GENCON 2012 - Day 1 Part 1

Here we go, the actual first day of the CON! So exciting as I got to meet many people including Tom Vasel, Eric Summerer and Ryan Metzler from Dicetower network. Although I REALLY wanted to get a copy of Seasons, I was very surprised to have heard that they were sold out within minutes of the doors opening. I had not count on that. Now I am hoping I can order it (supposed to be available 30 Aug) and get it before I fly back to Singapore.

Day 1

30 minutes before opening! And this happens almost EVERYDAY of the CON! 

Beginning of Cardhalla. This event has been going on for
about 14 years I believe. Every year people will donate
unwanted cards and people can build structures like a growing
card city of sorts. Then attendees get to donate money and
throw coins to bring down these structures. All proceeds are
donated to charity. So cool ya?

FFG's Merchant of Venus demo table. Eric Summerer enjoyed
himself playing the demo version and had good words to
say about the game. I am SO looking forward to getting this.

OMG SO MANY DICE. There are at least 5 booths selling
dice. Its a pity I don't play RPGs else I would find it hard not
to buy different varieties. There are some metal dice that are heavy
enough to become weapons though, if one can throw them
fast enough.

FASTTRACK - Looks like a remake of an older game
now with NHL branding. Its a quick agility
game where you are trying to get rid of all the
discs on your side of the board. I wonder
how long the rubber band will last though.

STRING RAILWAYS - Now in English! I played
this before at a meetup and it is rather light
and unique. I probably won't get it though
unless there are additional changes to it.

SNAKE OIL - Party game where you have 2 cards and you
try to combine them and convince the current player's role
that yours is the best. I am not a big fan of party games though.

TSURO OF THE SEAS - Its like Tsuro version 2. With a hidden
tile element as well as dragon tiles which are like traps for
the unwary ship, it seems to be a bit more interactive than
Tsuro. I probably won't get this.

There are areas where parents with kids can chill out and get
away from all hustle and bustle. GENCON is also fun for the
family!

MONSTEROLOGY - This is a CCG game that interacts with your iPad.
The CCG game can be played by itself OR with a game in iPad.
Quite innovative I feel and it will be interesting to see what
it does for the gaming industry. I wonder how they prevent
piracy and reusing the same cards on different iPads.

Blindside - Abstract game that seems to have quite
a buzz. It has neat looking arrows and components.
Never tried this though so not sure how it goes.

DOTZEE - Fun abstract game. Each player can only take a
dice on the borders and roll it and then place it back into
the grid by shifting it in. If you score a straight/full house
etc, then you will score a point. First to reach 10 points will
win the game. The components are nice, hefty and it is quite
a fun game to play.

SPARTAN - Based on the tv game. Seems to gotten a lot of
hype and sales from attendees. I am not too sure about the game
though. I did not get a demo in but from what I heard
its a lot of negotiations between players and participating
in gladiatorial matches to earn points. Lets hope someone else
in my group gets it ;)

WEYKICK FOOSBALL - Awesome wooden
components where players use magnets to
move their 2 wooden players on the board and
try to score a goal. Looks really fun but will
be a bit tough to bring back to Singapore.

URBANIA - Mayfair's newest game. I had a demo
later on and I got my copy. I've been
looking for a better real estate/property type
of game and I think this is it. Someone in BGG
mentioned this is like Ticket To Ride
reimagined and I guess that is correct but
its a good game nevertheless!

STAR TREK CATAN - Looks like a rethemed Catan. Components
looked good though. Still haven't owned a Catan and this
will be on my wishlist but I don't think I will get it as there
are a lot of other games out there!

GIANT SETTLERS OF AMERICA - Mayfair had a few of these giant sized games.
Very cool to look at :)

GIANT SHEAR PANIC - Awwww.... the sheep... so cute!!

GIANT LORDS OF VEGAS - Love the large dice!

GIANT FALL OF POMPEII - Wish they had dry ice inside the
volcano for added effect.

GIANT ROCKET JOCKEY - I played this once and its
MEH for me.

OH GNOME YOU DON'T - Looks like a light game. Nice Art
and all. I did not get a demo on this though.

GIANT ROBORALLY - I wonder how long this game will
take though. Plus the robots moved really slowly.

