We normally attend at least 3 days of Gen Con every year but this year we had just returned from the World Boardgaming Championships in Pennsylvania and Grant was a bit under the weather and decided to just attend 1 day. We discussed it and we thought that Saturday would be a good day to go as we wouldn’t have to use any more vacation days. While it was very crowded, as Saturday’s usually are, and some games that we desired had already sold out, we still had a great time and enjoyed the experience as always.

In the Press Room

Our day started at around 9:00am as Alexander drove to my house on the north side of Indianapolis and picked me up. We drove downtown and found parking in our usual spot in the garage on Georgia Street, which is perfectly situated between the Convention Center and Banker’s Life Fieldhouse the home of the Indiana Pacers. This left us but a short 2 block walk to the doors and we headed straight for the Press Room to pick up our Press Badges.

We arrived there at around 9:30am and I thought that this would be perfect as it usually takes less than 3 minutes to pick up the badges and we could be on our way to Exhibitors Hall to start walking around looking for interesting games to purchase. I got in line and they had my badge ready and gave it to me with no issues. I had applied for the badge in February and received a confirmation email just a week or so after having submitted my application. Alexander then stepped up to get his badge and they found his name but he was told that the application was incomplete and had never been finalized and submitted. Doh! I asked Alexander if he had received an email back stating that he was approved and he simply shrugged. He then was required to reapply right there on the spot, which took about 15 minutes, and was finally approved. Well so much for getting in the long lineup at the entrance to the Exhibitors Hall. His misstep actually saved us from having to stand shoulder to shoulder with people in the muggy Convention Center air waiting for the doors to open so I quickly forgave him but mentally made note of this error for tormenting him later!

As we came out of the Press Room, we ran into Jeff McAleer from The Gaming Gang and exchanged pleasantries for about 5 minutes. I then got a text from our brother in law Brum that he wanted to meet up and we politely ended the chat and went on our way. One of the reasons Brum wanted to get with us was because he was planning on running a table of Hackmaster 5th Edition from Kenzer and Company soon and he wanted to make sure we bought a Player’s Handbook, which we did later on.

People We Met

We already mentioned Jeff McAleer but there were many others that we met up with to chat. We first met up with one of our favorite designers David Thompson (of Valiant Defense Series and Undaunted Series fame) at the Osprey Games booth where he was teaching Henri Whitehead from Watch It Played (maybe not directly connected but definitely somehow affiliated) his new game called General Orders World War II, which is a worker placement wargame. We wanted to get a copy of the game but they had sold out their allotment for the day. Never fear, as the game retails for like $30.00 and we will acquire a copy. David is just a really down to earth nice guy and we love to chat with him anytime we get a chance. We see him annually at Gen Con and also at Buckeye Game Fest.

We also ran into Jon Longrenn with Fallen Dominion Studios at their booth and talked about the upcoming 2nd Edition of their very cool sandbox narrative driven card game called Fallen Land, which thrusts players into a struggle for survival in a Post-Apocalyptic United States of America as the leader of a faction trying their best to survive and build up their towns with population and technology. It was great to see Jon and he stated that the new edition would be shipping later this year.

Here is a look at our video review of Fallen Land:

Here also is a written review on the blog that you can read at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2018/10/08/the-story-of-a-brutal-take-that-struggle-for-survival-in-the-radioactive-wastes-of-america-but-with-a-glimmer-of-hope-a-review-of-fallen-land-a-post-apocalyptic-board-game-from-fallen-domi/

We also ran into several of our fans/friends in John Conner and his brother Clint. It was great to see them as we had missed each other since we played a game of Genesis: Empires and Kingdoms of the Ancient Middle East from GMT Games at Gen Con 2020.

Our Gen Con 2023 Hauls

We continued to walk the Exhibitors Hall stopping in at lots of different dice retailers including Chessex, Crystal Caste and Metallic Dice Games who have rebranded as Fan Roll by Metallic Dice Games. I want to thank Crystal Caste for doing the Gen Con dice every year and we always pay $2.00 for ours because I want them to not lose money and stop doing them. I have about a dozen of them in my dice bag and always look forward to this. Our favorite dice retailer this year though was a new placed called Role 4 Initiative as we loved their diffusion dice sets. They have these very unique 4-sided dice which they call Arch’d4. We also purchased these very interesting carrying cases that allow you to fit about 12 dice inside the leather box along with a pencil/pen and your miniature for roleplaying. The box also assembles itself into an impromptu dice tray, which is really very cool!

