Top 60 Board Games at Gen Con 2019 | Part 1

0:00 GenCon is right around the corner and literally hundreds of new games will be comin out there let's start listing my top picks hey there we are mere days away from North America's largest annual board game convention Gen Con were at least 600 yes 600 new board card and tabletop games are going to become available for gamers to add to their gaming tables their shelves and their game nights this list of games is enough to make gamers head swim so I recently combed through a list of all of these upcoming games and head in full swim picked the top 10% of them that interested me the most to discuss here but but to keep me from going just completely mental I'm gonna split my list into several episodes and just keep producing these episodes until either I run out of time or just die now each of these games listed is gonna be available for purchase at Gen Con now for my picks of games that will only be demoed at the convention well see this video right over here that thing linked there I'm gonna try avoiding games that I've previously discussed another top 10 top 5 and other recent videos but even so that leaves a substantial list to go through the first installment of which starts right now we're gonna kick off this entire thing with the probably mispronounced game a mule a set

1:32 collection cart drafting game a mule which was originally announced as the easier to pronounce Silk Road is a card game of bustling bazaars for up to eight aspiring merchants in a mule each player is a striving merchant competing for wealth and success and to achieve this players must manage their hands of cards effectively as only certain cards can be played to the table for scoring while others must be left in your hand for optimal performance mu L features fast and engaging gameplay as well as beautiful artwork but but really that that's a given isn't it I mean are there any games out there that advertise dreadful artwork and this interesting gameplay probably not but that does remind me that I do need to put together another thrift sift episode sooner number 2 is an normally a deduction game with a horrific science fiction setting anomaly is a hidden movement deduction and combat game for two to four players the players in this game are divided into two teams one player is the anomaly while the other players are a group of students the goal of each team is to eliminate the other all the students and the anomaly will execute their movement behind a player screen so it's gonna be really difficult to know exactly where another player is in the game the students will try to signal their location to the other students by using location hint cards and the anomaly will in turn use these cards to triangulate

3:04 the students positions to stay alive the anomaly needs to feed itself either on fuel or the students themselves the game ends when either the anomalies health pool is depleted or the anomaly runs out of students to snack on welcomed cadets to number three are you a robot our space colony has been infiltrated by murderous savage robots and the only way to escape them is to shoot them in the face with your standard-issue laser pistol however you don't want to accidentally shoot a human by mistake because paperwork our only hope is to pick off these robots one by one so get out there play this game of bluffing and social deduction pick your targets price are you a robot is not just an existential question I've been struggling with for several months it's also a social deduction micro game in which each player gets a random card which they must look at but keep secret gameplay then consists of talking you ask each other questions and try to figure out who just became a robot the players though can say anything lying is a certified part of the game the game ends when a human decides to either shoot a robot in the face or shake hands with it the humans will prosper if they correctly shoot the robot but the robots win if the humans well don't this appears to be a tiny little game from Looney labs which is only gonna be a

4:34 couple of bucks to buy sauces one of the very first things I'm going to go out and scoop up as soon as I can find it at GenCon number four is the Artemis project a space exploration game that utilizes dice rolling auctions worker placement and a dashing take that behold Europa Jupiter's moon a deep beneath its crust the oceans are teeming with alien sea life shellfish plants corals arthropods even strange fish that wear stupid t-shirts and larger sea creatures they all populate a wide-ranging interconnected web of hidden seas oh but that's nothing because volcanism is rampant as well warming the mineral-rich waters and creating excellent conditions for energy harvesting the Artemis project is a dice displacement an engine building game that has the players fighting the planet as well as the other players players will roll their dice and place them tactically to thwart the other colonists and harvest the energy and minerals and shirt wearing fish that are out there they'll also bid for buildings work together to go on expeditions to earn rewards and train workers and I mean they'll actually teach workers there's not workers that are little little trains now be honest this game appears to want to do almost everything under the Sun that a game can do so I'm interested in finding out if this one well can do it or if it's well yeah I'm gonna be a bit of a bit of a mess so

6:07 that's the Artemis project one of the ones I really want to check out not necessarily just to go and scoop up and grab but to investigate further number five is bad bones a tower defense game that incorporates simultaneous action selection bad news ace your kingdom is at siege by the Living Dead you know you do what you can you raise troops you build walls you lay traps you prepare magical spells even wake your pet dragon you know you hope that things help but it's still a struggle hopefully these aren't coming hordes of the undead can be slowed or if you're especially crafty perhaps they can be pointed towards those neighbouring kingdoms this battle that you are in your best asset is your brave and proud hero who stands ready to slay those piles of walking bones but alas he can't fight everywhere so if things get really desperate you can offer them some treasure to get some relief either that or I don't know give up that's not a very good strategy though and probably one that you don't want to employ in bad bones a game in which you must survive an invasion of ever more numerous and dangerous skeletons now this invasion cannot actually be stopped so you're going to have to outlast your opponents to win the day now your disposals are range of different weapons that defeat slow or even deflect the skeletons towards beyond those other players the game ends when one player's tower or