GENCON 2012 - Day 0

So in this Day 0 of my GENCON adventure blog post, I will link the many many pictures I have taken as well as a short description of each. In my next post, I will share my insights, thoughts, feelings etc of my experience.
Here we go!


Day 0

True Dungeon - I did not want to try it this year but
perhaps in the future I will. Seems like a lot of fun!

GENCON loot! There were quite a lot of loot
there. GEEKNATIONTOURS supplied us
with a cap each so I am good after that. These merchandise
are kinda pricey though.

Mechwarrior booths. I originally did want to go for these but
I waited near the end on Sunday and by noon they were all
sold out! So all my Generic tickets were cashed into credit
and I hope to be back next year to use them!

GEEKNATIONTOURS Dinner - Met so many interesting people.  D6 Generation
where we got to ask questions. I have always wondered if
anyone kept score on Craig's Rapid Fire section and he
says the guests will always remember. We also met up with
Steven from Stronghold games, Geof Engelstein and Eric from Wyrd Miniatures.

2nd loot of the night. Evil Baby Orphanage.
Fun light game where players try to amass 10
points worth of Evil Babies (i.e. Baby Hitler etc)
to win the game. The bonus was getting to play
the game with the designer as he shared a lot
of the design process that finally produced the
copy we saw before us. Very enlightening experience!

Another bonus was being able to play the game with the D6 Generation, Geof
and fellow GEEKNATIONTOUR members!

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small

Quick review on Agricola:All Creatures Big and Small. Now I had never thought I will get any 2 player games because mainly it will limit the people I can invite over to play this game. However after getting Twilight Struggle, I decided to take a look at 2 player games as well. Since I am in NYC now, I decided to get a few 2 player games so I can play with my wife.
After Gencon2012 (pictures and short writeup will be coming soon! so wait for it! :)) I was still itching to play games so I decided to break out Agricola:ACBS to play with the wifey.

1st round

2nd attempt, 50 points this time

It is a quick and fast game for 2 players. It is tightly designed, has awesome components (wifey loves the little sheepeeples) and quite fun to play. Its not very thinky and easy to pick up but since the "market" is rather tight there will be a lot of interaction between the players. 

Players take turns placing each of their 3 workers onto the "market" to obtain resources or build special buildings. Players are trying to maximize the space on their own farms and have as many animals as they can. Each animal type that you have less than 4 in your farm will cost you 3 demerit points. Otherwise, everything else will count as points for you. The player with the most points will win.

Not sure if it can last 10+ plays though as usually the first few moves are quite similar. I think the main replayability will be when both players are aware of each other's moves and plan to block. That will probably make it even more competitive.

I cannot wait to try the other games with the wifey and see how it goes :)

Gencon - updates abit slow..

Hi all,
If you are looking for more news, do follow me on twitter @duckizz. I am constantly updating my twitter with news and pictures! I will blog again once I am back in NYC but for now do follow me!

Thanks!

Gencon 2012 - Wednesday

So I arrived today and my first surprise was being fetched to my hotel in a stretched limo! Though I wasn't alone but it was way cool to travel in style lol.
Hotel is great. I realized there is a benefit to staying alone so it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It's also so cool that the hotel (and indeed a lot of the places in Indianapolis) are so receptive to gencon and accommodate us. Many gamers can be seen playing games at the hotel lobbies and various empty areas and there is no hostility from the hotel management at all.
After checking in, I walked around the convention center and it is HUGE! Like OMG huge. I cannot wait to see all of us geeks at the opening to the dealer halls tomorrow.
First game I sat in was star fleet battle force. It looks like a pretty quick game involving ships and playing of cards. Reminds me of that spaceship card game I played recently. While the star trek theme intrigues me, I doubt I will get it though. Plays up to 6 and plays quick.
After that I got to walking somemore before the welcome dinner and met up with Tom vasel of the dicetower podcast. Boy is he tall! At least 1 head taller than me! Got to talking with him and then met up with Eric summerer, Cody jones and John from the now defunct Game on with Cody and John. It was so cool and quite amusing to actually see them in real life and hear those voices in my head (via podcasts) in real life as well. I am offering to help them and I will do so via taking pictures for Tom.
Dinner was kinda cool as the organizer of gencon was on hand to answer our questions. Bummer I don't have my badge and tickets yet so I hope I will get it by tomorrow before the vendor halls are open! Then we met with owner of stronghold games and also Eric from Wyrd miniatures. Manage to snag 2 goodies from Eric! After that the d6g crew was there to chat and answer questions.
After dinner, the group headed outside to play a game called Evil Baby Orphanage which is the latest kickstarter game from Wyrd miniatures which I just got. It is quite fun but I think a group of 4-6 will be a good size to play. We were 8 while the novelty was amusing, it dragged on a little too long after a while. Can't wait to try it back in Singapore! Also the evil babies are so intriguing that now I want to find out the background.
After that I walked around the hotel a bit more and there were still many groups of gamers playing all over! I decided to walk over to the convention centre again to meet with Joel who is commonly known as eekamouse that reviews boardgames as well. Saw Lance (known as undeadviking) chatting with tom and sat in and listened to them talk shop. Ryan (also from the network) joined in a little later.
Everyone decides to turn in after a while as its the first day of gencon tomorrow and it's going to be a long day! But man it will be exciting!
I heard there is some game that fantasy flight is keep user wraps and no one know what it is yet! I can't wait!!
Ok time to zzz... Night everyone!

