Gen Con 2011 on the horizon.

Ah, my poor neglected blog. At least I've still managed to put up a post a month. Now that the pre-Gen Con eBay rush is over for this year, I can relax and get back to hobby stuff, including my blog.

So, as I write this, Gen Con 2011 is exactly one week away. Four incredible days of gaming fun are merely 7 days away. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am, but I can tell you what I'm excited about. To that end, here are the things that I am most excited about.

3. Dark Age Apocalypse.
This one had been flying under my radar. I knew of the miniature line but I wasn't as aware of the game itself until now. As always, I'm a sucker for cool miniatures when there's a good game to go along with it, so I'll be stopping by Dark Age Games' booth for a demo to see if I like it. If I do, they have a pretty good deal going where you get $20 off a starter box for the faction of your choice if you buy both the rulebook and forcelist book. This one's a try before you buy, but if I like it, I'll likely be bringing it home.

2. Super Dungeon Explore.
This was first shown by Soda Pop Miniatures at last year's con and I thought it looked pretty cool back then. Now it's been more refined and really looks fun. It appears to be a Descent-lite type of game, which is a nice change of pace as Descent can be overwhelming. The figures are also very fun, since they are styled in the cutesy, super-deformed or 'chibi' style of anime. This may be not everyone's cup of tea, but with two young kids (and one being a girl) I can see this getting to the table often down the road.
Unfortunately, according to TGN, it does not appear that Soda Pop is going to have this fully available for sale at Gen Con. However, it can be pre-ordered directly from their booth with free shipping and get an exclusive figure plus a free t-shirt. Plus, those who do pre-order will have the chance to receive one of the 20 sets they did manage to get to Gen Con. Sounds like a sweet trade-off to me.

1. The Magenta Class French Battleship.
Dystopian Wars from Spartan Games has been a huge success and I've been suckered in completely. a few months back they previewed a 3D CAD sculpt of a new battleship for the French (who are allies to my Prussians). The twist of this particular battleship is that it can fly.
After the preview, not much else was heard about it until it was posted on Tabletop Gaming News that it would be released at Gen Con by the The War Store and would come with both a flying version and a waterline version. This one I can not wait for and I'll be making an early stop at this booth.

Of course, these are just the tantalizing tip of the iceberg to what is all going to be there. I'm sure there are lots of surprises in store that I'm not even aware of. Nothing is more fun then stumbling across something, from some new company, that you had no idea about.

As with last year, I will be tweeting often ( @Jackofallgames ) and I'll try to update my blog at the con with cool stuff I see. The goal would be to do it every night, but I know how hard it is to fulfill that promise. There's just too much cool stuff going on!

Until next time,
-Jack