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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Pros

• Legacy Game
• App Integration
• Endlessly replayable
• Tile Placement
• Theme
• Price

Cons

• Short Legacy Campaign
• Possibly Light on Story

The Page

Lucky Duck, known for Chronicles of Crime, Destinies, Kingdom Rush and more board games, has done a lot of crowdfunding before. And that really shows because this is a well put together page. Though, as a legacy game, it can only really show so much. And while that isn’t a knock on if I’m going to back this game or not, it is something to know. The game is going to change in ways that they cannot tell without spoiling the game itself.

I will say for a legacy game the idea of as many stretch goals as there are is odd to me. It must come from the replayable mode after you are done with the legacy campaign. But in some ways I’d prefer to have had that locked in stone, or more of that content added into the legacy campaign itself.

The Game

The game itself looks interesting. They have released the first two scenarios to some content creators to show what is going on. The one that I have watched from Tablenauts, which I’ll have the video right below.

I like how the math works in this game. It’s rare for me to say that I like math, but this one makes sense as an interesting choice in the game. You use any combination of the dice and with addition and subtraction you use that to get tiles to put into your tableau. That piece of the game seems really simple.

And that’s one concern I have about the game. This is a Lucky Duck game so there will be story on the stuff that you scan, but is the game too simple by itself, and is there enough game in the box? I have to ask myself, will I play this after the legacy campaign. Because if not and with how light and fast the game seems to be, are 12 30-45 minute games worth it? Is there enough story and enough game for the price point.

Back or Brick

So is this a back or a brick for me? Right now it’s a back, but I’m a little bit on the fence. I think that the game play looks fun, but I worry about how much game play there is in the box and if I’ll play it after the legacy portion is done. The theme and the potential story that they can tell, I’m very interested in that. Do I think it’s going to be the best legacy game, I’m not sure about that, but I think it should be a very accessible one and should be a lot of fun. But I’m still a little on the fence.

Is this a Back or Brick for you?

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Fantasy Flight Changed Up Arkham Horror LCG

Fantasy Flight has made a ton of money by doing living card games (LCG’s). starting early with things like Lord of the Rings LCG and Android Netrunner. This has then led into a lot of other successful games like Arkham Horror The Card Game and most recently Marvel Champions. But Fantasy Flight is changing up it’s distribution model for Arkham Horror LCG.

The old model went something like this. A big box and then six mythos packs that rounded out the story. So you’d be in on the big box for about $30-40 and each Mythos Pack for $15. A whole cycle of Arkham Horror LCG would then run around $120. Now they are changing up that release cycle to just be two boxes. The first will still be the same $30-40 box, the next will be a $60 for all of the mythos pack content. If you’ve done the math, that comes out to be about $100, so saves you a bit of money.

So why is Fantasy Flight doing this? Honestly, my guess is because of logistics. Trying to get things printed and shipped at a reasonable cost is really hard right now for gaming companies. And shipping a bunch of small/cheaper products doesn’t make as much sense. I know that they have delayed stuff and moved stuff around for Marvel Champions LCG already because of this. Why did they do it the pack way in the first place, more consistent income most likely, but currently, the box method is likely to work better for them.

Lucky Duck Announces Divinus

Lucky Duck is getting into the legacy game world. They already are known for doing story driven games with the likes of Chronicles of Crime and Destinies. As well as a lot more games such as Kingdom Rush and Jetpack Joyride. But Divinus is going to be a big project for them.

We don’t know a ton about it yet, but it’s a tile-laying, dice-manipulation legacy game with an app. So I guess we do no some about it and it’s going to be the gods fighting each other from different pantheons, but how it all comes together, we don’t know.

Now, I like apps in my games. Probably more so than the average person. But I always wonder a little bit about an ambitious type of game like this. How will the app work, will it hold up to other legacy games that don’t need it. How much more work will it add. There are a few companies, actually talking about two of the three, that I like it when they do apps. I think that Lucky Duck, Awaken Realms, and Fantasy Flight do apps well.

In particular, I think that Lucky Duck Games has really changed how apps are used in a very good way. They have created games that need the app but also really need that physical component as well. I think that apps give more story telling possibilities. And the fact that this is a shorter legacy game, I think 12 sessions, makes me think that they can develop something really good.

Which Piece of News is More Interesting To You?

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