Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Obligatory 2015 Gen Con Post Part II: Top 10 List (Part I)



Alright, now we move onto my top 10 Gen Con 2015 gaming interests! If you haven’t had a chance, please go to my previous post and you can check out my honorable mentions of the convention. These are 5 games that just missed out of my top 10 list but I feel that they deserved to get a mention as they look to be some fantastic releases. Also, I put Viceroy on there because it is being debuted at Gen Con 2015 but I already have my Kickstarter release of the game. By the way, if you’re curious, Viceroy is awesome! Anyway, if you haven’t check out my honorable mentions you can click on the link below to take a look at it. 


Gen Con 2015 Honorable Mentions: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/07/obligatory-2015-gen-con-post-part-i.html

Alright, now onto my games 6-10 of the top 10 releases that have really peaked my interest. Check back in the next few days for games 1-5 and also a special post where I’ll give my top 5 interests of games that are at Gen Con 2015 but aren’t being sold there. Enjoy the read!



#10 – Mottainai (Asmadi Games) 
Mottainai is a card drafting, hand management, and set collection game designed by Carl Chudyk and released by Asmadi Games. This is a smallish card game that was recently on Kickstarter and did really well for Asmadi. Mottainai uses some things that I am extremely interested which is why it has moved up into the top 10 interests of Gen Con 2015. It is almost a reimplement of Chudyk’s popular game Glory to Rome. Mottainai uses drafting and tableau building while each of the cards can be used in multiple ways. Multi-use cards are one of my favorite game mechanics as it gives so many different decisions with each card and gives each game a different feel. It is also a cheap game which adds to its intrigue. I’m really looking forward to this game. 


#9 – Tides of Time (Portal Games)
Tides of Time is a card drafting, set collection, micro-style game designed by Kristian Curla and released by Portal Games. This is a small card game in the current trend of micro games where there are only 18 cards and a few tokens in this box. You each take a hand of 5 cards and play one then pass them to your opponent. You then chose another card and pass the cards to your opponent again. By now you probably get the idea that you know what all of the cards are by this point and it really creates a meta-game where you are trying to outthink your opponent. This looks like an absolutely amazing, small, two-player game that I think I’ll get a ton of play out of. Plus, it is being released by Portal Games (whose owner, Ignacy Trzewiczek, is one of my favorite designers) and that is always a good thing in my book. 



#8 – Artifacts, Inc. (Red Raven Games)
Artifacts, Inc. is a card drafting (sensing a trend?), area control, dice rolling, and worker placement game designed by Ryan Laukat and released by Red Raven Games. This is a game where the players are trying to build up their company to become the most famous archeology company. The players roll their dice and place them on cards which will allow them to find artifacts, sell those artifacts, and game new cards which allow them to find more artifacts! This game kind of reminds me of and Indiana Jones type theme and what I have seen really makes me think that Laukat has pulled it off in this game. Also, Ryan does all of his own art which I think is incredibly cool. He has a great style which can be seen in his games The Ancient World, Above and Below, and City of Iron. I look forward to checking this one out. 



#7 – Magic: The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers (Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast)
Magic: The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers is a new skirmish style game designed by Craig Van Ness (of Heroscape fame), Ethan Fleischer, and James D’Aloisio and released in conjunction by Habro and Wizards of the Coast. This game takes the basic mechanics of Heroscape and adds the Magic: The Gathering flavor to the mix. This game comes with 5 planeswalkers and 30 units that are tied to one of the 5 colors. It uses the grid system and modular board but doesn’t have all of the plastic terrain pieces that Heroscape did. While this makes it look less cool, it also makes it a much quicker setup. This is a pretty straightforward skirmish that has some cool spells that can be used against your foes. I am looking forward to trying this one and that may be pretty soon as the price of this game is a low starting point. I’m looking forward to trying out this new reimplement of Heroscape and hope that my regular group of players will enjoy this one. I’m also hoping that they make a ton of expansions for this game as I think they will really keep the interest in the core gam at a higher level. 



#6 – Imperial Settlers: Atlanteans (Portal Games)
Imperial Settlers: Atlanteans is an expansion for the super-popular Imperial Settlers. This expansion is designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek (who designed the original game as well) and released by Portal Games. This faction takes the idea of Imperial Settlers and the asymmetrical factions and pushes it to the next level. The Atlanteans actually lose their buildings before the endgame scoring portion. This means that they don’t get 2 victory points for each of their faction buildings as the other factions do. This means that the Atlanteans have to find other means of gaining victory points throughout the game that are apart from the faction building scores. I love Imperial Settlers (currently my #2 game of all times!) and can’t wait for this expansion. I am so excited for it that this faction has pushed itself not only onto my top 10, but all the way to number 6! Go Ignacy!


And thus we have reached the end of my games 6-10. I have had a ball looking over Eric Martin’s list and I think I have a pretty great list going on. Check here tomorrow for games 1-5 as I continue to tear apart the list of games for Gen Con 2015 and give my interests. Let me know what you think and what games you’re looking forward to. Until next time, game on!

No comments:

Post a Comment