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Columns > Unplugged > GenCon 2007 - And more Boardgames
The second half of our alphabetical tour...  The first half of the alphabet was covered in the previous article and now its time to finish off our tour of boardgame publishers at GenCon 2007. Out of the Box Makers of the popular party game Apples to Apples, Out of the Box has an excellent line of games suitable for the family or casual gamer. Not too many new things to see this year except for a new version in the 10 Days in the... series: 10 Days in Asia has a nice map of Asia and introduces trains to the game. Players attempt to collect a set of cards that form one continuous trip. Adjacent cards must be adjacent countries or be connected via a ship, plane, or railroad card. A fun game reminiscent of Rummy that also subtlety teaches world geography. Paizo Publishing / Titanic Games Paizo's boardgame line under the label Titanic Games, was showing off the boardgame anthology/construction set entitled Stonehenge. A 5-6 player expansion will be coming out soon. Watch for the upcoming Key Largo boardgame where players attempt to find sunken treasure around the turn of the (last) century. Players try to salvage the most treasure while avoiding sea monsters and finish their work before the next big hurricane hits. Playroom Entertainment Aside from making some excellent games for younger kids, such as my favorite Catch the Match, Playroom Entertainment has lately branched into some simple games that also have a fair bit of strategic depth - enough to be of interest for game playing adults. Two in particular had strong possibilities. In Portobello Market, players try to build up market stalls on various streets of the city. Meanwhile, customers are placed at street intersections. When a street becomes bordered by two customer pieces it is scored. However, some customers produce higher scores than others so players are vying to try to get the best customers placed next to their best streets. Little Italy is a new game by the famous game designer, Reiner Knizia. Players are mob bosses who are assigned two colored cars. Everyone then takes turns moving any of the various cars around the board. When a car moves over cash or a cop stake-out, all owners of that car receive a reward or appropriate penalty. It is a mix of planning and maneuvering with limited choices that plays in about a half-hour. It looks to be a solid title for that time frame. Red Juggernaut One of the few new publishers I came across this year was Red Juggernaut. After spending considerable time developing a deep backstory to their thematic world, they have produced their first game in their setting. Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords is a light scrimmage wargame for two to four players. Each player starts on one side of the board with a small army of horsemen. Players take turns advancing into the board to claim new areas while simultaneously reinforcing and growing their army. The unique part of the game is in the game board itself. The board is built of many Tetris-like tiles that are linked together to cover the top of the board. The tiles represent areas to be invaded, so players are never fully sure of the defensive power of an area they are about to attack. The primary goal of the game is to capture a minimum number of special tiles, but players may also take the time to attack one another to hinder each others' progress. It looks to be a fast playing Risk-like combat game that focuses on progress rather than "turtle-ing" up in defensive fortifications. Rio Grande Games With an entire afternoon and evening of playing Rio Grande games, I spent more time playing Rio Grande games than any other publisher. This is not a bad thing, as Jay Tummelson, head of the company, has managed to import many of the best boardgames European publishers have to offer. Of all the games I played at the convention I enjoyed To Court the King the most. It is reminiscent of Yahtzee where players attempt to roll specific combinations using dice. However, in this game a given combination awards players an upgrade card that will help them with further rolls. For example, if a player rolls a pair they can earn the Farmer card which gives them an extra die to roll in all future attempts. Most cards award an extra die showing a specific face, but some cards even allow a player to change dice that have been rolled. For example, one card allows players to take pips off one die and add them to a second one. Players take turns rolling and collecting cards until someone rolls seven of a kind to earn the King card. Then all players enter the end game where each player uses all their special card powers one last time to try to roll as many of a kind as possible. The player who rolls the most of a kind (of the highest value) wins the game. It is easy to learn and plays fairly quickly (about 45 minutes). Combine that with a splash of strategy and a splash of luck and To Court the King makes an excellent game for family game night. The second game I'd recommend from Rio Grande would be the two player card game, Jambo. In this African-themed game players try to obtain goods of six types by using goods cards and then turn around and selling those goods using another good card. Each card has a set of specific goods that can be either bought or sold. Meanwhile, other cards in the deck can help players in various ways or even be played to hinder your opponent. Players have five actions on their turn which include drawing or playing cards as well as selling or buying goods. Thus, managing just what you want to do on your turn is also an important decision. The wide variety of cards and some of the ways cards can interact with each other should provide enough diversity for repeat plays. In addition to current releases, I was informed of a couple new games coming down the pipeline. Lemons and Lemonade is a trick-taking card game for 3 to 5 players where each player is dealt a secret goal card and an "adjustment" card. Players then attempt to collect cards (or not collect cards, depending on the goal) during play. A typical goal may be to collect a specified number of cards, to not collect any blue cards at all, etc... After all the cards have been played, players are awarded points depending on how far off they were from their goal plus adjustment. The game continues until one player reaches 30 points, at which time the lowest score wins the game. A neat leveling mechanism allows players at 20 points or higher to have more choice over which goals or adjustments they take, giving them better control over their short-term goals. The other game to look forward to is another two player game entitled, Burger Joint. In this two player game one player runs a hotdog stand and another runs a burger joint. The two players then compete over limited resources which can then be used to upgrade their businesses or build new ones. Eventually, both players may own burger joints and hotdog stands and are branching out into fancy restaurants and other businesses. Each business gives a player priority over another resource or provides some special power within the game. The primary goal is to score victory points through building the most hotdog stands and/or burger joints. However, there are additional victory paths such as competitive advertising to take away each other's business. Hopefully, the finished product will provide a nice, lightweight economic development game for two-players. Wizards of the Coast Alongside their "big" announcement of a new 4th edition to the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) role playing game, Wizards of the Coast also had a preproduction model of an upcoming card and dice game entitled Inn-Fighting. This looks to be a tongue in cheek look at barroom brawls in a fantasy setting. Players take turns rolling special six-sided dice and then choose abilities to try to knock each other out. Each character takes damage (which can be healed by the drinking beer action), and players earn points for each character knocked out. If a player looses one character they just play a new one and keep going. Fans of the D&D world will be happy to know that it also looks like it may tie in with some special D&D abilities if played with a role-playing crowd. Not a deep title by any means but it looks like a promising lightweight, humorous card game.
