Gencon 2019 Recap: The Best Four Days of Gaming

By Christopher Guyton | August 22nd, 2019 | Categories: Board Games, Tactics

A few weeks have passed since Gencon 2019 came to a close. I want to take this opportunity to share some of the cool new games that are coming out.

Gencon is a yearly gaming convention that currently resides in Indianapolis Indiana. In fact, it’s the largest gaming convention in the United States. I’ve had the fortune to attend the last ten shows. It’s a whirlwind of events, sights, and gaming. No matter hard you try there just no way to see everything there.

Full disclosure, I was able to attend this show due to working for SlugFest Games as a volunteer. My badge was covered but everything else was out of pocket.

So much like my Origins recap, I want to tell you about all the cool new games that will be coming out soon.

Slugfest Games released the Smorgasbox. Featuring a new character, more storage for your collection, and many other goodies. They are also launching a Kickstarter next year for their new game Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. This will be a dungeon crawler with miniatures of the beloved characters in the series. I played the alpha version and love what I saw. I’m excited to see how the final version turns out.

Asmodee Games, which encompasses quite a few publishers, had quite a bit in the way of new games. Abomination the Heir of Frankenstein from Plaid Hat is a fantastic worker placement game with a dark gothic theme. Obscurio from libellud reminds me a lot of Mysterium but this time there is a traitor mechanism which definitely spices things up. Foodies from CMON games is a fun tableau builder with a fun food court business theme. Mystery House feels like an escape room style game in which the game box is part of the puzzle and utilizes an app to find clues.

Space Cowboys has a Marvel themed version of Splendor coming out which adds some cool new features. The art is amazing in this new reskin. Repos Games is also doing a reskin of a notoriously difficult cooperative game Ghost Stories, called Last Bastion. I got a demo in on this new version and it was super fun and just as hard as remembered.

Luma games had quite a large number of releases as well. Draftosaurus is a cute, quick fun little game where you draft dinosaurs. Monster Slaughter is a cabin in the woods style game where you as monsters hunt unsuspecting teens. Cuzco, which is a reprint of Java rounds out the masks trilogy with lovely resin components. Mississippi Queen is a racing game featuring steamboats on the aforementioned river. Colors of Paris is a beautiful painting themed game where you are an artist trying to make a name for yourself.

Fantasy Flight Games has a new Marvel Comics-themed LCG called Marvel Champions. As a cooperative game, I’m super excited for this one’s release.

North Star Games had a problematic situation due to an extremely sought after game. The Herb Witches expansion for Quacks of Quedlinburg was a highly anticipated Gencon release. The problem was most of the order was stuck in customs. This caused a huge shortage issue. It took trying for three days but I managed to obtain a copy. It was well worth it because this expansion adds so much to the game and fixes a few minor issues I had with it.

Renegade Games had a huge release party for their fresh off Kickstarter game Terror Below. It’s a game about hunting giant worms in the desert. Doesn’t sound familiar at all does it? Was able to play my copy there and found it to be very enjoyable. There was also a new Clank! expansion called Temple of the Ape Lords.

Fun Forge has a new title in the Tokaido universe coming out called Namiji. Not an expansion but a completely new game. Instead of walking the Eastern Sea Road, you are fishermen sailing around the islands of Japan. I’m definitely dying to play more of this one.

Starling Games has the new Everdell expansion, Pearlbrook. This adds a whole new river section for worker placement.

Plan B games, which includes their imprint Next Move Games and Eggertspiele have a slew of new games. A new golem edition of Century Eastern Wonders with playmat. A fun quick easy to learn card game called 5211. And most interestingly, Era Medieval Age, a roll and build game in which you actually place building onto your game board.

IDW Games has a new version of an older game called Tonari. It is an interesting game in which all players control the same boat and you score your points plus the player to your left’s points. The Towers of Arkhanos also looked very cool. They also had for demo a new Metal Gear Solid board game which looked awesome and was designed by Emerson Matsuuchi who did Spector Ops. So hidden movement is no stranger to him.

This was barely scraping the surface of all the games that were being demoed or sold. These were just merely the ones that stood out to me and caught my eye. Overall Gencon was a blast and as always there is no way to see or do everything there. Definitely keep an eye out for these hot titles coming soon.