Gen Con Delight

Dan and Kelly returned from Gen Con ( Part 1, part 2); Dan returned with a baker's dozen of games. Tuesday, instead of regular boardgame design night, we played two of them.

First up, Shear Panic (BGG, BUY ME!). This is a high fun-factor game about sheep with terrible puns and wonderful production values. For only nine pieces (the flock of sheep), there's a lot of depth here. Well, there's also a scoring track and player boards to keep track, but that's not the meat of the game. Each of four sections of the play field score differently: get your sheep adjacent; get your sheep closest to Roger the Romantic Rose-bearing Ram; get your sheep adjacent to the black sheep; get your sheep furthest from the sheep shearer and elimination. The initial analysis paralysis from twelve different moves versus nine sheep in a three by three grid quickly whittles down as play progresses; you can only perform an action once. Scoring was very tight for the game, and I won at the very end, with Chris acting as kingmaker between myself and Ian.

That's Chris's head, by the way.

We next played Reiner Knizia's Blue Moon City (BGG, BUY ME!). ZOMGWTFBBQ, this game is gorgeous, awesome, and this year's runner-up for the Spiel des Jahres. There's a great sense of balance in the points, and the card-based building mechanic grants players plenty of freedom in their decisions. This is a strong buy recco, for what it's worth. Dan won, but I would have on my turn- so close!