Heading to GENCON 2012 soon!

hi all! In a couple of hours I will be heading to Gencon 2012! I am so excited :P

What are some of the games I am interested in?

Seasons
I have been playing this on Boardgamearena.com so I have gotten quite a good grasp of the game. It looks fantastic and plays really well! It has a nice drafting element for the advanced level games, good looking components and dice to add a good dose of randomness to the mix. I highly recommend this and will definitely get my copy at the convention.

Speaking of which, you can enter a contest on BGG now for your own copy of Seasons!

Morels
I recently purchased this and while I haven't logged in a play with Wifey yet but I will before I leave USA. I will be at the booth to collect the remainder of my extra pieces (the walking sticks). The designer/self-publisher is a very nice person that responds quite swiftly if you have any questions. Oh he is also very eloquent (go look for his video interview by BGG) too! Go support this product and his company!

Tsuro of the Seas
I have Tsuro and it is a fun light game that can cater for a lot of people. I will be interested to see if Tsuro of the Seas can cater for the same amount of people but perhaps with a little bit more complexity.

Zombicide
This is a kickstarter that recently shipped out to the supporters. Already there are initial plays and pictures on BGG and all are positive so far. I am looking out for a good zombie game but so far haven't found it yet. This is a co-op though and I am not particularly fond of co-ops. Still I hope I will get a play in and then decide for myself how it goes.

Rolling Freight
A train game that has dice? Interesting. I would like to take a look at this first to see if it can scratch my train game itch before I decide to dive into 18xx. It is highly recommended by Tom Vasel but I am not always in agreement with his recommendations so lets see how this goes.

Leviathans
Ah.... the miniatures game about flying airships. Reminds me of a supped up version of Wings of Glory but with dice involved. Or a better Battleship Galaxies. I certainly hope to grab a play of this and see how it is. But the box is so big so unless I am buying nothing else on this trip, unlikely I will be bringing this with me home.

Sheepland
Game about herding your sheep lol.... Pity there will only be demo at Gencon and not available for purchase. But its good to have a try at this first and see how it goes. I am drawn to the cute....sheep.... Don't judge me!

Relic
A game that combines Talisman and Warhammer40k? Ooooo very intriguing for me. I am not sure why I have this fascination with Warhammer universe (I LOVED Chaos in the old world btw) but this will be very attractive to me! Hope to get a demo in on this.

Merchants of Venus
I think this is one of the most highly anticipated titles of 2012. I have heard rumours that FFG will be releasing this at GENCON! I sure hope so then I can snag a copy (hopefully!) :p :P

so that's about it! Time to have some breakfast before the service to airport arrives!

WooT WooT!

I'm off!

tomorrow night at this time i will be on my A380 on my way to New york (with stopover at Frankfurt). Got myself a good seat on the upper deck in front of the emergency exit so hopefully I can recline the seat all the way down.
Yay! Gonna see my wife soon :)
Then a few days of chilling, eating, watching musicals then its off to GENCON 2012!

Btw the contest is still ongoing so comment away people!