Check out their website here: https://role4initiative.com/

I then picked up several games including Dogfight! from PSC Games (along with a not-Snoopy promo card), Eschaton Cultist Meeples from Dark Archon Games to pimp out my copy of the base game that we have played and absolutely loved and a new edition of Axis & Allies WWI 1914 from Renegade Games who has recently purchased the license for A&A from Hasbro.

We also visited the Flagbearer Games booth to check out additional stuff we could purchase for the Nations & Cannons RPG, which is set in the American Revolutionary War period. We ended up buying some of the Cannon/Artillery and Explosion Dice as well as several cloth maps to use in our future adventures. We were able to play a short introduction scenarios at Buckeye Game Fest with friends and Alexander as the GM and we had an absolute blast!

Check out their website here: https://www.nationsandcannons.com/

While there I purchase a beautiful wooden dice tower from Fyre & Ash (pictured below). It cost me just $40.00 and is simply gorgeous.

Check out their website here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FyreAndAshe

Alexander also purchased several new sets of 6-sided dice from Chessex to be used in various wargames. He bought blue and gray dice for the Union forces and Rebel forces in any American Civil War game as well as powder blue for the French. He also picked up a set of dice from Roll 4 Initiative in addition to a leather carrying box and his own set of Cannon/Artillery and Explosion Dice from Flagbearer Games. His big purchase however was a 28mm Pirate miniatures skirmish game called Blood & Plunder from Firelock Games. He bought a 2-player starter set, which included 2x Sloops, 24x Sailors, a soft-cover rulebook, dice, tokens, paper playmat, Captain Teach, and Captain Maynard miniatures. He also purchased a separate canoe. His goal is to paint these and play the game but also use the miniatures in future sessions of Nations & Cannons. Pretty cool!

Check out their website here: https://www.firelockgames.com/home-2/bloodandplunder/

We also stopped at Enterprise Games booth and nosed through their collection of wargames but just couldn’t find anything that we were really interested in so we left without making a purchase.

We walked up and down about 90% of the aisles and finally gave up and left at about 1:15pm. We then proceeded to drive to Squealers Barbecue on 86th Street just a few blocks from my house and had a nice pulled pork bbq lunch, which is becoming a bit of a tradition as we have done this a few times in the past years after Gen Con.

Dinner with Darin Leviloff and Jason Matthews

Earlier that morning, we received a text from Darin Leviloff (of States of Siege Series fame with his Israeli Independence and Soviet Dawn) asking if we would be willing to meet him and Jason Matthews for dinner that night at 7:30pm at Giordano’s Pizza downtown. We of course said yes and after our lunch we returned to my house to shoot a debrief video (coming up on the YouTube Channel soon) and play a game of Twilight Struggle: Red Sea – Conflict in the Horn of Africa from GMT Games.

7:30pm finally came and we drove back downtown and hooked up with Darin and Jason. We had a blast eating delicious Chicago style pizza and discussing game design, the gaming industry, our thoughts on content creation as well as getting a look at 2 prototype copies of Darin’s games Ottoman Sunset and Hapsburg Eclipse, which are both getting new editions from Tabletop Tycoon.

We left dinner about 9:45pm and Alexander drove me back to my house where we parted ways and I went to bed exhausted.

Rulebooks

One final thing. We brought several copies of rulebooks to be signed by Darin, Jason and David Thompson as you can see below. I also had rulebooks for Oath from Leder Games and John Company 2nd Edition from Wehrlegig Games to be signed by Cole Wehrle and 51st State Ultimate Edition from Portal Games to be signed by Ignacy Trzewiczek but unfortunately we never connected with them. Maybe next time!

As is normally the case, we had a great time at Gen Con and always look forward to attending! We will have a debrief video coming soon on the YouTube Channel and will also be playing some of our new acquisitions. Thanks for reading along with me on our trip and let me know what you found most interesting about Gen Con 2023.

-Grant