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Convention Report: Gencon 2006: August 11, 2006 - Part 2 (Day 2)
By Rick Thornquist
August 11, 2006
Here’s part two of my report on the second day of Gencon 2006. This report is posted a little later than usual - too many things to do and not enough time! Today I talked with some publishers - Fantasy Flight Games, Wizkids and Z-Man Games, plus I got a little tidbit from Days of Wonder. I also played a number of new games. Here we go!
My first stop among the publishers was Fantasy Flight. I got a chance to sit down with head honcho Christian Petersen and chat about what’s new and the games they have coming up.
Fantasy Flight had quite a few new games that they were selling here at Gencon. These games included Wings of War - Recon Patrol and Top Fighters, Mag Blast - Third Edition, Great Wall of China, the Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion, and the new version of Drakon (I believe they also the newest Runebound small expansion decks as well as the World of Warcraft - Shadow of War).
The Wings of War expansions, Mag Blast - Third Edition and Great Wall of China are due to be generally released in Late August. Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion, the new version of Drakon, and the Runebound small expansions are due in September. World of Warcraft - Shadow of War should be available in Late September.
Fantasy Flight had quite a big booth and they were demoing many of their games. Many of the new games were being demoed and I also saw A Game of Thrones - The Boardgame and World of Warcraft - The Boardgame.
They had a table set aside to demo Marvel Heroes, but at the time I was talking to Christian the game still hadn’t arrived. He told me that the game had arrived on Tuesday but was stuck in customs. The Fantasy Flight people were going crazy spending hours on the phone and doing paperwork trying desperately to get the games delivered (later in the day the game did finally show up). I made a date to play this one tomorrow morning.
Another table was set aside for the Tide of Iron playtest. This is Fantasy Flight’s big World War II tactical combat game. I am planning to play this one on Sunday morning.
Some other expected release dates: Marvel Heroes, Descent: The Well of Darkness Expansion, and the Reiner Knizia game Penguin are all due in Late September. The Lord of the Rings - Battlefields Expansion is due in October. Blue Moon - Buka Invasion, Cold War: CIA vs. KGB, and Perikles are due in November
A note about Perikles. This is a Martin Wallace / Warfrog game that not being produced by Warfrog itself, but by the British distributor Esdevium. It will be distributed in North America by Fantasy Flight. The production should look like a typical Warfrog game (as opposed to a Fantasy Flight game).
Twilight Imperium - Third Edition - Shattered Empire Expansion is due in Late November. Runebound - The Sands of Al-Kalim, Tide of Iron, and the new version of Cave Troll are due in December.
Chris wasn’t sure of the release date for the World War II version of Wings of War, titled Wings of War - Dawn of War. This is all up to Nexus, the Italian publisher of the game.
As previously reported, Starcraft - The Boardgame is going to be pushed to Summer 2007. Other games that are now coming in 2007 include the ‘World of Warcraft - The Boardgame Expansion’ and the Bruno Faidutti game Argo.
Descent fans have two things to look forward to next year. We’ve already told you about the ‘Descent Campaign Expansion’, but you can now look forward to another expansion to be called Descent: Altar of Despair. This will be a content expansion, similar to The Well of Darkness, with more heroes and more monsters.
The big box game Reins of Power and the new version of Blood Royale are now looking to be 2008 games.
Whew!
My next stop was Wizkids. They were mostly busy showing off their miniatures games, but I did spy a copy of their upcoming boardgame Oshi on a table. I actually played the game (see below) and I was told the game is due in October (the date I got previously was October 25, 2006). Unfortunately, they didn’t have a copy of Pirates: Quest for Davy Jones’ Gold - the Pirates of the Spanish Main boardgame - on-hand. I was told that the game is due in October / November. I was also told that the ships from Pirates of the Spanish Main would be compatible with the boardgame.
My third publisher of the day was Z-Man games, where I chatted with head honcho Zev Shlasinger. Zev had copies of his new game Take Stock in his booth, which was being demoed by designer Simon Hunt (and I got to play the game - see below). He was also showing the new Ted Cheatham / Bruno Faidutti game Silk Road, which I had a chance to play had on the first day. In addition, he was selling copies of Tempus for Café Games.
Zev told me that Take Stock, Silk Road, and The End of the Triumvirate should be released in September. 1861 and Gheos are on for October and Gheos will be Z-Man’s big game for Essen. Z-Man is also doing SuDoku - The Cardgame which is an English version of the game that’s being produced by Kosmos. The Z-Man version will have different box art and some different art for the card backs as well. The one is due in October as well.
