Games Debuting at Gen Con 2018 – Part 1
Hope you have a caffeine sidekick in hand because you’re in for the first of three days worth of “Ooh, I want that.” revelations. Why? Because we’re only a couple weeks away from the mecca of board games – Gen Con in Indianapolis! As has become our tradition, we’ve put together a list of games debuting for sale at the convention. These aren’t the ones that are only for demo. This is the virtual checklist of the games you’ll be able to flaunt purchase before your gamer friends who didn’t make the journey. These are the games debuting for sale at Gen Con.
We’ve said before that there are an unbelievable amount of games released each year and this year’s Gen Con is definitely a showcase for that. We opted to only include new games or ones that have be reintroduced to the market after being upgraded or licensing switched publishers. Even with these restrictions, we still accumulated a list that was too big for one post. Too big for two posts. Just right at three. So tune in today then return tomorrow for Part 2 of Games Debuting at Gen Con and, of course, wrap it up with Thursday’s post of (you guessed it!) Games Debuting at Gen Con 2018 – Part 3.
So how jealous do you think you can make our Gen-Can’t friends? We encourage you to do your best to subtly (or not so subtly) show off all the loot. Go through this and the subsequent days, print out the Gen Con map and highlight the booths you want to hit. Plan your attack so you can make the most of your time and are able to hit the booths with limited supply first!
If you can’t make it to Gen Con, don’t worry… we’ll update the list with links to the games on Amazon as soon as they are available!
Adam’s Apple Games
(booth #2663)
Swordcrafters
In Swordcrafters, players compete to forge the best sword scoring based on length, quality, and magic. Each round each player makes one cut in a grid of sword tiles to create a separation. After separations phase, each player selects one grouping of sword tiles and assembles them into their sword. When there are not enough sword tiles to form a new grid, scoring occurs.
Players hold their swords in the center of the table to score based on length. Sword quality scoring is based on the highest number of adjacent matching gems on one side of the sword. Sword magic scoring is based on the highest sum of two gem types.
A innovative 3D sword-building game where the player builds and holds their sword as they play.
Alderac Entertainment Group
(booth #701/803)
Greedy Kingdoms
Who has the greediest kingdom? In Greedy Kingdoms, you and an opponent compete in a test of wits. Can you bluff past them to collect the most resources and build two royal palaces first, or will the opponent outthink your plans and stop you at each turn? Deploy your heroes to attack and defend, collect resources, and upgrade your kingdom all while working towards the coveted royal palaces so that all the other kingdoms stand in awe of your gree…wealth!
The 2018 version of Greedy Kingdoms reimplements the original 2009 release from Hayato Kisaragi and One Draw with new cards and rules from Bruno Faidutti.
Magical Treehouse
It’s magic school’s graduation season. You are one of apprentice witches and to pass final exam to become a respectable witch. The contents of the test is to make a comfortable village to live for your familiars! While collecting the wealth of the forest, you will build magical tree houses. Let’s build the tree houses more and higher.
The game based on card-drafting in real time. In the planning phase, you will gather planning documents(cards) to your drawer and can occasionally use magic to influence other players. Then you can build magical houses in your village by setting these documents in the construction phase. Your familiars can sometimes help you to keep resources in the forest. This may be important for earning more VPs at the end of the game. After repeating 4 rounds of this, you will gain VPs from your buildings, the ability of those and the challenges that you could achieve. The player with the most VPs wins the game!
Smash Up Big Box
The box of the original Core Set could only accommodate the first 3 sets (up through The Obligatory Cthulhu Set), so The Big Geeky Box was created to accommodate more sets. But The Big Geeky Box will eventually run out of space, especially when you sleeve all the cards. Now The Bigger Geekier Box was designed to hold even more sets than The Big Geeky Box. It has four long troughs that can hold dozens of decks each and a closeable token holder, the previously-released Geeks and Smash Up All Stars factions with their corresponding bases. Also, unlike the Big Geeky Box, this set contains with a comprehensive rule book compiling all the rules and card clarifications from all the sets created so far. The set also comes with dividers that name every faction made thus far and for Oops, You Did It Again. To accommodate partly full troughs, the box includes with foam bricks that can be positioned anywhere along the troughs and will remain in place.
The Captain is Dead: Lockdown
It’s the last 10 minutes of your favorite sci-fi TV show…
Except that this time things have gone seriously wrong and The Captain Is Dead!
