AireCon 2018
On Saturday, my wife and I drove up to the Harrogate convention centre along with our good friend Charlotte to attend AireCon 2018. This is a three day board game convention with support from CGE, Travelling Man (a chain of FLGS across the north of England) and the UK Games Expo. The event is a little smaller than the UK Games Expo, and has more of an emphasis on not just exhibitors but sitting down and playing games courtesy of the extensive Travelling Man library. There was also a large bring and buy section, a family gaming zone and an area for RPG gamers. We found the atmosphere of the event to be very friendly and welcoming, with lots of people buying and playing games. It was a fun weekend, here’s a little bit of what we got up to while we were at the convention.
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The Exhibitors
The first stand that we came across was Asmodee, who had several games out for people to try. One of their representatives told me about Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, which is a cooperative deckbuilding game in which players play through seven different campaigns, each related to a different book from the Harry Potter series. It looked quite interesting, reminding me a little bit of Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game, and the presentation of the game looks superb. I used to play a lot of deckbuilding games but I haven’t picked one up in a while, maybe this will engage me in the genre again. Next up they had the newest game from the Civilization series called Sid Meier's Civilization: A New Dawn. It’s not the kind of board game that I would typically play, though I have enjoyed the PC series in the past, but they’ve done a great job of making the game look more appealing. Asmodee also had Azul on display which I was hoping to try, but the demo copy got a lot of attention and I didn’t get a chance to try it. I think that I’ll just end up grabbing that one at some point, it’s definitely my kind of game.
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At last year’s UK Games Expo I missed out on the chance to try Ominoes from YAY Games, which ended up winning the award for best abstract game at the convention. This time I tried the game along with Charlotte and two other people from the expo and ended up buying a copy. It was a close game, but Charlotte pulled off a good combo to win the game eventually. Ominoes is a dice driven abstract game with some area control and a bit of luck too, I think that it could be played well with less experienced gamers because the luck element could balance out the skill differences. The next game we ended up looking at is not a new game, but one that draws me in every time that I see it; The Great Fire of London 1666 is a big sprawling eurogame from Richard Denning, who is also of the the director and organiser of the UK Games Expo. It has an enormous board and hundreds of pieces, I’ve liked the look of this one for a while and I’m pretty sure that I’ll add it to my collection eventually.
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Over the years I’ve tried a few games from Ragnar Brothers and have enjoyed a lot of their designs. This year they were promoting Backpacks & Blisters (second edition), which is a re-design of a game originally designed in 1993. The theme of this game really drew me in, which is rambling in England’s Lake District and admiring the beauty of the region. It sounded pretty abstract but it has some really interesting card driven mechanisms and some amazing artwork of the various sights of the Lake District; it’s a part of the country that both my wife and I have a strong connection to. Charlotte ended up picking up a copy of the game and was eager to give it a play. We also got a chance to see a prototype of their new Roman themed game by the name of Quantum Romanum which looked interesting too, hopefully we will see a more completed version at this year’s UK Games Expo. Next up I had another chance to see Softwar from Ben Green, a neon abstract game that uses dice as pawns. I originally looked at this game at last years UK Games Expo, and the design has come along since then; you should see this appearing on Kickstarter later this year. I’m interested in this game so I’ll let you all know when the crowdfunding campaign begins.
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Next we ran into Behrooz Shahriari, aka Bez, at her table. She was inviting as many people as possible to come and draw a cat on a piece of card to stick on the wall, and by the end of the convention the wall was completely covered in cats. This was in aid of Bez’s new game design called Kitty Cataclysm, which we were fortunate to all sit down and play. The game was an enjoyable hand management game with a strong social element and no shortage of cat puns, we all loved it. I bagged a few high scoring cards early in the game and ended up winning fairly comfortably. The game is currently available to back on Kickstarter so please click the link below if you are interested. Bez was also promoting her word game system by the name of Wibbell++, as well as Yogi which is a reimplementation of In a Bind published by Gigamic. We had a great time at your table Bez, looking forward to seeing you again at the UK Games Expo later this year.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/bybez/kitty-cataclysm-chaos-car...
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Czech Games Edition were demoing a few of their titles, including a prototype for a new edition of Vlaada Chvátil’s drawing and guessing party game Pictomania. I didn’t get a chance to try the new version but I have seen the old one play and it’s a hilarious game. You have to simultaneously draw a picture and guess what other people are drawing, and the game rewards players that take their actions quickly. After the huge success of Codenames I’m eager to try some more of Chvatil’s party games. I also had a chance to try a new abstract game due to be Kickstarted called Thieves, a two player game that sees players coordinating four pawns in an effort to take a coin from the centre of the board and maneuver it to their side of the board to win the game. What made this game interesting is that the game’s movement reminded me of Backgammon, in that players roll two dice out of a little cup each turn, the difference being that the two dice had colours on each face showing the direction by which pieces can be moved that turn. I played a game with one of the people representing the game and ended up winning after a fairly long round.
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And finally we had a look at Room 17 Games’s stand and being drawn in by an interesting looking dexterity game. Flicky Spaceships plays exactly as you would imagine it to, flick your little plastic spaceship then collect whatever resource you land on. The resources are then spent upgrading your spaceship and gaining points. The game is active on Kickstarter, so if you’re interested click the link below for more details. We also took a brief look at Museum Rush which is a card driven museum heist game with some great artwork, this one will be Kickstarted a little later this year. The last of the exhibitors that we looked at was Four Elements, which looks kind of like a colourful Carrom variant. Each player plays as a different element and must build a wall out of their pieces to protect their ‘Lord.’ Players then take turns to flick a disk at each other’s pieces in an effort to knock the ‘Lord’ off the table. The game seemed pretty simple and fun, I don’t know if I’d play it over Carrom but I liked it nonetheless. It might be a good way to engage younger players towards games like Carrom.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/room17games/flicky-spaceships
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The Open Gaming Area
After checking out the exhibitors we were eager to sit down and play a few games. Travelling Man had brought a fairly extensive catalogue of games to play, so we started off with a game of Colt Express. This one got a lot of buzz a few years ago, winning the Spiel Des Jahres in 2015. The game has an interesting programmed movement mechanism where players play a series of action cards, some face up and some face down, and have them resolve in order. Sometimes a player can unexpectedly move you from a space early on in a round and mess up the actions that you have chosen to take. Annabelle and Charlotte took great pleasure in shooting the crap out of me and punching me from one cart to another, and Annabelle ended up winning the game by a country mile. I liked the game, but I think that it might be at it’s best with five or six players to add a greater degree of interaction between players.
