Thursday, September 29, 2011

New Looney Arriving

Three  new releases from Looney Labs arrive this week:  Star Fluxx,  Xeno Stashes and the long delayed IceDice

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Everything You Wanted to Know about Little Egypt Wars

but were afraid to ask.  This is an assortment of responses to comments that appeared on the surveys we handed out at the con.

Attendance:  A major complaint was not enough people.  We agree and would like to see more people attend.  This weekend saw a lot of festivals in the area, including the Murphysboro  AppleFest and Golconda's Shrimp Fest, plus Cape Girardeau had Pathfinder in the Park.   Attendance actually only ran about a dozen people less than 2010's event and most of those not attending this time, according to our records were judges.

Dealers--Yep, we would like to see more vendors attending.  However, Carbondale is a relatively isolated area, a good two hours or so from the closest gaming store.  Most aren't willing to drive this far for a one day event.  We did have actually have three attending:  Terry Richardson selling Magic singles, Kevin Collier selling painted 40K miniatures and Scott Reed with HeroClix, Yu Gi Oh singles and assorted RPG books and trade paperbacks.  Hopefully you bought something from them as them making sales is the surest way to encourage them to come back and tell others that this is a good event to set up at.   Even if they don't have exactly what you want, spending a few bucks and buying HeroClix, an old trade paperback or a miniature is the best way to show you appreciate them coming and encourage them to spread the word so you have a better selection next time.

Food--From our conversations with them, the Knights of Columbus, who cooked onsite the first couple of times, didn't do much better than breakeven on sales here, so they didn't give us a yes or no on the spring Egypt Wars until about a week or so before the con, which didn't leave us any time to find another food vendor.  We tried a couple of other groups but couldn't get a clear answer for them, so decided to contact Fat Patties. This was Fat Patties first time dealing with this type of event so they had some bugs to work out and have said they will re-design their offerings for next spring, including offering hot food onsite.  Incidentally, the reason Diet Mountain Dew was only available in bottles was because the con-com requested that Fat Patties make sure they had Diet Mountain Dew available, as we knew how popular it would be.  Unfortunately, FPs distributor did not have Diet Mountain Dew available as a fountain drink, so it was bottles or nothing.

Advertising-  We will be posting notices about next spring's EW (scheduled for April 14-16, 2012) on more sites, included Board Game Geek as suggested.  Any other suggestions for places to post are certainly welcomed.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Magic Celebration

Had the Magic Celebration at the store yesterday, which went off well but not as well as I had hoped.  Since we were giving away free packs of Magic 2012 all day, I really expected more people to turn out than the 22 that did.  For those that missed it, we ran, courtesy of WOTC 5 flights of MiniMax tournaments, in which each player got a pack of 2012 and 15 lands, 3 of each color.  If they won, they got a second pack with which to build a 4 card deck.  Each additional round won got one more pack for their deck.  The overall winner collected a total of five packs.  Did I mention this was free, as in all players had to do was say "I want to play in the Magic Celebration tournament (or some variation thereof)" and we enrolled them.  That's why I was rather surprised we only had 22 players, given that we gave away FREE Magic all day.  By my count, we ran four tournaments open to everybody and one for players under age 16. We started at 11 a.m. and wrapped the last one shortly after 9 p.m. with only 2 people not staying the entire 10 hours.  Thanks again to WOTC for sponsoring a really cool event.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Deckbuilding Wargame

Expect in Late September/Early October
TRG4003
A Few Acres of Snow
$55.00 SRP

2 Player Game
Ages 12+
60+ Minutes

‘A Few Acres of Snow’ is a two player game about the struggle between Britain and France for control of North America, fought during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

A war fought at the edge of two mighty empires. For over one hundred and fifty years Britain and France were locked in a struggle for domination of North America. Thousands of miles from their homes, settlers and soldiers were faced with impenetrable forests, unpredictable American tribes, and formidable distances. Despite these obstacles they were able to engage in bitter warfare, with the British ultimately taking the prize of Quebec. A Few Acres of Snow is a two-player game that allows you to recreate this contest. You can change the course of history by your decisions.

A Few Acres of Snow takes an innovative approach to the subject, using cards to represent locations and manpower. As the game progresses you add to your selection of cards, increasing the range of actions available to you. There are many strategies to be explored. How quickly should you build up your forces, do you employ Native Americans, what energy should be expended on your economy?

A Few Acres of Snow ™ contains:
• mapboard
• 110 Cards
• 15 Gold Coin
• 15 Silver Coin 
• 2 Player Aid Cards
• 73 wood pieces
• Rules Book