The Crew managed to avoid blowing up the ship in Episode 1 but they were captured by aliens and taken to a prison planet. Now they must escape!
Trainmaker
Trainmaker is a fast-paced, press-your-luck dice game that puts players in the roles of aspiring railroad magnates building an empire! On a turn, you:
Roll the custom railroad dice.
Build a train using locomotive, rolling stock and caboose results.
Push your luck to reroll dice, trying not to derail!
Score city cards that match the train you created.
If you are clever — and lucky — you can score all three city cards on your turn! Use your switch track token to manipulate a dice result, but once you use it, you lose it – so pick your moment carefully!
The first player to score one of each type of city card — or complete their hidden contract card — wins!
War Chest
War Chest is an easy-to-learn, tricky-to-master, elegant battlefield strategy game. Game play is simple and available to even non-gamers, whilst at the same time presenting depth of play and replayability.
alea
(booth #2113)
The Rise of Queendale
“Build me a castle! Build me a city worthy of my Queen!” Your King’s wish is your command, so you decide to travel into the valley of Queensdale, collect raw materials, build buildings, and take fate into your own hands. Fame and fortune are sure to be yours — if only there weren’t those other glory seekers who also followed the King’s wishes! Act with courage and wisdom, and remember that your decisions will have consequences…
The Rise of Queensdale is a legacy-style game. Your decisions have an impact on the game and its rules, and over the course of multiple game sessions, you create a unique game experience. Upgrade your dice, develop your boroughs, gain the King’s patronage, and experience the rise or fall of Queensdale — it’s in your hands!
APE Games
(booth #1739)
Moa
Moa takes its inspiration from the events surrounding the settlement of New Zealand, recasting them with anthropomorphized birds and mammals. The inhabitants of the Pacific island are represented by giant birds, such as the moa and kakapo, while the settlers from the west are played by dogs, rats, possums and weasels.
Players take on the role of the defenders of the land, competing with their fellow players for control of the regions while staving off the advances of the mammals. However, the cunning bird may consider selling their land to the mammals rather than fighting to defend it.
Moa is an original design inspired by Martin Wallace’s stay in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Petrichor
Welcome to the lush world of Petrichor; you are a cloud. Your entire purpose in life is to expand, sire other clouds and water crops. Unfortunately, your mates (who are also clouds) have a similar plan. It’s up to you to manipulate the weather and assimilate these rogue clouds to contribute to the growth of as many crops as possible – all in order to claim the title of Most Valuable Cloud.
Petrichor is a highly interactive game for 1-4 players in which players control clouds, vote on the weather, and rain on the fields to make their water grow the most plants! While the game is gentle in theme, the interaction is intense, swift, and field-wateringly fun!
Arcane Wonders
(booth #1249)
Critical Mass: Raijin vs. Archon
Critical Mass is a fast-paced mech combat game. Players go head-to-head in this fighting-strategy game with deck-building aspects. Players choose their favorite mech to battle it out, with each mech offering a different loadout of cards to start the game and unique powers.
Each turn, players play a card face-down. When both players have chosen a card, they reveal them. Cards resolve based on their speed if they haven’t been interrupted. Weapons deal damage and interrupt the enemy, while defending avoids weapon hits. Upgrading offers you additional cards to add to your arsenal but is vulnerable to being interrupted. Lastly, recharge reloads spent cards.
As cards are played, they go to their owner’s cool-down pile, where they remain until they’re reloaded. As players take damage, the armor on their mech is destroyed. When enough armor is destroyed, an armor core becomes vulnerable and can be destroyed to stun that mech for the next turn. The game ends when a mech’s armor is completely destroyed down to the last core.
Goodcritters
It’s the most anticipated moment of any heist: time to split the loot. Of course, everybody trusts the boss to divide everything evenly, right? But will the boss be even-handed and make sure that every “made critter” gets a piece? Maybe the boss will pay off only some of them and keep the rest of it…
GoodCritters is a game for 4-8 criminal critters who are pulling off heists and fighting over the loot! Whoever is chosen as the boss can distribute the loot from the heist however they desire, but it’s the crew that has the final say. If the crew doesn’t like the split, they might just tell the boss to take a hike and put some other critter in charge! In the end, the critter that collects the most valuable stash of loot wins!
Onitama: Way of the Wind
Once again, rival schools have come to Onitama to see who has the dominant Art — but something is different this time: Their activity has attracted the attention of a wind spirit! This indomitable force will interfere with the students, but it may on occasion grant an unforeseen benefit as well!
