Today marks the beginning of this year’s Gen Con, “the
best four days in gaming.” It is North
America’s largest tabletop gaming convention, and according to them the largest
in the world. Regardless of the size it
is a spectacle of the hottest games of the year.
Before checking out this list feel free to
follow this link:http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2014/08/obligatory-gen-con-post-part-i.html and read about my honorable mentions of the convention. What follows will be the first half of my top
ten list. This post will include games
six through ten and in the next day or so I will be posting the second half
which will include games one through five.
#10 - Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull &
Shackles Base Set (Paizo Publishing)
This is the follow up to last year’s hugely popular
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords. Paizo, the game company that releases Pathfinder,
has really taken this game and made a great adventure out of it. Em and I are currently working our way
through the Runelords base set and we just finished the first adventure pack
and have moved on to the second. This
set adds on more classes (including a swashbuckler and a gunslinger) and pirate
ships to the mix. The few previews I’ve
seen make it seem like they’ve really upped the fun level in this set. The only reason it isn’t higher on my list is
because we are still working through the first base set and won’t get this one
until we’ve completed Runelords. That
being said, Paizo is also creating more character decks so there is even more
variability in the character selection.
I love what they are doing with this game and can’t wait to see what
comes in the future for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game!
#9 – Shadowrun: Crossfire (Catalyst Game Labs)
In a similar vein of Pathfinder, Shadowrun: Crossfire is
a co-operative deck building style game where you and friends take control of
your characters and fight through obstacles and villains. This is by Catalyst Game Labs and the theme
is really what drew me to it. The
Shadowrun world is a cyberpunk world that also contains magic and the
like. The mechanics make it different
enough that it doesn’t seem that it will take the same niche as Pathfinder
does. I love co-ops and I’m love the
theme. For these reasons this game has
made it onto my top ten interests of this year’s Gen Con.
#8 - The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade (Z-Man Games)
The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade is a game that takes the
old arcade top-down space shooters and turns it into a tabletop
experience. I love this idea so
hard! I am a child of the 80’s and have
always been an avid gamer so this one hits every button perfectly! The game is playable for 2-5 people and
includes all the ideas of those classic shooters. Each of the player ships can be fully
upgraded and can get power-ups all through the game. While you are the other players are shooting
up the alien hordes, they are also getting more powerful and bringing in the
“big bosses” that I remember so fondly!
The theme is perfect, the mechanisms sound perfect, and it is being put
out by Z-Man Games which means that the components will be top notch! An easy choice for the top ten!
#7 - Abyss (Asmodee)
Abyss is a set-collection and hand-management game put
out by the highly touted Bruno Cathala and it boasts some of the most beautiful
artwork that I have ever seen in a card game…period! This game is contained within a theme that seems
somewhat pasted on, but the artwork is so beautiful that I truly can’t find
fault in it. With a gorgeous look and
some mechanics that I haven’t really gotten into but really want to, this game
has pushed its way onto the list and up to number seven!
#6 - Hyperborea (Asmodee)
Another Asmodee game makes it onto the list at number
six. Hyperborea is another beautiful
looking game that relies on area control, worker placement, and a newer idea
that they call “bag-building.” In this
you have little cubes that represent workers with different “powers” that you
place on the board. This is a similar
mechanism to deck-building, where you use the cards you start with to buy and
create a new and stronger deck. Instead
of cards however, you have your cubes that are placed into a bag which you draw
from during the game. I find this to be
an incredibly interesting mechanism and one that I think I’ll enjoy.
An added bonus is that there is a certain
level of luck which means that my wife will probably enjoy it as well! She like games with strategy to a certain
point, but she loves it when they have an element of luck, at least when they
are player versus player. This is also
considered to be somewhat of a light “civilization-building” game which we
don’t have much of right now. Between
the mechanisms of the game and the beautiful components (one of Asmodee’s
specialties!), Hyperborea makes it into number six on my top ten interests of
Gen Con 2014.
That concludes my number six through ten. Think these are good looking games? Think something else should have been
mentioned? Any guesses to my next
five? Post comments, I gladly welcome
conversation! Stay tuned, in the next
couple of days I will have my top five game interests of Gen Con 2014. Until next time, game on!
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