By Brant Guillory, 15 June 2013

The Lighting-Fast Run Through Origins 2013

Seven hours.  Yep – seven.  That’s all I had to cram in as much of Origins as I possibly could.  I had one day, a press pass, a borrowed digital camera, and Bayonet Jr in tow, and it was a mad dash through a pretty freakin’ big game convention.  Plenty more pictures will follow, but I wanted to start with some highlights…

Collins Epic Wargames

We highlighted one of their upcoming expansions in a recent GARPA column, and the Frontline General game is the cornerstone of Byron’s line.  But he was also showing off a sci-fi minis game with a nifty little command mechanic.

Byron Collins working hard

Frontline General in the foreground, and sci-fin minis coolness (Polyversal) in the background

Cards and dice from Collins Epic’s upcoming expansion, on Kickstarter now. Please forgive your correspondent’s fuzzy camera work. It was early; new camera; etc; etc… The new red dice are cool, too – in Soviet Russia, dice roll you!

Polyversal is a minis game with a set of command cards that handle your orders and C2 functions.

The layout of the cards around a central command card show who is/isn’t in command, as well as their last orders.

more! >>

Catalyst Game Labs – Leviathans

It’s hard to overstate how visually cool Leviathans is.  It’s a mixture of steampunk-era retro-future tech, and a heavy does of “what th’..?!” when you see flying battleships cruise by.  The mechanics are nothing earth-shattering – they borrow initiative ideas from Battletech, for instance – but the execution is quite good, and the minis are mind-blowing.

The oversize battleship “mini” outside the Catalyst booth.

Close-up of a Leviathan mini.

The cards track your stats and specify what damage is assessed and in which locations.

The demo team was in costume, lending some nice atmosphere to the proceedings.

DGS Miniatures and Miniature Building Authority

In adjacent booths, these guys were definitely showing off some collaborative efforts their promotions and sales.

The DGS crew working hard.

Some of DGS’s figures. Don’t forget they’ve got some minis up on Kickstarter right now, too.

MBA’s Wooden Badger. Why a badger you ask? Zoom in and read for yourself 🙂

Minis in action around MBA’s new buildings.

Tanks climbing a sloped road into the town square. The overall effect of having MBA’s great buildings on the table is hard to fully describe, but it’s damn cool.

You want more from Origins?  Sure.  Stay tuned over the next week or so.

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