Gen Con 2026 – Asmodee Part 2

The Asmodee train keeps on going. Let’s talk about Maestro Media and their base-building-attacking Clash of Clans, soon to be followed by a Clash Royal lane battler. They have a (sorta Unmatched-like) Disney themed battle game, Sky Arena Duel, a new TCG based on the Korean Summoners War app. Finally, they are rereleasing the fast-reaction Ghost Blitz with slighter friendlier graphics. Captain Games SRL has Tea and Rum, a worker placement/removal game where players specialize but still have to balance out which type of victory points they want to pursue. Office Dog is releasing a popular Japanese trick taking game as Schadenfreude where players are trying to be second in everything. They also were showing off a roll & write, The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict, where players take on both factions (good & bad) and have a war with their left and right hand neighbors (good side vs bad side.) Atomic Mass Games has a boardgame intro to their Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis game entitled Marvel: Crisis Protocol Alliances that can play a co-op or verses mode. Libellud has the expansion Harmonies: Crescendo, with some higher scoring cards and a couple of new play boards. Days of Wonder showed off an upcoming Rocket Rollout – a racing game with bag building with dice but also a good measure of card upgrades as well. Lookout Games had the new stand-alone Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains that adds water and fish while Dragon Overload has players playing cards to control central areas. Play a card and your opponent gets to draw one from that area – but don’t double your opponent’s power or you will Overload and automatically lose that battle. Fantasy Flight Games had another Star Wars Unlimited release but will have the ICONS release next year as a friendlier intro to the card game. They also have a pirate-themed, Fantasy Zombicide: Dead Men Tales releasing in the spring. Bezzerwizzer Studio was showing the party game, That Tracks, where teams try to guess a topic based on the historical Google search frequencies. Neuroscape, from Neuroscape LLC, is a new TCG where players have separate decks (one for resources, one for cards to play) and two different health pools (you lose if either goes to zero…) Finally, I spotted The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth – Allies expansion by Repos Production, a small package expansion that gives each player a few selected faction-unique cards playable once per game.

Continue reading

Posted in Convention Report, Gen Con | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of Trail to the Temple

 

 

Trail to the Temple

  • Designer: Reiner Knizia
  • Publisher: Mindware
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/45hhO0M
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In this competitive exploration game, players lead an expedition into a lost city hidden deep within the jungles of Honduras. The expedition splits into two groups: explorers navigating the jungle on foot and drones mapping the terrain from above. Players move explorers, collecting jungle tokens as you land on them. But their point values are hidden until the end of the game. When the expedition concludes, token values are revealed based on the final positions of both explorers and drones. Careful planning and smart positioning throughout the game determine the winner.

Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of Leaf It!

Leaf It!

  • Designers: Anja Wrede, Christoph Cantzler 
  • Publisher: Edition Spielwiese
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 6+
  • Time: 10 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Don’t bring the canopy crashing down!

Dusk is falling in the rainforest, and the first sleepy forest dwellers are blinking from their hiding places. In Leaf It!, you must carefully feel your way through the foliage to build—and then dismantle—a wobbly primeval giant piece by piece.

Your goal is to collect as many sleepy, valuable forest creatures as possible. But beware: those who are too greedy will bring the canopy crashing down and hand valuable points to their opponents!

Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth

 

The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth

  • Designer: Thomas Sing
  • Publisher: Kosmos
  • Players: 3-5
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4ggCNWx
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Travel around the world in a race against time on the hunt for Charlemagne’s secret treasure. Follow clues that will lead you up Mount Everest, through the Amazon Rainforest, and beyond. It’s up to you how your story will end. Will you make it in time, or will you be too late? The only way to find out is by playing. The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth is a co-operative trick-taking game in which players attempt to complete missions together. This game features a 25-stage journey.

Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

Dale Yu: Review of Exit the Game: The Circus Mystery

 

EXIT: The Circus Mystery

  • Designers: Emely, Inka and Markus Brand
  • Publisher: Kosmos
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 12+
  • Time: 1-2 hours
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4bnp8vb

The EXIT series was one of the original puzzle-game franchises to hit the market when the escape room game craze took off a few years ago. To date, my family and I have been able to play all of the ones released here in the US, and this is a series that we continue to look forward to future installments. While there are many worthy competitors in the genre, the EXIT series is possibly the best known of the bunch – due in part to the initial set of games being awarded the 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres award.

This most recent installment in the series places you under the big top: 

The circus is in town! But something’s amiss under the big top. A series of high-profile burglaries have occurred in each of the cities where the circus performed. Coincidence? Or can you find a connection?

Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of Hell of a Deal

 

Hell of a Deal

  • Designer: Cameron Reid
  • Publisher: Smirk & Dagger
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 90 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: 
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Hell of a Deal is a cooperative poker game against The Devil Himself & all the minions of Hell. Of course, they all cheat! To compete, you’ll have to cheat like Hell… and the more you do, the more doomed you all become. Welcome to The Last Resort & Casino… and winning IS your last resort. To get to the Big Table, you’ll face off against diabolical bosses like Dedly Aloor, Jack Potts, The Brothers Dreadful, & Roul-ette, each of whom twists the game in unique ways.

It’s real poker – as far as playing poker in Hell goes, with you all trying individually to beat the house. Every Boss changes how you will approach the hand and has a bare minimum hand to beat, should their dealt cards not pan out. It’s a Texas Hold’em style game – and players get not two but three cards dealt to them (one up their sleeve for more options). You may earn powerful Favor cards that let you cheat, like making a four-card Flush, but at the cost of a Curse or suffering Temptation.

Your chips will earn you Souls (the coin of the realm) which you’ll need at the Big Table against The Devil Himself – or betting one of your five Power chips will gain you immediate abilities, like revealing one of the Boss’s cards, or taking a face-up discard into your hand. But lose the hand and your wagered chips flip over to deliver harsh penalties. Suffer too much Temptation and the game ends in a loss. Manage to win against The Devil Himself and you might just earn your way back to the living.  It has the feel of high stakes poker, with no cash on the table. And delivers a whole Poker Night in just 90 minutes.

Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment