I’ve been to Airecon more times than I can remember; I’ve been going to UKGE since it was just in the Hilton. I can take Essen Spiel, I know how this works – no problem…
I am standing in the holding hall – THE HOLDING HALL – and realise… I know Jack.
To misquote Douglas Adams: Essen Spiel is big… I mean, really big. You thought it was a long way from Asmodee Family to Asmodee Previews at UKGE, but that’s peanuts to Essen Spiel. Listen…
For the uninitiated, Essen Spiel is THE biggest gaming convention in the world, seven (count them!) NEC sized halls filled with TTGs, RPGs, TCGs, FABs (maybe not that last one) being promoted, demoed, displayed and mostly sold by the biggest and brightest names in the analog gaming industry to the eager acolytes of The Hobby. It runs for four days, but I am only here for two of them – I’m not sure if my fragile little brain could cope with any more, and it is only because of the presence of my son that I manage to keep it together. Let the games begin.
Saturday
As said, we’re only here for two days, and if this was any other games convention, that would probably be more than enough, but from looking at the app and seeing the size of the place in real life, I realise that making a plan beforehand of what I want to see or possibly buy was a good plan. The morning has been a bit fraught as I am bamboozled by German public transport (temporarily: once I could find someone who could tell me I was doing the right thing, I was fine, but there weren’t many people around on the Saturday to ask and, despite the so-called teachings of The Owl, my German has been reduced to ‘sprecken sie English’ – thanks for nowt, Duo) but once inside the halls and with space for the masses to mill, it’s not too difficult to find my first port of call – Tax the Rich (sadly, still only a game, but hope springs eternal…). TtR (not to be confused with the other TtR, which I have seen being towed around in a cage surrounded by security for the duration of the convention – possibly for the crime of being a gateway to board game bankruptcy? Who knows…) is a small trick taking game with a cheeky theme around revolution – I may do a review on it at some point, if I can get a copy. Yes, this is a common problem with conventions, FOMOgeddon, but at Essen, it is endemic as this is the place where most new games get released before anywhere else, so if it’s popular… it’s gone.
I do manage to play and buy Bohemians before it is gone, and this is one of the loveliest things about Essen – playing with peeps from everywhere. Me and my son have a lovely demo game with two young men from Italy, and it really is the people that make the play. Bohemians itself is a beautiful deck builder set in late 19th/early 20th century Paris where you play a struggling artist trying to make a name. Part puzzle, part race, part appalling French accents with gorgeous artwork, simple but interesting matching mechanics and the chance to catch syphilis or become addicted to opium as part of the game – how could I resist?
A quick pretzel, and it’s back into the melee. There’s a big Magic and Pokemon presence, but the Magic promo cards have been snapped up in record time and the Pokemon booth is… okay – no sign of the Mega Gengar Ex deck sadly. I try to get a look at Riftbound, but it is ticketed only – and I have no ticket. Never mind, lots more to see.
I manage to get a glimpse of Ada’s Dream, an engine builder from Alley Cat games based loosely on the life of the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, and it looks crunchily complex, but it is also sold out (if you wanted it, you could pre-order it, but with something that size/price, I like to try first) – I do manage to get the vegetarian version of Barbecubes for a friend though. Alley Cat games are certainly eclectic when it comes to game weights. I also manage to pick up a copy of the new Vale of Eternity expansion, Curse, but it is only available for cold hard cash – there go my remaining Euros!
Most of the time we have been in the hobby gamers section, though we have been to the TCG section and the Family game section with the colossal Asmodee stand and other sizeable stands from Haba, Hasbro and Iello et al. It’s time to look at what’s to come… in the kickstarter hall!
I feel a bit safer here, because there’s less chance of me spending money… less, not no. There’s a fun, if overproduced, bluffing game which has ‘loot’ in the title, that we play with four Germans and it is interesting, if curious, to hear the ‘w’ pronounced in sword – so much you take for granted – but it is Believe in Me (please) that my son is really interested in – a game where you create your own religion and try to gather as many followers as possible. They’ve run out of slots for the day by the time we get there, but they book us in for the next day – how thoughtful! We do get a quick go on Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor at Asmodee, but tables are running to a strict time limit so it is very quick and, from the looks of the Asmodee shop queue, if I wanted a copy this weekend, I’d be disappointed.
It’s getting close to closing time, and I am low on social battery, so it’s a quick trip back to the Hobby hall for my son to pick up a copy of Under Our Sun, a post-apocalyptic co-operative/semi co-operative where not everyone may be on the same page, as it were, as they explore the ravaged landscape, searching for artefacts and completing challenges – but to what end? It’s certainly a handsome beast – the end of the world has never looked better.
