UK Games Expo 2012 - The Journal

The highs and lows of my weekend at the UK Games Expo

As the train headed north on Friday morning out of Euston I found my seat and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of the other 3 people at the table talking about ‘decks’, ‘cards’, ‘combo’s’ and a number of other distinctly game type terms. Aaaha me thinks they are going to Birmingham for the UK Games Expo, but no they were a group of friends who love Magic The Gathering heading to Aberystwyth for 5 days (and nights by the sounds of it) of Magic games! The journey sped by as we talked and quizzed each other about our respective interests finding common ground at times and significant differences at others, most notably the direct combative nature of their game versus my preference for Eurogames which rarely have head on conflict.

UK Games Expo - My Highlights

Some of the highlights from this years UK Games Expo

The UK Games Expo goes from strength to strength attracting over 4,000 people and a diverse range of people who enjoy playing games from hardcore games, families, role players, social gamers, wargamers and more - groups of gamers not normally found under the same roof.

UK Games Expo 2012 - Some Of The Games

Games That Caught My Eye 

These are not games I played but rather based on what I have read and seen ones I thought followers of this blog might find of interest. They are in no particular order:

UK Games Expo 2011

A summary with links to posts for various elements of my trip to the UK Games Expo

It seems strange to think that just a year ago I travelled to the UK Games Expo, my first games event knowing nobody and not really sure what to expect (last year’s impressions can be read here and here).

A year on I have attended Stabcon in Manchester (one of the regional UK board games shows), staying overnight with Tim whom I met at the Expo. With the help of Steve (another contact from last year’s UK Games Expo) I found Paul and his road trip to Essen; a trip with a group I had never met before which included sharing a room with a complete stranger for three nights. I am now, somehow, part (albeit a very small part) of the UK Gaming Media Network and probably most importantly am part of the Imagination Gaming team, working in schools, community centres and old people’s homes plus of course helping to run the Family Zone at this year’s UK Games Expo. Some year!

What follows is pretty unstructured but hopefully gives a sense of this year’s show; the people the games and why if you love playing games you should consider attending next year’s show:

Friday Day 1, Part 1 - Meeting up with the UK Gaming Media Network Team here with more images here

Friday Day 1, Part 2 - An opportunity to play the Dungeon Petz protype by CGE here with more images here

Saturday, Day 2 - Most of my day was spent in the Family Zone a review of which is here. This was followed by an interesting dinner and then more games here with more images here

Sunday, Day 3 - The final day plus links to many other views and reports here with more images here

UK Games Expo 2011 - Sunday, Day 3

The final day plus links to many other views and reports

This was a more relaxed day, still lots of people but not the crush of the day before. Nigel gave me time off for good behaviour and so I was able to take time to wander round the show and catch up with the likes of Paul and Dave at GamesLore (also part of the Essen road trip team and publishers of Braggart). I was also able to also touch base with Patrick (who I met on Friday) and the guys on the Existenz / x610z stand. As a prototype this is unlike most prototypes I have seen. There is obviously a lot of money behind it as the production quality is already stunning with artwork that makes heads turn. Sadly I have not yet had a chance to play the game, hopefully something that I will be able to remedy soon with their help.

Returning to the Imagination Gaming Family Zone we played many more games with lots of people and again these activities can be read about here.

All in all it had been a great show with lots to do for the children, from face painting to

UK Games Expo 2011 – Saturday, Day 2

An interesting dinner and then more games!

The early morning drone of cars going past our window meant that Mark and I were up early enough to go for a stroll in the sunshine before breakfast.

Back at the hotel we shared a breakfast table with two Sci-Fi figure producers who had a trade stand at the show. We had an interesting conversation but one particular anecdote stuck in my mind; one of them said that his family’s game had been Monopoly, he loved it one family member even knew the mortgage values for all the properties, then, almost he commented on how his sister hated it because of the history and how it made her feel! It obviously put me in mind of our recent article

UK Games Expo 2011 – Friday, Day 1 Part 2

An opportunity to play the Dungeon Petz protype by CGE

Having played my first game of the show I quickly spotted Paul Grogan (leader of last years Essen Road Trip) who was just setting up a game of Dungeon Petz with Phil (another member of the Essen road trip team) and I think David. With a spare seat at the game they were kind enough to let me join them.

