Just like last year, my first meeting in the Exhibit hall was with The OP. This year, up in the top of their cool 2-story booth. Their surprise big hit of the con was Gnome Hollow and I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces.
Gnome Hollow
Gnome Hollow is a 2-4 player game that vaguely reminds me of Carcassonne, if the meeples were also workers and it had an upgradeable tech tree. Players draft 2 tiles to place into a center area. The tiles show various symbols and a fairy path of mushrooms. Players try to place tiles to complete a ring. The size of the ring will grant rewards – with some rewards becoming worker placement locations. A player’s personal board has two tracks – the upper one tracking victory point scoring and the lower area is the “tech tree.” When completing a ring of the correct size (or greater) a player can move their marker down one of the tech tree locations, gaining the benefits located there. (Fun fact – the pieces and player board are magnetic so when placed they don’t slide around!) For a slightly more advanced game, the player board can be flipped over and now the tile-laying goal will include creating rings of specific shapes rather than simply a specific size/length. The game was released at Gen Con and should be available in stores.
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For the past few years, Renegade Games has leaned heavily into their connections to G.I. Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony. They’ve created RPGs and deck builders for each. However, after gaining control of the Avalon Hill (and Wizards of the Coast) backlog of boardgames, they have proceeded to re-release many classics – particularly the Risk and Axis & Allies lines of lightweight wargames. Recently, Renegade has started to mix and match their IPs to create an entirely new hybrid product. 2025 sees a G.I. Joe version of Axis & Allies and a Transformers version of RoboRally. There’s a new Axis & Allies set in North Africa and reprints of Nexus Ops, Risk 2210 and Risk Godstorm. Of course, all of the above is a moot point for many, as the one and only thing of importance in the Renegade booth was the display (and even games on offer) of the resurrected Heroscape line.
