The games

The highlight of any convention for me is the people, but you’re probably not here for that. You want to know about the games, right? This year was a mix of new and old games for me, and here they are. Note that some of these will be getting full reviews in the not-too-distant future, so these synopses will be kinda short.

Castle Combo

The first game was a good recent one. Castle Combo is a cute, easy-to-explain tableau builder. Claim a total of 9 cards from the market in the middle of the table, each of which has a scoring condition. The aim is to get as many of those scoring conditions to depend on the other cards in your tableau. In an ideal world that’s 9 chances to score. It’s quick, the iconography is great, and there’s a surprisingly wide decision space for a game of nine limited turns. Good stuff.

Courtisans

Another quick and easy game we played at the bar, and one of my favourite small games this year. So much so that I played it multiple times over the weekend. There are six suits of cards in play. On your turn you play one to your own area, one to any other player, and one to the queen’s table in the middle. Essentially you’re trying to influence which suits are esteemed and which have fallen from grace, bumping the score for you and hindering your opponents. Quick with gorgeous cards, good times.

Lords of Vegas

The venerable Lords of Vegas is still relevant, moreso now than recently thanks to the crowdfunded reprint. I took it along and played it with three others, and we had an absolute blast. Laughing, groaning, cheering and absolute involvement from everyone. You get surprisingly attached to your little cardboard casinos, and there are few things in board games as satisfying as having a single die involved in rerolling a huge casino and winning ownership of it. A modern classic and no mistake.

Cascadero

I’ve already sung the praises of Cascadero. You can read my review right here. I love introducing new players to it because the concept of the game is so simple, but it offers so much choice in what becomes a cross between a network-builder and a race. More Knizia genius, but not the last of the weekend…

Shackleton Base

I have a full review of this coming soon, so I won’t dwell too long. I taught this to three new players and everyone had a great time. The shared map you build on combined with multi-use astronauts is great, and while it feels a lot like a traditional Euro game, the area control is so interestingly done, using intercepting lines and checking for dominance. It’s really, really good, and I’ll expand on why soon.

Flip 7

This was new to me, and I’d heard a lot of good things, so I actually bought this from Games Lore’s stand at the convention before I played it. I even fell foul of FOMO from time to time. It’s a really simple push-your-luck game. the deck has one 1-value card, two 2s, three 3s etc etc. Your turn is as simple as stick or twist, knowing that being dealt a second card matching one you already have means you bust. Get to 200 points and you win. That simple premise with some modifier and action cards makes for a really quick, enjoyable example of pure push-your-luck.

The Great Library

This one was a bit special. Vital Lacerda is one of my favourite designers (check out my reviews of The Gallerist and On Mars). Last year he brought a prototype of Speakeasy, and this year it was Great Library. Set around the fabled great library at Alexandria, it’s a heavy, cleverly-integrated euro game which uses time as a resource. Despite managing to dig myself into a hole, I had a great time with the game and can’t wait to see what the final game looks like with Ian O’Tooles artwork on it. Big thanks to the man himself for taking the time to teach us the game.

7 Empires

I love Mac Gerdts’ games, so seeing his name on the front of a PD Verlag box was very exciting. 7 Empires looks like Imperial, but is very definitely its own game. It’s another of those games where nobody directly controls any one empire directly (although they do at times), and you’re trying to influence what the map looks like when the game ends, and how much of a stake you have in each of them. Despite playing at two players we really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to trying it with more people.

Arcs

You already know how much I like Arcs if you read my review. I got the chance to play with three experienced players for the first time, and we had a blast. It was the usual chaos which came down to all three ambitions being declared for trophies in the final act. Cue a lot of space fisticuffs and despite losing (handy hint: if you swoop in with a massive fleet, make sure you get to act first in the next round…), I had a great time and made some new friends. Good times.

