As I mentioned yesterday, I only went to Gen Con for two days this year, instead opting to head home and host two game days so my friends and family could play what I bought. As of this afternoon, I’ve played all of the games I bought at Gen Con 2018!
This post is a quick one, in which I discuss the Geekbuzz list as it stands on the convention’s final day. Then I offer really quick thoughts about my favorite games from the convention, and conclude with a few superlatives.
The Sunday Geekbuzz List
As I write this, here are the leading games on the Geekbuzz list. I’m not sure when voting is cutoff, but I’d guess we’re getting close.
- Scarabya
- Blue Lagoon
- Kingdomino: Age of Giants
- Mini DiverCity
- Before There Were Stars…
- Detective
- Everdell
- Tower of Madness
- The Mind
- Root
- Gorus Maximus
- Coimbra
- Forbidden Sky
- Gizmos
- Nut So Fast
- Reef
- Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger
- Arboretum
- Terraforming Mars: Prelude
- Villainous
As I said yesterday, I’m sticking my my opinions about what was hot at Gen Con 2018. You can find my list in Friday’s post, and a discussion of hot games in Thursday’s post.
My Favorite Five New-to-Me Games
As I said earlier, I’ve now played all of the games I bought at Gen Con 2018. My five favorite new-to-me games from Gen Con 2018 stand are:
- Blue Lagoon – Mini Review Yesterday
- Gizmos – Mini Review Thursday
- Lost Cities: Rivals – Mini Review WednesdayÂ
- Railroad Ink – No Review Yet
- Shadows Amsterdam – Mini Review Thursday
My favorite expansion so far is Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters: The Creepy Cellar Expansion, which I did a mini review of yesterday.
The above were my favorite new-to-me games. Among all Gen Con releases, my favorite stands as Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, which I first played (and did a mini review of) back at the Gathering of Friends. It is one of the few games I’ve ever rated a 10 on BGG.
Other Superlatives
Most Noteworthy Designer:  Reiner Knizia is still a big name after all these years. Three of his games — Yellow & Yangtze, Lost Cities: Rivals, and Blue Lagoon — all seemed to be pretty popular at the convention.
Most Noteworthy Publisher:  This is close, but I’d guess probably Blue Orange. Blue Lagoon, Scarabya, and Kingdomino: Age of Giants all seemed to be doing well. I’m skeptical of the fact that those are the three top games on the BGG Geekbuzz list, but nonetheless Blue Orange clearly had a great convention.
Favorite Experience: On Thursday night, I hung out in the BGG hot games room with two of my buddies from Jefferson City, plus Chad Roberts. We had a great time playing through many of the new releases. It was a very memorable night of gaming.
Biggest Regret:  I didn’t make it to werewolf this year. Werewolf at Gen Con is always great — it is one of those games that is occasionally fun to play with strangers — but I didn’t have time for it this year.
Biggest Lesson Learned: Don’t buy into publisher’s hype about how many copies they have. When I chatted with many publishers on Wednesday and Thursday, they said they had limited copies and would likely sell out, but by the end of the show, they hadn’t. Claiming to have limited copies is seemingly a new marketing strategy, one I’m not very fond of.
That’s it for this year’s coverage! Thanks for reading! Matt Carlson will be doing his big Gen Con rundown in the next few days, and I’m sure other OGers will have updates.
Let the road to Essen begin!
Thanks for these write-ups. I really enjoy your approach to these, which gives readers a feel for the buzz and enough information to decide whether to do a deeper dive into particular games.