Part of what I do at Gen Con every evening, though, is go through a list of everything that I played. I log those plays and see how many games I played. This year, over Gen Con, I believe it was 42 or 43 different games. So let’s look at the games played, ranked, but we’re starting out only with day 1’s recap of gaming so far because 42 is too many for a single article.

Day 1 Gaming at Gen Con

13. Invincible: The Dice Game

I know that Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower did not like this game. I’m with him a bit on it. I think it’s a perfectly fine beer and pretzels type of game. But I already have a game, Zombie Dice, that does the same thing, and I think it does it better.

It’s a dice chucker where you allocate dice and push your luck to try and beat bad guys. The bad guys give you damage and they can knock down your “health” to take you out of a round if you push your luck too far. One of those, there isn’t too much to the game sort of games. It’s one I’d play again, but I don’t need two games like that in my collection.

12. Beacon Patrol

This one I accidentally slept through the event for the following day, but Beacon Patrol with the demo I got was simply fine. It has that Carcassonne style placement of tiles. It turns it into a cooperative game, but without that much game to it. I also think that it bogs down because if you get bad tiles, as a group, you might not be able to place them. They give you minor ways to deal with it, but it’s not that exciting.

And the scoring is pretty simple, surround a tile on all four sides. It gives points depending on what’s on it, but there’s just not that much going on, which is why it’s lower on my list. I feel like over a longer game it wouldn’t be any more interesting than a few round demo, it might make it worse.

11. Scram!

This is team Silver. I like Silver, but I sold my stuff. It’s a game that I played a number of times, so I don’t feel the need to come back to it again. Scram! Is simpler, but it’s for teams. I think I like it better than Silver just because of that simplicity, the weird animal theme, and the teamwork. The change is that you can play and get rid of a card of your teammates as well when you get rid of cards of the same number. Very much the same thing, but still enjoyable. Not one that I’m going to get back in this form, most likely, as it’d be harder to play.

10. GAP

I did buy this one and it’s fairly low on my list. I got it because it’s a small game and one that is pretty simple and fun. You just play out card and take cards of the matching numbers or an adjacent number. And you are trying to collect a lot of one color and a little of another color so that you get the biggest gap, hence the name. I like a little card game like this one, and it reminds me of some other ones, a bit like Hats a bit like Parade. I’m not sure it’s better than either of those, but it’s easier to teach, which I like as well.

9. Secrets of the Lost Tomb: Epic Edition

This demo was pretty light, which is a shame. I think sitting down with this game for 30 minutes or so would have been great. But this is basically a cooperative Betrayal at House on the Hill. It is a remake and reworking of an older game. I like that in theory, it’s more of an adventure and it’s one shot adventures. So it is a bit more text than Betrayal and a bit more story because of that. However, it feels a bit old in what it’s doing, do I need a second game like Betrayal?

8. Cytosis: A Cell Biology Board Game

A game that’s been out for a bit, this is one of those games that I just sat down to randomly play. And I think it’s a solid worker placement game. You need to plan out what you do well, but it doesn’t feel that exciting compared to other games.

I think I mainly compare it to Asking for Trobils, that weight of game, and Asking for Trobils is more fun. Cytosis is a great game, though, if you want an interesting way to teach Cytosis and that science because it does a great job of that. There is great value in that, in my opinion, because it’s a fun game that teaches you.

7. Age of Wonders: Planetfall

I have two things that I think are interesting about this game. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a game about building out your factions powers to get the most points as you spend resources, get resources, fight battles, get cards.

I think that it’s a very cool game, I have it low on the list because I don’t think there is enough. It’s 7 planets you go to per game, but it’s the same seven planets. And it needs to be because cards build like they do in 7 Wonders where you have a card that is easy to get if you own a previous card. But the variability I feel like is pretty light. So I think I want it, but I’d play it 5-6 times and then be done with it.

6. The Fox Experiment

A game that’s been out for a few years. I don’t think I realized fully how it worked, now that I do, I really want the game. This is a game about Russian experiments for breeding foxes, kind of that actually happened.

You breed foxes and get new trait based off of roll and write mechanisms. And then those new foxes are placed into the breeding pool so you build out the ones that you already did. It’s a fun system, it’s not a heavy game, but I want it. I like the roll and write random element to it. I like the upgrades and things you can do to improve your fox, so very fun.

