Tuesday, April 1, 2014

SALTCON!!

Well a great local game convention has come and gone, it was a BLAST!!!  I played wall to wall games from early Friday morning until Sunday afternoon with very little down time.  I think I played around 15-20 games.  I lost count and honestly can't remember everything I played ... its all kind of a blur ...

We had a four person crew that attended, mostly euro game fans. So that is what we played primarily, though we dabbled into some Ameri-trash, some war games and party games as well.  

The vendors at the con were a little sparse but many small press game companies were in attendance like Red Raven games, Gamelyn games, 5th Street Games, Crash Games, etc.  There was a huge gamer flea market, a math trade, game swap, tons of drawings, etc. etc. and I'd say several thousand total attendees during the course of the weekend.  Again no Spiel/Gencon/Comicon/Adepticon ... but it was a great locals con being hosted within ten miles from my house.

So here are my top 10 plays of the convention:

1) Russian Railroads
2) City of Iron
3) Eminent Domain
4) Belfort 
5) Marvel Legendary (I had never played this ... its a licensed title ... but for a deck builder which isn't really my normal cup o' tea ... I really enjoyed it)
6) Small World (I've played Underground before but never the core game)
7) Empires of the Void (great game, but a little too much like Eclipse for me to consider purchasing for my library)
8) Forbidden Desert (I enjoyed it more than Forbidden Island, which I like)
9) Council of Verona (reminiscent of Love Letter)
10) RAMPAGE!  (a fun little party board game involving buildings supported by meeples ... not a deep strategic game more a little dexterity/party/family game). 
















Next year I think some of the guys from Vegas might trek up.  I think they might move the con back down to Salt Lake City.  Which means I'll probably get a room wherever they are hosting it.  Other than that I'll be back. It was a blast and a great little locals con!