Ontiama: Way of the Wind, an expansion for Onitama, includes a wind spirit, a neutral game piece that creates a new layer of interaction in the game. Two new move cards are included, as well as eight wind spirit cards.
Ares Games
(booth #335)
Master of the Galaxy
The Galaxy is vast, rich and open to any species who discovers space flight… but nine Elder Races are expanding through space, ready to assimilate or exterminate anybody who stands in their way.
We are proud to announce Master of the Galaxy, a fast playing 4Х board game – eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate – using a unique and innovative blend of bag-building, card-drafting and tech-tree development mechanisms.
Drawing inspiration from classic science-fiction, movies, and computer games, Master of the Galaxy merges all these inspirations into a unique and colorful setting.
Sword & Sorcery: Arcane Portal
The demonic portal is opening…
From the depths of the abyss, new, infernal enemies are summoned to bring chaos and death to the Talon Coast! Create new legendary tales by fighting and banishing them to save the realm. In Sword & Sorcery: Arcane Portal, the heroes’ path brings them to the slopes of the majestic and imposing Thunder Mountains. Drawn by whisperings of a cult trying to end the world, the heroes are challenged by a shadow of nameless fears.
Continue the epic campaign you started in Sword & Sorcery with the perilous quests of this expansion, which introduces new, dreadful enemies especially designed to interact with each other to defeat any hero who dares to cross their path!
Sword & Sorcery: Darkness Falls
The darkness is covering all the land, the cemetery gates are no longer closed, and the immortal heroes must now face enemies who ignore pain and never sleep… the undead army! Skeletons, vampires and werewolves appear everywhere… Will the heroes accomplish their mission and finally free their souls from the soul gems’ spell?
In Sword & Sorcery: Darkness Falls, the heroes’ path brings them toward their final destiny. Complete the heroes’ epic campaign across the quests of this expansion, recreating the final act of their legendary saga. High soulrank powers, treasures, and challenging enemies await you!
Darkness Falls includes twenty new lethal enemies: Succubi, Skeletons, Death Knights, and Werewolves, two new, powerful master enemies, 14 new modular boards, new Act II cards for items, traps, treasures, events and enemies.
The campaign is played through seven new high-level quests, using the innovative combination of Storybook, Book of Secrets and cards to create a challenging, story-driven climax to the Immortal Souls campaign.
Artana Games
(booth #1159)
Speakeasy Blues
From Daryl Andrews and Adrian Adamescu, designers of Sagrada, Speakeasy Blues takes you back to New York City of the Roaring Twenties. You and your fellow players run competing gin joints vying to be the talk of the town! Willie “The Lion” Smith is at the piano, jazz is in the air, Chaplin just walked up to the bar, and the flappers are starting to dance. Life is good. This is the story of Speakeasy Blues.
B&B Games Studio
(booth #259)
Highlander: The Duel
They were born hundreds of years ago and are immortal. Now is the time of the Gathering, when the stroke of a sword will release the power of the Quickening. In the end, there can be only one. Will it be Connor Macleod or The Kurgan!
In Highlander: The Duel, you can take on the role of Connor Macleod or The Kurgan in an epic duel to determine who will take home the prize and who loses their head! This fast paced game tests your strategy, memory and cleverness as you strategically draft combat cards and play them in special combinations to deal the most damage to your opponent. But watch out, your opponent may have unlocked their special abilities giving them an extra edge against you in combat.
Do you have what it takes to take home the prize in this two-player strategic card combat game? In the end there can be only one — will it be you?
Noises at Night
In the 15-minute deduction game Noises at Night, up to four detectives compete to score victory points. Each player has a secret identity with their own scoring symbol and a location to score bonus points. Placing clues around the house scores points, but place too many and others will find out who you are which will land them additional guessing points. With each passing round, the timer goes down, and the amount of guessing points you can earn goes down with it. Each player has a chance to be Leo, to solve the mysteries around Grandpa’s spooky house, and to discover once and for all those noises at night.
Bezier Games
(booth #431)
Ultimate Werewolf Legacy
Ultimate Werewolf Legacy raises the tension of the original Ultimate Werewolf and increases the impact of decisions made by the players, as everything that happens will impact future games. Players are each given a public Family Card in addition to their secret role card, and will team up with the other members of their family to work together…unless one or more of their family members is secretly working against them. Players can earn special abilities that carry over between games as well. There are multiple paths that the game may take, and as a result the experience you have playing through the entire game will be different than someone else who is playing with another set of people.