5. Ecosystem

This is one that was a surprise hit for me. The game is a pretty simple tableau building drafting game. You draft animals that score in different ways. The bear wants to be near rabbits and trout. The trout the streams and dragonflies, the foxes don’t want to be near other predators. All of those things give you points and you draft over two rounds. The upside is it can play a pretty solid number of players and it plays fast. I picked it up because it’s going to be one of those games, I can tell, that is going to be consistently played with my group, that easy to play but offers some good fun.

4. SpellBook

SpellBook is one of the bigger releases, I think, at Gen Con because of the designer. Phil Walker-Harding is known for creating lighter, easy to play games that are very popular. And I think that SpellBook hits that as well. You are trying to cast spells and give energy to your familiar. All of those things give you points and the spells give you power.

But you can only cast spells once per games of the various colors. So as you cast them, you need to decide to what level you want to push them to. The higher the go, they better they are, but the game ends when you’ve cast them all, or when your familiar is maxed out, so someone can rush those ends if they want, it’s a fun balancing act.

3. Dungeon Karts

This one is great, it’s a multiplayer racing game that is very much a Mario Kart style of game. The game play is fast and pretty straight forward in what you are doing. There are special powers, and you get spells that you cast against your opponents. This reminds me a bit of Tiny Turbo Cars but without the real time, more just that fun that you have in a game where you can blow someone else up. It definitely leans into the goofy and will be coming to Kickstarter soon which I’ll want to checkout.

2. Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

This one is hard to rank, but it ranked high. Mainly, what I saw I liked a lot. But what I saw was mainly Ticket to Ride. When you start this legacy game you only play on the East Coast and the density of locations is a whole lot higher. There are elements that give you a bonus in the game. And what I saw that is mainly new is that you get events. Those events might give you  more victory points or potentially bad things. I’m really excited for this legacy game to come out.

1. Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition

I already like Arnak a lot already. The Missing Expedition expansion adds in a few things. There are two new research boards, we didn’t play with those. Two new characters I thought that both of them were very interesting. The big thing is I got to play the campaign in the box. This is a solo or two player campaign where you unlock new cards as you go along. And there is a story with it, more than I thought, which is cool. I wasn’t sure if it would work cooperatively, but it does. And there are good challenges in it and twists in the first chapter. I bought it, so I will play through the whole campaign, probably solo.

Busy with Gaming

I play a lot of games at Gen Con. And Thursday is often the busiest day for me, like I said. And I think that it might have been the best day for gaming for me. Even my least favorite game in the group, I think was fun enough to play again. It’s a good “beer and pretzels” game.

If you’re not familiar with that term, think of a game that you can sit around playing at a bar or brewery. Or at your place when you want something to play, but it’s mainly about chatting, sitting around, and drinking. Actually a very good option for a place like Gen Con.

Then the list goes all the way up to bigger more complex games that are great. I’m not sure that The Missing Expedition is as good as Expedition Leaders for Lost Ruins of Arnak. But it adds in more cards and more expedition leaders even if you don’t want the cooperative campaign. So even if you do end up playing without the campaign you get good stuff in the box.

It’s been just over a week and I miss the gaming all the time already. Gen Con is great for that, and thankfully, I get a game night tomorrow night where we’ll play some of the these games that I bought at Gen Con. Often some that I did demo as well.

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Top 10 Games to Demo at Gen Con

Let’s start out by cheating with two honorable mentions.

Honorable Mention:

Kinfire Delve – Kinfire is a game that I might pick up, it’s a big campaign game. Delve looks like a smaller game set in the same universe. But if it builds on that world in a fun away, even without being a campaign game, it is one that’s on my radar. And it’s still cooperative, so it might be more of a bite sized game.

The A.R.T. Project – Another cooperative game and another one that looks beautiful. I obviously like cooperative games, and I’m hoping that this one won’t be too complex. The idea of trying to figure out certain scenarios to stop an art thief, but again not be a campaign game, that sounds like a lot of fun. And with the look of the game, not a company I’m always drawn towards, but this game is.

Onto the main list.

