Games I am wanting to play in May

With the convention coming up this weekend I am gathering a list of board games I want to play. I will re-post this list after the con next week and let you know what I played, what I didn’t, and session reports and impressions. Since I just find out Tide of Iron isn’t shipping till June 1st I have had to re-think my list:

Solider Kings by Avalanche Press: I don’t know what it is exactly, this isn’t my favorite era of history. But I have had this game for a long while and and never played it. I just read a review on BoardGameGeek and I think the similarity with Diplomacy and Game of Thrones has me intrigued. That and spreading the Seven Years conflict to the whole world has me wondering if I should check out more of this era of history.  There is some hope that I can find a group of 5-8 players who are willing to try this one, I don’t think playing with less than 4 sounds like a good idea from what I have read so far.

Pacific Victory by Columbia Games: I am on a big Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) during WWII kick. I guess I have just had enough European Theater of Operations (ETO) games for awhile. With Tide of Iron* coming out and all the Combat Commander: Europe, and Shifting Sands I have been playing I guess I just wanted a change. I love other block games Columbia has published so I am really looking forward to this one. I am hoping it will show up at my door today so I can get the stickers put on and everything organized for the con this weekend. I am also hoping to find someone at the con to who will play this with me so I can learn it.

Empire of the Sun by GMT Games: Again for my PTO kick. I got this game a month or two ago and still haven’t got to play it. I read the first half of the rules and they seem good to me, not to complex but with enough options and possibilities to make game play really interesting. I am hoping to find someone on at the con this weekend to teach me how to play. I am looking forward to possibility of that happening and just want to see if I can play Japan and take over the Pacific Rim

Axis & Allies Pacific by Avalon Hill: I have not kept any secrets with my friends that I have no love for Axis & Allies. I owned the original when it came out was never impressed with it, and was glad to be rid of it. I thought the game was too overly simplistic (I had picked up Rise and Decline of the Third Reich at about the same time so you can see my point) and all the luck with dice rolling drove me a little nuts. But as I said I am on a PTO kick and I wanted a simpler game to play, I also read the information on BoardGameGeek and everyone was commenting on how this game was the best of the series. I am older now and do not crave the complexity in my games I did in my youth so I purchased this game. Some other friends of mine have played it at a game day at Gameology but I haven’t had a chance yet. So I am hopping to try for a game this weekend, but if I am running out of time this one may fall by the wayside.

Gettysburg: Badges of Courage by Columbia Games: I had some how lost some piece to this game, so with my order of Pacific Victory I got replacement pieces for this game as well.  I love the Civil War, I love Columbia block games, and I played this game a year or two back and just loved it (even though I got squashed as the Union).  So I am going to sell this one every time some says at the con “I don’t know what do you want to play.”  I think if I am persistent enough I can play this one.

Barbarossa to Berlin by GMT Games: Yes I know I said I am on a PTO kick but lets be realistic here I not going to got ETO cold turkey! I have spoken to Patrick the other Co-Chair of GameX and we going to do our best to bust this game out at the con this weekend while we are manning the board game registration desk. So if it takes us a minute to get your question please forgive us

Well those are my top picks to try to squeeze into this weekend. It will be interesting to see how many of them I actually get to.

*I only put links for items once in a post