Time to risk the train again… hopefully I won’t end up in a German transport prison for crimes against the infrastructure (spoilers: I didn’t)…
Sunday
Today, we have a bit more of an idea of what is going on, so we can prepare more rigorously (you don’t get your bags searched for ‘contraband’ – food and drink – on the way in, because if you spend all your money on overpriced drinks, you’re not going to spend it on games – AIRECON, TAKE NOTE) and are well breakfasted thanks to the joys of the Kamps bakery (a German version of Greggs, but much, much better – Puddingpretzel is the bomb). I am also assured that I got the right ticket this time by a woman at the help desk (‘why would you not get to Essen with this ticket?’ she says, puzzled by my lack of logical acceptance) so the journey into Essen is less fraught. The supermarkets are closed on Sunday, so no Super Dikmann today (Rob, you child). There is, however, the exciting prospect of Kolabeer, a magical combination of… cola… and beer.
There seems to be less people here today, and my son is determined to get a promo card (‘drop the shoulder and run,’ I offer helpfully. He gives me a disbelieving look), so he gets to the front of the holding hall in preparation – just a word to Wizards of the Coast: if you are providing promo cards and have separate queues for press/workers and punters, MARK BOTH OF THEM CLEARLY (promo card acquisition prevented due to poor signage – come on, you guys make money hand over fist, don’t get cheap on us with signage). I hang back and take a mosey through the halls, including artists alley (featuring some ‘interesting’ fan-fic pictures of such characters as Loki and Thor) and the stands with board game ephemera such as dice, tables and drinks – I get some very peculiar Lebkuchen mead (which I like but is an acquired taste) and a commemorative dice from Dice Shop Online – “What, this dice? Oh, I got it at Essen Spiel – did I mention I went to Essen Spiel…?” After that, I meet up with a seriously not amused son – see the promo issue – and go to our appointment with faux divinity.
Believe in Me (Please) is some fun – there’s action selection, worker placement, bidding and smiting, plus some additional shouting at passers-by for fun and followers, which gets my son a bonus for me being embarrassing. It’s a tenuous balance between strategy and silliness but scratches and itch that I didn’t know I had. I could be tempted… by the right deity.
Today is definitely a day for shambling and just seeing what’s out there – I check out March of the Ants (sold out, but I do still like the look of the modular ant mechanic – different heads, thoraxes and abdomens do different things), The Presence (an even more gothic combination of Betrayal and Mysterium – also sold out) and Millenia: Tracks of Time (a civilisation game with allll the tracks and a tech drop off mechanic similar to Ancient Wonders) – I am very tempted by Tracks of Time though it makes by brain itch – perhaps if it is discounted later…
We sling around some giant plastic darts for a while (and I manage to rescue a couple from being pocketed by a kleptomaniac konventioner – you’re welcome), which is… harmless short-term fun, but not warranting the over saturation on Facebook. Hey, it’s their money, I guess. It gives me a hankering for something a bit satisfying, though, and I want to try out the new Invincible deck builder (theme developing here? Hey, who went to Essen, you or me? It’s me – I’ll Essen my way, you Essen yours, okay?) On the way, I have a meaningful interaction with Tom Vassal at The Dice Tower stand (Me: What’s this game then? Tom: [game name here] Me: Looks interesting… Tom: I like it…) and son and I set up to play Invincible as Rex Ploder (he’s a douche, but I’ve kinda grown to like him) and Atom Eve. The game is based on Astro Knights, which is based on Aeon’s End, so be warned if you have these already, but if you don’t… and are willing to pay the premium for the Invincible theme… yeah. It’s brutal. We get absolutely mobbed by the first opponent – forget facing off against Viltrumites. It is, however, a different sort of deck builder as, if you are not aware, you don’t shuffle your deck, unless forced to. This means you know what’s coming up next and can prepare yourself for mega-combos. If you don’t get wiped out first. Despite this, I would have probably come home with this… if it wasn’t for the fact that Indie Boards and Cards are running a cash-only store. It’s a bit too late to go running out to find a cash machine, so I suck it up, buttercup. Still, Astro Knights is quite reasonable elsewhere…
The halls are starting to feel significantly less full, as are the stores of the publishers, designers et al. It’s a bit less in your face, and son and I sit down for a quick game of Pyradice, a game that has two players taking turns to pick dice from a pyramidic pile to complete their dice triangle and score points for different categories. It has a Sagrada/Minecraft feel and is pleasingly tactile, but I feel it’s a bit low on player count at two – you can add more players IF you buy another copy of the game. Shame really, as I do like a dice… even if they don’t like me.
The time to depart is nearly upon us. The queues are dwindling, mostly due to the shelves being cleared, (the Asmodee store only has Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor in German, so I will have to pass on that – see previous comments about my expertise in German) and the great over-shopped, over-stimmed and over-whelmed are making their weary way from the halls. The furry mascot has been hung up and the fraulein of the festival has been allowed to return to normal life, as soon will the store holders – there’s a very different kind of anticipation in the air now. As for me, I’m done – it’s been a whole lot of a lot, but it has been good. I will return, maybe not next year as I think that doing this every year might take its toll on my ageing soul, but after I’ve regrouped and prepped… to be continued.