Werewords Deluxe
In Werewords Deluxe Edition, players guess a word by asking “yes” or “no” questions. Figure out the Magic Word before time is up, and you win! One of the players is secretly a Werewolf who is not only working against you, but also knows the Magic Word. If you don’t guess the Word in time, you can still win by identifying the Werewolf! To help you out, one player is the Seer, who knows the Word, but has to be careful while helping you. If you guess the Word, the Werewolf can pull out a win by identifying the Seer!
The Deluxe Edition contains several all new special roles in addition to the Mayor, Seer, Werewolves, and Villagers, and a brand new Speedwords mode, new artwork, and can play as few as 2 players and up to 20 players.
Whistle Stop: Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains Expansion literally expands the Whistle Stop gameboard, adding a 3D mountain range to the game. These mountains provide a barrier that will challenge your West Coast aspirations, but can also provide lucrative rewards for those willing to cross them.
Rethink your strategies and come up with new ways to execute the management of your trains to score more fame points than your opponents.
A promo upgrade tile for Whistle Stop, the Industrial Hub, will be available at Gen Con to anyone who visits the Bézier Games booth.
Big Fun Games
(booth #1739)
Fortune City
Fortune City is a board game adapted from the smartphone game of the same name that combines purchases and city development. Each kind of purchase helps you to build a characteristic building in the game, then make your city more and more stylish.
Big G Creative
(booth #1656)
Bob Ross: Happy Little Accidents
Bob Ross: Happy Little Accidents is the game in which your mistakes become your masterpieces! Celebrate your creativity in this positive party game inspired by the wisdom of legendary painter Bob Ross. You will surprise yourself by transforming abstract shapes and squiggles into charming pieces of art. Then share your clever doodles and award points to other players for their inspired creations.
The Brady Bunch Party Game
The Brady kids are at it again, and Alice is on the hunt for a troublemaker! Will the siblings stick together, or will they help Alice solve this family mystery?
In The Brady Bunch Party Game, one player takes on the role of Alice, and the other players are the Brady kids. Everyone gets in on the mischief-making as they try to fool Alice or snitch on their sibling. You’ll be humming along to The Brady Bunch theme as you snoop and scheme with your favorite TV family.
Home Alone
It’s time to defend the house! When the McCallister family jets off for the holidays, they accidentally leave nine-year-old Kevin behind. And now, the notorious Wet Bandits are casing the neighborhood, hoping to score some valuable loot! Team up as the burglars in Home Alone Game to try to steal the goods, or play as Kevin to unleash an arsenal of creative contraptions to protect the house. Who will triumph: the little guy or the bad guys?
Monster Crunch
In this fast-paced game of luck and strategy, players collect as many Cereal Cards in their Bowls as they can. Each Monster has special powers to give you an advantage and help you gobble up the most cereal. Use Milk Tokens to combine Cereal Cards and take bigger bites. The Monster Cereal character that munches the most wins the game!
Monster Crunch! The Breakfast Battle Game features Boo Berry, Count Chocula, Fruit Brute, Fruity Yummy Mummy, and Franken Berry.
Big Potato Games
(booth #2105)
Weird Things Humans Search For
Ever wondered what a strange place the internet can be? Well now there’s a game to prove it. In Weird Things Humans Search For, your job is to predict the most popular endings to Google search questions. Examples include “Why can’t I… own a Canadian” and “My cat wants… to kill me”.
You get two guesses, which you must rank. The more popular your guess turns out to be, the more points you’ll win, with a bonus if your top guess is also the top result. After five rounds, points are tallied to determine a winner.
Blue Orange Games
(booth #1813)
Blue Lagoon
Even today, the colonization of the Pacific Islands by the Polynesians remains a great mystery — and yet it is aboard their hand-crafted boats that the Polynesians colonized the greater part of the islands over several thousand kilometers.
In Blue Lagoon, each player manages a group of settlers that spread out on the islands of this new archipelago to discover its wealth and build villages. In more detail, this is a set-collection game with an area-control mechanism. Each player manages a group of settlers that spread out on the islands of a newly-discovered archipelago, discovering its wealth and building villages as they explore. Points are awarded for collecting resources and colonizing the islands. Smart placement and anticipation are needed to win.
Kingdomino: Age of Giants
In Kingdomino: Age of Giants, the first expansion for either Kingdomino or Queendomino, adds more challenges and more player interaction, while allowing for a fifth player to join the game. When you choose a tile with a giant, you add a giant meeple to your kingdom, covering up any crown of your choosing. When you choose a tile with a giant’s footsteps, then you move one giant meeple from your kingdom to another player’s, who then must cover up a crown in their own kingdom. Covered crowns do not score points.
With this expansion, end-of-game bonuses are eliminated. Instead, before the start of each game, players must draw two challenge tiles. These provide additional ways to earn points. For example, get 5 bonus points for each lake tile that surrounds your castle or get 20 bonus points if your castle is located in one of the four corners of your kingdom.
Scarabya
As the head of an archaeological team in Scarabya, you need to set up an expedition and establish your camps to delineate areas of excavation. Your goal: Bring together the largest number of gold beetles to help unravel the mysteries of Scarabya. These golden beetle amulets are extremely valuable as they can help solve ancient mysteries about the long-gone civilizations that created them. They are known to be scattered across world: buried in the Egyptian desert, hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest, immersed in the Bermuda Triangle, and frozen in Antarctica. To find them, lead your team on an expedition to set up camps and mark out areas of excavation. Will you be the archaeologist who finds the most Scarabs and uncovers the mysteries of Scarabya?
In this puzzle game, the goal is to position Tetris-style tiles to create zones of 1 to 4 squares that contain scarabs. Those scarabs are worth the size of the zone they are in (1 to 4 points). Each tile is placed simultaneously by all players on their individual boards in the order they are drawn. The player with the most points after all tiles have been placed or discarded wins.
Breaking Games
(booth #2329)
Expancity
Expancity is a city-building game in which players both collaborate and compete to build a thriving metropolis block by block!
Lay down residential and commercial tiles, then claim them with your stackable building blocks to break ground on towers that will rise high above the playing field. Score extra points by building near common city buildings like banks, schools, and parks. You can also get a leg up on the opposition by working on secretly-held contract cards that offer players unique and challenging tasks to complete for bonus points. Cities expand both horizontally and vertically as the game progresses, and no two cities will ever be alike!
Rise of Tribes
In ancient prehistoric times, you have discovered a new land with plentiful lakes, mountains and forests (and apparently many stone rocks that shall be called dice). Your people can develop new things like basketry or find oxen or simply grow and conquer.
In Rise of Tribes, players control a tribal faction in prehistoric times that’s looking to grow, move, gather, and lead their people. The board is modular, composed of hexes in various terrain types. Each turn you roll two dice, and may select from four actions. The power of your action depends on your die roll PLUS the last couple of dice on that action card. Victory is possible in a couple ways: gathering resources to build villages and/or completing development and achievement goals for your civilization.
Brotherwise Games
(booth #1639)
Boss Monster: Rise of the Minibosses
Looks like there’s a new threat rising in the land of Arcadia: Minibosses! Boss Monster: Rise of the Minibosses is an all new standalone set that can integrate with the previous two Boss Monster Base sets and all previous expansions.
As before, players will build up their dungeon (with graphics inspired by classic videogames) in order to lure in heroes and defeat them before they reach your boss. New mechanisms such as the all new miniboss room cards will power up your dungeon in insidious new ways, and wreak havoc on your opponents’ dungeons.
Cephalofair Games
(booth #250)
Founders of Gloomhaven
Founders of Gloomhaven is a competitive tile-placement, action-selection, city-building game in which each player controls a fantastical race working to build the city of Gloomhaven and gain influence over its residents. This is a standalone game set in the same universe as Gloomhaven. The events, however, take place hundreds of years before Gloomhaven and depict the original construction of the city.
In Founders of Gloomhaven, players use action cards to place resource buildings on the map of the city, use these resources to create more advanced resources, then deliver them to proposed building sites to earn prestige. An individual player, however, cannot do everything on their own because they can import only a small number of resource types, depending on their race. To create more advanced resources, they have to work with other players.
The game also features an auction mechanism in which players vote periodically to determine which new building proposals come out and where they are placed on the board. Players can also add the influence they’ve gathered to increase the strength of their vote.
