Monday, June 16, 2014

UK Games Expo 2014--Overview

A small interruption in the Normandy postings for a couple of posts on the board game expo I and the family attended in May/June 2014.

This year, the rest of the family came with me to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham. The turnout was much larger than last year, resulting in crowded exhibition halls and lines for food and the buy and trade room.

One of the exhibition halls on Saturday

We drove down on Friday and I went to the first day on my own. I dropped some games in the Buy and Trade room which took a little while. The in-processing line was long. After offering my games for sale, I wandered through the table to see if there were any bargains. I picked up Maori for £8 and Lord of the Fries for £15. Most of our old games went on to new homes. I picked up cash on Sunday for the games that sold (one or two were of no interest to others, either).

I played enough games during the expo that they will get their own post later. I did see some amazing play areas for miniatures games including one set in an alternate 1930s England where Edward VIII did not abdicate when he married a divorced woman, sparking a civil war. Another had a British village about to be attacked by Vikings!

A Very British Civil War set

Viking raid game

Futuristic dystopia?

Some miniatures were definitely oversized, like this Star Trek Attack Wing game in one of the exhibit halls.

Star Trek Attack Wing, not the table-top version

The Expo featured lots of competitions. I watched a bit of the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures tournament, which didn't look as flashy as the Star Trek set up.

X-Wing competitors

I did see some people selling Viking goods. I would have put them in the Cosplay post (which will come soon), but they weren't wandering around like the other "dressed up" people.

Viking merchants

Across from the Vikings was a display of science fiction and fantasy props, including a Tribble from Star Trek. J and L loved petting the little fur ball, which responded by vibrating soothingly.

Tribble with J and L

The funniest thing I saw at a booth was a label on the game Caverna, which is about dwarves farming and mining their homestead. The game includes little wooden sheep, horses, dogs, cows, wheat, pumpkins, ore, stone, etc. etc. Naturally one retailer wanted to warn his customers:

Two labels on the box to say...

Caveat emptor!

More on the expo in tomorrow's post!

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