Bunches of Reasons Why You Should Head Out to ChiTag this Weekend

ChiTag is America's largest public toy and game fair, and it's happening this weekend at Navy Pier (Saturday 10am-6pm and Sunday 10am-5pm).  We'll have a vendor booth at the show and here's what we'll be up to:

• We'll be demoing and selling lots of great games and our booth.  We'll have fun games that are perfect for holiday gatherings as well as more strategic fare like the hot-off-the-presses Small World expansions.

• We're partnering with Playroom Entertainment to demo several of their games, including Killer Bunnies.  Stop by to pick up a special Killer Bunnies promo card: Bunnies the Gathering.

• Would you like to win a $100 gift certificate to Cat & Mouse?  Of course you would!  Customers at our booth will receive a puzzle piece with their purchase.  Bring the puzzle piece into the store, and if it's the one that's missing from our almost-completed puzzle, you'll win the gift certificate.  The puzzle only has 300 pieces, so your odds of winning are good!

More reasons why you gotta love ChiTag:

• Our friend Randy is running a Dominion tournament at 1pm on Saturday.  Dominion is great and Randy is great, so be sure to join in the fun!

• Nate from ChicagoBoardGames.com is hosting One Night in Essen on Saturday from 6-10pm.  It's an opportunity to play the hottest new games from Essen, Germany (see below) and it's not to be missed!

• There will be a large open gaming area with a library of 450+ games that you can check out and play!

• Game publishers like Rio Grande and Out of the Box will have large booths at the show where they'll be demoing their latest releases.

• Teachers and Educators got into the show for FREE!

• Speaking of teachers, they're having a Games in Education forum on Saturday starting at 1 pm. It's free and teachers earn CPDU's for learning about and playing games. How cool is that?!?

• You can get $2 off your admission with this coupon.

• If you're driving to Navy Pier, you'll be able to get $10 off your parking.

Essen Releases Coming Soon!

The annual Game Fair in Essen, Germany is the year's most anticipated boardgame event.  It's a massive convention where the public plays and buys games; and where publishers, distributors, and game designers wheel and deal.  Hundreds of new games make their debut at the show, and we're happy to say that a large crop of great new strategy games released at Essen will be making their way to our store!  Titles that we'll be receiving include:

• Colonia
• Carson City
• At the Gates of Loyang
• Vasco da Gama
• Luna Llena
• Day & Night
• Opera
• A Brief History of the World
• Dungeon Lords

Most of the games are scheduled to arrive in early December, just in time for the holidays!  You can pre-order any of these games with us to ensure that you won't miss out on any of these releases.  Just contact us at 773-384-4454 or linda@cat-n-mouse.com to place your pre-order.

Discover the Ancient Strategy Game of Go

Go is the 2-player game know for its simple rules but strategic depth and complexity.  We're bringing back our Sunday afternoon Go events (1st Sunday of every month), and we invite you to join us for an afternoon playing the game that Andre says is the only one he'd ever need on a desert island!  If you've never played before we're happy to teach you, and we have plenty of sets on hand, so there's no need to bring your own.  The next Go event is on Sunday, December 6 starting at 2 pm.