I still love Essen SPIEL. So I went back.

I did see some signs of improvement. Last year I had trouble finding the small publishers I go to see, more than the big guys whose games will show up in retail in England anyway. But this year they were rather more present. Also, by not selling 4-day tickets, the organisers largely managed to prevent the traditional overcrowding on Saturday and Sunday. And the random game-branded tat from people who didn't actually sell games was gathered into its own area near the TCGs, similarly not of interest to me.

Still no potato spirals though. Boo.

Wednesday

The traditional Antwerp ring road congestion was back, after a couple of years of smoother flow. Which is not terrible for everybody…

Out for Currywurst from Zum Xaver.

Thursday

I was at JustStay again, with the traditional Breakfast Box.

This is the point at which I feel, each year, "I am back at Spiel."

A local language advisor would have been helpful.

They seem to be making a virtue of the need for painting. Come and try your hand, take home the figure you painted, oh and by the way there's a game attached.

I do not see the point of Funko Pops.

Random bits of game! Always one of my favourite things to look at.

All those moments will be lost in time… like cardboard tokens in rain.

He chose… poorly.

Chicken and coleslaw burger lunch.

In the afternoon, I was showing off Accuse!, a deduction/elimination game: you're trying to work out which cards are set aside, with limited information, before everyone else does. Rather fun.

First day's shopping (most of it, really).

Friday

This morning was for Oracle: Predict Your Tricks! until we sold out of it. It's a trick-taking game in which you must predict not only how many tricks you'll take but a side bet as well (who will take most or least, or whose prediction will be right or wrong). Very popular, and it was the first game we had to sell out.

More wandering around and the remaining shopping in the afternoon. This is Brickskrieg, honestly a fairly unremarkable-looking wargame but it does solve the terrain and miniatures problem if you already have Lego.

I do quite like the Flip 7 games, but a licenced tie-in? A deluxe edition with a score pad and sleeves? I find these things ugly.

I'm sure this appealed to someone.

Dice! Actual FUDGE dice, something just barely present at UK Games Expo. (All right, one of the vendors is Chessex.)

The traditional illegible dice.

The stairwell in this year's car park.

Saturday

A mobile escape room, apparently.

I played or demonstrated a total of 15 games of Flash Point: Golden State Heroes over the weekend. Two groups managed to beat the first map. This was the first, with just one damage cube left.

Sunday

Essen Raven, doing what he do.

More Golden State Heroes and a hot time on the old soundstage. (I think we sold the last copy of this just before the show ended.)

Demonstrator lunch.

Monday

And with some slight complications (blog post to follow) I drove home, and ended up in one of the tall car-carriages for a change.

The final haul (shopping and demo pay):

Flash Point: Golden State Heroes (the new stand-alone game) plus the Back in Action expansion which lets one play the old characters and maps in the new system.

Ashes Ascendancy, the third iteration of the starter set, now focused on cooperative play; and its Natural Magic expansion.

Combo Creatures, both boxes, a small card game that looked fun.

Beyond the Veil, another expansion for Faraway.

Jisogi: Anime Studio Tycoon, as close as I get to New Hotness, but the thematic integration looks particularly good.

Weave, for which the designer is looking for a publishing partner: a no-luck strategy game in which you try to assemble combinations of effects.

The Magnus Protocol: Doppelganger about which I know absolutely nothing. Ex-demo copy. "Here, take this." OK.

Compile Main and Aux 3 which I haven't yet played, but I've had a lot of fun with the first two.

Accuse! mentioned above.

Rock Hard 1977: Ear Candy, expansion to a game I bought here two years ago.

Road Master (and its expansion Dock and Roll), by JC Bouvier, designer of Rallyman and Ticket Gagnant. A pick up and deliver game reduced to its essence.

Deckers: Duplicity and yes all right I should play Deckers…

Mask of the Elder Gods, a light social deduction game making a virtue of a necessity (the "God" could give away clues by their expression, so they have to wear a mask).

Oracle mentioned above.

Possums in a Trench Coat in which you bid to move the tottering stack of possums through the mall to the choicest trash.