Gen Con has come and come and gone, and while I did not get the chance to go (ever), I still was able to view a ton of the pictures from various booths, and get several reviews from the various podcasts I listen to. With all that info, here are several of the games that have been "on my radar" so to speak. That's not to say that I will be 100% be picking all of these up. After all, I'd still need people to play against, and lets face it, I'm pretty sure the gamers in my area recognize a GOOD game if it came up and punched em in the face! But that is another rant in and of itself. There will also be a bit of trend in my choices, see if you can spot it. Anyway, here are some of the games that have caught my eye...
Infinity
I've actually had my eye on this for an extremely longtime, before it even began to pick up any steam here in the states. Initially, I couldn't find it online at my usual spots, but now it's definitely everywhere! I almost picked it up about a year ago, but once again decided just to hold off, as I feared I wouldn't be able to find an opponent. The lack of opponents is what is key. I've already gone through several GOOD games that I've picked up in the past, painted models for, but never gotten to play. (DUST, Flames of War, Dystopian Wars, etc) My stance on gaming is that it only becomes a "waste of money" when you do nothing with it. That said, my desire to play this game, with or without an opponent, is starting to become a bit overwhelming. Model wise, the Tohaa and elements of the Combined Army have both caught my eye. Not mention, there is some insane looking terrain being made out there for infinity...
Bushido
Bushido is currently where infinity used to be. The game looks cool, I've heard nothing but great things about it, and yet I cannot find the models online except for directly from their website, which is overseas. (though I admit, I've only checked coolstuffinc and thewarstore) After Team Covenant's "return from Gen Con" podcast, it sounded like several people they were involved with were also taken with the game, so there is a chance that they could potentially the carry the game if they like what they see after several demos. My top two favorite factions here are the Prefecture of Ryo, and the Ito Clan. Ryo just has that typical Japanese Samurai vibe, while the Ito remind me heavily of the Naga clan from L5R. I have an odd spot in my heart for L5R, including the old "Clan war" miniatures. Who knows, maybe I pick up both factions, painting the Ryo up like the Scorpion Clan, and the Ito as well, to get my L5R fix now that the CCG group has died...
Malifaux 2.0
I played the original Malifaux quite a long time ago. It started off huge at my LGS, I got several box sets fully painted, became a Henchmen expecting to run a "Game Night" once a week along with a monthly tournament. I got to play 2 games, then the game tanked at my LGS! (I'm still annoyed about it, to be honest) A few of the guys that actually went to Gen Con picked up the 2.0 book, along with some of the latest minis. I myself, still have an unpainted crew in my gaming bag. (No point in painting em if they never see the table) All that said, I'll hold out and see what happens this 2nd time. The game is on my radar, but I won't go all gung-ho like I did before, making an effort to set up events, rep the game, etc. In fact, after so many letdowns for not just this game, but many others as well, I'm officially done running events at my LGS at all. I fully realize that no game will take off in a store unless people are seeing it played on a regular basis, including tournaments and league play, but I'll let someone else enjoy that headache this time around...
Robotech RPG Tactics
The only thing that kept me away from the Robotech kickstarter was the simple fact that I had already backed two games at that time, Kingdom Death and Arena Rex, so I reluctant to back a 3rd game at the time. That said, this game has been on my radar since day 1. I think some of my friends did actually support the game on kickstarter, so I'm hoping that means I'll have opponents when the game does finally drop. Recently they did a "design a squadron" contest, and while I never got around to actually submitting an idea, I do have one. My squadron would be "Raven Squadron", with the Valkyrie's colors being the base white, with dark grey and black elements/striping.
So, those are the main ones "on my radar" at the moment. A few of the guys at the LGS have been getting into Dropzone Commander lately, but I'm on the fence for a number of reasons. One being the scale, another is that aside from UCM and maybe the PHR, I'm really not a fan of the models. It would probably take a lot of coercing on their part to get me to take a serious second look at the game. Or maybe a super cheap UCM army...
Yeah I got in on Robotech. Now if only I could get more play time.
ReplyDeleteI also can't believe I forgot to add Shadowrun: Sprawl Gangers to list above as well. Must be because I have not gotten much info about the game yet. Either way, Sprawl Gangers should be on the list too...
ReplyDeleteThe other big game I am looking out for is High Command. Granted it comes out tomorrow so I will not be waiting long.
ReplyDeleteyep, yep. Andrew picked up the Hordes version of it at Gen Con, but I have yet to play it personally...
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