CardHaus was there with their new English version of Tanto Cuore! The game is a take on Dominion, where all the characters are Japanese manga maids. (More on this later)

From setup time on Saturday morning... Us bloggers gotta stick together! Here you see Valerie (OG) and Drakkenstrike (whose video reviews you see on BGG)

Mattel was there with a new version of Mind Flex - this one allows two players to go at it head to head

A close up view of Mind Flex: Duel. Essentially, the players wear headbands that somehow measure your alpha waves that your brain makes. The more you can concentrate, the better you'll do!

An assortment of Asmodee pre-production prototypes... their Essen lineup is going to be awesome. Here you see Takenono, Mundus Novus (which is supposed to be like Mare Nostrum: the Card Game) and le Donjon de Nahelbeuk (done by Bauza/Repos originally, but in English for Essen!). Ghost Stories: Black Secret is hiding on the right. Not pictured here is Quebec.

Close up of a player board from Donjon. The game is a fun dungeon crawl where players may be asked to do dexterity, memory or other things to proceed through the dungeon. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/66125/le-donjon-de-naheulbeuk

Oh, forgot to mention that Asmodee is also doing an expansion for Clausterphobia.

At the booth, they also had a sweet super-sized set of 7 Wonders. Cards this size were definitely easier to see across the 8-foot convention table!

LEGO games had a big presence. Here is their display for Heroica

BlueOrange had a set of neat games in small tins. Spot It! is a new version of Dobble. TellTale is a story telling game more geared for kids. Trigger! is a speed game sort of like the traditional slumber party game of "I never..."

Some of the nice artwork on the cards in TellTale.

Another interesting game from BlueOrange - PixyCubes -- here you have to arrange the dice to match the pattern seen on the card.

Stomple - a strategic marble stomping game. I watched the whole demo. I have no idea how to play the game.

The physical version of Angry Birds by Mattel. The game was definitely a hit. The Mattel booth sold out of this one on the first day. Any resemblance of this game's designer to myself is somewhat coincidental.

Wizkids with a prototype version of the board for a new Lord of the Rings game

At the AEG booth, designer David Gregg with his two Nightfall babies

Spotted at the Fantasy Flight booth - a physical copy of Blood Bowl: Team Manager the Card Game. This was probably enough proof for me that it really exists.

Belfort at Tasty Minstrel Games

The board setup for Belfort

Eminent Domain made the show, though it had to be airshipped in! Here you can also see the designer, Seth Jaffee, in the background. Well, you can see his hand.

I told you that there'd be more Tanto Cuore... An interesting special where you get a silk-screened "chamois hand towel" thrown in. Eww.

CardHaus gets a 9.5 out of 10 for booth babe effort. It was not quite the same as they couldn't find girls who looked like those in manga comics - but definitely an A for Effort here.

Mayfair had some cool things at their demo tables. Many tables had QR links which brought smartphones directly to the rules pages for the particular games... I thought this was a sweet idea

The wheel of winning at North Star Games. They were having a good time pushing their newest game, Crappy Birthday.

Box art for Dragon Rampage, a dice based dungeon crawl to come out from Gryphon in the near future

Preproduction board for Dragon Rampage

The new version of Can't Stop which has SWEET traffic cone markers which are way better than those Advance to Boardwalk squares

Ninja at the AEG booth - it's a secret movement game, kind of like Scotland Yard

Fantasy Flight was there in their usual "take up the entire middle of the exhibit hall" way. The number of games that they were demoing in the exhibit hall was staggering

If you hadn't heard, FFG got the Star Wars license

World famous game designer (well, at least in Minnesota) Rob Kouba and his Battle of Westeros demo

Early proto of the FFG X-wing miniature game

Zev S posing with one of Sophie's newest hits Ascending Empires. I would have liked to have taken a picture of Ninjato, but they sold out on the first day before I got to the show!

Uwe Eickert with his new game, Strike of the Eagle

After a short demo of his game, Uwe then did what any self-respecting wargame designer would do.... go up on stage with the Radio Disney girls to dance the Cupid Shuffle and to "Baby, Baby" by Justin Bieber

Time to head home. On the way out of Indy, we stopped at the Edwards Drive-In for a famous pork tenderloin sandwich. The thing is humongous. On the right is a standard ketchup packet for size reference.

Here's a quick peek at the cargo bed of my car with the new games to be played with my game group! That's it for now, I'll try to write more when the flood is contained.