Cheapass Games
(booth #1853)
The Island of Doctor Lucky
The hunter becomes the hunted in The Island of Doctor Lucky. In this tropical spin on Kill Doctor Lucky, you’re still competing to kill the old man, but this time you picked a dangerous place to do it: Isla Fortuna, his mysterious tropical island. You can still attempt murder the old fashioned way, using a weapon when no one can see you, or you can take advantage of the new hazard cards to hit him from anywhere else on the map! While hazards aren’t usually as strong as a murder attempt, they give you faster movement for the rest of the game. What’s more, you can also throw hazards at players!
Dodge hazards like the fire pit, the hunting snare, and the hammerhead crabs as you navigate the perilous regions of Isla Fortuna. Find the old man alone, and kill him with whatever you can find: the shark tooth, the elephant gun, the bad dates, or (if you must) your bare hands. Every murder attempt makes you stronger, and if you play your cards right, you can kill Doctor Lucky!
CMON
(booth #415)
Gizmos
In Gizmos, players look to create the most magnificent of machines, taking on the role of inventors at the Great Science Fair. By utilizing four different types of energy marbles, taken from the innovative 3D marble dispenser, they will purchase and construct new additions to their Gizmos. The best Gizmos will be able to chain-reaction off of new additions as they’re made, giving players multiple results from taking a single action. The player that builds the greatest machine and collects the most victory points is declared the winner.
Kick-Ass
In Kick-Ass: The Board Game, players take on the role of masked vigilantes trying to keep New York City safe. Working together, they must keep the Evil Boss’ plan from coming to fruition. Each round, they will travel to the various Districts on the game board, beating up Minions, doing good deeds for the citizens, and trying to keep their personal life from falling apart. It’s a difficult task, but luckily, they’ve got their friends to help them out.
Newton
In Newton, players take the role of a young scientist who wants to become one of the great geniuses of this period. To do this, they travel around Europe, visit universities and cities, study to discover new theories, build new tools, and work to earn money.
The game is played over six rounds. Each round, every player plays five cards from their hand, with each played card allowing the player to perform one of the game’s actions. An action has a variety of effects, which depend on the symbols of that action visible on the board. At the end of the round, a player can take back all the cards played except one. One card has to be left on the board, which means that you give up one possibility of doing that action, but also that the action will be carried out with greater strength. Fortunately, you can acquire new cards that will allow you to perform more actions and with additional powers.
Railroad Ink – Blazing Red Edition
In the multiplayer puzzle game Railroad Ink, your goal is to connect as many exits on your board as possible. Each round, a set of dice are rolled in the middle of the table, determining which kind of road and railway routes are available to all players. You have to draw these routes on your erasable boards to create transport lines and connect your exits, trying to optimize the available symbols better than your opponents.
The more exits you connect, the more points you score at the end of the game, but you lose points for each incomplete route, so plan carefully! Will you press your luck and try to stretch your transportation network to the next exit, or will you play it safe and start a new, simpler to manage route?
Railroad Ink™ comes in two versions, each one including two expansions with additional dice sets that add special rules to your games. The Blazing Red Edition includes the Lava and Meteor expansions. Try to confine the lava coming from the erupting volcano before it destroys your routes, or deal with the havoc brought by the meteor strikes and mine the craters for precious ore. These special rules can spice up things and make each game play and feel different.
Each box allows you to play from 1 to 6 players, and if you combine more boxes, you can play with up to 12 players (or more). The only limit to the number of players is the number of boards you have!
Railroad Ink – Deep Blue Edition
In the multiplayer puzzle game Railroad Ink™, your goal is to connect as many exits on your board as possible. Each round, a set of dice are rolled in the middle of the table, determining which kind of road and railway routes are available to all players. You have to draw these routes on your erasable boards to create transport lines and connect your exits, trying to optimize the available symbols better than your opponents.
The more exits you connect, the more points you score at the end of the game, but you lose points for each incomplete route, so plan carefully! Will you press your luck and try to stretch your transportation network to the next exit, or will you play it safe and start a new, simpler to manage route?
Railroad Ink™ comes in two versions, each one including two expansions with additional dice sets that add new special rules to your games. The Deep Blue Edition includes the Rivers and Lakes expansions. Increase the difficulty by adding the River route into the mix, or use the Lakes to connect your networks by ferry. These special rules can spice up things and make each game play and feel different. Each box allows you to play from 1 to 6 players, and if you combine more boxes, you can play with up to 12 players (or more). The only limit to the number of players is the number of boards you have!
