Gen Con 2016 – Board games

AVP: The Hunt Begins

AVP: The Hunt Begins is a dungeon crawl style board game by Prodos Games. Honestly, the game itself looked a bit lackluster, but the miniatures are a different story. There were several cases filled with painted AVP miniatures and I was disappointed to learn that they were all for a board game and not a full scale minis game. Of course the theme of AVP translates easier to a board game than a minis game but I am sure with some creative mechanics it could be done.


DOOM

Fantasy Flight Games’ DOOM could end up being a simple re-skin of Imperial Assault or Descent: Journeys in the Dark. That being said, FFG always seems to add new features and tweaks each time they release one of these games and hopefully DOOM will be another great addition to the long list of quality miniatures based board games by FFG.


Conan

The newest big-box game by Asmodee is the simply titled Conan. Based on the books by Robert E. Howard, the thing that excites me most about this game (besides the miniatures) is that it is not a campaign style game. What I mean is, each time you sit down to play, it’s a new self-contained adventure. Similar to Zombicide, you start from the beginning of each adventure. There is no carry-over of gear or abilities from game to game. There is something refreshing knowing that there is no bookkeeping needed in between games. Don’t get me wrong, I love full featured campaign games, but there are a lot of steps needed to keep track of everything from one game to the next and keeping the Conan adventures self-contained fits the theme. I am very excited for this one.


GKR: Heavy Hitters

Giant Killer Robots (GKR) is a new game from Cryptozoic Entertainment and Weta Workshop. Now that second name, Weta Workshop, that is the important part. Weta is the studio behind concepts and designs for The Lord of the Rings, District 9, Elysium, Made Max: Fury Road and many other films. One look at the robot miniatures in GKR and you will immediately recognize a style similar to both District 9 and Elysium. The look of the game had me interested, but with Weta involved, they have my full attention.

The game is still an early project  and a Kickstarter will launch to get the game going, but there is no confirmed date. Although I did not get a full demo I was able to watch a game and even at this early stage, I’m impressed. I hope they decide to include all the of the miniatures. A game with this theme needs to have high-quality models on the table. Without that, it will be a lackluster experience. Of course any game with dozens of minis, especially large ones like the Heavy Hitters in GKR with come with a hefty price tag. We will just have to wait and see what the Kickstarter looks like.


The rest

The rest of the coverage is for smaller expansion packs or games that I did not get a lot of information on.

Obi-wan Kenobi expansion pack for Imperial Assault

 

The One Ring RPG, not based on the movies, looks amazing.
Minis from the Banner Saga board game. Love the video game, not sure how it will translate.
New project from CMON. They had me at Adrian Smith.
Giant King of Tokyo!
New monster for Kingdom Death. Pure nightmare fuel, as always.
First look at the minis from Massive Darkness. Very happy I backed this one.

And that does it! Man, I’m tired just from posting all of this! One thing is for sure, Gen Con is an exhausting experience. That being said, I cannot wait for next year!

Feel free to share your highlights from the con. What games did you demo? What are you looking forward to?

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