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Despite
playing German or 'Euro' style board games on and off for nearly 25
years I'd never been to the Essen Board game fair. Now that I live in
the South of England it's a lot easier to get to so this year I decided
to go. I could have got a cheap flight from Gatwick but having enjoyed
a trip on the Eurostar to Paris earlier in the year I thought I'd give
the train a go, not the cheapest way to get there or the quickest but
very enjoyable.
I
drove to Ashford and caught the Eurostar to Brussels, then a Thalys
train (the red one) to Cologne and finally an ICE train to Essen. The
total traveling time on the train was just under 5hrs but I had to wait
for connections etc which put the the door to door time up to around
8 or 9 hours, so not the quickest journey but it certainly made for
an interesting one and I didn't get bored at all.
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I
got to do a little sight seeing on the way, here's me outside Cologne
Cathedral. |
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not too difficult really as it was just outside the station, you
couldn't miss it. |
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If
you've never heard of the Essen game fair before it's very large
show where the game publishers, mostly German, show off their
new and current games, this year there were over 350 new games
and it attracts around 150,000 people over the 4 days so it's
pretty big.
The German games market is very different than here in the UK,
playing board games is a family activity and most games are designed
that way, shortish playing times, no-one gets eliminated halfway
through and straight forward game play that kids can understand
but doesn't insult the intelligence of the adults. None of the
6 hour boxing day Monopoly marathons that I can remember from
my childhood!
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got to the exhibition hall at around 9.30 on the Thursday morning,
but one thing that struck me as odd was the fact that there was
no one in the tube station when I caught my train, this station
was one stop from the centre of town, where was everyone? |
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I
have no idea where everyone was, in the UK at 9.15 in the morning
the underground would be packed |
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was expecting massive queues but it wasn't too bad, 10mins to buy
a ticket and another 10mins wait to get in the hall. It got a lot
busier later in the day. |
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First
stop was the Winsome and Warfrog stands, I'd pre-ordered the Winsome
Essen pack which needed to be picked up before 12 and I also wanted
to check out Byzantium the new Warfrog game. It looked really
interesting but as I knew that 2 of my games group were buying
a copy I decided not to bother.
Martin
Wallace teaching
Byzantium on the Warfrog stand |
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The
Winsome Stand |
Then
I decided to have a look around some of the shops and second hand
game traders. I don't think I've seen so many games in my life!
I bought a few of the games that I had on my list but didn't want
to weigh my bag down to much at the begining of the day.
One
of the second hand game stalls |
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More
second hand games |
At
lunchtime I met up with Steve, Joe, Mike, Luke and Fiske, we compared
notes on purchases and games that were worth checking out. We decided
to play the new Hans Im Gluck game Hazienda, there were no tables free
so we found a piece of empty floor and grabbed a copy of the game (I
can't remember the last time I played a game on the floor!) Not bad,
it's an area control/tile placement game driven by cards. At first we
weren't too impressed but realised that it did have potential although
it was a little 'dry'. I didn't buy it as I think Steve was going to
get copy and as I would probably only play it with him and the rest
of the group there seemed little point. Next we managed to nab a table
and try out Angkor, a bit light and over very quick (quite a good thing
really) and a bit too much of a 'take that, no, you take that' game
and the board was a bit plasticky.
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You
could hear the knees creaking in the next hall! |
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table at last, game was a bit pants tho. |
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Back
at the hotel we had a nice meal, typically German with lots of meat,
cleared the table and played Aloha! by Cwali games. Nobody seemed
to like it very much, too many rules governing where you put the
tiles made it very luck driven, shame really as it looked nice. |
The
next day we all checked out some of the games we'd been hearing
about and bought a few more.
Steve
checking out Sienna |
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Not
often you get taught a game by a pixie! |
This
stand just sold dice, I didn't realise there were so many different
types. |
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...and
this stand just sold wooden dobbers (that's game pieces to you) |
The
Fragor Games stand.
Shear Panic had sold out before the show started, a friend of
mine has managed to order a copy of it so I'll look forward to
giving it a go soon. |
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It's
huge! This is the much talked about Railroad Tycoon, it's a beautiful
looking game but it's so big it won't fit on my table at home. |
Luke
and I managed to grab a table on the Rio Grande/Abacus stand and
have a go at Techno Witches, hmm... didn't like it at all. Then
we got a game of the new version of Oltre Mare with a couple of
German blokes, it's a really good game and I was very tempted
to get a copy of it, but I already have the original so that should
keep me happy for a while.
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After
that I grabbed a copy of Durch die Wuste form one of the enormous
games shops collected my suitcase from the cloak room and headed
off to catch my train. |
The
Essen haul
This
is what I managed to squeeze into my case, not a great deal really as
I could of bought a lot more as the low prices were very tempting. But
I had to be sensible (no really), between myself and my friends I think
we managed to get a least 1 copy of all the games we want to play over
the coming months. I really enjoyed my first trip to Essen and I will
be going again, maybe not next year but definately the year after.
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