Strong Tower Gaming Convention 2026 Vlog!

0:02 Hello, I'm Ryan. I'm Bethany.

0:04 And we are Ryan and Bethany board game reviews.

0:06 And today we're at Strong Tower. So, I'm super excited about that. We're going to go kick it off. We are hosting some games today. Um, and it's just going to be an overall good time.

0:17 I got a chance to arrive last night a little earlier than Bethany did because of our work schedules were off a little bit. So, I'm going to show you a couple of games that I played with our daughters last night. Um, by the way, we do have the baby with us, so that's fun. uh he's going to be joining us uh later today. We're going to be running some games of uh Ready, Set, Bet, which is always a riot. Uh then we're going to play Iron Forest, which is a dexterity flicking game with a catapult.

0:41 It's just like super cool, too. It's like a double-decker. It's really cool.

0:45 And then Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers trick taking game. So those are games we're running today. And then tomorrow we'll have some more games that we're running as well. So we're going to try to jump in on some fun stuff, too. Uh see some old friends and have a great time.

0:57 All right. as the first game of Strong Tower 2026. We are playing ice school uh with my youngest daughter and uh I crushed it. I got to say I am very good at at penguins catching other penguins being delinquent in school. All right, so I thought I would get an easy victory against my other daughter by playing uh some splendor kicking it old school. Nope. Uh she crushed me. absolutely demolish me. 7 to 17. Um, it's not even fair. It's not right. I feel like I should ground her for that disobedience, you know. All right. So, Suro is not usually known as a two-player game, but I need a victory. So, I just I just have to beat her. I just have to.

1:46 Let's see what happens. All right. All right, it was a showdown at this corner, but the time has come for my piece, the black piece to win and yellow to fall off the map.

2:05 So, they have a consignment shop here and it's really cool cuz they have the staggering pricing. So, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all have different prices. So, if you really want to get that, you can get it on Friday, but it might be gone if you want to wait until Sunday. But it's really cool. I'll show you the selection. See, it's 20, then 15, and then 10. So, this is the gaming library, um, which they use the gaming hoopla. It's pretty good selection. Um, there's a lot of games in here. They also have a play to win, which I'll show you in a little bit. And then they also have raffles. Gaming library continued.

2:50 This is the play to win.

2:55 I kind of like how they're set up instead of like all in a line. You can see them like this.

3:05 Playing bat flip dynasty. And we are going to try to hit a home run here. Y

3:14 and now we draft

3:16 three or fewer four times multiplier you are this minus three. So here or beyond.

3:32 All right. We're playing drop it and Bethy's going to be dropping it.

3:36 Yeah. Touching blue doesn't count. Zero points.

3:58 Well, Ryan had to leave early today cuz he had something at church that I need to be back to. But the kids and I are playing Animal Fun Animal. We actually only own the Christmas edition, so it's fun to play the original. And um I lost. I lost pretty handedly.

4:28 I'm not sure you'll be able to get two of them. trying to get one.

4:39 I'm not No, I I'm I am now.

4:46 All right, everybody. We are finally back from Strong Tower al together again.

4:52 Yes, it was sad that we had to leave separately and drive separately both there and back.

4:57 Yeah.

4:58 Uh [snorts] but um let's just talk about the overall kind of experience we had. This is, you know, this is a 437 people attendees. So on the smaller side of conventions, definitely what we call like a playing game convention.

5:12 All the events you just signed up and they were all the games were free to play and the only you had to pay for were like if you wanted to pay minis or or purchase things actually to take home,

5:21 purchase raffle tickets, things like that. So

5:23 a great game for playing games with. The library was incredible. Yeah. Tons of open tables for gaming. Um it felt more spacious even though it had higher numbers here too.

5:34 Yeah, they moved the tables out so a lot of the like RPG things happen in a separate area so they were able to stretch out the gaming area. So even though it it was more people, it actually felt like a little less just because they spread it out in a good way so it didn't feel cramped.

5:51 Yeah, I think if you are in Wisconsin area and you're looking to play some games with some awesome people, this would be a great convention to check out just to just to play games. People were bringing their own games. People were checking out the library. There's play to wins. All that stuff. Um, we had a great time. My highlight was just playing playing games with friends after hours. Yeah,

6:09 that was just the highlight for me. How about you?

6:11 Oh, my highlight. We haven't brought our kids to this one, so it was fun seeing them experience that.

6:19 Yeah. Uh, they did their own thing. Check out games in the libraries on their own. They painted minis. They uh just played games in of their own that we that we brought in even in the hotel room. They were just hanging out and they took amazing care of the baby uh as well when we were doing our events that we ran. So all events that we ran were sold out events with even some of them with waiting lists and stuff. So that was cool to see that uh it was just fun to play games with everybody that we saw.

6:43 Yeah.

6:44 Everybody [snorts] uh that's thanks for watching. Um Strong Tower Gaming Convention was a huge success for us and I think for the organizers as well. So it was a blast.

6:51 Yeah, it was a great time. If you're in that area, I would definitely check it out.

6:55 Everybody, thanks for watching. We will see you next time.

6:58 Bye

6:59 guys. Thanks for watching our shenanigans. As always, we appreciate it. Over here, if you follow this link, you're going to find a playlist we've hand selected, handcrafted just for you, uh, because you watch this video.

7:11 And if you check over here, this is a video that YouTube thinks you might like. So, you can check that out if you want as well.

7:18 All right, we appreciate it, guys. Thanks so much for watching and we will see you next time. Bye.