it also makes sense.

Let’s start out with showers. I don’t care who you are, you won’t smell good after a day of walking around a convention in the middle of the summer. I know that I don’t so every morning I take a shower. It’s a curtesy to your other con goers. I don’t go to Gen Con to smell other people’s body odor.

Then food, again, I think this makes sense. Food helps you focus, it’s the energy you burn throughout the day. Even if you think you’re going strong, being hangry is a thing. Or just not focusing like you should while you learn rules to a new game at an event. So get two meals in, and bring snacks.

Now the one where you can fudge it a little bit. The issue is for the people who fudge it a lot. Try and get 6 hours of sleep a night. That’s not that much really. If you go to bed at 1 AM that’s sleeping until 7 AM. And the dealer hall doesn’t even open until 10 AM. But if you fudge it, try and make up time. One night you go out and drink and party with friends and you get 4-5 hours of sleep. Try and get a good amount of sleep on either side of it. Again it’s about not being cranky, not being unfocused, and not ruining others times.

Final Gen Con Thoughts

Let’s face it, those are probably good rules in general for life. If you’re getting less than 6 hours of sleep it catches up to you eventually. And if you’re showering less, people will want to be around you less. But for an event like Gen Con, I do think there are strong reasons to try and live by these rules. I also understand, it’s that one event per year, possibly, where you can go crazy gaming and seeing people.

But it comes down to something a podcast I like says, The RPG Academy.

If you’re having fun you’re doing it right.

The RPG Academy

And when it comes to things like hygiene, what you do or don’t do can affect how much fun someone else is having. And when you pay for ticket, travel, and events and that can cost a lot, don’t step on someone else’s fun. And really, don’t ruin your own fun by pushing yourself too far.

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5 Board Games to Bring to Gen Con

Each one of the games is going to be for a specific situation. Some might overlap what they can cover but you want a variety of games. The other big thing is that they need to be small enough. They might not all fit in a backpack at once. But if you know your plan for the day, you’ll know which ones to have in a backpack.

The Drop In And Out Game

This game is one that people can join or leave as they come and go between events. One that could really be set-up on a table and as people are able, it just continues throughout the day. But, again, it needs to be a small enough game to easily fit in a backpack.

My choice for this game is Just One. This is not the smallest box on the list. But, and this might be sacrilegious to you, you don’t even need the box. All the components could fit in a Ziploc bag half the size as the box.

But Just One works well for people to drop in and out of. You play cooperative in this party game of trying to guess the word. Rounds take three to four minutes. And at the end of the day you’d just have a pile of words that you got, or didn’t throughout the day.

Waiting by Yourself Game

Sometimes, though, you have a few minutes where you have downtime. Normally I just wander a random part of the dealer hall. But that’s not always an option. And you want to play a game that takes the five minutes between when one event has ended and your next one starts. That is what this game is for.

Grove is the solo game that I recommend. A lot of people would say any Button Shy Game as well. Which that’d be high up there for me because Sprawlopolis fits into a pocket better. But I always have a backpack at Gen Con, so Grove fits in there and it’s a fast solo game of layering cards. There are other small games, so it’s more, what small solo game do you like.

Everyone Can Play Game

Next up is a game that everyone can play. Doesn’t matter if you have two players or fifteen players or thirty players, everyone can play. For this I want a game that isn’t too difficult but there is no requirement that this game is short or just a party game. Something like Wits and Wagers works well as a team game. That is if you want to go the party game direction.

But I am think that Cartographers (though owning the big box makes it harder) is a great option. This is more of a game and a bigger roll and write experience. You are making a map, as the name would suggest, and scoring based off of the season that it is. The cool thing with this roll and write style game is that there is player interaction. A monster card is flipped, we all pass our sheets and you put that monster on my sheet. That way you can mess over your opponents as you can.

Brain Burning Filler

This category is probably an overlooked done. And I think some of that is for fair reason. But last year I got to play a game that probably should have been a crunchy filler length. This is a game that won’t take too long, doesn’t need to play a lot of people, but it has meaningful and tough decisions.

My brain went to a roll and write game where everyone is playing stuff out at once. But one with a higher complexity and shorter time than Cartographers. But I ended up with Hanamikoji as the game. This won’t always work as it’s a two player game, So an honorable mention is Ganz Schon Clever or one of the games in that type. But either game can play fast, there are good decisions. And with Hanamikoji it’s a ten minute game or a twenty minute game, rarely more. And it’s a brain burner with the amount to read your opponent and what they want.

The Let’s Play A Game Game

Now, the final category is a game where you just want to play a game. One that doesn’t need to take twenty minutes or less. One that doesn’t need to handle a large crowd of people. This is for when, in the evening, you want to play a game, you don’t want to learn new rules, so you pull this one out of your backpack and you’re good for an hour or so.

My choice is Floriferous a set collection, card drafting game. It’s a small game, smaller than some of the other ones on the list. In it, you are collecting flowers and scoring cards to see who can score the most points. It’s not a complex game, but there are some fun twists on it. When you draft a card from a row that determines what order you draft next turn. And you choose between drafting or maybe more when you draft scoring cards. So you might not have many and just flowers that work well, or will you get higher scoring?