7:37 village is completely wiped out and then the remaining players determine who wins bad bones is in my current holy grail category a tower defense board game I've tried a few some have succeeded more than others but none of them have had that that x-factor that's made me go wow this is really what I'm looking for in a tower defense board game so will bad bones be it beat the one will it be bad to the bone or will it be bad to the bone I'll the only way to find out it's gonna be to investigate it at GenCon which is exactly what I intend to do number 6 is Bahamas a bluffing card game that takes advantage of dice and the poor life decisions of other player characters you see the hold up was perfect it was a sound plan there were millions in the bag fleeing by plane yep everything was going perfect everyone started to relax but then the airplane engines started to sputter and then the plane started to fall out of the sky and then the real game began in Bahamas players take on the role of 10 characters in the Bahamas who steal lie threaten and do everything they can to get the biggest part of a stolen stash of loot and land safely because their airplane that they are escaping in is going down in flames fortunately there are parachutes available unfortunately we've got to

9:09 bring enough of them so with time running out players will draw and use cards from an action deck and when a certain crash card is drawn everyone who is still without a parachute or a lifeboat hiding in the action deck how do I want to put this plunges to their demise and after all that happens well whichever surviving character has the most money wins the game does provide another way to escape by landing the plane safely and then ratting out your fellow thieves to the FBI but seriously why do that when you can be the last man standing number seven is an expansion for bang the dice game called undead or alive this expansion adds eight new enraged gunslingers and two new duel dice that you use for oddly enough fighting duels now if you get into a duel and you lose then you must draw a duel wound token that you keep to annoy yourself with and during your turn each duel wound token that you have cancels one identical symbol rolled on a dice that you decide to keep so they're really a pain both figuratively and literally the new dice also feature another new symbol the whiskey bottle and if you roll a whiskey bottle during your turn and you have no dual wound tokens to discard or if you lose two or more life points in one turn then you must draw a rage card the symbols of which are added to the results on the dice I've been waiting on a long time a long time for more content

10:40 for bang the dice game and finally it is here so this is one that I am definitely going and scooping up as soon as I can find the booth in the exhibit hall wherever it may be that has it hopefully still in stock because I'm scooping number eight is blind spot a game of words like there's front of your face oh sure it may seem like just a jumbled a grid of letters but as you cover letters on the boards words will begin to come into focus and before you know it the board will tighten up and suddenly those words that were once so plentiful become harder and harder to spot fortunately you're also running out of time because this is blind spot in which players place little spots to cover letters and race the clock to reveal more and more words that they kind of dig up out of the board the game becomes a lot more difficult as more and more spots are placed on the board and players have to quickly and cleverly use their spots not only to find words but also to block their opponents to be the last player standing mm-hmm I saw a blind spot demoed last March at the Gama trade show and it's an innovative little word game with a lot of replayability including rules for team play and solo play so I'm gonna check out blind spot because it's not what you see in this word game it's what you don't see that will help you win sure if I play a better than I read it to market and copy because we're halfway

12:12 through this installment of the list which is a great time for someone else to talk for a while welcome back and subscribe number nine is catlantis oh here we go catlantis is a pun filled mythical twist on what is apparently a hot trend of Myr animals and cats which are always popular sure this game features intuitive gameplay that's quick to play and easy to learn thank you marketing blurb okay full disclosure while I am genuinely excited to find out more about this game I can't help but get the feeling that this game is fully aware of exactly why it exists the game is designed around meme worthy art foil cards and adorable little meeples and in the game players won't gather wealth and treasure and persuade their words not mine their allies to join their Kitty ku each turn they'll make offerings to another player and hope that they don't pounce on the resource that you actually need so trying to figure out what your opponents want is half of the battle while trying to get what you desire whose reputation will sink into the sea and whose will float to the top is the question that's the marketing copy for this game wants to ask but really the question on my mind is what in the world is catlantis actually about I don't

13:42 actually know but I am mesmerised and dying to find out number 10 is claimed a trick ticking game in a fantasy setting all the king's dead and while nobody really knows what happened we do know that he was found face down in a wine barrel just this morning you know and it could have been either a foul play or well his own thirst that did him in stupid King regardless the king is dead and without any known heirs it's up to the five factions of the realm to decide who will be the new king will it be you know it's gonna be me or your opponent or perhaps you so we need to know right here and right now if you have what it takes to win the other realms factions claim is played in two distinct phases which is one of the things that really intrigues me about it in phase one each player gets a hand of cards which they're gonna use to recruit different followers and in Phase two they're gonna use those followers to compete and win over the five different factions of the realms and each faction has a special power that affects how the game plays and those powers can be different each and every phase at the end of the game the player who wins the majority of the factions votes wins the crown and the entire game claim reminds me a little bit of the card game for sale and how its split into two distinct parts but I'm hoping that it adds a little more sophistication and complexity than the foresail model especially since claim is

