Rob Searing here, Manager of Dice Tower News. Often I am spending my time writing and editing articles. It's not often that I get to share "in" the news. GenCon is one of the few conventions I get to cover and there's always so much going on. I spent a bit of time in the Exhibit Hall today meeting with various publishers and wanted to post some highlights and tips on where to consider running to when the convention opens Thursday morning!

BREAKING GAMES - BOOTH 2329

Expancity, designed by Alex Cutler and Matt Fantastic, is a gorgeous city building game composed of some wonderful and stackable building blocks that are placed on commercial and residential tiles. Scoring is accomplished via numerous ways including strategically placing buildings near common structures. Expancity was demoed at Dice Tower Con and was a huge hit. You can view Tom's review here. Rise of Tribes, designed by Brad Brooks, is a civilization game composed of area control and dice rolling mechanics complimented with variable player powers. Players will take control of a prehistoric tribe and scoring will depend on how well you gather resources, build villages, accomplish goals and more. You can view a detailed review of the game here. Rise of Tribes, along with Expancity, are of excellent quality and gameplay seemed fun and engaging. You can head over to booth 2329 to demo either or pick up a copy.

PEGASUS SPIELE - BOOTH 2013

Talisman is not a game unfamiliar to gamers (the 4th edition of the game was released in 2007). Talisman: Legendary Tales, however, is a completely new take on the universe. Legendary Tales is designed by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach and is published right here in the Unites States (right in Indiana to be precise). It contains elements of bagbuilding, variable player powers and is cooperative.

"In Talisman: Legendary Tales, the players must work together as an adventure party to recover the five legendary Talismans that have been lost. During each adventure, the party endeavors to recover one of the lost Talismans. The adventures must be played in order. You may repeat adventures, and you may play one or more adventures in a game session.

Over the course of this story, you will travel across a wondrous land and have exciting adventures in which you must make important decisions and defend yourself against cruel enemies. As an adventure party, you succeed in each adventure once you have completed the final task and have recovered the Talisman. Be careful: You have only a limited amount of time!"

Legendary Tales sports some really nice artwork, by Falk Holzapfel, and is bound to entice  by reinventing this 30+ year old game.

LEDER GAMES - BOOTH 3043

Leder Games really hit the map with the release of Vast. This year they look to top the game with another asymmetrical player-powers game where players will contend for control of an immense wilderness. Root is designed by Cole Wehrle and was first seen on Kickstarter. Available for purchase at booth 3043, Root can also be purchased along with an expansion - The Riverfolk expansion. The game takes advantage of multi-purpose cards and is the next step in asymmetric design. Made to engage the entire family, Root is sure to thrill and spark your imagination. It was one of my most-anticipated games at the con this year.

NAUVOO GAMES - BOOTH 2007

The Reckoners is a game based upon Brandon Sanderson's book series of the same name. It is a cooperative game designed by Brett Sobol and Seth Van Orden. Nauvoo Games, publishers of the hit Stockpile, is offering three different version of the game at booth 2007 - one that includes painted miniatures and deluxe components. Reckoners

"The Reckoners plays like a challenging, ever-shifting puzzle. If you like co-operative games where you carefully manage resources, build powerful action combos, create tactical plans with your teammates, and work together to take down the bad guy while on the brink of defeat, then be sure to check out The Reckoners."

The Reckoners was Tom's #1 most anticipated game at GenCon and a full review can be found here.

TASTY MINSTREL GAMES - BOOTH 1337

(Trays not included in the game)

Although not debuting at GenCon, Pioneer Days, designed by Matthew Dunstan and Chris Marling, is an American west drafting and dice game centered around the ole' Oregon Trail. With absolutely beautiful artwork by Guille Longhini and Sergi Marcet, Pioneer Days will have you drawing dice out of a bag to roll and then draft the to collect money, hire people, or take action all with hopes of earning the most points. You can view a full review of the game here and pick up a copy over at TMG's booth at 1337. There's plenty of other reasons to stop by their booth (Trade on the Tigris, Jungli-La, and more).

IELLO - BOOTH 129

Last, but certainly not least, is IELLO. As always, IELLO has quite a bit they are featuring this year although my favorite is Raids, designed by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert. In Raids, a viking-themed game, players will sail to tiles that are laid - vying for control of them or going to collect runes or goods...along with other vikings to bolster your crew. The components are fantastic - gold painted bits and metal coins - along with fantastic artwork by Biboun. IELLO is bound to be busy so make sure to stop by there early! There's bound to be more. Please follow our Tweets and Instagram posts throughout the convention and keep an eye out for exciting news announcements through the week!