Games at Gen Con

Now, you might be done with gaming by the time your day ends. So you might not need more games for playing at Gen Con. But I find that I often have that group to play with in the evening, though, not every evening. And some evenings are just earlier to bed, because, well, sleep is needed.

The other reason you might not want as many games is that you’ll buy games. Maybe this is more of a buy list for you at Gen Con to fill in those categories. That way, as the weekend goes along, you find more and more games to play with people. I know that’s some of what happened last year. I played Mythic Mischief was a game game because someone picked it up that day. And I played Ready, Set, Bet as a bigger group game as someone had that one.

So, determine what you need. Determine, if you meet up with a group who is bringing games. It’s a little bit awkward to be at a gaming convention and for no one to have a game on them.

What games do you find work well to carry and play at conventions?

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Upcoming Gen Con Coverage

But before we get to all of that, let’s get to what my coverage is going to look like this year. Both leading up to Gen Con and post Gen Con. I did a video, two actually, of all the Board Game Geek listed games for sale and demo. I plan on doing two videos on that again this year. Those can be fairly long so likely will take the place of campaign games the next two weeks.

Beyond that, I like to put up my Top 10 games to demo and my Top 10 games to buy. The other look is more about everything, this is specifically what I’m most excited for. Slightly different, also fairly similar.

Finally, when I come back from Gen Con, I like to list off what I’ve played and talk about those. Write a “Point of Order” for the new games that I got. And then highlight some of the best experiences at Gen Con in another article. So expect that for the coverage leading up to and around Gen Con.

My 2023 Gen Con Events

7. Beacon Patrol

Beacon Patrol is a small tile tableau building game from Pandasaurus Games. I like that style of game with Carcassonne and I am curious to see what this one offers. It’s a shorter event and a cooperative game, so I want to know how this game comes together. And how as a cooperative game it is building in meaningful decisions for the players.

6. Splintered Lands

I like to find games that are in playtesting if I can. Something that is new or still in the works that I can sit down and get a look at first. Splintered Lands is one of those games. A deck building game in a post-apocalyptic world. Two things that I like there. I want to see how that works in a card battler game of building defense and attacking. It could be great, it could feel like what’s been done before. I am just curious and need to know.

5. Burncycle

One thing that I like about some events at Gen Con is sitting down and playing a game that I own. If I already own it, why do I need to play it there? Because I have yet to play it at home. Burncycle is maybe the only purchase from Gen Con 2022 that I need to play still. The rest I’ve played, and Burncyle is the biggest and most intimidating. So might as well learn the game at Gen Con and be able to take it back home, the knowledge, and play easier at home.

4. The Dice Tower 2023 Awards

First of two event ones here back to back. I enjoy the Dice Tower and while I really liked their Top 5 last year, this year they are doing an awards show. I haven’t watched their awards shows in the past two years. But I figure that it will be a fun time. And it’s part of an evening that should be a very good time with some laughs and hear about some games that I might have missed over the past year or what people are touting as the best.

3. Floodgate Games Celebration

The other event with Floodgate Games Celebration. I missed it last year, I think I maybe had an event scheduled over it. I just know that they had an ambitious event for their legacy game which they took down. Then this event replaced it. But because it came up later on the schedule in 2022, I missed it. This year, on the look out for it. A chance to learn about new Floodgate project, I’m excited for that and to just celebrate the games that they have put out already.

2. Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition

If it weren’t for a late added event this would have been #1. I really like Lost Ruins of Arnak. The system works well, the adventure, for being a worker placement game, is there. And there’s enough going on with buying cards to add to your deck, exploring, and fighting monsters to keep me entertaining.

The Missing Expedition expansion is going to make the game cooperative. That to me is weird and I need to know more. Also it is for a game that I love, so I want more. I already pre-ordered for Gen Con pickup the expansion. So that will b great to be picking that up. But like Burncyle, while I am at it, why not learn the game. So I signed up, on the first day, for a slot to get to play the game.

1. Star Wars: Unlimited

But my #1 event is a trading card game. Danger Will Robinson for that. I got pulled back into TCG’s with Magic the Gathering’s set for Lord of the Rings. Now there is a Star Wars set and I like Star Wars. This is a game that won’t even come out for a year, I would guess. But they are demoing it here. And if you demo it, you get some exclusive cards, Vader and Luke Skywalker. Don’t worry, they will be in the set as well, these are just special versions.

This one really interests me though because I like Star Wars. And I like a few things about what they said for the game. Firstly that you are battling on two fronts to take down your enemy. Both with land and space, so you can lean into one or the other. A balanced approach might mean you can get damage through on both, but if you lean heavily land or space, you might be able to overwhelm with more force. Of course, leaving yourself then vulnerable as well.

Final Thoughts

I often have a weird combination of events. And sometimes I don’t even make it to all the events. I was intentional about what I signed up for this year, a bit more than last year and less than the first year. Also shorter events.

It’s easy to overwhelm a schedule y signing up for a ton of things. And then you find that you don’t want to play them all. You want to spend time on the floor and demoing more games. On the flip side, it’s easy to just play a little bit and find yourself done every day when the dealer hall closes. Or find that you don’t sit down at tables and play. I play with random people all the time at Gen Con, that is part of the fun. But I get why it is hard for some people.

