Gearbox and I registered for one game in each con category (Tabletop, RPG, LARP, & Miniature). We only signed up for games we had never played before and I highly recommend doing that — we expanded our gaming horizons and got to meet some great game designers and interesting people. Games we played that way are marked in bold.
Small & Quick Games (Tabletop)
Trambahm *July 2015* (Mayfair) ♥♥♥♥♥
2 person deck building game. This one is a blast. Just the right mix of strategy, speed, and competition. My only complaint is that we couldn’t get a copy!
Three Cheers for Master *new* ♥♥♥♥ (Daniel Windfeld Schmidt, Atlas Games)
Stack squabbling minions to cheer up the boss. He’s coming back any minute now, so better hurry. Periodically, the squabbling turns violent so better stack your cards carefully… Silly and fun. Enough strategy to be engaging, clever and funny artwork, and plenty of backstabbing to satisfy the teen and tween.
Backstab *new* ♥♥♥♥ (David Stawar, Backstab — US Games)
A quick-playing, competitive card game with a healthy dose of backstabbing and comeuppance. The illustrations are quirky but they get missed a bit because of the quick gameplay. I like games where your luck can change in an instant and in this game the ability to change the order of the trump cards mid-play really adds a level of fun and frustration.
Tiny Epic Kingdom Defender *new* (Gamelyn Games)
Did not playtest well at con but had a ton of potential so rating TBD.
World Championship Russian Roulette *?2016* ♥♥♥ (Tuesday Knight Games)
A quirky, quick playing game for the adult crowd. Gearbox found the finger-gun-to-head gameplay a little unnerving.
Boss Monster 2 *new* ♥♥♥
Gearbox: “Entirely based off of old-style of game looks. It had references to video games. The cards added fun and humor and I like creating my own dungeon.”
Gold Ahoy! *new* (Mayfair) ♥♥
Meh. I did not enjoy this tile-laying game. The scoring was complicated and gameplay slow and frustrating.
Collectible Card Games
Pokemon (Pokemon)
Pickles (my tween) played it for the first time and loved it. It’s a classic. There’s a great new online version that Gearbox loved — too bad it’s not available for iPhone (hint, hint).
Buddy Fight (Bushiroad)
Meh. Yet another CCG. Seems fine but the only thing that stood out was that it came with a mini-manga that set up the scenario and taught the rules.