 Wizkids Games Wizkids is known for their "clix" style of miniatures games where each miniature has statistics built into their base that is then rotated to keep track of that mini's status. Recently they have begun producing a line of games based off miniatures that can be punched out of plastic playing cards and put together to form fun little miniatures usable in various table-top games. Their two newest lines are one of each style. Star Wars: Pocketmodels is a game of little plastic miniatures that players can punch out and construct. The initial release focused on flying ships and the latest release features ground assault vehicles which can be used interchangeably to model combined space and ground battles. In their "clix" type of miniatures, WizKids has introduced a line of Halo themed miniatures. In Halo Action Clix players use a much smaller subset of rules than are found in their other miniatures game. This provides a game that is faster and more streamlined in order to better attract and keep fans of the computer game who might be willing to give the tabletop miniatures game a try. One thing to note was the impressive Halo Scarab miniature on display. At several feet tall and wide it is the largest "miniature" Wizkids has made to date. Your Move Games One of several small publishers making a name for themselves is Your Move Games. Starting with a few card and boardgames they hit their groove with the card based wargame BattleGround. This is a miniatures based game that uses (non collectible, mind you!) cards instead of regular miniatures. Players buy a standard pack of cards and a reinforcement deck of cards for a given race and can then build nearly any possible force from those two purchases. There are many different racial factions available with the newest expansion a type of lizard race. This race features several double-card sized monsters along with the first spellcaster troop type. BattleGround is an excellent buy for those interested in trying out miniatures style gaming but not willing to pay the high prices plastic miniatures require. I was also able to see a preview of The Battle for Hill 218. This looks to be a fast-playing two player game based around a war theme. Players take turns placing two cards down onto a table in an attempt to remove the opponents headquarters. Each card played has different adjacent cards it can attack and destroy, but before a card can be played it must first be eligible to be supported by another card in play. Reminiscent of the game Space Station Assault, this game looks to play a bit faster and smoother than that title. A free, fully playable computer version of the game should be available in October of 2007 to help entice gamers into giving the game a try.
 Z-Man Games Once a publisher of small card games, Z-Man Games has branched into the boardgame field in a major way. One game that had many boardgame new forums buzzing was Duel in the Dark. In this very pretty looking game, one player plays allied bombers attempting to make a night raid on German defenses and the other player plays the German air defense trying to minimize damage. The allied player makes plans and programs out their complete flight pattern. This programmed flight path is then revealed card by card as the German player must try to guess which route the Allied player is taking and tries to intercept them. Planes and targets aren't destroyed outright but successful bombings and plane interceptions earn a player victory points instead. At the conclusion of the entire bombing run, the player with the most victory points wins. Not only is the game and its mechanics unique and interesting, but the game board and pieces are very impressive to look at. On the family side of gaming, Z-Man was also showing off Owner's Choice. This is a fast little game where players buy and sell shares of four different companies. The majority owner becomes the president. Each player takes a turn moving a pawn around the outside of the board, activating one of the four companies. The president of that company must either pay money and roll a die to try to improve their stock price or gain dividends, or they can roll a penalty die causing the stock price to lower but awarding the president with cash spent by previous presidents. After the pawn goes once around the board, the game ends and the highest value of cash plus stocks wins the game. As the game mechanics revolve completely around the roll of dice there is a lot of luck involved, but there is enough strategy to provide a nice balance of luck and strategy for a short (30 minutes or so) game such as this. I was also able to take in a preview of the upcoming import, Prophesy. In this adventure boardgame each player takes on the role of a character, slowly gaining in power and abilities via quests and combat until they are ready to challenge the end-game monsters guarding the best artifacts. The first player to collect four of the five final artifacts wins the game. As there are only five artifacts to go around there will likely be player vs player combat at the end of the game to decide the final victor. One other upcoming game to watch is 1960: The Making of the President. This is a two-player card driven wargame based around the presidential race between Nixon and Kennedy. Each player takes a the role of either Nixon or Kennedy and then attempts to maneuver their candidate into the White House. Players use cards to drive the game forward and the cards also help to recreate many of the major events of the campaign (examples given include Nixon's "lazy shave", Eisenhower's late endorsement, and the "Catholic Question"). Rumored to be in the same vein as the excellent Twilight Struggle card-driven wargame based on the Cold War, look for this game to appeal to strategy fans, history buffs, and your generic boardgame fan as well. That's all the games I had time to sample at GenCon. I hope that's enough for you, I know I'll be working on trying to find the time to get to play even a good fraction of them.
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