Overall, I like the events that I signed up for. There are definitely some less interesting ones to me on the list, mainly the bottom two. However, they are still interesting and I want to explore and experience them to see if they are a game that I will just fall in love with. There is certainly the chance so I got to try and take that and see what happens with them. Because one thing I love about Gen Con is trying new games.

What event sounds more interesting to you? And if you’re going, what event are you most excited to attend on your list?

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Games I Saw at Gen Con

Burncycle

One I knew I wanted to see and one that I came home with. This is a big game where humans built robots, robots took over, humans came back with a vengeance and now you’re robots trying to survive and go on missions.

It is a Chip Theory Game, so big and has a lot going on with it. But one that when you get down to it, with the chip system and everything, it doesn’t look too bad to play. It’ll be a table hog, but one with a lot of good and interesting choices. And it looks different than a lot of games. This game has two boards one where you are sneaking into a facility and another where you are hacking the system and trying to balance both of those seems interesting.

Hoplomachus: Victorum

Another Chip Theory Game, this is one that I suspect I’ll buy and I wish I’d backed on Kickstarter. Hoplomachus takes one of their original games and brings it to the table as a solo only game. And with a campaign in it. Which makes it even more interesting.

In this game you are going around and trying to defeat the minions of Pluto in this arena/gladiator combat game. You travel around build up your troops and fight to gain victories and rewards. For me, I think it could be a great game to stream on Malts and Meeples. With so many massive campaign games, this isn’t small but it won’t be as massive on the table.

Cora Quest

Cora Quest is s game that I knew I wanted to checkout for sure. Cora Quest is a family weight dungeon crawler game. Everything about this game is fun, there is story, but it’s family friendly and fun. There is dice chucking, the artwork is great. I haven’t bought it because I don’t need to yet. When my kid gets older, I could see this being an amazing introduction to dungeon crawlers and story adventure games.

Land vs Sea

I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to demo this one. I got more of a sales pitch than anything. Though, I did get the basics of the rules, which means I probably need a minor rules read and then I can play. At it’s core, Land vs Sea is a two player game about trying to close off areas of land or sea.

One player gets points when land masses are closed off, the other when sea is closed off. But you might want to close off your opponents area because there are other scoring pluses on the board. If you close off that area, your opponent scores the land or sea area, but you get the bonus points. Seems like a light and fun game. You can also play with more players, but I want to try at two first.

Bark Avenue

Bark Avenue at the same booth of Land vs Sea is another game that I got more of a pitch for than a ton of details on it. The basic idea is that you are a dog walker. And you try and get points or money by having the dogs that you walk do things on their walks. It didn’t seem like too heavy a game, and it had a very big footprint for that. Probably not one I’ll checkout later.

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather is a small set collection game. It’s interesting in how it does it though. You are playing out birds that you are seeing. And everyone plays out birds all that once. Anyone who crosses over with a habitat checks off all of the birds. And then the previous rounds birds stick around for the next round. So there is some strategy as to where you go. The game seems light and fast, but pretty and could be a good small box game to add to a collection.

Dawn of Ulos

Ulos is the world of Roll Player Adventures. And Dawn of Ulos is an economic game set in that world. The game looks very cool on the table, but I’m not sure it’s a game for me. I like the more thematic things set in that world. Now, that isn’t to say that the game doesn’t look cool on the table. It definitely does. I just think that manipulating the different species as you manipulate the market is less interesting to me.

Paperback

Paperback, this was a very fast overview, but a game that I kind of want to try. Paperback is a deck building game where you are making words. The words that you make give you purchase power and gets your more letters and double letters and the possibility to make even bigger words. I love deck building and I enjoy word games. My wife loves words, so I think this is a solid option. And unlike Scrabble or Banagrams, it doesn’t just reward you for knowing the few great Scrabble words.

Chai

Chai is another theme that I think my wife would like. It’s a bigger game where you run a tea shop and you are collecting ingredients to complete orders and get tips. The end of the game is to have the most money. So pretty standard for a board game. The production on this one looks great, though. One I’d love to truly sit down and play and see if I like it and what I think of the weight of the game.

Red Dragon Inn 8

Finally Red Dragon Inn, I have played this one before, but I was learning about Red Dragon Inn 8: Pub Crawl. It’s more stuff for Red Dragon Inn, but it adds in a pub crawl mechanic. It just seems like it offers more options for game play without making it much more complex. I’m more interested in their dungeon crawl game that they have coming out set in the world. Because while I generally find Red Dragon Inn too long, I do like the characters and the world. And I think the length is more due to player count than anything.

Final Thoughts

There were a lot of fun games to see, and I likely could have seen a whole lot more. But I was semi-targeted in what I was doing. Though, there are also games that I probably never would have looked at, but I had a moment. Bark Avenue being the big one on the list. I generally wouldn’t have checked out Red Dragon Inn 8 either, but I know they have promo cards often if you listen. So I did that to get the card for a friend.