Midgard is due in October / November. Lifeboats and Mamma are due in November. Feudo and the Primordial Soup expansion are set for next year.
Some games that are new to us: Z-Man is going to be publishing Shazamm!, a two player game designed by Philippe des Pallières and François Bruel that was originally published in France by Lui-Même in 2003. The game is about two wizards on a bridge casting spells at each other while the bridge is burning. This one is coming in 2007.
And here’s one last teaser: Z-Man has in the works two more games from designer Reiner Knizia.
At one point I ran into Mark Kaufmann of Days of Wonder while I was walking in the Exhibit Hall. I think he felt bad for not giving me anything when I talked to him on the first day, so he threw me a teaser about the ‘Bigfoot Game’. It turns out the big foot relates to a limited edition promotional piece that will be available for those that pre-order the game (either from your retailer or Days of Wonder). That’s it!
That’s my survey of publishers for the day. Let’s move onto the games I played.
During the day I happened upon Boardgame News columnists Valerie Putman and Dale Yu. Valerie had bought Emira and was keen to try the game, so we grabbed a table in on of the halls and played a three player learning game. We didn’t play a complete game, though we played through most of the way.
This was my second playing of the game (for a detailed description of the game, see the report on the first day). Like my previous game, this was a learning game and did go on a bit long, but, as previously reported, I’m told the length of the game is greatly reduced with experience. I was again very impressed with the game - it is definitely a gamer game and there is a lot going on here.
I do have one thought about this particular playing of the game. This was a three player game and there are some slight rule changes needed to play the game with three. They aren’t onerous, but we found them a little distracting. I think that I may prefer the game with four or five to avoid these rule changes.
After finishing up with Emira, I wandered back into the Exhibit Hall and to the Z-Man games booth. Designer Simon Hunt was on hand showing his new game Take Stock and I was keen to give it a try. We sat down to play a game and were joined by Steve Jamborsky (who was a bit of an interloper, but we let him play anyway).
Take Stock is a card game for 2-6 players age 10 and up that plays in 60 minutes. The theme is about the stock market. In the game, there is a deck of share cards which come in five different companies - each company has cards numbered 1 to 12. To start, the number 1 cards of each company are set up on the table as the stock market.
Each player gets dealt a hand of share cards and then play starts. On your turn, you can play a stock card on the stock market to increase the stock price or you can play a stock card in front of you - this represents your holdings in that stock (the stock cards can be worth 0, 1, 2 or 3 shares). The idea is that at the end of the round, your score for each company is the highest numbered card for that company in the stock market, multiplied by the number of shares of the stock cards you have in front of you.
There is also another deck of cards called the market event cards. On your turn, instead of playing a stock card, you can you can pick up and / or play a market event card. These allow you do all sorts of wacky things - cause a stock to crash, freeze, get audited, etc.
After a round is complete you tally up the points and then reset the stock market for the next round. You play four rounds and whoever has the most points wins (there are a few more rules than this - I’m simplifying a bit).
I found it to be a very nice relatively light card game. The market event cards can make the game a little chaotic, but after a few plays you can learn to keep an eye on events that have occurred to better strategize. The only criticism I can really think of is that the market event cards don’t have any text on them and since it’s not obvious what they do, you’ll have to be prepared to spend your first game or two passing around the rules, which have explanations for the market event cards on the back. Otherwise, I found the game to be a fun, light card game.
My next game was Oshi, which is sort of a follow-on to Tsuro - Wizkids first foray into the world of boardgames. Oshi is similar to Tsuro in that a) they are both very simple and b) they both have foreign sounding names. Otherwise they are completely different games.
Oshi is a very simple two player abstract. The board is a grid and each player has pieces that are either 1, 2 or 3 levels high. On your turn you can move one piece in one direction. Level 1 pieces can move one space, level 2 pieces can move one or two spaces, etc. When you move you can push other pieces - your own or the other player’s pieces. The idea is to push the other player’s pieces off the board. Once you have pushed seven levels worth of your opponent’s pieces off the board you win the game.
The game is preposterously easy to teach and plays nicely. I can be a bit of a thinker as well. The only real strike against the game is that there are already a million two player abstracts out there - is there really a need for another one? Otherwise, the game is fine and I think would be good for those looking for an easy to teach two player abstract.
I then wandered over the Mattel booth where Boardgame News columnists Valerie Putman and Dale Yu where hanging out. I grabbed Valerie to play a game of Voltage, the new Brian Yu game from Mattel. We played the fancy electronic version of the game they had at the booth (see the picture below) - the normal version has a regular board and plastic pieces.
