RogerBW's Blog

My second in-pandemic trip to UK Games Expo. With images; cc-by-sa-nc on everything.

Collecting tickets on Thursday had the usual queues, but the open gaming space was fairly empty before the show started.

Even at the door into hall 2, there was a fair old crowd waiting to get in five minutes before opening time.

I was back at a dedicated Wotan stand (but with no bus), tucked away in the back of hall 2. This year a lot of retailers were complaining about, not the stand prices as usual, but the segmentation between hall 1 (super expensive) and hall 2… which meant that most of the interesting companies were concentrated in hall 2. (Much as at Essen I'm not there for the big flashy games that I'll see later in retail anyway, but for the obscure stuff that I'll never meet again.)

So in the mornings I was showing off War of the Nine Realms, a game I've mostly played at Expo; I always forget just how much fun I have with it. And part 2 is still in progress… I want my fire giants!

In the afternoons I walked around the halls, doing a little shopping and picking up review copies for a friend who couldn't make it. (Unsurprisingly, the small companies are very quick and helpful about this, while the larger ones take you through multiple people until they find the person who has the sacred authority to release one copy of a nine-year-old game.)

"We had to change a few things after we got the banner printed."

And then in the later afternoons, and evenings, I played with fellow 1 Player Guild members in the open play area (a thing Essen still doesn't do, a pity but it is still a trade show first). So that inlcuded Cockroach Poker

and Decrypto (not at its best in the lopsided 3-player version but still quite fun); DroPolter in which it turns out that having huge hands like mine is very handy;

Long Shot: The Dice Game, which for me couldn't make up its mind between being a fun party game and a heavy tactical euro;

Tinderblox and Tinderblox Sunset, always popular;

You Can't Say "Umm", which gradually makes a charades-type party game harder as one gets closer to winning (the most important component is the bell that the other team can ring when someone errs);

The Resistance, a lovely moment as the guy who proposed it was a bit unsure of the details and was very happy to meet someone else who knew it well;

Avant Carde, a deckbuilding game with an interesting look;

Faraway, which I'm still planning to buy; Xenon Profiteer which I haven't played nearly enough lately;

PUSH, a very lightweight but enjoyable push-your-luck game (I plan to buy this);

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition (in this case Argent Adept, Haka, Setback and Harpy (Blood Raven) versus Plague Rat in the Temple of Zhu Long);

Furnace, for which we ended up deploying bits trays while running the engine.

Most of the 1PGers had gone home by Sunday afternoon, but I was able to get in some Haggis

and Fleet: The Dice Game.

Striking the show.

Finding the car in the east car park.

Strangely tempting.

The new version of Libertalia, a lovely thing even before considering the gameplay changes.

Apparently "dear Cthulhu is this game ever going to end" is not the sort of experience they were looking for.

Most of my actual purchases: some Netrunner cards, a playmat, and stickers for tokens. (I also got some Staedtler dry-erase markers to put in my Pouch of Gaming Accessories alongside the folding bits trays and the game coinage.)

Massed Daleks.