I went back to this year's Airecon – my fourth visit to the show. With
images; cc-by-sa on
everything.
This was before any formal restrictions in the UK, but quite a
few people were sensibly staying away to avoid risk of infection,
including many of the people I usually meet there. This meant the
gaming tables didn't get quite as full as usual, though the Airecon
ambience was still there and I had no trouble finding games or
players.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_164138.jpg)
I started off by setting up Rallyman:
GT and got
into a three-player race on the Belgium track (from the World Tour
expansion, more or less Spa-Francorchamps).
![](tn_IMG_20200313_172031_DRO.jpg)
Then a couple of unpublished prototypes from some friends who run a
game publishing business, involving a dormouse thinking of all the
things he can do before he falls asleep, and a Mancala-style game of
pirate treasure.
![](tn_IMG_20200313_185251_DRO.jpg)
Finally for the night,
FUSE – which is
coming out quite a bit at the end of the evening as it's a game that
is guaranteed to be over in ten minutes. I also find the stress
level is about right for me: some real-time games are too hectic (I
like Magic Maze but I don't play it often). OK, we didn't win…
![](tn_IMG_20200313_194331_DRO.jpg)
(All right, that was only about 8pm, and I didn't get to bed until 11
or so. Mostly I was chatting with friends. This was a bit of a theme,
in fact; usually at these things I try to get in with a group of
people I know and we play games all day, but because many of the
people I know had cancelled I ended up getting in with more ephemeral
groups and chatting with other friends in between games.)
Saturday
I started with Rallyman:
GT again:
this was going to be on track 1 since most of the players were new to
the game, but with a couple more players I wanted to expand it so we
flipped the tiles for a 3-lane version.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_123231_DRO.jpg)
Then the same group went on to
Crisis, in which
I surprised myself by working out that this was the turn when
everything was going to fall apart, so if I could get both to the top
of the scoring track and above the threshold number I'd win… and I
did, by three points. File this as another "not my usual style of
game, but I enjoyed it".
![](tn_IMG_20200314_144706_DRO.jpg)
People were playing Crokinole; there was always a long queue for a
game.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_155643_DRO.jpg)
The street food vans were back, doing a decent job (especially on the
Korean Sloppy Joe, which I ate too quickly to take a photograph of).
![](tn_IMG_20200314_160622.jpg)
I know people who need to know about this vendor. So now I've told
you. The d20 purse is made of leather triangles, held together by
springy coils.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_163435.jpg)
I tried my usual trick of setting up
Flamme
Rouge
with the automated team, and sure enough a player turned up. We left
the automa in place to keep things interesting.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_174248_DRO.jpg)
Then on to three-player
Coldwater
Crown,
which I picked up in a maths trade earlier this year. I have basically
no interest in fishing, but I like the game… and so did the other
players, enough that we immediately played again.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_183759_DRO.jpg)
Then Flamme
Rouge again
because the third player had missed it.
![](tn_IMG_20200314_220328_DRO.jpg)
I was thinking about going to bed, when I was invited to help invade
Canada, so I did, in 1812: The Invasion of
Canada.
I can see the appeal, I suppose, and my fellow players were great, but
my dice luck was terrible and the outcome was never in much doubt.
![](tn_IMG_20200315_003008_DRO.jpg)
The bathroom in the bed and breakfast has this odd decorative tile. I
thought it might represent seasons (summer sun, spring rain, winter
frost, autumn wind), but then the "rain" icon is repeated…
![](tn_IMG_20200315_093241_DRO.jpg)
Sunday
I started off with solo
FUSE, at which I
did better than I usually do in multi-player but not well enough to
win.
![](tn_IMG_20200315_103733_DRO.jpg)
Then two of my Rallyman:
GT players
from Saturday came by, and we tried a longer track, the "US" circuit
(Sebring International). To keep things interesting, we also threw in
three driverless cars – on their lowest level of competence. We all
pulled away from them easily enough, until we started messing up, at
which point they blocked us surprisingly effectively. I took some big
chances to catch up, and finished in a reasonably tight second.
![](tn_IMG_20200315_124859_DRO.jpg)
And so home again. At the time of posting, this has been my last
in-person games event. Join me on Tabletop Simulator!
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