UK Games Expo results

So... what did everyone like? What did everyone hate? What did everyone buy? Here's my verdicts of what I can remember:

Colosseum: Great game, very unusual mechanics.
Cheaty Mages: Nice little filler about betting on monsters. Silly and strategic.
Maluna Kea: Kinda like Survive. Ok, but not amazing.
Buccaneer Bones: Ok, mostly luck.
Nowheresville: Not awful. Weird mix of strategy and dexterity.
Krosmaster Arena: Looks great, plays great, I'm in trouble.
Splendor: Great; tight and short, but meaty
Alien Frontiers: Great looking and nice design, but horrible downtime.
Fistful of Penguins: Nice components thrown together in a bit of a random game.
Chupacabra: Really really shit. Just dumb luck, nothing else.

I bought two board games: Krosmaster Arena (plus 2 expansions) and Asteroyds and then a whole bunch of card games: Abluxxen, Chronicle (from the same designer as Love Letter), Stak Bots, Sail to India and the expansion to Samurai Sword. And I got given Phase 10 for no reason whatsoever.

Gary bought an X-wing and some sort of weird abstract game in the shape of an LP with photos of 80s folk on it. Because... errrrr. I dunno. Ask him.

That's it! What did everyone else do?

Oh and I've just ordered Splendor off Amazon, it was sold out at the Expo.

Buccaneer Bones was also terrible really.
Both games fulfil their roles of mindless dice rolling with no skill. If you like zombie dice, you'll love them.

I'll try and write up everything I played tomorrow but for done reason I'm still awake and need sleep

Quickly though, it was great!

Buccaneer Bones wasn't nearly as bad as Chupacabra, it had a bit of skill in which dice to re-roll. I'd put it on par with Fistful of Penguins. You just didn't like Buccaneer Bones because you lost..

How on earth did you stay up till 2am? You looked like you were going to keel over. Were you playing x-wing?

Yes

What I played:-
Race to the Rhine - not actually a war game more of a resource and supply line thing. It was late we were tired and quite a lot of rules but actually can see it would be really good once we've played a few times. Resources v scarce, hard to move and fought over by Allies but heh that's pretty much exactly what happened
Camel Cup - super fun mix of strategy and a dose of luck. Hated the clunky pyramid for revealing the dice but few moments of hilarity when no dice appeared or all at one time
Sanssouci - the best game I played all weekend (big thanks to Evan for introducing). Tile laying to build a garden, gorgeous ! Bad new is couldn't find it anywhere and can't now find it online so will be relying on Evan to bring down and share the joy
LoW Tournament - yeh lets not talk about that, suffice to say some people don't get that Boardgames are as much about (if not more so) havin a laugh than winning. Yes ok it's was a tournament and I like to win as much as the next person but come on folks no needs to be nobs about it ! That said my mate Fred did come second overall so   

There were of course others but that's the highlights. Monday mornings are normally hard work for me, Monday mornings following an awesome weekend are really hard so much so I'm not going to even pretend to try and work I'm going to focus on hunting down a copy of Sanssouci   

I actually didn't play anything new at all :/

I did get a few games of Resistance in on a table we managed to annexe near the swimming pool but that was about it.

I bought myself Love Letter, Ultimate Werewolf and a Firespray expansion for X-Wing. Also a coupe of Munchkin Deluxe for my wife. Saw a lot of other stuff I was interested in but had to behave

As for the show itself - well it's the first time I'd been to one of these things and I did have a few thoughts. By and large I really enjoyed it... thoughts in no particular order:

- Bring 'n' Buy was a complete waste of time for me - too busy, too hot and a lot of people were seriously optimistic in their pricing of their second hand games - for example one person charging a 25% markup on the game brand new from Amazon for an opened copy. Looked to be in decent nick but still, taking the piss a bit...

- Some of the cosplay was great, some of it was seriously ill-advised

- There was a definite lack of available space to get games going on an ad-hoc basis (trialling new purchases and so on)

- Variety of pricing of games just within the show was surprising (20% swing in prices from stall to stall was not uncommon)

All in all I really enjoyed it. Next year I'd be tempted to do an overnight with a view to spending a day enjoying the show and then grabbing a table first thing on the second day to play some games and then head home mid-late afternoon, but I guess that's a conversation for a few months down the line

Hi,
Many thanks to both Kes and Lizzy for tolerating Chupacabra and Buccaneer Bones - as mentioned at the time, we were looking for very different aspects in the games we were playing!
I will try to join you all at some point in the future, Tuesdays are just a bit tricky for me.
Nice to have met you and thanks for the gaming!

Alex

I was very good and didn't blow my budget. I bought a 30 year old copy of Cosmic Encounter, some X-wing Imperial Aces and Nothing Personal (plus a couple of dice bags for Dice Masters). I didn't get a free game, Lizzy, but I did get a free lolly.

As Dave said, we couldn't get near the gaming tables and so played nothing (until we got home) though we did watch a run through of a Steampunk Rocket building game (the name of which escapes me) where you build a rocket using an interesting bidding mechanism until you finally have a rocket ready to fly, the tension increases as you build up to the climax of the game decided by... A dice roll. Biggest anticlimax ever.

