Category Archives: Conventions

Warhammer Fest Kicks Off This Monday With Reveals Every Day

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Games Workshop kicks off Warhammer Fest 2021 on Monday, May 3rd for six days of reveals. Each day focuses on somethign specific with a mystery on Saturday, May 8th.

So far, we know Orks and Adepta Sororitas will get coverage for Warhammer 40K, and for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar we expect to see the latest take on Vampire Counts.

You can tune in to Warhammer Community from Monday 3rd May to see all of the reveals as they happen from 6pm (BST) onwards, or catch them live on Twitch.

Check out what’s going on each day below!

Warhammer Fest 2021

Gen Con Gives an Update on its 2021 Plans

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Gen Con

With COVID still impacting everything, though vaccinations increasing, Gen Con has released an update as to its plans for its in-person, virtual, and pop-up conventions for 2021.

Gen Con

The convention has given an update stating that the full-time staff is almost fully vaccinated and the state of Indiana is rolling out vaccinations for all residents over the age of 16. The convention center has added $7 million in safety upgrades, instituted new protocols for cleaning and sanitization, installed hospital-grade air filtration, and has one-way traffic lanes in hallways and common areas. There’s also a mask requirement for all indoor spaces.

But, due to the move to September, the convention will have a space crunch. Lucas Oil Stadium will be in use and will not be available. Square footage per attendee is being expanded providing more space per person. Game tables will be spread apart more than usual and more open gaming will be present to allow greater flexibility for attendees.

There will also be limited attendance with it being capped at 30,000 to 40,000, half of what’s normal. That will also help with spacing issues.

24-hour gaming will not be going on as the convention center will be closed each night for cleaning and disinfection protocols.

There will also be timed entry as well as other crowd control measures. That includes no first-come, first-served exclusives and excessive lines.

Currently the convention will require masks unless something changes.

The convention is still mulling some things over like proof of vacination and how to handle social distancing which would be difficult to do at a gaming convention.

Gen Con Online

The online presence of the convention will be expanded. Gen Con Online will have a greater virtual presence to welcome attendees and exhibitors who can’t make it.

Pop-Up Gen Con

Also anounced are the publishers participating in Pop-Up Gen Con 2021. They’ll be shipping copies of their new games being released at the convention to participating shops as well as help with demos, events, and sales.

Participating publishers are:

  • Catalyst Game Labs
  • Forbidden Games
  • Pandasaurus Games
  • Ravensburger
  • Renegade Game Studios
  • SlugFest Games
  • Steamforged Games
  • Usaopoly | The Op
  • Wyrd Games

Pop-Up Gen Con takes place September 18, 2021. Game title announcements are still coming.

Para Bellum Announces a Conquest Painting Experience in May

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Conquest painting event

Para Bellum Wargames, the maker of the Conquest tabletop miniatures game is excited to build collaborations within the industry. The goal is to develop new opportunities for gaming fans to experience the miniature gaming hobby in new ways. Their newest collaboration involves Warcolours paints, and Miniatures Wargames magazine. Coming May 6th is “painting night with Dimo!”. This online event will bring Dimosthenis, Conquest’s house artist, into people’s homes via the magic of the interwebs. The 2-hour painting experience will take fans through a range of techniques Dimo uses to paint miniatures. This will be amazing for beginners who want to paint more, and for long-time gamers looking for new ideas!

Miniatures Wargames magazine will host the event on their interactive platform. Warcolours paints and Conquest created a new project- Rage X Fire. This new collab brings together an entire infantry set of Flame Berserkers and 5 full-sized bottles of Warcolours paints. It’s an incredible value of product brought together in one box!

Dimo will walk through this part of this set during the evening so that everyone has a common project to share! 
A FREE ticket to the event is included with each purchase of the Rage X Fire box for €$49- a bonus value of £10! Link here to purchase a set today. Each purchase during the month of April qualifies for one online admission ticket. 

FLGS stores are welcome to participate by hosting a group painting night in conjunction or by selling sets to their community! Retailers ordering 10 or more sets of our Rage X Fire boxes will get 1 bonus demo set for free.

Currently available painting collaborations:

Product Name – Painting CollaborationsEU BarcodeEU SKU #
   
Inferno X Turbo Shift – Collab with Turbo Dork5213009012232PBW8967
Rage X Fire- Collab with Warcolours5213009012539PBW8968

Gen Con Announces New Dates and a New Format with Capped Attendance and Modified Format

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Gen Con 2021

There are so many unknowns when it comes to the 2021 convention season and they have been forcing hard decisions on so many. Gen Con today announced that they are postponing Gen Con 2021 as originally planned for August 5-8 in Indianapolis and announcing plans for a hybrid slate of concurrent in-person and online experiences, including the rescheduled Indy convention, this September 16-19, 2021. They believe this is the best approach both to meet the many challenges of the moment and to explore possibilities for the future.

The change is hopes that convention can include as many as possible while also remaining safe. It’s a flexible range of opportunities to participate. The in-person Gen Con in Indianapolis will have a capped attendance and a modified format while those not comfortable or unable to attend being able to still do so from home or from their local game stores through Pop-Up Gen Con retail events.

The Gen Con website has more details. Dates for badges, hotel, and event registration, have not been announced.

NOCA Open 2021 is Canceled

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NOVA Open 2021

After a lot of feedback from the community, the Executive Board of the NOVA Open has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 convention.

