My son and I went to Austicon in Austin, MN a couple weeks ago. I hosted a game of GMT's Versailles 1919, and taught it to a couple players, but my son didn't want to play this time and checked out the newish Halo Flashpoint game instead. He said he liked it, but we'd already picked up a copy of the new "Commands and Colors" Battle of Hoth game so he passed on picking the other one up, it was also kind of expensive. The two of us played the Hoth game a ton, though, when we were between other games and also since. It is basically a well done C&C/Memoir style game that is exceptionally well done. Great minis, thematic terrain tiles, cool game play options (unique decks for each side with the option of adding cards for specific commanders), lots of scenarios with the option of playing through two campaigns, useful play aids, really an about perfect implementation of a C&C style game that also feels very complete. The only thing I might question is the small board, though it works for the skirmish type battles and makes the game play extra quick, and the board is two sided so it can be joined with a second board for an epic scenario (which is actually kind of just a regular sized scenario if you compare it a game of say Memoir '44 or C&C Napoleonics). I highly recommend it if you like Star Wars and C&C games at all.
Other games we played were Wings of Glory (I'd wanted to try that one for quite a while so it was great to get a chance), Dungeon Crawl Classics (we seem to play that one at Austicon annually), and we'd signed up for second edition Pathfinder and Starfinder games but both were cancelled, and I ended up running an impromptu session of Beach Patrol from Gallant Knight games instead. We used the archetypes for PC's to get a quick start and the players embarked on a quest to release Robbie Riptide's guitar from impoundment due to unpaid tariffs at the warehouse by the port ahead of his big show at the beach-side festival grounds. It went quick but I think everyone had fun, I at least enjoyed it more than I probably would have liked the Starfinder game. I probably should have added another twist or subplot to complicate things a bit more, though there was a bit of light conflict with some seagulls as well. Tiny d6 (the rules used in Beach Patrol and other Gallant Knight games based on Tiny Dungeon) is a nifty little rule set, pretty basic stripped down rules light role-playing. I've also run a bit of Tiny Dungeon in the past, the rules work well with players who've maybe heard of D&D and want to play but you don't want to spend an hour explaining rules and creating characters.
While in Austin, we hiked a little bit at the Hormel Nature Center but skipped the Spam museum this time. Did go downtown, we managed to eat at both George's and Steve's Pizza during our couple days in town. So now I have an informed opinion on which rival downtown Austin pizza place I like best. All in all, we had a pretty good time hanging out and playing games in Austin.
