In a word GenCon was a zoo this year. I have boat loads of pictures, saw a lot of games as well. Because i was covering for Gameshark as well my first two days were loaded with electronic game appointments.

I'll be doing more on the games I picked up but consider these general notes.

FFG
Well aside from surprising everyone with a limited release of Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones Card LCG, Tomb of Ice the new descent expansion, the new Arkham Horror Kingsport Expansion and the Moto GrandPrix game not much else happened.

Actually FFG was out in force, demoing pretty much everything they could and several proto types. The crowds at their booth was larger then normal. Conan was on display, TOI Normandy and huge demos of AT-43 and Confrontation: The Age of the Rag'Narok.

In fact they werre giving away 2 copies of AT-43 and Confrontation every hour and I was lucky enough to score Confrontation. Despite many efforts I could never hook up with Jeremy from FFG for some interview time, GenCon being what it is it happens.

Flying Frog
I got a little time to speak with both Jason and Scott and look at A Touch of Evil and of course I picked it up. I had a feeling I could of scored a review copy but I feel supporting a smaller company like this is warranted. Flying Frog has several games in the works and they are not all Horror related, I hope to get some follow up time with the flying Frog Team in the future. I am looking forward to playing this one soon.

Days of Wonder
DOW flew under my radar, frankly I forgot they were there until Day 3 and I missed some pre-con notifications. Both TTR Nordic Countries and Battlelore For Troll and Country where there for sale in limited quantites. I am really disappointed about missing the Troll expansion.

Valley Games
While I didn't pick up either one of these games, one of my gaming buddies scored both Titan and SuperNova from the show. Each one was there in very limited release. I did get pictuers of Titan that I'll get around to uploading.

Surprise Games
Dominion - This card game doesn't come out until Octboer but let me tell you it is instant crack. many people were inside Rio Grande games room (smart move having their own room outside the hall) playing this repeatedly. The game is going to coem with 500 cards and because you can use 12 different buildings (out of 36) in each game being adaptable is going to be a key. This is a sure fire hit, I gurantee this is going to be popular.

Tomb - I knew little about Tomb but it was a Dungeon Crawl where each player controlled a party of adventurers and is advertised as playing in 90 minutes (a stretch) and the first play didn't disappoint. There are 84 characters which you build your party from meaning it has a lot of replayability.

Rattlesnake - A bit on the lighter side but a game with magnets has to work to go wrong. Definitely something for the familty and perhaps a nice two player for a break from the serious.

Disappointments
Jamaica - Really not worth $60, very disappointing. Beautiful to look at though.

No Shows
- Scenario book for TOI
- No Gears of War demo
- No Tales of the Arabian Nights reprint (Novemeber is the word from Zed)
- No Hannibal Generals (haha had to get that in there)

Overall GenCon was as expected, no real show stoppers or exciting news that I saw or heard. For whatever reason the show seemed more crowded then last year and I didn't get as many games in as I wanted.

Oh and congratulations to fellow Eagle Todd Sweet who won the Catan Champions Tournament, no small feat I tell you. I heard he pocketd a nice bunch of prizes including the insane 3D Catan game worth about $400.