Dice Tower East 2026 – All The Games – Day One (including Entropy and Tea Garden!)

I was at Aldi today, when I overheard the cashier ask why anyone would attend DTE over GEN CON? I’ll give you reason number one right now. When I rolled out the rack on Day One of Dice Tower East, I had only a thirty second walk to the elevator of Tower Two and then a three-minute walk from the back door to the gaming hall. There is no way at GEN CON that I am getting a game in that fast. 

Wednesday is the traditional opening day of Dice Tower East. In years past, there was a long table on opening day filled with morning goodies. I did not see any this time, but no matter, I had my trusty Pop-Tarts in my backpack. I was ready to game!

Luckily, Doug was up early, too, and then we spotted Wayne from the Beans & Dice Talk Show who was also ready to play. Shout out to our friends at the Beans & Dice show! If you have not caught the show live from Tampa, Florida, check it out every Thursday night live on YouTube and Twitch. It’s a “sports-talk” style show, where Carlos and Rob and Wayne and their co-hosts take calls from around the country and chat about board games. (Insert the obligatory ‘founded by Mitchell’ joke here.) 

I was carrying First Giants around in my bag, just itching to get another play. First Giants is the reincarnation of Elysium from Brett Gilbert and Matthew Dunstan (published here by Space Cowboys), that gets rid of the complicated Greek deities and action colors for a more streamlined version of the game. Yes, that decision has proven to be divisive, especially since the expansion to Elysium has still never seen the light of day. But color me in on the “keep both in your collection” camp. If I want a longer, more interactive experience, I’ll play Elysium. But if I am looking for a game to start the morning at DTE, I’m tabling First Giants. 

First Giants has a great theme, too. Players are drafting families of dinosaurs into their museum, using their special powers to build an engine but with an eye toward moving them into display cases to score points before the game ends. The production is lovely, with tuckboxes for all of the components, easy to understand icons, and an excellent dino handbook that details every card. Doug nipped Wayne at the end…..and I also played.

The number one game on my list to play was Chuck’s prototype copy of Entropy, from Board & Dice.. This is the latest game from Simone Luciani with co-designers Nestore Mangone and Tommaso Battista on board. Even though it was a prototype, Chuck always comes prepared, so we had 3D printed bits and bobs everywhere. 

In this game, humans have evolved to figure out how to prevent the universe from decaying, but the intergalactic federation (or something like that) wanted to test the theories in a simulation. Chuck said that this is a spiritual prequel to CIVolution, when you think about it. Whichever of us could build the best simulation gets elected grand poobah scientist, which is a title I am pretty sure I would never be awarded otherwise. 

The game is heading to crowdfunding soon, so things may change, but what I liked the most was the action movement and the crunchy decisions of what planets and species and biomes to choose for your simulation. On the action movement, players move up to three spaces around a rondel, but it had two tracks (sort of like Viscounts of the West Kingdom in a way) that you could follow. The more powerful one required you to place your token matching that action, which means you couldn’t do that action again until you came back around and “picked it up.” And of course, going farther down the track faster meant you took less powerful actions, and you might even end up on another player’s spot, which makes your action even less powerful. So juicy!

By the end of the game, we were zooming around and building interesting little solar systems, and I am very glad that Logan is a backer because I can’t wait to play it again. Oh yeah, and Chuck continued his winning ways, but of course, he was the only one with multiple plays of the game. 

Rob from the Beans & Dice krewe was at a nearby table with his daughter playing the brand new King of Tokyo Godzilla edition. I had just been sent a review copy, so was happy to try it at the Hot Games tables. I love this edition. The production is fantastic, with lots of wooden pieces, and there is something about the Godzilla universe that translates well to King of Tokyo (from Iello).

It has been years since I played the original in person, so maybe other players have seen this already, but the Godzilla edition plays up to six people (with both Tokyo and Tokyo Bay represented by thick wooden discs) and has special events that happen throughout the game. (There’s even some lagniappe — the monsters can evolve). The addition of the gorgeous artwork and special event cards made this a great experience, in addition to hanging out with the B&D gang.

Next up, we had an hour to kill before jumping back into some euros. Mitchell and I grabbed Wayne and his son (the two time reigning champion of Pitchcar, by the way) to play Labyrinth, which was set up on the Hot Games Tables because this was the blinged out Awaken Realms / Ravensburger version.

I don’t think I have ever played Labyrinth before, and I have to admit, it wasn’t bad at all. The sliding puzzle of the walls and doorways was both frustrating and satisfying at the same time. But I wonder who this game is for? It seems a little mean and puzzly for younger kids, and doesn’t quite have all the action older children would want. In any event, I was happy to sneak out the win. 

Mitchell wanted to learn Cities USA, so we fired up a two player game while waiting for Doug to finish with his scheduled playthrough. This second play was so much better. First off, we played the regular 3×3 grid, which made tracking what you do and what your opponent is doing much easier. Second, the rules about neighborhoods and the new goals in the New Orleans city card were much easier to follow the second time around. Mitchell beat me pretty handily, but it was a pleasure playing this on back-to-back days. 

Speaking of back-to-back, we played Tea Garden twice in row. How often does that happen at a con? I couldn’t help asking Mitchell to re-rack it after we finished, because I enjoyed that first play so much.

Tea Garden is a 2024 release from the suddenly prolific designer, Tomáš Holek, that is finally making it to American shores courtesy of Capstone Games. The theme was a little iffy, but essentially, players own a tea garden but want to expand it along the river. The monetary system is unique in that part of the economy is tea leaves, which decay each round unless you ferment them, which means that they actually increase in value each round until spent. 

I also really enjoyed the card action mechanic in Tea Garden Each player has a deck of cards (that you can winnow a bit) and have three (or four) actions to take with them each turn. Many of the actions trigger bonus actions, or even additional free actions, and each round we seemed to get better and better at making one action into two or three. These chaining action games like Tea Garden, if done well, tickle my brain in all the right places.

Holek is earning a place on the “must try” list every time a new game comes out. I actually won the second game, after upgrading my deck with some really strong cards and taking a very efficient route to the top level of tea gardens. 

After that, my hotel room at WDW was ready, so I bid a temporary good-bye to Dice Tower East. But there is one more day of gaming left to recap….

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo
** Some of the games listed were provided by the publisher. **