I had to get to the game room early on opening day, so I got to see some of the early games in progress, one of which was a Car Wars game, using the old rules but on a great multi-level board.

Schoon was running the Full Thrust Demos this year, and traveling from California can be hard on the minis, so he designed some using LEGOs that could handle the travel.  They looked very interesting and got lots of comments from everyone as they walked by.

The color coding of the fleets worked well as every player could easily identify their own ships.

Now it is finally 10AM and the Dealers Hall opens.  Big as usual and full of stuff, let me show you a few things I saw.

First off, the booth babes were there again, but with a different twist, a bit of anime influence resulting in this feline booth babe.

AOG showed off the first minis in their new line of Turning Point minis for their new game release. Fleet Action 2: Turning Point

WizKids was pushing their product in demos right in front of the Castle.  Their demo boards were great, including the ruins to the left for MageKnight, and the blasted area for Mechwarrior: Dark Age.

Also being demo'ed was a new version of Crimson Skies, the flight combat game in a pulp universe.  Expect this and other rumored 'clicky' games in stores in 2003.

Now back to the combined, board games, miniatures games, and card games room.  

Here is a shot of a game of Star Fleet Battles in progress

Ken doing another of the demos for Delta V.  Sitting next to him is Neal Sofge of Fat Messiah Games.

Demos were being run of The Great Space Race, the big brother of The Great Space Drag Race which was a limited edition convention only product.

Also being demo'ed was StarFighter: The Corporate Wars.  A interesting game with movement tactics along with card for systems.  It is available and I'll get more info up soon.

Here is an interesting game table, it includes an actual river running through the middle and draining into the bucket in the lower right.  The water is the pumped from there back to the top.

And finally, a shot of some aliens attacking the city in a Dirtside II game run by Mike Miserendio.