For those that missed it, here’s my description of the game from my first day’s report:
| Voltage is a lighter two player game. This one is quite reminiscent of Balloon Cup. There are four different color spaces on a board and you can play your numbered cards either on your side or your opponents side of the board. When there are a certain number of cards on both sides of the space, that space scores. If the polarity of the space is +, the player with the highest sum wins and vice-versa if the polarity is -. Some special cards add to the mix as well as cards that can reverse the polarity of a space. It’s a quite light and quick game. |
I’ve played the game three times now - once as a prototype, once with the real version of the game and once with this fancy version (the gameplay was the same in all cases). It is a nice, light two player game. Like many card games your luck can rise and fall with the cards you get and sometimes the game can be a bit on the chaotic side. For those who are looking for a two player games along the lines of Balloon Cup or Lost Cities, you may want to check out Voltage.
After my play of Voltage, it was time to head back to the hotel. I was beat - tired after not having much sleep the night before, and having missed a few meals (typical of being at these conventions). I took the opportunity to get some food, take a nap, and then post part one of today’s report before heading back to the convention centre.
I had a bit of time before my next appointment, so I took the opportunity to hang around the boardgaming hall and see what was happening. There are two rooms set aside for boardgaming - a big one and a smaller one - and they were both very busy.
Sections of each room were set aside for events and I spied a pile of train gamers playing 18xx games along with another group that was deep into Axis & Allies. Other sections of the room were set aside for game companies to show their wares. There was one section I saw for Fantasy Flight games and there were a few games happening there, including two games of the recently arrived Marvel Heroes.
Sprinkled throughout the rest of the boardgaming area were people playing all manner of boardgames. I spied many different ones - Settlers, Ra, Vegas Showdown, Civilization, Caylus, Shear Panic, and many others.
Though there are usually empty tables that you can use to just set up and play whatever you want, you have to be careful because tables may be earmarked for certain events at certain times. I was hanging around a game of Ave Caesar yesterday that got the word that their table was needed for an event and they had to move. Fortunately they were able to finish up the game before the event started, but this illustrates the problem with not having space that is dedicated to open gaming. I hope Gencon takes a cue from Origins and finally gives us some open boardgaming space next year.
I then left the boardgaming hall for my next appointment, which was with Mayfair Games. I played two games with them, but unfortunately they were prototypes and I’m not allowed to talk about them at this point. I will give you something, though - Mayfair had just received pre-release production copies of Leonardo da Vinci - the daVinci boardgame that they are distributing here in North America. It was quite a nice production and I took pictures of it (see below).
And that’s it for day two. Stay tuned for my coverage of day three where I get to check out Marvel Heroes and much more!
| Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version | |
 | Fantasy Flight Games |
 | Lots of new games for sale at the Fantasy Flight Games booth - Wings of War - Recon Patrol and Top Fighters |
 | Mag*Blast and Great Wall of China |
 | Arkham Horror - Dunwich Horror Expansion |
 | Drakon |
 | Wizkids |
 | Z-Man Games with Zev Shlasinger |
 | Games Played - Emira with Valerie Putman and Dale Yu |
 | Emira |
 | Take Stock with Steve Zamborsky and designers Simon Hunt |
 | Take Stock |
 | Oshi |
 | A fancy version of Voltage with Valerie Putman |
 | A production copy of Leonardo da Vinci - Box |
 | The board |
 | The pieces |
 | Some player aids |
 | The cards |
© 2006 Rick Thornquist
Posted by Rick Thornquist on Aug 12, 2006 at 12:43 PM in Special Features, Convention Reports, Convention Report: Gen Con 2006 / 3671
Comments:
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I’ve known about Shazamm! coming from Z-Man for about a year - apparently the contracting issues are now worked out enough to the point where the game can be discussed publically. Good news. It’s a great, great 2-player game that strongly fits into Z-man’s game stable. Probably in my top 5 two-player games, period. pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Aug 12, 2006 at 01:22 PM | #
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From what I hear, GenCon may have _less_ space next year due to some remodeling… that doesn’t bode well for some decent open boardgaming areas… Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Aug 12, 2006 at 09:26 PM | #
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The only real strike against the game is that there are already a million two player abstracts out there - is there really a need for another one? I get what you’re saying, Rick, but abstract fans would likely say the same thing about auction games, area-control games, or some other game genre. The similarities of two-player abstracts outweigh their differences, but within the category their differences are huge. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Aug 13, 2006 at 08:50 AM | #
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