Out of these games ones that I’ll likely pick up will be Paperback, Hoplomachus: Victorum, and Birds of a Feather. All very similar games, not at all, but all that do stuff I like. Paperback is deck building and word game. Hoplomachus is a big campaign solo game. And Birds of a Feather is a small filler game. Which would interest you most?

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Top 10 Games at Gen Con

10 – Dwellings of Eldervale

Dwellings of Eldervale has been on my shelf for a while. And I even own the fancy version with the monster bases that make noise and all the nice tokens for it. But I never got around to playing it. This is one of those games that I grabbed a spot so I could learn how to play the game versus because I was interested in the game. I knew I was already interested int.

And the game did not disappoint. I enjoy the worker placement in it. And I like how each person starts out a little bit differently with their plans. The game has a good amount going on to it. And you need to think about everything that you are doing. But it doesn’t feel overwhelming. I got through a decent chunk of a game, probably 4 rounds, but we still weren’t near the end of it. I want to get it to the table and play it again. And I want to try some of the other factions out there to see how they are.

9 – Twilight Inscription

I signed up for this event late. Learn how to play probably the biggest roll and write game out there. And set in the world and style of something like Twilight Imperium, it should be the biggest. It was a learning event, which I think is worth noting for this game. I suspect it will move higher the more I play it.

Twilight Inscription has you doing a bit of everything. And it has you mainly focused on your own board. It is interesting and I appreciate that there is a little interaction. It comes in the form of combat where you compare against the players next to you. But it also comes in the form of racing to the capitol planet and goals. So a few points of interaction that takes a mainly solitaire game and turns it into something more.

This roll and write won’t be for everyone. It is two hours and it is huge. But if you are looking for a hefty game, I think that Twilight Inscription could work for you.

8 – Village Rails

Village Rails, not really a follow-up to Village Green, but feels a bit like it. I think, after one play, I slightly prefer Village Rails. Village Green does an interesting thing where you need to think about rows and columns. With Village Rails you think about how you complete train routes. That is a bit simpler in what you are doing.

But the game isn’t too simple. You need to balance placing train tracks down to get routes that score well with placing down engines to score points. It gives you enough to think about without locking you in as much as Village Green does. I think that’s the big difference. Village Rails feels less restrictive in what you are doing.

7 – Long Shot: The Dice Game

Another roll and write game, but the last one on the list. And I do think that as I play Long Shot: The Dice Game, it could move higher on the list. Long Shot: The Dice Game is a horse racing and betting game. At the end of the game, you want to have the most money, pretty simple.

But how it works is interesting. You roll two dice and that determines which horse moves forward. But on each horse card, it can activate other horses to move them around the track as well. So while one horse could run away with it, you still are moving horses racing for 2nd and 3rd. And then you have the concessions stand where you can fill in. And there you can manipulate horses, pushing some further back or others further ahead. It works nicely and is simple to get a grasp of.

6 – Lost Ruins of Arnak

Another one, like Dwellings of Eldervale, I own this one. But I hadn’t gotten around to playing it. There is something about learning euro games without playing them that is a bit harder. Probably just means that as I learn I should mess around with the board. Because Lost Ruins of Arnak is not a hard game to learn, and it’s a game with great decisions in it and a lot of fun.

I like how Lost Ruins of Arnak blends a few things. You have your worker placement that’s about exploring, fighting monsters, but really about getting resources to move up a research track. Then you have your deck building. You want to get cards that help with resources and fun moves to let you get more points. Finally, you have that research track which you go up to get even more resources, but generally to help you in your exploration. And the adventure theme works well.

5 – Batman: Everybody Lies

It’s hard to rank Batman: Everybody Lies, especially only off of the prologue. I now have played case one as well, and that was fun as well. So it could move up, but also when I do my Top 100 you’ll never see it. This is basically Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, with a few differences, and it’ll get lumped with that. But here, it gets it’s own spot.

Like I said, this is basically Detective. You still read cards, look up files and investigate everything that is going on. But with Batman: Everybody Lies, you are also having personal objectives that you need to think about. And information that you might find out as Catwoman that you need to decide if you share or not. I don’t find it that big a twist or one that you need to lean into. It’s a solid twist and the Batman theme works well in the system.

4 – First Rat

First Rat is the type of game that I wouldn’t try normally. See my comments about not learning Euro games easily. First Rat is a euro game where you are trying to build your rocket, score points and get rats to the cheese moon.

The game works better than that sounds, though. And that sounds very cute. So when I say the game works better, I mean it’s very good. Mainly because you have multiple of your rats climbing up this ladder or path. You can move one up further by itself, up to 5 spaces. Or you can move slower and move two rats, ending them on spots that are the same color to basically take both of those actions. There is more going on, but the game is that balance of simple actions but tough decisions when taking those actions.

3 – Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

Another one that I own. But I don’t blame myself for not getting this one to the table before. It came on the Tuesday before I left for Gen Con, so I had less than half a day with it around. And it is nice to learn a game from people who know it, granted, we only learned half of the game at Gen Con.

Oathsworn is a big adventure boss battling game. In Oathsworn you first do an investigation and story phase. Then once that is done, you dive into combat. This combat might be harder or easier depending on how you did in the previous part. I got to try out the combat and it is fun. I always talk about it, but being able to pick cards that remember that has been flipped before, or rolling dice, or a combination of both, makes the game feel different. I do wish I’d gotten the minis for the bosses now though.