Reasons for the cancelation include:

  • Many of the convention partners are currently unable to commit to a September 1-5 NOVA Open 2021. Executing a NOVA Open requires months of pre-planning and coordination between hundreds of individuals and organizations, so no matter what the situation may look like in September, they have to act based on what they can guarantee in the near term. 
  • There is no clarity into what large event restrictions will or will not be in place in Arlington County, Virginia, at the time of the convention. At best, they can only guess what guidelines and restrictions might be in place, and cross their fingers that the pendulum would not swing at the last minute. This uncertainty prevents effective planning. 
  • The responses to the surveys consistently showed strong support for the NOVA Open. The support was not so universal when the unique planning considerations related to COVID meant NOVA Open 2021 would be substantially different from prior years. The Executive Board concurs with attendee sentiment that NOVA Open return in 2022 as the same high-quality event we have all come to know and love.
  • The financial consequences of the 2020 refund campaign, though necessary to remain solvent through the end of summer, was never intended to support the convention beyond that period of time. Therefore, the Executive Board is faced with a significant challenge as they readjust their resources and imaginations to remain solvent until a March 1, 2022 registration launch. 

The Executive Board is working to tighten the belts of the convention to make sure it can continue including an Amazon store, a sale of game mats and terrain sets, pop-up tournaments, investor opportunities, and more.

We of course support the convention and will keep our community apprised of any updates in how we can rally to help out.

Hub Games’ Retailer Virtual World Tour Begins in February

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Hub Games Virtual Tour

Hub Games will be kicking off its Retailer Virtual World Tour in February, starting with Prisma Arena, their latest title.  Hub Games, its distribution partners, and retailers will join together to make distancing seem not so distant. Over the coming months, Hub Games will be conducting virtual visits to retailers worldwide, demoing games to staff and customers. Retailers can contact their favorite distributor for details on how to participate.  

When the pandemic first hit, Hub Games immediately responded. Hub Games began a virtual world tour bringing their games to fans, stores, and guests. With social distancing continuing, Hub Games has worked with retailers to improve the concept. The Hub Games team will host forty-five-minute sessions every Monday.  The events give retailers and their staff the chance to engage with customers while playing the latest Hub Games titles. The featured game will rotate every six weeks, with Prisma Arena kicking off the tour on February 15th.

With the absence of trade shows and consumer shows, it has become more difficult for the retailer to introduce new games to their customers and for publishers to connect with retailers. With the Retailer Virtual World Tour, Hub Games hopes to solve that and make some new friends along the way. To support this initiative, distributors in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Australia have a special offer for retailers interested in participating.  Games will live-stream on Twitch, Youtube, and Facebook, allowing retailers to invite customers to watch and comment.

Get Happy with a Conquest Virtual Happy Hour

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Conquest‘s Virtual Happy Hour is here! It’s Thursday the 28th of January (this coming week) at 4pm EDT, 10pm CET. BYOB – Bring your own Biomancer!

Para Bellum Wargames can’t visit at trade shows like the ones that’d already be kicking off this year… so they’re bringing the conversation online, to you! What do you want to know or ask about Conquest? Complaints, compliments, ideas and investigations, this is an hour forum to chat casually with each other. The team from Para Bellum will be staying up late in Greece to chat on Google Meet and they might share a surprise or two as well…..     

If you can’t make it, don’t worry! They will do these at different times in different time zones in the months ahead. If you can’t find time to schedule this one, or you aren’t awake for this one, don’t worry. There’s more to come! It’s an opportunity to catch up with the community to hear their thoughts, and share some future looking products and events that are planned. Register with info@para-bellum.com for the log-in information.

Floodgate Games Teases Sagrada: Legacy

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Sagrada: Legacy

With an official announcement for Sagrada: Legacy coming in a few weeks, Floodgate Games has announced that it’s set to be released this summer for Gen Con 2021.

Sagrada has you crafting the best stained-glass windows by placing colorful transparent die. The original game was released in 2017 and has since spun out numerous expansions.

Dice are drafted by players to place on the board with each board featuring restrictions on which color or shade of die can be placed there. On top of that, dice of the same shade or color may never be placed next to each other.

Scoring is based upon achieving various patters and placement as well as bonus points for certain shades of colors.

HABA and Nonepub 21 Partner Up!

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HABA has announced a partnership with Nonepub ’21! The game publisher has teamed up with the organizers of Nonepub, a digital games design convention, to create a Game Design track at this month’s digital convention, January 28-31st. Teams can signup here to participate in this weekend of designing support and fun.

For $10 per team, they’ll gain access to:

  • Physically mailed HABA bag of bits to one team member (US addresses only)
  • Special access to Nonepub Game Jam Track Events for all team members
  • Special access to Nonepub Game Jam Discord channels for all team members
  • Game Jam Kickoff Meeting on Thursday 1/28/2021 7:30pm ET
  • Game Jam Feedback Finale Meetings on Sunday 1/31/2021
  • A curated list of panels to attend during Winter Nonepub 
  • Raffle to win game design related prizes

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: 

Only one badge is required per team. Teams may be between 1 and 5 designers. 

Tickets on sale now

Tabletop Entries for 2021 International Serious Play Awards Honoring Games for Training or Education Due February 9

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2021 International Serious Play Awards

The entry deadline for the 2021 International Serious Play Awards has been set for Tuesday, Feb.9 in the Category Tabletop Learning Games, both for Professionals and Students.

The Award honors outstanding learning-based Tabletop Games in Military, Government, Business, Non-Profit, Healthcare, Higher Education, K12 and Museums/Visiting Centers for Training or Education.

Entries are judged on how well-executed and clear the feedback, assessment and learning objects are; overall gameplay, which includes how engaging and interactive the game is; the orientations for the player; and the aesthetics of the game. Tabletop games are evaluated online by a team of judges on a zoom call.

Winners from each category will be showcased during the 2021 Serious Play Conference, online in 2021.

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