July 31, 2024
Gen Con Games To Look Forward To
Gen Con is the largest board game convention in the United States. After four days of board games, announcements, and tournaments, we see tons of releases at Gen Con that are quickly coming into store in the following months. We wanted to highlight some that we think will be must-have games for your gaming collection. From brand-new games like Gnome Hollow to expansions for games like Catacombs you will want to check all of them out. Below we go over a few we want to highlight.
In River Valley Glassworks, you play as one of these pioneers, drafting glass from the market of river tiles. To do so, you have to play a piece from your inventory into the river. Each river tile can take only a specific shape, and you must play into a space adjacent to where you want to draft from. After you pick up your glass, the river shifts forward, revealing new pieces and new opportunities.
Store the glass you pick up strategically in your shop. Depending on how the glass pieces are placed, your score will change drastically. Fill in rows and columns to gain bonus points, but don't draft too many of one type to avoid negative points!
In Windmill Valley , a game inspired by the Bloemen Route, you and up to three players take on the role of tulip farmers and entrepreneurs. You will build and enhance your windmills, look for new tulip bulbs in foreign trades or among local vendors to buy and plant, and try to get an edge with hired help and lucrative contracts. Let your blooming fields make your competitors green with envy!
All in all, Windmill Valley is a lightweight game with quick turns, a smart action-selection mechanism, multiple options to build your engine, and a lovely setting.
Windmill Valley goes on sale today August 1st with exclusive promos only available at your FLGS.
It's 1977. You're an up-and-coming musician, dreaming of making it big with your band. Over the next few months, you'll rehearse, play gigs, write songs, and promote your band. With careful planning and a little luck, you'll earn the most fame and become the best new artist of the year.
Rock Hard: 1977 is played over a maximum of nine rounds, each representing a typical day of one month in 1977, from April to December. You win the game by accruing the most fame. How? Increasing reputation, chops, and songs; achieving production, performance, and publicity bonuses; getting record deals and earning royalties; playing concerts; and hanging out at the hottest after-hours spot. Ready to live like a rock star?
Gnome Hollow is a spatial, tile-placement, worker-placement game in which you grow a tabletop garden of mushrooms and flowers. Every piece is a hand-painted watercolor that captures the whimsical feel of gnomes and nature. Turns are deceptively simple: Players place tiles into the garden and move a gnome to take a single action on their turn.
Clever players will plan their strategy carefully, balancing the building of mushroom rings with trips to the market, as well as expanding their collection of wildflowers that grow across the garden. As the game progresses, it is as much about playing a beautiful game as it is a wonderful journey to strategically outplay your opponents.
Come to Gnome Hollow and experience a peaceful garden, the thrill of competing to harvest buckets of mushrooms, and the reward of gathering all your shiny treasures on sale the same weekend as Gen Con!
Cascadia: Rolling is a series of puzzly flip-and-roll-and-write games featuring the habitats and wildlife of the Pacific Northwest! Simultaneously roll dice, collect wildlife, and complete habitat cards to fill in different environments in Cascadia. Use special actions to manipulate your dice, and dynamic completion cards to unlock powerful combos!
Roll your dice, collect wildlife and Nature Tokens, complete Habitat Cards, and fill in the puzzle on your personal Environment Sheet to create the most harmonious ecosystem in Cascadia! Although the core rules are simple, each unique Environment Sheet has its own twist so no two games of Cascadia: Rolling will play out the same!
Cascadia: Rolling Hills features unique content specific to the prairie environments of Cascadia!
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence pays homage to space and planetary exploration, astronomy, the ongoing search for signs of life in the vastness of space, and efforts to understand the nature of life in the universe.
Players will explore nearby planets and their moons by launching probes from Earth while taking advantage of ever-shifting planetary positions. Decide whether to land on their surface to collect valuable samples, or stay in orbit for a broader survey. Additionally, by directing your telescopes to gaze into distant star systems, you may detect traces of alien signals or undiscovered exoplanets, and collect promising data to examine and study back home.
