The Best Four Days in Gaming have come and gone for 2022.  Gencon has returned to its glory from the pre-Pandemic era.  This was Gameology's first time back since 2019.  Kevin spends most of his time searching through the unknown game companies looking for new and fresh games to bring to you.  Here are the highlights of his four days wandering the vendor hall.

One of the biggest conversations with large and small companies was distribution.  How do we get games into stores on a regular basis and at reasonable shipping prices.  Many of you have seen stock goes up and down with unknown restock dates.  Companies are still facing this issue today with no end in site.  Before digging deeper into this blog, keep in mind shipping dates may not be a guarantee still.

Three companies to get on your radar, we will be bringing their games in store, Chip Theory Games, BA Games, and Crow Games.  First off, Chip Theory may already be on your mind.  Too Many Bones is their latest game.  They are now ready to distribute to stores.  Kevin took home Burncylce and Cloudspire for demos.  BA Games is working on their second game now, but their first one is a hidden identity game involving cultists and infiltrators.  Similar concept to Bang but with a ritual mechanic that makes it fun.  Look for Cult of the Deep to hit our shelves later this year.  Lastly, Crow Games has a few titles.  Kevin brought home Winter Queen.  An interesting gem mechanic where you build patterns out of a shared pool to weave your spells.  This should be in stock in time for the holidays as well.

Now let's move on to the larger companies we had a chance to speak with.  First will be Privateer Press.  Southern California has had a thriving Warmachine community for years.  It has fallen off during Mark III as it has in many areas.  You have most certainly seen the announcement for Mark IV.  We were able to speak with Matt Wilson of Privateer Press about the launch.  The expectation is the relaunch the game with Mark IV armies and models.  The release schedule is going to be slower and will concentrate on game balance while preventing the rules and unit bloat currently seen in many wargames, not just Warmachine. Armies are going to have fewer options in design for now but it will be far more friendly to those who want to dip into multiple factions.  The app will be free to use for all rules and game play.  This will include live updates.  The subscriptions service will commence at the beginning of 2023 which will include additions like Beta rules testing and Lore articles to keep up with the story.

Two factions will have starters at launch, Urgoth and Cygnar.  Khador will follow shortly after. We will see this in store in October.  Make sure you order your starter boxes now to ensure it's ready for you on release day.

Renegade Games has several new IPs they have been working with on both building board games and RPGs for.  GI Joe, Transformers and My Little Pony all had deckbuilders at the convention and most are available in store now. In addition, they ran an amazing series of tournaments for Vampire: Rivals where several of our locals players dominated the Top 16!

Flyos Games demonstrated their new board/RPG in a box games for the Vampire and Werewolf systems.  Werewolf Retaliation and Vampire Chapters have a lot of content.  The price point is high, but you get a ton of gameplay.  Look for these to be in store early next year.

Restoration Games has a restock of Return to Dark Tower on the way!  They also have a slew of new games coming out that we should expect to see in store in a few months.

Devir Games has some exciting party games coming out.  But the big gems are expansions for Paris and Lacrimosa.  Lacrimosa follows the completion of Mozart's Requiem after his passing.  You play as some of his wife's agents searching for people who have worked for him in the past to complete this famous work.

Parabellum Games has some exciting news as well.  New releases to flesh out existing armies with their seventh faction dropping later this year.  Also plans are in the works for a major tournament in Southern California!

This wraps up the new news, it was great to see a lot of old friends and get to make new ones!