10. Super Squad High

Let’s start out with the most important thing. There is a narrative dating mechanism. This is a high school for super heroes, of course there is going to be that. Plus it’s cooperative and it’s super heroes, and honestly, I don’t know what’s in this game not to love. Maybe the fact that secretly one of your classmates if the villains. But it doesn’t sound like a hidden traitor game, it sounds like one of the people you interact with through the game will be. So I hope I don’t end up dating them.

9. Spellbook

Phil Walker-Harding puts out good balances of interesting games, but not too complex games. This is fun that they are advertising there are 2100 different spell combinations. That means that the game is going to be and feel unique. And those spells are going to be unique and changing as the game goes on. Plus the whole main concept, feeding your familiar with the “materia” from the spells, that is interesting. Finally, you decide when you spit out those spells. Get an affect now, or you hold onto your spell and launch it later with more power.

8. Reign of Hades

Exploration, fighting monsters, dealing with whatever adventure is thrown at you? The only question is, why is this one not higher on the list for me? Honestly, it probably should be. It’s of course cooperative and hand management. I hope that it’ll be one that stands out as  unique and not too big, but one that I’m curious about as it’s a style of game I love.

7. Charcuterie

Build the best charcuteries board, that sounds fun. I do love a good charcuterie board. The downside I will want to eat charcuterie while playing Charcuterie. From the game side of things, it uses one of my favorite mechanisms. That being I split you choose, so I might want olives, but how do I make it so I give you something good enough that you’ll take it and leave me my olives? But I don’t want it to be too good so I make it harder on myself later on.

6. Diced Veggies

While I prefer charcuterie, this game also looks interesting and it looks simple. Honestly, this is one I’d have over looked except that the YouTube channel Thinker Themer were in on it. And I like what it looks like, you are cutting dice off of a big block of dice. Always need to cut at the edge and no more than 10 pips worth. So can you setup some good cuts so you get great turns and don’t leave anything great. All the while using those dice to fulfill cards for points. Simple, but sounds like a fun time.

5. Defenders of the Dictionary

Cooperative word game, like I said, I like cooperative games. And this one sounds very interesting. You are working together against some force in the game that is trying to stop you. And you do that by building words and working with each other. They do a good job of making it sound really fun, and if it’s a strong word game then I’m very curious. It also talks about it being grid based, so I’m not sure if you’re building up words or not? I think that just sounds unique.

4. Weirdwood Manor

This game sounds really interesting because it’s a horror themed game. But not just a horror themed game, one with a haunted or weird house. And the house, from what I can tell, rotates, so how it’s setup at the start of the game might not be how it ends. Maybe should be lower on the list, but I like a cooperative game, and when you have a weird horror theme, that makes me quite interested.

3. Horror on the Orient Express

Have I said that I like horror. And then there is a whole lot more. It’s a cooperative game. There is story and adventure to it, you need to deal with cultists and really a lot of the standard Lovecraftian things. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to play it. I like the them, I like the setting. And if it can have story and depth to the game, not just a simple dice chucker, I am excited to see what it can offer.

2. Ticket to Ride: Legacy

A legacy game, I love legacy games. Ticket to Ride, my favorite gateway game. What do I think this is going to offer, I’m not even sure. And what can you demo on it, I’m definitely  not sure. But I love the idea of it and I like the idea of it for being that gateway plus game. Kind of like Pandemic Legacy let me play Pandemic again and feel like there was more without being too much. I hope that Ticket to Ride Legacy falls in line with those.

1. Star Wars: Unlimited

This one no shock that it’s on my list. It’s a competitive trading card game. But it’s Star Wars themed, I really like Star Wars. And there is a collectible aspect and deck construction. But I like how they are doing a few things. Firstly, “rare” cards are less rare than you’d think to keep the game accessible. But alt art cards, or foil, those are going to be the chase cards in the set. And I like the deck building because you are battling on different fronts. So you might build a deck that is very focused on attacking and defending on the ground in hopes to overwhelm your opponent. Of course, that means that you are weaker in space, so there is going to be a lot of interesting strategy and deck theory crafting that I hope to dive into.

What Is Your Must Demo Game?

Let me know what game or games that I might be missing on my list. There are so many games, even more than I put up on video, which you can find below. But which ones stand out to you as games that you’d like to get demoed when you go, or ones you think should be on my radar?

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