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I’ve seen quite a lot of people playing Celestia here on the Geek, and we were fortunate enough to buy a copy on sale from one of the vendors. Celestia is essentially a push your luck game in which players gamble on the likelihood of other players passing a series of challenges. Like with Colt Express, the game is probably better with bigger numbers but we enjoyed it anyway, so much that Charlotte ended up going and buying a copy for herself. We played two games, the first one I won and the second Charlotte won. Annabelle was intrigued by the people on the next table playing a round of Tsuro, so I got a copy from the Travelling Man library and taught the others how to play. This is a game that I have never owned, but have ended up playing a few times over the years. Players have tiles that extend the lines on the board and must use those lines to maneuver their piece around without falling off the side; while trying to make the other players either move off the side of the board or move into each other. Charlotte was the first to be eliminated and it was pretty close between Annabelle and I, but in the end I was forced to fall off the side of the board and lose the game.
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After The Convention
It was getting late, so we headed back to Charlotte’s house for a curry, a few drinks and a few more games. I was eager to play my new copy of Tumblin-Dice Medium after wanting the game for quite a while now. The second hand copy had a bunch of extra dice, including D10s and D20s in each player colour. We ended up playing three games and all won a single round. The game was as fun as I thought it would be, I’m so glad that I managed to find a copy. Next up we played a quick round of Battle Sheep, which wasn’t a new game, but one that I’m enjoying quite a lot at the moment. I got quite lucky early in the game, splitting my pieces fairly evenly around the board, and managed to split my whole stack into single spaces. Annabelle was shortly behind me and Charlotte behind her, after having a small stack blocked off early in the game.
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Next up was an abstract game called Callisto which is an improved version of an earlier game called Callisto: The Game. The main change is that the playing area can be modified depending on the number of people playing the game, and that each player has less pieces to play. This is essentially a polyominoes game with an area control element, the game is a bit kinder than others in this genre. I managed to play all of my pieces to win the game. I love this new edition of the game, definitely one that I will be adding to my collection at this year’s UK Games Expo. The last game of the evening turned out to be the best that we had played all night, Annabelle was having a post-curry sleep so Charlotte and I decided to play a two player game of Backpacks & Blisters (second edition). The game sees players trying to scale the various peaks and sights of beauty across England’s Lake District, by playing cards and equipment, and being careful when to eat your chocolate. The game was easy to learn and flowed really well. I ended up taking advantage of the various bus routes to score big and won the game narrowly.
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The Haul
Anyone who has been to a board game convention will know that it’s one of the best places to add new games to your collection. You can buy directly from publishers, from vendors or from the bring and buy section. Here’s what the three of us walked away with.
Celestia and Celestia: A Little Help - An interesting little push-your-luck game, along with an expansion that adds a little more interaction.
Cockroach Salad - Another party game from the makers of Cockroach Poker.
Codinca - An abstract code building game that I first played at last year’s UK Games Expo.
Evolution: The Beginning - A simpler game from the Evolution series of games.
Fleet - My wife loves boats, so any game with a boat in tends to catch her eye.
Highland Clans - An odd little eurogame set in Scotland.
Jin Li - I don’t really know what this is, but it’s from nestorgames and it was only a fiver from the bring and buy.
Kreus - A cooperative card game with great artwork from CMON.
Mammut - We we’re both sold on the woolly mammoth meeple in the box.
Meeple Circus - A great looking meeple stacking game by Matagot.
Ominoes - A dice based abstract game that I tried at the convention.
Polarity - A magnet based dexterity game that I’ve wanted for a while.
Robber Knights - An odd looking tile laying game, this one looks pretty interesting.
Those Pesky Garden Gnomes - I have no idea, I think that we bought it because it had a silly name.
Tumblin-Dice Medium - Annabelle spotted this in the bring and buy, I've wanted a copy for ages.
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And this is what Charlotte picked up from the convention.
3 Wishes - A small card game from Strawberry Studio.
Backpacks & Blisters (second edition) - Rambling in the Lake District simulator from the Ragnar Brothers.
Callisto - An improved version of Reiner Knizia’s superb abstract game.
Celestia - Purchased shortly after playing our copy.
Design Town - A remade version of Flip City which includes expansions.
Dream Islands - An unusual island hopping game with cool looking meeple.
Hanabi - The small cooperative card game that won the Spiel Des Jahres a few years ago.
Ice Cool - One of my favourite dexterity games.
Kingdomino - The most recent winner of the Spiel Des Jahres.
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Our Favourite Game From AireCon 2018 - Backpacks & Blisters (second edition)
Our favourite game of the weekend has to be the new edition of Backpacks and Blisters. The Lake District has a special place for all three of us, and the game has a great balance of strategy and simplicity. I feel like any group could play it and get the same amount of enjoyment, just a shame that I didn’t buy a copy myself. I’ll leave you with a picture of the Geek Refresh Station from the expo toilettes, if only everyone going to the bring and buy had found this! Thanks for reading.
