This year I have the very fortunate disposition of being a recognized media outlet, and as such have been granted a press badge. That saved me from the sight that I saw as I exited the hotel early Thursday morning.
That, my dear readers, is the Will Call line. Gencon attendees will recognize this area as the main entrance to the Exhibit Hall (changed to a new location this year), and will know that the hall stretches back quite a way down until you reach an exit. Well, this line went all the way down, looped back, and then went BACK to registration. It was truly a sight to see. I don't know if they're having problems this year, or if the attendance is that high. Based on what I saw in the hall, I think it's the attendance.
So what's at Gencon this year?
Mage Knight - Wizkids
As soon as I tweeted that I was playing this (@videogamingat30) I started getting tweets back filled with excitement that Wizkids was bringing back Mage Knight. It's really important to note that this is the new board game version of the game, not a return to the clix franchise. This is also the first time it has been demo'd in public, and the pieces shown here are stand-ins, and not final design (although from what I'm told it will be close)
The game is basically a scenario that plays out with an objective in mind. In our demo, the goal was to reach the city from a portal that your character emerges from. Players take turns using cards in their hands to advance through territory and encountering monsters and locations along the way. What they do with those encounters determines how the world views them. For example, killing an Orc will benefit you with experience and renown, but burning a monastery down will get you extra cards and make life a bit harder for you as people don't like to deal with Monk slayers. There's advantages to both types of play.
The game has a light deck building aspect to it, but it's mostly to control turns and the passage of time. When a player runs out of cards in their deck, they can declare the round to be over on their next turn, changing it from day to night, making some terrain easier to traverse (deserts) and some harder (forests). Cards in your hand are used for movement, attacking, and other useful bonuses.
It's really only Mage Knight in name and story, but it did have a pretty interesting play mechanic, and once we were into it, was pretty easy to follow and understand despite so much going on at a time. The person giving me the demo could only speculate on MSRP, but guesses somewhere between $80 - $100 which falls in line with their current offerings, and will support 4 players at launch, but the idea of expansions has not been ruled out.
Gears of War
I got to sit down and try out the Gears of War demo that they're running here, and it is brutal. Two players moved in and tried to keep up with an ever-spawning horde of Locust. In the scenario we played, our object was to get to their hole and drop in a grenade to close I up, something very common in the Gears of War franchise. Because of the random nature of the game, however, we had to face several Boomers, that is, large rocket carrying grunts, to get to the hole. It was an exercise in futility that seasoned players would likely enjoy.
Gameplay wise, it plays quite a bit like Doom with the exception that you have more control over your ammo, and the enemy plays itself via an AI deck. In our game,the AI deck was able to discard our ammo, chain together several different spawns, and move, making things especially difficult. But I liked how it *could* have worked. I'm not sure it's worth the $80 MSRP price tag, but it's certainly worth a look if you're a fan of the series.
Face Eater
I first noticed Face Eater at my local gaming store, The Gaming Goat, and was intrigued by it's concept and it's art. I decided to check out Board Game Geek to see what they had to say about it, and the few posts that were in there were very confused by how the game is supposed to play. Their qualms stopped me from getting it at the time.
Fortunately I spotted it at the show being sold by the designer who was able to rest my fears and offered to answer any questions that I might have. Face Eater, you'll get your day in the VG30 court as soon as we can schedule a trial date. I'm looking forward to it.
Order of the Stick - The Shortening
If you own The Order of the Stick board game, you know that this game can take somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 - 10 hours to play. That fact alone has stopped us from playing an otherwise very enjoyable game. When we heard that Ape Games was coming out with this expansion, entitled "The Shortening", we were thrilled. The Shortening promises to make your epic adventure much shorter, to the tune of 1 - 2 hours. I can't wait to get this home and try it out. If you're at Gencon, this is the only place you'll be able to pick it up without going online, so do yourself a favor and snag one before they run out. While you're at it, snag a copy of Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tails, also very limited in quantity, and you won't be able to get it much longer.
Chaostle
I was able to meet up with the creators of Chaostle to talk about how their game works. Chaostle Is a game for 2 - 8 players in which you move an adventuring party around a board in an effort to get through all of the game zones to the center. There's the long way, but as you battle the other players you can level up your heroes to enable them to traverse through the castle's different shortcuts faster. It very much reminds me of a PvP centric version if Talisman, so I'm looking forward to trying this one out with our playgroup.
Mage Wars
Probably our favorite new game of the con is Mage Wars. In this non-collectable, but certainly expandable game, you take on the role of a powerful Mage armed with a spell book with the ability to summon creatures, equipment, and enchantments. Each Mage has their own specialty; Warlocks deal with demons and fire, while Beastmasters control large creatures that are capable of dealing heavy damage.
The designer, Bryan Pope, sat us down in one of their fairly hard to get into demos at the booth (if you want a demo, sign in early and ask about additional demos that they're running in the gaming hall). We had a blast with it. Similar to Magic: The Gathering, you cast spells and summon creatures. That's where the similarities end. When summoning, your Mage is out on the board and spends their action to bring in a new creature. Your opponent starts in an opposite corner, and you gradually move your creatures and Mage to be in a position to fight your each other head on.
Combat is resolved by rolling attack dice, comparing the results to their armor, and dealing damage. Critical attacks ignore armor, and happen a third of the time on each die, so turtling isn't a concern. The last Mage standing wins the battle.
We noticed the copyright on the cards dated 2007, meaning this has been in development for a long time. We're looking forward to seeing the finished product and what Bryan and his crew come up with in the future. If you're at Gencon, you need to demo this game. You even get a free t-shirt, there's no reason not to give this one a try.
That's it for our Day One coverage, but that's not the end to what we have in store! Tomorrow we meet with Wizard of the Coast to talk about their latest project, Neverwinter, and we'll see what Cryptozoek has in store for their table top offerings. Sleep well, Gencon, we'll see you tomorrow!
