by Ambie Valdés

When I hear a game has deduction, I instantly perk up and put it on my want to play list. So I was excited to try out Pie Town, a new worker placement deduction game from Renegade Games. In Pie Town, 2-4 players are trying to make the best pie shop in town by making different types of pies, including secret recipes. Everyone has their own secret recipe that gets bonus points, and if you can figure out your opponents’ secret recipes, you’ll get even more points!

by Ambie Valdés

Toby and I went to BGG.CON again this year! BGG.CON is one of our favorite conventions, since we really like trying out new games, and BGG.CON has a huge library of a bunch of games - both new releases and older awesome games!

We got there on Tuesday afternoon and left on Sunday afternoon, and we played so many games! At the convention, we had 82 plays/demos of 70 unique games, 57 of which were new to us! This is definitely a record for us (one I don't want to beat). Thursday was especially exhausting - we played 24 different games that day (20 new to us). A lot of them were light games or dexterity games, so it wasn't too difficult to learn everything.

Since we arrived before the convention started, we went out to eat some BBQ and then played some games we had brought. Two of the most played games of the convention for us were Strike and For-Ex, both of which we brought. It was fun being able to show people both games - Strike for its excitement and action, and For-Ex for its brain-burning weirdness.

by Ambie Valdés

This year Toby and I went to Haiti Con for the first time. Haiti Con is a small 1.5 day charity convention in San Francisco that supports Ti Kay, a free TB/HIV clinic in Haiti. The convention is Friday night and Saturday during the day, but we only got day tickets for Saturday. Being the typical non-picture taker I am, I forgot to take any pictures so this blog will just be text.

The first thing we did when we arrived was explore the area. The convention was held in a 4-story church. The second floor had a small gaming library with some tables for open gaming and some snacks for sale. The third floor was dedicated to special guest designers with their prototypes. The fourth floor was for social games like Werewolf - there were multiple rooms of Werewolf games by the end of the night.

The majority of our time at the convention was spent on the third floor with the designers. We ended up spending time at three different designers' tables, and it was really neat being able to try out their new designs and give them feedback. The first designer we visited was Jeremy Commandeur, and we actually started off playing one of his published games, Pirate 21 (Amazon). It was kind of like Blackjack mixed with Love Letter - you're trying to get closest to 21, but your cards also have special abilities that you can use on your turn (instead of just drawing a card). We then tried a couple of his prototypes - one was a social deduction game based on The Prisoner TV show, where people are voting on event cards to try to fulfill their different win conditions. But my favorite prototype of the day was his other prototype - a real-time cooperative/team bobsledding game. You have four people sitting in a row and picking up cards to get ready, and then you have to work together to play the cards to get around obstacles, and everything is timed for the fastest time! Jeremy said that the final game will have double the cards, so you can have two teams of 4 that will be racing. I love real-time games (specifically real-time cooperative), and this one was a lot of fun.

by Ambie Valdés

For the first time in forever, Toby and I went to Gen Con! This year was the 50th anniversary, and all the badges were sold out, so there were a lot of people there. We definitely did not go in expecting to play many games, but we still managed to play a few games throughout the convention! We also don't usually buy many new games, so we were mostly there just to experience everything as a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The convention was overwhelming. Before this, the biggest board game convention I went to was 3,000 people, so it was a huge jump to go to the 60,000 people at Gen Con! Also, most of the conventions I'd been to were more focused on open gaming and didn't have many vendors, but half the convention center was dedicated to exhibitors. We walked through the Exhibitor Hall multiple times each day, and every time we'd see booths we hadn't seen before. I'm pretty sure we still didn't see everything there.

by Ambie Valdés

Action Cats is a story driven party game for 3-6 players currently on Kickstarter. I was sent a prototype copy to review, and I was able to play it a couple times at 5 players. Note that I have the prototype version, which has fewer cards (the game doesn’t last as long) and no box, but the gameplay should be similar.

by Ambie Valdés

I just got back from my 4th Dice Tower Con ever! It was my first time as a Dice Tower contributor, but I was still able to play a bunch of games, as well as meet a lot of people and go to different events. I had a lot of fun!

Over the course of the 5 days (really 4 and a half, since we left after lunch on Sunday), I had 65 plays of 46 different games, 32 of which were new to me! Granted, a couple of those were demos or incomplete games, but I still got to get the feel of them. I also participated in my first megagame ever, Future Tense!

We were in line early for registration, a little before 9 am on Wednesday (Registration opened at 10). There were already quite a few people in line, but there were so many more that showed up afterwards. The hotel had free breakfast and coffee for us, which was pretty awesome. Also, the Dice Tower crew were giving out promos, and there was a table full of promos. I got a couple BattleCON promos, which is pretty exciting. Usually I don't own the games they have promos for, so I'm happy that these ones will get some use!

by Ambie Valdés

Toby and I got to go to an 18xx convention for the first time! Since we live on the west coast, we decided to go to the Portland 18xx Tournament (there are other ones further away) last weekend. Although it's called a tournament, it's not really a tournament - everyone records the scores of the games they played and get ranked based on that, but most of the people didn't care about the tournament and were just there to play 18xx games and have fun. We were there Thursday through Saturday, and we played 6 total 18xx games.

by Ambie Valdés

This weekend over Memorial Day weekend, I got to attend HeavyCon for the first time! HeavyCon is a convention run by Heavy Cardboard, a podcast about heavier board games (heavy Euros, 18xx games, and wargames). There were 90 attendees, and since everyone was there to play heavy games, it was easy finding people to play pick up games of heavy economic games and 18xx games! Toby and I typically don't schedule games at conventions, and this one was no exception.

Over the weekend (Thursday-Sunday), I had 23 plays of 22 unique games. A bunch of the games were new to me, and 3 of the games were 18xx games (although those weren't new to me)!

We have some exciting news! We have partnered with Analog Gamer to make Board Game Blitz shirts and they are available for pre-order now through April 22.

The shirts will ship in May so you'll have them in time for all the big gaming conventions this summer!

by Ambie Valdés

I went to MeepleCon in Las Vegas for the first time this year, and got to meet Cassadi and Crystal in person! This was the first time all three of us were even in the same state together, so it was a big deal for us. I had an awesome time playing games with Cassadi and Crystal and eating good food.

Since the MeepleCon library was only open from 10am to midnight each day, we took it easy and actualy slept a reasonable amount of time! I had 31 plays of 24 different games, 12 of which were new to me. We also played some craps at night, since we were in Vegas!

When we flew in Thursday night, Crystal and Cassadi were at the airport waiting for us! We got to visit Meepleville board game cafe to take a picture with the world's largest meeple. After giving away Blitzy the meepillow at Blitz Con, I had decided to make some more meepillows for the occassion.