2 – Ready Set Bet

Then we have Ready Set Bet. I actually suspect as I play more of these games most often, this one might drop. That isn’t to say that the game will get worse. But Ready Set Bet is easy to understand and get into right away when you play it. It is a real time racing game where one person is calling a horse race. They roll dice and move horses forward. Everyone else is betting in real time.

The fun of the game comes with the excitement of seeing how horses are doing. Trying to grab spots early that could pay out well, or maybe waiting longer and getting worse spots. Or when the long shots, the horses that move on a 2 and 3 or 11 and 12 start moving up and all of a sudden they are in the mix. I expect a good caller makes it more exciting but no matter what it should be a fun party game.

1 – Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses takes my top spot. This game is maybe harder to explain without the board than some of the more complex games. Basically it is a deduction game. Each person has their own card. The easy ones are all about color combos. The harder ones could be shapes or really hard ones shapes and colors combined.

On your turn you put down a tile from your four choices. You do so in a way to try and give the best clue possible about the card that you have. For example, if I had two red roses, I could put a red rose tile next to two other red rose tiles. I then put two cubes on it because I’ve made two matches that work for my card. And anyone else can put cubes on it as well if it works for their card. Then you guess, and you have to, about someone’s card and hopefully you can figure out the right answer.

Whatever you do the queen will move as she tries and catch you. And you better hope you get it right because that’ll move your forward at least keeping pace with her. If you get it wrong, she’s going to start catching you, and with an Alice in Wonderland theme, if she catches you, it’s off with your heads.

Final Thoughts

I think that the Top 10 do stand out. Through some of the ones that just missed, Meadow, Fit to Print, and Flamecraft, they could end up pushing into that list if I got to play a full game of them. Probably the closest to being the list that surprised me for missing it was Hero Realms as I got in a full game play. It again could move up, I want to play it more because it is such a simple game but I love deck building. And the fantasy theme works for me.

Overall, I played a lot of fun games. I think down through my 21 (which includes three games I’d already played), I’d happily play them again. Even my 22 is not bad, but I’d consider owning all the ones above it. The 22, Let’s Dig for Treasure, it one that I’d gladly play if someone plopped it on the table at a bar. But that’s where I see that game.

If you could play one of my Top 10 games, which one would it be?

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Games Played at Gen Con 2022

Lost Ruins of Arnak

There are a few games that I have had on my shelf where I need to play my copy. Lost Ruins of Arnak from CGE was one of those games. And I got to play two games of it at Gen Con, including one full game. Needless to say, and if you saw the video, I liked it. It is a good game with interesting worker placement, light deck building and a great theme. I was worried that it might be more worker placement than I want, and while everything is mechanical, the theme makes it fun.

Ready Set Bet

This is one that is new, not even out yet. Ready Set Bet is a real time horse racing and betting game. One person is the caller who rolls the dice and shouts out horses as they move forward. The other players, in real time, are putting down bets on horses and trying to make the most money. You can rotate who the caller is, but the game goes so fast, and it is a fun role, that when I played it one person called.

This is a great con game. Everyone is around the table getting excited and shouting or getting into it. And you almost need to stand around the table so you can toss in your bids. It’s clever and fun and plays fast. And I could see getting this one and playing it a few times in an evening and having a great time.

Jekyll vs Hyde

This one I played twice as well. Jekyll vs Hyde is a trick taking game but with a twist or two. Firstly, it’s two player with one person being Jekyll and the other Hyde. The person who is Jekyll wants to keep the number of tricks as even as possible. Win too many or lose too many and Hyde advances on the board to the monster side. The Hyde player wants to get that difference up to get across the board. It is a fun idea and feels different, plus who top suit is determined for a trick is interesting as well. Not a two player trick taking game I need, but one I’d gladly play.

First Rat

First Rat has a silly but great theme. The moon is obviously made of cheese and you are rats trying to build a rocket to get to the moon. It is an interesting game where you are pushing your rat meeples up a track. You can push one up fast, unlock more rats or you can go slower and try and combo getting resources to build your rocket.

What you do on your turn is simple. You move one rat up to 5 spaces, or two rats up to 3 spaces as long as they end on the same color. But just that is a great puzzle. Plus how you pick what you do and what you’re going for works really well. It is a game that I wouldn’t have tried if it weren’t for Gen Con.

Draftosaurus

A game I already know I love and I own everything for. This was later one of the days at the con. I wanted to play a game but most of the bigger ones were either shut down as they take too long or already in the swing of things. Draftosaurus was easy to just sit down and play. The game is so light, but still it’s a lot of fun to play.

NFL Five

One that I demoed and came home with because if you demoed you got a demo copy. This is basically a way to sell packs of football cards, and specific ones, for the game. I describe it was rock paper scissors but instead of there being a tie option, you just need to watch. So it’s a guessing game that you can mess around with a little bit. It’s very light and just fine, but it was free and it was open for demoing so why not give it a shot.

