Gen Con Approaches

It is now less than two weeks until the biggest gaming convention cranks up in Indianapolis. Like always, I’m starting to feel the crunch as I prepare for that annual journey to gaming mecca. While I worry about finishing up the various projects I figured I’d explore what I’m hoping to see at the big show.

First up regards some just announced info from CMON Games:

Teburu from CMON and Xplored was announced at San Diego Comic Con today and looks interesting. It seems to be another attempt at board game companies to bridge the electronic game divide. While some gamers dislike the mixing of mediums I’m not opposed but I have yet to see the practice work out. So far, the best I’ve seen is in the Fantasy Flight app-driven dungeon crawls like Descent and Imperial Assault.

This system seems to be unique with a gaming mat that can partner with the base of the miniature or player pieces to interact with the app device. The video seems a little simplistic so I’m hoping there is more going on then simple pawn tracking or damage. The funniest comment I heard so far was someone not wanting to have to change the battery on their dice. That concept alone could be a turnoff and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Teburu is due to release on Kickstarter (its CMON so that was almost a given) and bundle with a new Zombicide product. That has very little appeal to me so we’ll see how that goes. Their booth at Gen Con will have the prototype to see and I bet it will be quite crowded but it’d be nice to see it in person.

Speaking of Zombicide, it has been almost ten months since CMON announced they acquired the rights to Night of the Living Dead (actually anyone can do that since the IP is in the public domain). They teased the image back in October of last year but there hasn’t been so much as a moan yet. Hopefully we’ll see some movement as I’d like to know more. I’m not a big fan of the zombicide’s simple format but maybe they can take it a new direction instead of just a simple re-skin.

Staying with CMON just a little longer, I fully expect to see both the Baratheon and Targaryen starters playable at the demo table at Gen Con. If so, I’ll try to get pics of the cards and stats. I wouldn’t be surprised to see advanced release of the Baratheons at least.

Some other CMON developments of interest will be their Trudvang story-telling game (which kicks off a Kickstarter campaign soon), development of the Blood Rage app and new sculpts, and to see if there is anything else they will be doing with HATE, the board game.

This is a weird one for me. Talisman re-skinned to Batman where you play the super-villains sounds interesting from USApoly but it still is Talisman, right? While I’ve never really played Talisman, I’d seen enough of it to not want to start but something keeps bringing me back to this. I’d like to check out a demo just to get it out of my system.

Last year, I was excited to see if Kill Team, a 40k skirmish game could match the fun of the Warhammer Underworld series. Sadly, it did not but I saw a new game, Warcry, is coming from Games Workshop as another small scaled version of their large Warhammer Fantasy game. I always like skirmish games as it makes for an easier entry and usually a faster game. Hopefully this doesn’t fall flat like Kill Team but a good demo will let me know quickly.

Staying in the skirmish arena, Mantic is soon to release Call to Arms for their Walking Dead line. This uses all the minis I’ve been fussing with over the years and puts it into a tighter, more competitive versus game. The original is great as a solo/co-op narrative experience but I wouldn’t trust it to be balanced in a straight up skirmish. These rules will be an easy addition to correct that side of the game. I’m also hoping to demo this at their booth.

On the lighter side of skirmish battles, Unmatched is the re-imagining of the classic Star Wars: Epic Duels game originally by Hasbro. I have that venerable classic and feel like it still holds up well. This new take removes the Star Wars IP and updates some of the mechanics while adding in bizarre “legend” stories like Bruce Lee vs Robin Hood or Alice in Wonderland fighting Bigfoot. It sounds bizarre enough to be quite fun. I hope to demo this at the Con as well.

Moving into Board Games (yes I still play them!), I’ve been intrigued with Era Medieval Age. It looks fantastic and I love the bling but the price is quite high (originally thought to be $80 but looks like that price is dropping) so I’d like to play before I bite the bullet.

There are a few other board games that have come out recently that I’m hoping to see in the BoardGameGeek room. Things like High Rise, Bosk or 7 Summits. Yep. All of those have the art of Kwanchai Moriya so they are drawing me in like a moth to flame.

Fantasy Flight is always a huge draw and they love to release big items at the show. I’ll be at their announcement event Wednesday night and will be interested in seeing where they are going with so many of their products. I also hope to see more of that Armada Super Star Destroyer.

I’m sure I’m missing a ton but this is getting a little long in the tooth and I have work to do on my own Gen Con events.