15:14 one of the few games on this list that I've actually pre-ordered to go pick up at GenCon sight-unseen so that was a wise move on my part at least it might be in case claim turns out to be fantastic otherwise a copy of claim number 11 is colours of Paris a game that takes place in a bunch of Paris locations that I have absolutely no chance of pronouncing correctly in this game you have decided to participate in the

15:45 laughs you are a friendly competition between several painters in the workshop in Montmartre Perry the newspapers know all about this challenge so perhaps they'll teach you how to pronounce it but otherwise you know that this is a good opportunity to become famous following in the footsteps of Suzanne Toulouse Lautrec which I only know how to pronounce because it's in the lures of the move by the Beastie Boys Monet and Renoir colors of Paris is a management game in which you must take care of your paint tubes mixtures and your time to create fantastic works of art all the while anticipating others to perform as needed within a rotating set of actions I'm gonna find colors of Paris at GenCon I'm gonna play colors of Paris at GenCon but I'm also gonna take along a linguistic professional to pronounce it correctly number 12 is conflicting legends imagine a cross between risk and rock-paper-scissors okay now take the opposite of how terrible that sounds because this game fantastic in fact it's right here I picked this up at bgg spring and I love this game conflicting legends is a fast paced highly interactive and unique strategy game based on rock-paper-scissors yeah you basically use different personalities from throughout history to play rock-paper-scissors to take over different people's countries it's great if you can track down a copy of conflicting legends at GenCon to try out

17:16 I encourage you to do so this is a quirky fast-paced fun little game that always results in a lot of laughs when we play it and a lot of those Haho type of moments so that is conflicting legends so far one of the most pleasant surprises that I have encountered so far this year in the world of board games and one that I hope that I can really be a bit of an evangelist for because I really enjoy it number 13 is Copenhagen a pattern building puzzle game with the famous city as its backdrop the Danish city Copenhagen is traversed by canals and harbors and part of it is famous for the colourful car built houses along the water in the game Copenhagen players must design new face for these houses so they fit seamlessly into this beautiful Harbor setting by using the cards on the various displays that come out for the course of the game players receive the corresponding facade polyomino tiles which they will use to beautify the houses that they are constructing I was introduced to the game Copenhagen at origins drink I have an an open house event at the Queen games booth and at that event they had the game out at a bunch of different tables but it wasn't super readily available yet that is a euphemistic way of saying that I wasn't able to get a copy of myself yet at origins but at GenCon it's gonna be back bigger and better than ever baby which is not true it's gonna actually be the exact same size and level of quality as it was back in origins the difference though being it will be slightly more readily available which has objectively

18:48 increased availability number 14 is Court of the Dead mourners call a fantasy adventure game chock full of mysterious mythology and magnificent miniatures in this game you are a mourner an Allegiant of death itself dedicated to realizing his noble ambition to end the celestial war and restore balance to the universe which sounds easy except deaths purpose includes your own ulterior motives as well because you're a bit of a sneaky pete yourself you and your fellow mourners must unite and rise or we'll all fall together because only one mourner will achieve their particular vision of the underworld united but beware because there's even more stuff to watch out for here the power within the mortal Souls is a parentless substance right right this stuff it's gooey and it's scary and you got to handle it with care I mean seriously use gloves because if used carelessly it will risk invoking the dread grip dreads grip however you pronounce it it's a destructive force with an every mourner --that consumes all it touches including its former master it's always always something isn't it well failing to satiate these Celestials worn a door triggering this dreads grip or doing other terrible things all have dire consequences for all the mourners

20:20 playing the game so that's why you have to ask yourself right now are you strong enough to achieve your own ambitions and be the champion for uniting all of the forces in which the mourners call or are you more dedicated to figuring out what I actually said because it they come out right at all number 15 is the crew so crew which is more than just a game this is a set of graphic novel adventures in the crew so crew you embody a character in an immersive story in which your choices guide your progress you have a character sheet as well that's akin to those used in role-playing games we're just gonna track your possessions your special abilities your coins and your victory points now each of these is a graphic novel and gameplay generally consists in following the comics panels which contain clues and riddles and traps all while making choices about where to go and what to do while using your visual perception to collect clues that are hidden in the artwork and be smart enough to resolve spurious riddles that you will encounter as in any game you can lose and sometimes pretty badly but what's the difference is that with this story compared to other graphic novel adventures is that the Crusoe crew is for one to four players and each player has their own book embodying a particular character with their own special powers so players are gonna want to work together with each other albeit separately in their own books to progress on islands full of adventure

21:50 and different brain twisters all together as one overall these look to be a fantastic introduction to these choose your own adventure graphic novel books that have been coming out and I highly recommend checking out the Crusoe crew to kind of get into the experience all right well that's all for this installment but join me again in just a few days as we continue on to the next batch of games in the list of the top 60 games coming out for sale at Gen Con until then I've been Chazz Marlar from pair of dice paradise take care