Next year I'm going for at least 2 days, one day will be spent sitting at a gaming table. I ain't shifting, you can all bring me games to play, but I'm not moving. That table is MINE!

Arrived at 11 on Friday with Paul and Kathy. Had a wonder round, finally looked in on the bring and buy which we were able to do because it was early in the weekend. The next day, people were queuing for over an hour to get in there. I accidentally spent £120 on x-wing models, oops. Then, on to gaming! I'll probably miss some stuff here.

Battle Sheep: Basically, 'Hey, That's my Fish!'. I won a lot against some other con goers and then Paul turned up and kept beating me.
Krosmaster Arena: We played it a bit wrong but it was very fun with super cool miniatures. Kathy Won
Cheaty Mages: What Lizzy said is accurate. Faster version of Titan Arena. I won.
Mystery of the Abbey: Very similar to Cluedo. Had some good elements but ended up being really slow and boring. Paul won.
Luchador, Mexican Wrestling Dice: Kinda fun to play but no skill whatsoever. I think they are expanding it to make it more interesting but currently not worth it. I think the Adam and Paul tag team won overall after a 3 games.
Snaps: Kinda like Jenga but with magnets instead of Gravity. Played few times with my friend Bez who I randomly bumped into.
In a Bind: Bez's prototype party game. You play cards on your opponents to put them in more and more difficult positions until they can't physically hold and play their own cards. It's a party game so I can't remember who won.

On Day 2 Lizzy and Gary had arrived so I think my list my list might be identical to hers.
Colosseum: I really enjoyed this and very nearly won but Tom took it in the end.
Maluna Kea: Looked really good when we read the rules, played very different to how I expected but once you got over how fast it is and how much more tactical it is than you expect, it's actually pretty good. I won.
Nowheresville: Realised afterwards that we played this slightly wrong and it would have been a huge amount better played right. Also, more people would be better. I won.
Krosmaster Arena: I didn't play this time, just taught Lizzy and Gary and became responsible for the majority of Lizzy's purchases. They didn't finish though I believe Lizzy was in the lead.
Port Royal: Nice push-your-luck card game. Played with Richard and some people he was with. Didn't catch the name of the guy that won.

Day 3 was much quieter but we were all pretty tired.
Splendor: This was great, really enjoyed it. Thought I was gonna win half way through but Lizzy hogged all the black gems and won.
Alien Frontiers: I've been trying to play this for ages and finally got a chance. I really like all the mechanisms but the fact that you can't plan your turn ahead of time does generate a lot of downtime with nothing at all to do. I won.
Buccaneer Bones: Lizzy won.
Chupacabra: Alex won.
Cheaty Mages: Introduced some new people to the game. I won but I had played before of course.
Fistful of Penguins: Slightly skilled but still basically obvious decision making dice game. I won.
???: Can't remember the name but a stall holder showed Gary and I a game that was like an improved mixture of connect 4 and noughts and crosses. It was actually pretty good. I won.

Some general stuff and other bits.
I managed to blag some free promos for Firefly which I was very pleased with. There weren't nearly as many free promos about as I expected.
We didn't really struggle too much at any point to find table space to play on.
They had this interesting method of grouping people together which was these crappy little British flags. The idea was that if you wanted other people to come join you to play, you stuck a flag on the table. It worked really well on Friday but seemed to drop off after that.
I went to one talk on Board Games Design. It was interesting but was aimed at people who actually wanted to be game designers and I was just interested.
Everyone there was really nice and relaxed. You didn't feel like you constantly needed to watch your stuff and you could basically talk to any person around you about whatever you or they were playing. Even all the staff were volunteers so they all were totally into games as well.
Definitely would like to go next year.

DaveTheCow wrote:Hi,
Many thanks to both Kes and Lizzy for tolerating Chupacabra and Buccaneer Bones - as mentioned at the time, we were looking for very different aspects in the games we were playing!
I will try to join you all at some point in the future, Tuesdays are just a bit tricky for me.
Nice to have met you and thanks for the gaming!

Alex

No worries Alex, it was lovely to meet you and thanks for teaching us some new games. I'm always happy to play new games whether I end up liking them or not!

Sure we'll see you again and do come along if you can.

Lizzy

Bunglebogs wrote:I didn't get a free game, Lizzy, but I did get a free lolly.

It was a shit game so you got the better deal there.

Here are some general thoughts about the expo:

The best thing I got out of the expo was the game library. I got to play a bunch of games that were at the 'on the verge of buying' point of my wish list and that meant I could decide what to buy. Now I've bought an expensive game, confident I'll both like it and have other people to play it with, and not made a costly error in buying Alien Frontiers. Try before you buy is something I need to do more of. No more mountain! So, I really should have gone on Friday when it's quieter and you have more access to the library.

