I thought I'd share two photos of games at Con of the North that I didn't play but were fun to see in action. This is some dedication to Diplomacy. I've never played it before, although I know Sean loves - or at least loved - the game. I think both Kyle and I own copies we haven't played. That 360 minute estimated time frame is a bit of an impediment. Presumably this sort of giant setup makes the time pass a little faster.
I've noticed that Gameholecon in Madison tends to have quite a few more "big" games, often with racks of miniatures, than CotN. The TCAT folks host a lot of larger games in their space, but the overall minis vibe seems more muted. Although maybe that's my experience. I wondered about it and looked it up and GHC is 4x the size of CotN. Roughly 6000 attendees to 1500 attendees. That surprised me. My boardgaming at GHC the year before last was pretty restricted as far as choices. They have a two tier pass system so tier one gets first pick of newer (and more popular) games. It can be slim picking if you're not careful. But that 4x scope doesn't mentally align with the number of board game options even then in my estimation. I suspect the RPG and minis areas must pull in a lot of people. I know the RPG spaces are packed for days (they can get a little....stale) and take up whole convention floors. Giving it some thought, there are an amazing number of sort-of-off-site games going on as well at GHC and you'll walk past hotel rooms and areas constantly where there are other games being played. I think at CotN I only saw one instance of that and the hotel wasn't packed because there was space for a bunch of egging-each-other-on-to-be-annoying 8-11 year old hockey players as well. If you're comparing Cons, the lack of a table fee at CotN is nice. Those $4 per play fees can add up quickly. And the space at CotN this year seemed way more relaxed than the rooms at GHC. But I do miss hanging at a rental for a weekend with friends and family to game and then come back to cook at the shared shelter and game some more into the late night.
I thought this was Circus Maximus at first. My friends and I played a lot of that as teens. Wow...$194 on eBay? Too bad mine has been shown so much love. That's a fun game, slamming chariots into each other until someone flips and is dragged behind their horse team. We did the betting and upgrading a few times, but to be honest that didn't really add much beyond making games longer. You were better off handing out a few points people could spend on horses, chariots, driver as they pleased and play a one-shot race. I do fondly remember running down a charioteer who'd flipped his chariot and was running for the safety of the wall.
Anyway...this one had fantasy themed animal teams instead of horses. Mayyybe Chivalry is Dead: Race for the Crown. Although that seems to have a giant board already with a different configuration. And it's only been in Kickstarter since last year I think, so I'm not sure if it's even out. Might be a mini-driven game specifically. Those are a bit harder to sus out because they can have small groups of diehard fans and you have to know where to find the assets/rules. Regardless, as a Circus Maximus fan, this looks fun.
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