BGG.CON 2013: What More Could a Gamer Want?

This year's game show will be Pointless, a format which debuted at BGG.CON 2010 to rave reviews and is inspired by the British game show of the same name. The content, as usual, is all-new.

In Pointless, 100 respondents have been given 100 seconds to list as many things as possible in a category. Your team must give three answers in that category that you believe were the least common. You score 1 point for every respondent that listed your answer, and you're going for the lowest score. An invalid answer (e.g. "Gandalf" for "Harry Potter Characters") scores 100. A perfect, "pointless" answer is valid but listed by no respondents, scoring your team a perfect 0.

Pointless is for teams of four players, and as with all the game shows I run, there are no turns – all teams play all the time. We're running it twice (same content each time, so only sign up once!), but slots fill up very quickly, so please be sure to get to the sign-up sheet early if you want to play.

Here is the concept — while the BGG.CON Flea Market is great, for some of us who are traveling to the convention, carrying games to the convention that you may or may not be able to sell is a hassle at the very least, so use the "Virtual Flea Market" instead. If you have items that you'd like to sell at BGG.CON, list them here with the condition of your items, and the price or terms you'd like to sell for. With any luck, the deals will be done ahead of the convention and you can just do the physical swap in Dallas.

The fourth in the series of Ticket to Ride Map Collection expansions is set in the Netherlands low-country - a region filled with hundreds of canals and rivers, and just as many bridges that cross them. Along with the new map, this expansion introduces bridge tolls. Double-routes now have a cost, which players must pay for with Bridge Toll Tokens. When taking the first route of a Double-route the player pays tokens directly to the bank; but when a second route is claimed, the tokens due are paid to the player who claimed the first route instead. Players score bonus points based on the total value of Bridge Toll Tokens they still own at game's end...

Ticket to Ride Nederland includes a single-sided map; 44 Destination Tickets; new Bridge Toll Tokens and multi-lingual rules booklet. Designed for 2 to 5 players, ages 8+, this expansion requires train cards and trains from either Ticket to Ride® or Ticket to Ride Europe.

By contrast, high scoring IA empires often look totally different. One might have 6 ports, lots of monuments, several pricey developments, and 0 points in Tribute. Another might have 6 provinces, one large monument, just a few cheap developments, and over 50 points in Tribute. A third might be "lean and mean", with just 4 empire dice from 4 ports and 4 provinces, lots of middling developments, almost no disaster points, and about 20 points in Tribute. A fourth might have 6 ports, a large navy, no monuments (having invested population in armies), and will zip from 0 to 40+ Tribute in the final rounds. And so on.

This strategic diversity is what many players cited as their favorite aspect of IA when they tested it.

If you prefer swapping goods to buy large developments to exploring strategic diversity, then you'll probably prefer LBA over IA. If you prefer the cut and thrust of different strategies and jockeying for military power, then you'll probably prefer IA.

IA does have a short and a long game, but the IA short game is mostly just an intro game, as it tends to pit Port players trying to get their economies up and running before a Province player wins on Tribute. If you're looking for a fast die rolling game, you'll probably prefer the BA to the IA short game.

The Mediterranean expansion adds another dimension and set of trade-offs to IA. Now, do you use your population for provinces, armies, monuments, or colonies? Do you use your ships to build a Navy or to found colonies? This further increases the IA "strategy space".

The Med. expansion also gives the game a different "feel". One player at BGGCon — we played an IA short game without the expansion and then an IA long game with it — commented that this different feel is what moved IA from "play" to "buy" in his opinion (given that he already owns BA and LBA). How important the Med's central play focus and increased interaction is for you is another factor to consider, along with IA's greater strategic variety.

Can you survive the night? Night falls, and the bloodsucking Chupacabra stalks its prey. Its red eyes mean doom... Divide up the 24 glow-in-the dark dice. When you roll a Chupacabra, you can take dice from your opponents – but they can do the same to you. Claim all the dice, and be the only one to survive the night!

The giant tank rumbles toward its target. Its guns are destroyed, its movement crippled, but only a few defenders are left. Will they stop the robot juggernaut, or will it crush the Command Post beneath its gigantic treads?

In 2085, the battlefield is deadlier than ever. Hovercraft, tanks, and infantry slug it out with tacnukes. But the most feared weapon of all needs no human guidance. It’s the giant cybernetic tank called the Ogre!

In the gigantic new Designer's Edition, five giant-sized mapboards provide the battlefields. Extra overlays let you change the maps a little...or a lot. Regular armor and infantry are represented by oversized, full-color counters for regular units...and the Ogres and buildings are huge 3-D constructible models!

The rules have been completely revised and reorganized into a rulebook, a separate scenario book, and a handy player reference sheet.