I started going to these conventions because they were local (a few miles away on the far side of High Wycombe). They've now moved to Maidenhead in order to get a slightly larger venue. Ah well.

With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

Saturday

And it's a remarkably old-fashioned venue in Maidenhead at that, the Holiday Inn (glory to the workers' soviet!).

There was a pretty active Bring and Buy, though I got the impression there was rather more for sale than people wanted to buy - lots of "or reasonable offer" on the prices, and it was still fairly full by the end of the show.

I was wandering through the rooms when I saw a friend setting up Leaving Earth; she roped me in to help teach it and I ended up playing too. (And coming last, though that was the luck of the turn order; if I'd played just a fraction better I might have won.) Damn, I need to get this game out more! Maybe I'll try it solo again…

Next was Clank!, one I haven't tried before though it's been very popular. I can see the appeal, and I'd play it again if it were on offer, but it didn't leap out and insist on being added to my collection.

We moved on to The Castles of Burgundy, which I think one really has to treat as an abstract game since the nominal theme has very little to do with one's choices. There's a certain amount of optimisation, but not as much need for memorisation as I'd feared. Not something I'd rush to play again, but I enjoyed it more than I'd expected to.

And then Homeland, which was a comprehensive win for the terrorists (and I wasn't one of them). I think I may be missing tactics here… this thread may help.

Sunday

The doors between the small rooms were folded back to make one big hall.

Rebellion had been persuaded to rebadge some of their beers in appropriate manners. (But I was driving.)

For some reason, this was a day for Sagrada, first a couple of games with one lot of people…

Then Xenon Profiteer, using the Tactics cards (but not yet the unique player goals).

More Sagrada with a different group of people…

Trains: Rising Sun, a fairly straightforward deckbuilder that was enjoyable but my collection can live without it…

(Some people were playing Great Western Trail… with costumes in their player colours.)

Still more Sagrada, with a different group again (it's certainly a very appealing box, so maybe that was it)…

by which point I was feeling fairly tired, and left for home as the closing chatter was beginning.

The hotel managed to do reasonable food for only fairly extortionate prices (serving in cardboard boxes is fair enough I suppose when people want to eat at the game tables, but I was fairly disgusted to see disposable plastic cutlery when the wooden stuff is so readily available); I've paid more for worse, though I'd still rather have a venue where you can bring in your own.