Cranio Creations
(booth #2005)
Jungle Race
The jungle race is about to start, with five animals operating their special vehicles and challenging one another in a crazy race through the jungle. With every card played, one animal recklessly overtakes another!
When Jungle Race ends, players score points if they were able to get their animals to the first positions!
Penk
Penk! is a dice-rolling, set-collection game for up to four players. Each round, the active player can roll and re-roll their dice in order to create same-number combinations of dice, filling out their grid and preventing other players from scoring points by blocking rows and columns. Unlock the power of Penk! and win the game!
Cryptozoic Entertainment
(booth #601)
DC Spyfall
Based on the social party game Spyfall, DC Spyfall is an easy-to-learn party game that features bluffing, suspicion, probing questions, and clever answers. At the start of each round, players receive a secret card informing them of the group’s location — one of twenty unique DC locations, including Arkham Asylum, the Daily Planet, the Hall of Justice, and S.T.A.R. Labs — except for one player who receives the Joker card instead. The Joker doesn’t know where he is, but if he can figure out his location before his cover is blown, he wins the round!
DC Spyfall includes a few twists on the Spyfall formula. Since Harley Quinn usually follows wherever the Joker goes, each round, one player may receive a location card with a Harley image; if they do, they try to feed the Joker player information about the location, even if they don’t know that player’s identity! If the Joker player guesses the location, the two collaborators each score points — unless the superheroes can turn the tables on them and determine who Harley is.
Pantone: The Game
In Pantone: The Game, the player who is currently the artist chooses a character card, then designs a representation of that character using only color swatch cards. The other players subsequently take turns trying to guess who it is. If no one can guess the character during a round, a hint is given at the start of the next round, with each hint reducing the number of points awarded to both the artist and the player who correctly identifies the character. Whoever has the most points after each player acts as the artist three times wins.
Rick & Morty: The Pickle Rick Game
As you might expect, Rick and Morty: The Pickle Rick Game is based on the “Pickle Rick” episode of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty. One player plays as Pickle Rick as he tries to escape a heavily armed compound, while the other player takes on the roles of both the Russians and Jaguar as they try to stop him. The Pickle Rick player uses weapons cards to dole out damage and Air Vents to get out of jams as they try to get to the rooftop. The game includes both Pickle Rick and Jaguar miniatures that are moved across a dynamic board made up of tiles that are constantly being added, rotated, and flipped.
Adding to the off-the-wall fun is the game’s packaging: It looks like a pickle!
Czech Games Edition
(room #236)
Adrenaline: Team Play DLC
The Adrenaline: Team Play DLC expansion allows you to add a sixth player to the Adrenaline Deathmatch mayhem. It introduces character-specific weapons and abilities bringing new effects and experiences to the game.
Take full advantage of your actions with the unique Adrenaline Rush system and boost your epic shot.
Streamlined gameplay allows you to focus on what Adrenaline is really about: quickly grabbing ammo and start shooting. Winning conditions are set at the beginning of each game for a bigger variety of how to play and win!
A new team mode introduced in this DLC requires effective communication with your team, to combine your abilities, use the position of your opponents to your advantage, and enjoy creating sophisticated strikes!
Pictomania (2nd Edition)
Is she drawing an elk or a moose? Is he drawing a pegasus or a unicorn? These are the types of questions you will probably be asking yourself during a game of Pictomania!
There’s no time to draw a complex masterpiece in Pictomania, the drawing game in which everybody draws and everybody guesses — all at the same time! Players sketch the essence of the word with a few quick lines and try to guess the others’ drawings while there’s still time.
This second edition of Pictomania features revised word cards with a brand new look. One big change for this edition compared to the base game is that only three word cards are in play no matter the player count, allowing you to jump into each round more quickly since you don’t have to read as many words to guess who might be drawing what.
As we get notifications from the publishers about additional games that will make it on time, we’ll update this series of posts. Consider bookmarking it for updates but also in case you forget which booth has which game you want. This is the best chance to pick up games before they sell out so budget accordingly. We’ll be around for the entire convention, so if you see us, let us know you’re following on Twitter so we can give you a shout-out!
There are a few on your list that are available now. I know Istanbul Dice and Council of 4 are in stock at retailers now. Relatively new, but available. Things move so fast it’s hard to keep up 🙂 .
Thanks for the update. You’re right, those are available now so removing from the list. I guess they got to the stores faster than the publishers expected!