This is a game still in prototype which was going to be demoed at the UK Games Expo over the following two days, so the accompanying photo’s are not the finished artwork and Paul obviously got his ‘Blue Peter Badge’ as a boy because he had taken the PDF artwork supplied by Czech Games Edition (CGE) and created some pretty impressive game components, as well as pinching various cubes, meeples etc from other games to bring together all the playing pieces necessary for the game.

The game is set loosely in the same world as Dungeon Lords, but is a standalone game in its own right. When not designing and building new dungeons and killing the hapless adventurers, the Dungeon Lords want to spend time relaxing with a

UK Games Expo 2011 – Friday, Day 1 Part 1

Meeting up with the UK Gaming Media Network Team

As planned I met up with Mark Rivera (the man behind the Boardgames in Blighty blog, and one of the key players in the UK Gaming Media Network (UKGMN) ) at Euston and we got the train together. Coming at the hobby from slightly different angles (my focus being Euro games and his being more Ameritrash) we had a lively conversation and as you would expect played a couple of games Convoluted and Cold War: CIA vs. KGB.

At Birmingham station we bumped into Will from Clarendon Games, heading to the Expo to launch their first game Perigon. [I did get a very brief demo of the game on Saturday morning just before the Imagination Gaming team pitched up but shortage of time meant it was too brief to really assess the game and be able to say more than that it is an abstract strategy game with a wooden board.]

At the show venue we found the UK Gaming Media Network (UKGMN) area where we met Chris Bowler (Unboxed: The Board Game Blog) and Michael Fox (a contributor to The Little Metal Dog Show and recently the US Dice Tower - one of the largest and most respected games review sites), two more key members of the UKGMN who were preparing the kit for a number of interviews with games designers and other hobby luminaries. We barely had enough time to dump our bags before Mark was

Board games + children + parents = FUN ?

What seems incredibly sad is that according to a recent report commissioned by Disneyland Paris and written by Professor Tanya Byron “Parents have forgotten how to play” with their children. This study interviewed 2,000 parents and 2,000 children (aged between 5 and 15) across the UK and the findings suggest that not only have a significant number of parents (21%) forgotten how to play with their children but 30% of parents think that playing with their children is

Match Report 16th June 2010

Following unprecedented demand (well Alex indicated that he was around, up for a game and would be away for the next couple of games evenings) we held an impromptu Tuesday event with Alex and myself being joined by Malcolm and Ian.

It looked at one point that Joe might joins us as well however the allure of Brazil vs North Korea I suspect kept this footy mad chap away.

Patrician
With an array of games before them to choose from Alex liked the sound of Patrician (one of the games picked up at the recent UK Games Expo).

Patrician comes with a slightly abstract board showing the major renaissance cities of Italy each with building sites for two towers. The towers can be of varying heights, the smaller cities allowing towers of no more than 5 levels in total, between the two sites, whilst other cities allow towers of up to 9 levels. With the simple rules and the opportunity to score points either from being the player with the most layers in a tower  or collecting sets of three portraits (found on some of the cards that allow you to build your towers  (see the attached photos) there are a number of ways of gaining the points necessary to win the game. These alternatives gave the Patrician sufficient interest that we would all want to play it again yet left it quick to play (about half an hour) and quick to learn - a useful addition to the growing collection.

Match Report 7th June 2010

Sorry no photos this week.

We had so many people turn up this time that we had standing room only. However this might be to slightly misrepresent the facts. The house is still like a tip as we move more and more out of the areas being decorated into the dinning room  and so with 6 players (and one in reserve, more on this later) we were snugly gathered around the table. This week saw the return of Daniela, plus Pauline, Natalie, Crispin and Malcolm.