Catapult Feud

Another one I own, this was me wanting to set down my bag after I bought Burncycle. Catapult Feud is fun, it’s fun building the castles and launching balls to try and knock it over. The game is barely there, but the toy factor is so high, who even cares.

Fit to Print

This is one that I believe was on my too demo list. Fit to Print is about making your best front page for a newspaper and scoring points based off of that. It was fun, and interesting because of the real time aspect to it. You start out picking out tiles which are articles, pictures, and ads for your paper. Then when you’re ready you try and set-up your layout as fast as possible to score the most points.

The game is simple and fun, and the real time element that didn’t bother me. I think because the feeling wasn’t intense. I had three minutes to do everything. But I never felt like there is too much time pressure on it. Nor is it like Fuse where it is always counting down. It’s fast moving and light fun, but the real time doesn’t add stress.

Spicy

Spicy was a bit of a miss for me. This is a bluffing game where you put down cards of different spices and they need to go up in numerical order, though you can skip numbers, but always ascending. You need to call out when someone lays down a bluff. Playing with masks makes the game trickier. And at three it was just okay. For me, the concept of the game and what it pulled off was less interesting than a bluffing game like Skull.

Galaxy Trucker

Here’s another game with a real time element that I like. I wanted to demo the new version of it, which I did. And I don’t really feel the need to upgrade my copy. Nothing seemed to have changed too much, so might as well keep what I have. I enjoy Galaxy Trucker because again it’s a real time game or a game with real time elements, but one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And then if you are lucky, you can build up your ship so it won’t blow up, if you are lucky.

Let’s Dig for Treasure

A push your luck game. This one is very simple, you pull cards until either an evil skeleton gets you or pull up two worm cards. But you can bank your points whenever you want. The artwork on the game is fun, and as the person who demoed it said, it’s a restaurant or bar game. One that’s small enough you can take it along and pull out and play easily. Not much thought or strategy to it, but it works well enough.

FYFE

This is a random game that I got to try because the table was open. It reminds me a bit of Village Green and Calico. You are putting down discs to complete different scoring objectives in rows and columns. But you need to think about rows and columns so that you can score as many things as possible. It gets tricky as you start to have limited options to fill in and now which thing do you think it’s more likely to be able to get and score. Not one I needed to add to my collection but not a bad game.

Knights of the Hound Table

This is a small game that I was tempted to pick up. Knights of the Hound Table is a head to head battler. You put down one hound as an attacker, one as your defender, and one for their power. Then you compare, take damage and buy cards to improve your deck of hounds. The artwork is cute on the game, the game play with picking which power to use is interesting. Better for a small box head to head game than I expected.

Village Rails

I mentioned Village Green, Village Rails is from the same company and it shows. You are making rail routes to score points. Keeping track of where the tracks are going is trickier than what is in Village Green. But you don’t have the column and row scoring in Village Rails. So it is slightly easier, I’d say, and just as fun. Plus the artwork on the cards is amazing and the game itself felt pretty relaxing. A small box game I’d want to add to my collection.

Coatl

Not a new game but Coatl is about building out your best Coatl to score points. The game play is fine, it is basically collect pieces then build out your Coatl. I wish that the game would move slightly faster than it does because of how light it is. The toy factor is fun, but that is not enough for me to really recommend this game. It is more going to be one of those fine gaming experience that I’d play again but wouldn’t seek out.

Flamecraft

Flamecraft was only there for demo, I was kind of hoping it’d be there for sale. But Flamecraft is a worker placement game with dragons. You are trying to collect resources to improve shops and end up with the favor in the end. How you play is simple, you either go to a place and collect resources or to fulfill a contract. What makes this game is the artwork. I wish I had backed it for that, and now that I’ve played it, at least a few rounds, I suspect I’ll add it because of how cute it is.

Starship Captains

A new game from CGE, I snuck my way into a game the first day. And I got to play the full game which is nice. It is an action selection game where you build up a little bit of an engine, fly around, and try and complete contracts and defeat space pirates. The game moves quite fast, I would say too fast, though that’s probably a good sign that it leaves you wanting to do more and to try again to do even more.

Meadow

Meadow is one that I knew I wanted to see because it’s pretty. But looking at it and watching the GloryHoundd play of it, I thought it likely wasn’t for me. You can watch their video below. But the game itself was fun to sit down and try. I’m still torn on it because it’s a very thinky and pretty game. I am worried that AP would set in too much if I picked it up. I even found myself having to think through what I was doing for a bit. It’s one I’d love to try again though.

Asking for Trobils

Another one that was played on the GloryHoundd Youtube channel. You can see that play below. A worker placement game that is very light but a good amount of fun. You are basically building up traps and things to get Trobils which are worth points. Two players was fine with the game, I feel like it’d do a bit better with more and with a tighter board where you bounce each other more.

Twilight Inscription

One of the big games I wanted to try out at Gen Con. This is a 2 hour roll and write game based in the world of Twilight Imperium. It delivers on what it promises. And I don’t think that the game is too difficult to follow. There is just a lot later in the game when you get a ton of resources to spend and figuring out how to do that in the most efficient way.

The game comes with four boards. So you activate one board each time, whether combat or exploration, or whatever else they might be. And you do need to do a bit of everything, but you can really focus in on how you want to score your points. A fun game that I want to add to my collection.

