Wednesday 14 October 2015

Attending the best board games convention in the world!

Anyone who loves board games knows that October is the month of Essen and E.L.F were there once again! Warning this is a big image dump of all the games I demo'd:



Morning sunshine! Rich had a good snooze in the back whilst we crossed France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany!

Squee! Nearing journeys end the weather decided to put Will's confidence to the test by adding rain into the mix of driving on the 'wrong' side of the road!

Epic - the new magic like acrd game from White Wizard Games the makers of Star realms (which had a new base game released to double the cards for Star Realms)

Code Names - teams attempt to get each other to guess the correct words and identify the spies without killing off  innocent bystanders or being killed themselves by the Assassin

504 - a game with three sets of variable mechanics resulting in 504 different games in one! Yes, Will is asleep in the background.

Epic in action! Back at the flat we put it through it's paces. It is like playing a super aggressive version of Magic were you get one (and only one) Mana in per turn but everything is one Mana or less, so no need for those pesky lands.

You have to love an all you can eat continental breakfast!

Dragon Farkle - a push your luck dice game where you recruit armies to hunt down the dragon

Once you have 5,000 troops you can attempt to kill the dragon and if you have the skill (though Nic said luck) you can replicate my winning strategy of rolling exactly what you need on the minimum number of dice!
Once you have 5,000 troops you can attempt to kill the dragon and if you have the skill (though Nic said luck) you can replicate my winning strategy of rolling exactly what you need on the minimum number of dice!
Skylines - ever wanted to build a city out of a box? Then this game is for you!

Why is Rich putting dice on his nose? Well...

...he was playing Dungeon Fighter! A co-op game where you have been banished to the King's Dungeon and must prove your skill by fighting your way free. To do so you need to roll dice onto a board to hit the target. It is a hell of a lot harder than it looks! 
Hare and the Tortoise - a race game where you bet on the winners and then use your cards to get them to move a long the track. Fast and full of surprises it game a favourite of the trip very quickly.

Pandemic Legacy - an improvement on the original and I love the idea of finally getting to officially name the diseases!

Sons ofAnarchy - you know a game is good when players who really dislike the show really enjoy the game (i'm looking at you Will!)

Will, Rich and I in a gun fight for the right to control a lucrative 'business' opportunity.

Gigamon - a matching pairs game that uses little and large monsters, sounds a bit simple but thanks to the mixture of abilities for each of the monsters it becomes very entertaining as you attempt to steal the large monsters from each other. 

Warehouse 51 - take the auction mechanic from Sparticus and add in all the crazy mythical items from  Sci-fi and Fantasy and you have what was probably the surprise hit of the Spiel.

Fun Forges demo team all wore kimonos!

5...4...3...2...1... Thunderbirds are go! No seriously it is a great game, it plays better than Pandemic as I always found the need to be in the same city to exchange research a massive pain.

Crokinole - Nic's introductory game, the company were so great they gave me a discount on the bag for my board as Amanda had bought the board from them from Amazon earlier in the year!

Dino twist - A fun pairing collecting type game. It was a shame they didn't sell the mats but they gave away a promo, the artist drew a design inside the box and the designer signed it too!
Titan Race - another game from Fun Forge and this one is pretty much Mario Kart the board game! Random movement done properly as you draft the rolled dice so you get a choice each turn but it varies. Add in the ability to beat the snot out of each other then you have an instant classic.
Tail feathers - I haven't played it yet (but I bought it the first day!). Mice and Mystics skirmish game on birds, what more do you need?
Coup Rebellion - an updated version of Coup which has the potential to increase the reparability but also hikes up the cost. For the amount of times I've played coup I think I'm ok with the original version.
Sapiens - I was not convinced by the look of the game as we sat down as the last players left it in a right mess but it was actually really fun. Think super aggressive dominoes with wandering bears!
It couldn't have been a more different journey back, beautiful sunshine and clear roads.

An early ferry meant we got home in time to get some sleep before work on Monday! 
Another great trip to Essen and some brilliant games played and bought. Thanks again to Will and Nic for organising everything.

4 comments:

  1. Glad someone remembered to take snaps. id genuinely forgotten about dungeon fighter!

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    1. I was surprised at how many games we bought from those we demo'd. Not sure if it was the drive but I found the walking around pretty tiring and didn't fancy standing around for demos after midday.

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    2. i partly agree, but i think id have demoed a lot more games if you could book a slot. theres quite a few i had an eye on but never saw a free table so never bothered.

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  2. Woop, awesome post! Sounds like you bought all the games you enjoyed demoing, looking forward to trying some :) might start saving now to join you all for 2016!

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