“Back in the Game”

That was the bold statement on the winning t-shirt design for SaltCon End of Summer 2021. And it couldn’t have been more appropriate!

It was awesome to be back at SaltCon this past weekend playing game after game for a couple of days straight.

SaltCon is the big board game convention in Utah, USA and it’s packed with gaming goodness. The event is typically held for 4 days in March each year, so I was sad when it was announced last Fall that the March event would be canceled. But, the news a few months ago that they’d hold an “End of Summer” SaltCon for 3 days at the end of July got me excited again.

The event last weekend was a scaled down version of the typical event. I don’t know the total numbers, but it felt to be about half the size of the March event – in both scale and attendance. Of course, they limited the attendance on purpose and passes for the conference sold out soon after going on sale in the Spring.

There were still 2 huge convention center halls for open gaming and a number of additional rooms set aside for other events, RPG gaming, game swaps, and the large game library.

 

Playing Games

Overall, I was able to play 16 different games and enjoyed playing a few of them multiple times!

A few were on the “Hot Games” tables. Some were games that friends brought along to play. Some were games I picked up in the Math Trade. And others we picked up from the Game Library to try.

1. Calico
2. Queenz: To bee or not to bee
3. The Crew
4. Qwinto
5. Mice and Mystics
6. Lost Ruins of Arnak
7. Sleeping Gods
8. Santa Monica
9. The Grimm Masquerade
10. Magic Maze
11. Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write
12. Gods Love Dinosaurs
13. Cottage Garden
14. Floor Plan
15. Draftosaurus
16. Downforce

Rather than give a play-by-play of each game, I’ll just dive into the highlights.

Calico

Since the Hot Games tables stay pretty full during SaltCon, it’s a good idea to hop into those games early on. As such, I was happy to dive right into Calico at one of the Hot Games tables soon after arriving and meeting up with friends. It’s a tile-laying game with a puzzly nature to it.

The theme in Calico is quilts and cats, but that didn’t hold me back. And I’m glad I pushed ahead because it’s a more thinky game than you’d realize just looking at the box. Players have to pay careful attention to tile colors and patterns as they draft new tiles and place them on their individual player boards (“quilts”). Although I ended up with the lowest score, it’s a game I want to play again.

Gods Love Dinosaurs

Other than Calico, I only played 2 other games at the Hot Games tables. And the one that I enjoyed the most was Gods Love Dinosaurs. I don’t like the name, but the game was fun. Players draft tiles of different terrain to add to their growing ecosystem – in which prey (rabbits, frogs, and rats) start to populate to be eaten by the predators (tigers & eagles). And dinosaurs then eat the predators. (Actually the dinosaurs can eat any animal, but only score points for eating predators.)

It’s a tricky balance of keeping enough prey and predators alive for future turns while still eating enough to not starve and die off. Another game I want to play again.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

Lost Ruins of Arnak got a lot of buzz last year when it was published. It brought together deck-building with worker-placement and I put it high on my “want to play” list. So when I saw it on the Hot Games tables, I set my sights on it.

Unfortunately, whenever I checked, that game table was always full. Fortunately though, one of the friends I was playing games with had his own copy at SaltCon, so I got to play it after all!

It was a fun game to play, but I also felt like it tried to pack too many different factors into the game to add to our family game collection. And it’s not worth the $75+ going price. If I want to play a deck-building game with some added elements, I’ll pull out a number of other games first (yes, I’m thinking of you Clank!).

The Grimm Masquerade

Since I first saw The Grimm Masquerade when it was published a couple of years ago I’ve been wanting to try it. So I’m glad I had the chance to play it this year.

The Grimm Masquerade is a hidden identity, deduction game with the Brother’s Grimm characters that I really like because it’s more deduction than bluffing. And bluffing games don’t go over well with mom. So this type of hidden deduction game would be great to have. It just happens to be out of stock everywhere and I missed my chance to buy a used copy at the flea market on Saturday morning at SaltCon. Darn.

Magic Maze

Magic Maze is a cooperative, real-time party game where players have to move pawns around a growing maze to get to certain locations and then exit the map. The catch is that each player can only move the pawns in a certain direction. For example, I could only move pawns North and another player could only move the pawns West and up and down escalators. But you have to play it all without talking to each other!

We had to play 3 times before we finally won. The good news is that each game only lasts about 5 minutes, so it’s really easy to try again (and again, and again…). And there are also different levels of maps to progress through as a team. So the variety will keep growing as you get better as a team trying to coordinate your simultaneous movements without talking.

Cottage Garden

Another game that I’ve been interested in playing for years is Cottage Garden. It’s a tile-laying game with players gathering and planting flowers in their personal plots. As they complete plots, they score points based on the number of flower pots and planting bells showing.

The game is part of Uwe Rosenberg Puzzle Trilogy (including Indian Summer and Spring Meadow) and it’s the one I can now confirm that I like the best of the bunch.

Downforce

The last game I played before leaving Saturday night was one we checked out from the game library as well – Downforce. It’s a racing game where the cars are auctioned to the players at the outset and you place bets at 3 points during the race on which car you think is going to win. So players gain points on where their own car finishes as well as how they did picking the winner. And then subtract how much they paid for their cars during the auction to see who wins the game.

What I really liked about the game was the way the cards worked to move the cars. When you play a card, you move all the cars listed on your card from top to bottom. So you may move the orange car ahead 5, the red ahead 3, and the blue ahead 2 on your turn. But if they’re blocked from moving, then those movement points go to waste. So timing of when to play which cards is key.

Downforce was a great game to end on.

Other Notable Games

I was also glad to finally get in a play of Mice and Mystics. I’ve looked at it for years, but never played it until this weekend. It’s a cooperative game that was fun to learn, but we lost miserably!

Draftosaurus and Floor Plan were also fun games and light games to throw in the mix. Draftosaurus has players placing dinosaurs in their parks and scoring points based on where they’re placed. It’s also a quick game because it’s played simultaneously as players draft their dinosaur pawns. Choose one, place it, and pass the rest.

And Floor Plan is another roll and write game where players use the dice to construct rooms in a house as well as different features like pools, decks, and trees. Points are scored based on the randomized building contracts in play for that game.

I had a great time playing all the games listed above because I was playing with friends. And that’s what I love most about SaltCon – the chance to meet even more people each year and become friends while playing games.

 

Trading Games

The other thing I always look forward to each year is the SaltCon Math Trade. 

For those unfamiliar with the term, a “Math Trade” is a system used to trade game among a large group of participants. Players list games they’re willing to trade on a massive list. Then they look over the list from everyone has submitted and choose games they’d like to receive and which of their games they’d be willing to trade for such games. Then the computers take over and do all the “math” to determine who should give which game to who.

For example, it may have Player A give a game to Player B (that B wanted), who in turn gives a game to C, who then gives a game to D, who then gives a game to E,…etc. until it all comes back to Player A getting the game they want from Player N (or somewhere way down the line).

Through the SaltCon Math Trade, I traded out games from our collection that we haven’t played in ages and brought home 14 new games (and a few game expansions) for us to dive into.

One of the games I got in trade I played on day 1 because it’s such a quick game. It’s also a game I thought mom would really enjoy playing since she really likes That’s Pretty Clever and Metro X. The game is called Qwinto and it’s a light and quick dice game. It actually falls into what’s termed “Roll & Write” games – where players roll dice and then mark something on their sheets. And sure enough, it’s been a hit with the family because we’ve already played it 10 times in the last 3 days (and I know there will be plenty more for a long time to come).

A big Thank You to all those who pulled this all together so we could have a fun weekend of gaming at SaltCon 2021!