Going on Friday also helps with the bring and buy. It's a great idea, I sold nearly all my stuff and even made a bit of a profit on some of them, so people were buying if you were sensible with your pricing. Checking it in on Saturday morning was a massive chore though so next year I'll take stuff on the Friday. I'll also offer to take any stuff that people want to sell and they're only going on Saturday. Save everyone else the massive queue. It needs to be better organised though, trying to see stuff was stupidly difficult, they needed a lot more space for it than they had.

Tables, I think we were lucky with, there was always one available when we needed one. Saturday during the day was way busier than any other time so that's when it was tricky. They might sort that next year with a bigger venue, we shall see.

The trade fair was a bit disapointing. I didn't get to be demoed anything, everywhere was always busy or demoing games I wasn't interested in. The pricing was a bit hit and miss and pretty high (often higher than amazon), but you could haggle with them. In hindsight we should have bought a whole job lot of x-wing stuff between us and haggled them down, probably would have got a good deal.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it, like Kes said everyone was lovely and friendly. People came over and asked about the games we were playing and it was just a nice atmosphere. Definitely go again next year.

"This is what you could have won..."
I'm defiantly up for next year... I missed out... Happy to go with Jon's suggestion of a big party bus!

Yeah I think organising together more beforehand is a good idea for both travel and games selling, maybe even accommodation.

I think Kes covered all the stuff I played... favourite of the new stuff I tried was Krosmaster.

We ended up buying the Shadows Over Camelot expansion, Amerigo, Castles of Burgundy, Trains and Via Appia. Overall I was quite pleased with the pricing - the stalls I went to in the trade halls were generally on a par with Amazon and we certainly found that if you bought a few things then they'd do you a deal.

Bring 'n' buy was clearly massively more popular than they were expecting. I'm sure they'll switch it to a bigger area next year.

My overall take-away was: if you want to try lots of new games (and you can take the time off) then definitely go on the Friday. There's way more space available and it's easier to get what you want from the library. Our approach was to play games on the Friday and then buy games and go to talks on the Saturday. The two talks we went to (Matt Leacock and then Reiner Knizia) were both interesting though those seminar rooms could do with some air con!

Definitely planning another trip next year

Yes - so I just went on the Saturday this time.... in retrospect I wish I'd gone on the Friday as well to get to play more games.... The bring and Buy was chaos - I spent at least an hour queing up to book in my stuff - and about half an hour checking out at the end - that said It was worth it for me, as the money I made selling old games covered the cost of the three new games I bought.... which were:

SANSSOUCI - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146816/sanssouci
IVOR THE ENGINE - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153238/ivor-the-engine
RISE OF AUGUSTUS - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137297/augustus

All of which are games I can play with my family...

I was hoping I would be able to pick up a copy of MACHI KORO at the expo... but I didn't see it... so I've ordered a copy from amazon.... should be here in a couple of weeks! http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143884/machi-koro

I also got various meeples, cubes and dice bits for the interesting looking post-apocalypse game AMID THE ASHES which I'm in the middle of making a print & play copy of... when it's done I'll bring it down the club. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143521/amid-the-ashes


I pre-ordered SANSSOUCI from Gameslore... it's worth noting that if you pre-order stuff from shops that are doing stalls at the expo, you can save money on postage by collecting the games from the stalls (GamesLore & BoardgameGuru were both doing this... and probably others too)...

I had a great time - Last year was good, but I went by myself. It was really nice this year, knowing that we could all meet up to play games. Next year I'm going for longer.

Oooh, Amid The Ashes looks very interesting!

evan wrote:I was hoping I would be able to pick up a copy of MACHI KORO at the expo... but I didn't see it... so I've ordered a copy from amazon.... should be here in a couple of weeks! http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143884/machi-koro

Oh, Machi Koro! I was hoping to see that as well, but didn't. Will definitely be picking that up.

Yes! It reminds me of the old Catan 2-player card game, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

I enjoyed the expo. Didnt play alot of new games just games in the libary that I wanted to try.

I tthnk krosmaster would be my next purchase but like kes said I think we played it wrong so another round would be good. *nudge lizzy

The worst game was mystery in the abbey. Oh god it was so long and hard to ask a question that the opponents won't know.

I would like to have aanother go at x wing. Kes!

Hi everyone, nice to see you all in brum.

After 9 months without much gaming I think I might have gone a bit mental with so many people selling games in one place. Bought deadzone, clash of cultures, space alert (30 mins before seeing lizzy taking her copy into the b&b) russian railroads, time n space, bohnanza and geistesblitz 2.0. I played demo games of deadzone (which i immediately bought) , rampage (fun but not at that price ta), camelot the build (meh) and the kids version of dobble. I also spent some time in the playtest area which was fun.

All in all i had a great time. If i go next year, i'm there for the duration. It would be nice to go for a lie down about 2 in order to recover for more gaming.

Hopefully i'll be back at the club in the next couple of weeks so see you all then.

Adam - Sure, I'll bring Krosmaster along after I get back from holiday.

Steve - STEEEEEEEVE! Hello. I got a good price for Space Alert in the end so don't worry, you didn't miss a bargain. Deadzone looks pretty cool! I've also had my eye on Time 'n' Space for a while (love real time games), so I'll definitely want to play that. Along with Mice and Mystics of course...