Dwellings of Eldervale

Another game that I own but I hadn’t played. Sitting down at Gen Con is a great way to learn a game that you don’t know or you want to know more about. Dwellings of Eldervale was a lot of fun to mess around with. The core game play is fun for it and I like that this is a worker placement game but it feels so much bigger than that. You can do a ton of big things and just have fun with it. And there is no trading in the Mediterranean.

Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

And yet another game that I own. Oathsworn just came in before I left for Gen Con. I was almost tempted to move it to the top of the queue but Stars of Akarios First. We didn’t do the city and story part of the game. I say city, it could be different map locations where the story is happening. But we got into the combat and that was fun.

What I really like is how you can push your luck. You can draw cards for hits and you can pick how many to draw. You can roll dice and pick how many to roll. The more you roll of the white dice the more damage you can do. But at the same time the closer you are to busting.

Hero Realms

Hero Realms is one that I played day one and bought day two. And I even got crushed when I played it. But I really enjoyed the lighter deck building of the game. And I thought that it worked well for what it is. Plus it’s a two player game and battler game that is easy to learn. And the deck building combos are not hard to understand. I picked up the cooperative expansion as well which will be fun to mess around with.

Batman: Everybody Lies

I actually got this to the table last night again. But I did a prologue for it at Gen Con at an event. I’ve written and talked about it twice before. See my Highlights here for more information. But this is basically the Detective system with Batman theme from Portal Games.

The biggest change to it is adding in hidden personal goals. It means you might advocate for something for your character that you might not otherwise think about. Or that you might suspect is a red herring because it’ll answer a question for your character. It still is not competitive and the main focus is on the main case. But because of that personal goal it makes it different to play via Zoom like I did last night.

Long Shot – The Dice Game

I almost forgot that this was at Gen Con. But I’m glad I didn’t. A horse racing roll and write game, Long Shot is a lot of fun. I even picked up a copy to bring home. In this game you roll dice and move horses forward around the track. At the same time you are putting bets on horses, filling in spots on your board, and trying to be the person who has the most money at the end of the game. The whole track and physical board element of the game makes it feel different and the game isn’t that complex.

Caesar’s Empire

This is another one of those sit down and play a game because I needed something to do. And Caesar’s Empire is a just fine game. You basically are building our routes to get to cities and score points. The two player game needs a slight rules clarification, possibly. But the whole idea is that you can build off of other people’s roads. Is it worth it to get some points if you are giving them more points. All you do is build onto routes each turn. The game is okay, not one that I’d recommend that highly.

Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is a great deduction game. It is hard to explain, I feel, without the board but with the board it is easy to explain. The general idea is that you’re trying to get the garden perfect and not have the queen of hearts take off your head. But each of you have a hidden (or multiple throughout the game) things that the queen wants. It might be two red roses next to each other or a diamond and heart shaped topiary next to each other.

You place a tile on your turn and then everyone puts down their clue tokens if it matches. So if I have two red roses and I place down a red rose next to two others. I put down two cubes. Basically giving information that I have two matches. And everyone puts down their clues. Then you need to make a guess on someone’s card. If you get it right you move ahead and the queen of hearts moves ahead one. If not, she moves head faster. Really great puzzle that I want to play again now.

Mythic Mischief

Probably one of the hotter games of the con, I got to play Mythic Mischief in a two versus two game. I suspect I’d like it better as a one versus one game. I also suspect I’d like it better in the blitz mode where you only can take so much time to do your turn.

Mythic Mischief is an abstract game with some fun powers and cool characters. But it’s also a game that induces a ton of AP (analysis paralysis) and for me that knocked the game a lot. The game just isn’t heavy enough to make it worth the amount of time and thought. If I want something like that, I want a big game, not this lighter heavily produced game.

Final Thoughts

I did what I wanted to do, I played a ton of games. I believe that is maybe up to 29 plays and 27 games? But either way, it is a lot and I had so much fun with it. I do want to do a Top 10 list of all of those games, see which my top ones were. So expect to see that tomorrow most likely.

What were the top games that you got to see if you went to Gen Con? And in particular, which ones were the top you got to play or demo?

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The Gen Con Haul

I know that people don’t always have time to watch the videos, so I’m going to do a quick write up as well for the games that I picked up. This is not the list of everything I played, expect that tomorrow. But it is everything I bought and stuff that has come in as well.

Kingdom Rush – Not from Gen Con

This actually came in a bit ago. Kingdom Rush is going to be a tower defense game where you cast spells and try and stop waves of enemies from reaching the end. Classic tower defense, and based off of an app, I believe, that I should maybe checkout. This one I got because I got a code from Lucky Duck Games for 20% off, and it’s one I’ve wanted to try, but wouldn’t have without a discount.

City Chase – Not from Gen Con

Korea Board Games sent me City Chase to cover. I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but this is going to be a family weight hidden movement or deduction game as you take helicopters around trying catch a car, from my understanding. And the car can hide under buildings, so a bit of a deduction and trying to narrow down and trap where the car can go.

