The CoolMiniOrNot Expo 2015 (or CMON Expo if you’re hip) kicked off in Atlanta, Georgia today. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it’s an annual tabletop gaming convention hosted by the folks at CMON where gamers get to try out the company’s past, present, and future games along with a wide array of other titles from companies like On The Lamb, Action Phase, Witchborn, and more. To kick off the event, CMON held their State of Affairs panel detailing its releases during 2014 and 2015, what’s to come later in 2015, and a taste of the games we can look forward to in the future.
The panel opened with a look at Arcadia Quest where CMON revealed the introduction of an upcoming online campaign and the ability for players to create their own adventures to share with the community. CMON also plans on following the Zombicide model of providing monthly online exclusive adventures.
With 2015 only half way done, CMON has several titles still due out by the end of the year. Those include Rum and Bones (a MOBA-style pirate game), Blood Rage (an epic Viking themed strategy game designed by Eric Lang), B-Sieged (a base defense game), The World of SMOG: On Her Majesty’s Service (a Euro-Style strategy game), and the upcoming Micro Arts Base System. All of these titles were successfully Kickstartered in the past year and will be making their way to backers’ hands soon.
But what we’re all really interested in are the new, shiny games coming up. And we’re in luck! CMON highlighted a couple of previously announced projects that are finally getting some hands on time at the show. Xenoshyft: Dreadmire, the standalone sequel to Xenoshyft: Onslaught that recently started accepting testers, takes players to a new, more deadly, planet with new monsters and weather effects. The newest edition of Queen’s Necklace, with new art, characters, and updated rules, is also at the show. The Grizzled, the English translation of the cooperative card game Les Poilus, made an appearance at the panel with beautiful art by Tignous. And Zombicide: Black Plague was highlighted during the presentation, which is going strong on Kickstarter right now.
While all of those were playable on the show floor, a few titles were mentioned that weren’t ready for hands on time. The Others, which was announced at last year’s Expo, had some of its mystery peeled away. It’s a one vs. many style horror game by Eric Lang, Studio McVey, and Guillotine Games. We’ll know more about it tomorrow after its panel. Arcadia Quest: Inferno is a new standalone game set in the Arcadia Quest universe. It introduces a new quest system, characters, and more. We’ll have additional information on that one tomorrow as well. The recently announced card game Brutal was also shown, but we don’t know much more about that beyond what we already posted.
Before the panel was over, CMON had a few surprises up its sleeve. In addition to Inferno, Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia was announced. It’s a new, small-box game that ties-in to the Arcadia Quest universe but offers players a new experience. It will plug in to the main game, allowing you to take miniatures from Masmorra into Arcadia Quest as heroes. That’s about all we know right now, but you can be sure we’ll tell you more as soon as we know. Rum and Bones will be getting a new standalone game along with continued support through expansions.
They also announced Hate, based on the Adrian Smith’s graphic novel of the same name. The game is a competitive survival board game set in a gritty, post-apocalyptic world. Players will be forced to ask how far they would go to survive. The same team that brought Blood Rage to the table are on board with this one, so I’m sure we’re in for a treat.
Both of CMON’s miniature games are getting some new stuff. Dark Age players have the new Forsaken book to look forward to later this year. It will introduce new Saints and a re-sculpts for most of the Forsaken faction. And Wrath of Kings has a two-player starter in the works, along with an expansion book coming in 2016 that features new units for all of the current factions. We’ll have more information on both of those tomorrow after their panels.
For more information about CMON Expo, check out their site.