We need to watch Malcolm, he is showing signs of competing with Daniela for being the bandit of the group, this was only his second evening with us and he showed a grasp of the game from the very beginning that would ensure he would finish well placed when the points were counted in this weeks game, in spite of the fact that he was the only person not to have played it before. Hmmm very worrying!

UK Games Expo - Day 2, Saturday 5th June 2010

Well after a good night’s rest (hmmm finally going to sleep at 1pm, woken up at 2pm by a friend currently in the US forgetting the time zone difference or was that getting his own back for my earlier text in the middle of the American night - so at best 4 hours) off to the show across the road with the aim of beating the rush. An idea obviously shared by a number of other keen punters as the queue went round the block. Thankfully the pre booked ticket collected the day before soon had Paul, Stewart and myself ushered through the throng.

Early purchases
After a quick look round (avoiding the Daleks and Imperial Storm Troopers) I bought the first game of the day. As Tim had indicated the night before Patrizier (the English game being Patrician) was being sold for a mere £8 (from JKLM) albeit with the rules in German (the English ones being on BoardGameGeek, I hoped!).

The participation games (in the Kniziathon & Mynd Games area) were yet to start so more browsing led me to a couple of fantasy artists (Ralph Horsley being one) and their stunning work albeit not necessarily something I would want on the wall at home. A second look at the bring-and-buy stand highlighted once again how far games had moved on since I started. At one point I suspected that my wife had arrived via the Tardis to sell off some of my older games, things like Azhantai High Lightning, Machiavelli and a number of others. Maybe when I get home I will I will box these up and archive them to some dark corner rather than waste good shelf space with games that whilst good are not the types of game either I or our group enjoy playing and whose boards and components look rudimentary and amateurish compared with today offerings.

Working with children

One of the nice things about the show was the opportunity at every corner to play new games and meet new people. In particular the effort put in by Nigel Scarfe of Imagination Games to run an area devoted to children’s games I think is worthy of note. Not surprisingly there was a huge amount of energy and a great buzz through the morning with an awards ceremony in the afternoon. Meeting Nigel was one of the highlights of the weekend for me, hearing about the work he has been undertaking in taking games into schools, libraries, old people’s homes and more and the tremendous reaction he has been getting.

UK Games Expo - Day 1, Friday 4th June 2010

With the pre show starting on Friday (no traders) just lots of opportunities to play games I arrived in Birmingham and having checked into the hotel found myself with a selection of three games rooms to choose from and a bar. Faced with knowing nobody, where to start? I took the plunge in the largest of the three rooms and went up to a group of three guys who looked like they were just getting a game out of a box and had a spare chair and asked if I could join them. Thankfully they said yes and so my journey and indeed the games began.

1st Game - Seeland

The game they were setting up was a new game called Seeland from Ravensburg (the German equivalent, maybe, of Hasbro in the US) and involved the reclamation of the Dutch wetlands by the placement of windmills and the cultivation of tulips, cabbages and rapeseed. A beautiful looking game with high quality piece and graphics that uses a roundel (as part of the game mechanics) to determine what options are available concerning the acquisition of windmills and crops. It was somewhat strange to be the person who was quite obviously the least knowledgeable on a game (as running my own group and being the only buyer of games means I doubt if I have played any games in the last 20 years where I haven’t read the rules first) and frequently sought clarifications and benefited from the patience and kindness of my three fellow players (Paul, Steve and Brian). For a large part of the game Steve and Paul led the points through judicious placement of the resources they had available with me bringing up the rear, but somewhere around the half way mark things started to go better for me as I began to appreciate the nuance of the game and when it came to the final score I had somehow won - a surprise to both me and the others! For me at least I will definitely be looking to add Seeland to my collection at some point.

Interspersed through the game the others were assailed by questions from me on all manner of things about the world of board games. It soon became clear that they inhabited another end of the hobby with I think Steve and Paul indicating that they typically played of the order of 60 games a month! I think my jaw hit the floor at this point and I felt a twinge in case my wife had heard that number.