Arcadia Quest – Not from Gen Con

This is another game that I maybe wouldn’t have picked up except that it was used. Arcadia Quest is basically a go into a dungeon, complete objectives, knock out your opponents sort of game. Tons of minis and expansions for it, I only got the base game, but I figure I can add more later if I want to it. Seems like a solid light game with some good tactics and fun minis.

Oathsworn – Not from Gen Con

And then we have a big game from Shadowborne Games. I backed this one on Kickstarter quite a while ago and it came in the day before I left for Gen Con. I am excited to get this campaign to the table. Two cool things for me about this game is the cool down track for abilities. You need to play cards out to cycle abilities back, down this track to your hand. So there is a puzzle with that.

Plus then you can roll as many dice as you want or draw as many cards as you want. But if you get two blanks, you fail. So there is a push your luck element to it. But, there is a less luck in the cards. The cards don’t reshuffle until all of them have been drawn. So the deck remembers and players know, you might have a hot deck with the blanks already out, or it might be cold with blanks left and just a few cards to draw.

Batman: Everybody Lies

I talked about this one yesterday, and Paint the Roses in my Highlights from Gen Con. As I said in that, I split the cost of the game with some friends, so I’ll probably be playing it tonight again. This is based off of Portal Games Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game series and system. But it has a Batman theme to it, it was a lot of fun. And it’s cool that we got the designer, Ignacy, to sign the cover for us.

Burncycle + Expansions

Burncycle is a post post apocalyptic cyperpunk world where corporations have taken over, granted this is after humanity took back over from the robots. You play as robots trying to hack into the system as well as complete objectives on the physical map. The game play seems like a lot of fun, and the production quality, as it is a Chip Theory Games is amazing. Probably one I’ll at least learn solo, if not play that way mostly.

Long Shot The Dice Game

This is a roll and write horse racing game. It’s one that I got to play the last day, and because it was the Kickstarter copy they were selling, decided I should pick it up. In this game, you are trying to buy horses, put bets on horses, and end up with the most money at the end of the game. It’s a good time, I like the artwork, and I like that there is a board, which is dry erase so you can mark it up with one of the expansions. I think it’ll be one that gets to the table pretty often in my sea of roll and write games.

Hero Realms + Expansions

Hero Realms is another one I got to demo, in fact I demoed it and got stomped. But I really liked what it was doing. And I decided to go in on it to the point where I could play it solo as well. Wise Wizard Games had a bundle you could buy to get the coop game play that allows for solo. Normally this is a head to head deck building and battling game that plays fast and you feel like you ramp up quickly.

Cartographers Expansions

No surprise here with new expansions for Cartographers that I’d grab them. This is three new map packs as well as then a bonus little hero pack for Cartographers heroes. I’m excited to see what different the maps do. And I need to play with all of the maps that I have now, because, well, there are six map packs, plus the base map which is double sided, so 8 different map options.

Paint the Roses

The other one I talked about in the highlights. Paint the Roses is a deduction game as you try and figure out what card a player has in front of them currently. You do that by putting down a tile, and then all players put down cubes on that tile if it creates a match. So if I put down a rose and my card is rose rose on it, if I put down that rose tile so it touches two other rose tiles, I’d put two cubes on it. Then everyone else would try and figure out what is my combo on my card. Simple but a ton of fun and pretty thinky.

Marvel Remix

Marvel Remix is a retheme and reskin of Fantasy Realms. In Fantasy Realms, from what I know, you are building out your best hand of cards to score points. It did it with a fantasy theme first and now with a Marvel theme. I believe that there are slight changes to the rules, but not sure what they are, and won’t really know as I haven’t played Fantasy Realms.

Lost Ruins of Arnak Expedition Leaders

Another game I got to play was Lost Ruins of Arnak. I even played it twice. Expedition Leaders is the expansion for it. It adds in some new items and relics. But the big thing that it does is it gives you, as the name would suggest, an expedition leader. They have unique powers and you start out the game with just that little bit of variability. I like that in a game, so seemed like an easy expansion to add.

NFL Five

Free game for demoing it. It’s basically a little football themed game. Not much going on it. I describe it in the video as rock, paper, scissors but harder. There is no tie and try again. It is just put down a play and hope that you match. But or something that’s football themed and from a football card company, it’s basically what I expected. And I don’t think it’s that bad, it’s just very basic.

Pocket Paragons

Finally, another game that I got handed, a little duel set demo of Pocket Paragons. I know nothing about this game, I’m assuming it’s a head to head battler, probably deck crafting, though maybe more like Dice Throne (just cards only) where you have stuff already set. I’ll have to learn it and give it a whirl, see what it is like.

Upcoming Streams

So, Wednesday, the plan is to play Stars of Akarios. I was hoping to get to rules read in the evenings at Gen Con and while I had some evening time free, I didn’t get to it. So it might get pushed back a week, depends on how well I can learn the rules today. If it does, I’ll be playing some other game solo on the stream.

Next Monday I think I’ll be doing a Top 10 list. Not sure what the list will be on. But I think that’ll be the plan. I of course, do have some games, like Long Shot the Dice Game, Cartographers, Hero Realms or Lost Ruins of Arnak that I could set-up and play solo as well. We’ll have to see what I end up wanting to do.

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