Hegemony

Hoo boy, it’d been a long time since I played this, so I was glad to be given The State to play as. We had a new player so there was a long teach, which meant we met at 2pm and put the game away at 8pm. Five hours of game flew by though, and it was fantastic. It’s such a shame that the theme and explaining of the game can seem too dry to so many people that they’ll deny themselves the chance to play an extraordinary game.

Pixies

Pixies was a surprise to me. Another 3×3 card tableau builder in a tiny box. The scoring options are really interesting and it gives you turns where you have to choose between benefitting yourself and denying someone else what they want. It’s cute, it’s clever, and I’ll definitely be looking for a copy for my convention bag.

Cities

Cities is another game about making a 3×3 grid in front of yourself. This one is about creating a little bit of a city in front of yourself, choose the tiles which represent the buildings, parks, and water, then adding little plastic houses and other decorations to increase their scoring potential. It does the little things correctly, making you choose between which row you want to pick from first, knowing someone else is bound to jump on the think you want on a different row. I really like the way you pick up an extra end-of-game scoring card in every round too. My second-favourite surprise of the convention.

Rebirth

Finishing things up with the second Knizia game of the weekend, and my favourite new game – Rebirth. This one got its hooks into me instantly. Placing farms and buildings one at a time, trying to make long chains while messing with the other players’ chains. Majority control of castles offers more opportunities for scoring, building next to cathedrals gives you more personal scoring objectives, etc. And that’s just on the Scotland side of the board, let alone Ireland on the other side. It’s a winner and I’ll be picking up a copy as soon as I get the chance.

The people

As much as I love playing games for hours, days at a time, it’s the people that make a convention what it is, and GridCon is the perfect example of this. I’m fortunate in that I’ve been to the last four in a row, so when I head to Taunton in November it’s to catch up with old friends and to make new ones. Getting a hug from a friend from hundreds or even thousands of miles away who you haven’t seen for a year is special.

I caught up with people I play games with on BGA and talk to every day on Slack from the USA, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands, Malta and more besides, as well as those closer to home. The sense of belonging to a community is something I think many people need in their lives, and I’m very fortunate to have that in spades.

I laughed, yawned, groaned and cheered with friends. I sat and ate breakfast in a post-slumber stupor with people I barely knew. I chilled at the bar with like-minded people who just wanted to be around people like them, and it was wonderful. It’s the perfect antidote to the way everyday life can grind you down without you even realising it’s happening.

I want to say thanks to lots of different people. To (and I’m going to forget names here, so forgive me) Chris, Bob, Mark L, Krissie, Brett, Tobias, Andy, Mike, Joe, Ian, Matt, Mak, Alex, Glenn, Mark B, Neil, Albert, Paul, Lee, David, Willem, Mark M, JP, Rob, Becky, Kerley, Adrian, Ayden, Scott, Elaine, Marton and the many others who chatted or played games with me over the weekend.

Thank you to Paul and Vicky for organising the event down to the nth degree every year, and to the team of volunteers who help the whole thing run as smooth as a crokinole board. To everyone who chipped into the raffle and helped raise nearly £7,000 for charity. To the hotel staff who were always helpful, happy and patient despite the onslaught of hungry and thirsty nerds.

If you’ve never been to a convention before, find yourself a smaller play-focused con like GridCon and experience first-hand what it is to be accepted and welcomed into this wonderful hobby.

Same time, next year everybody?

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GridCon is an annual board game convention held in the South-West of the UK. It just so happens that I a) live a couple of hours down the road from it, and b) am a Patreon supporter of the organiser, Paul Grogan, so there was no way I wasn’t going back this year.

When it comes to conventions there are two main types. Some of them have a very heavy commercial presence. There are sponsors wherever you look, and halls of vendors, designers, and publishers showing and selling their wares. Think of events like UK Games Expo (my report of this year’s is here), Essen Spiel, GenCon, PAXU.

On the flip side, you have the ‘play’ style conventions. These conventions are all about playing the games you already own. Most have a much higher proportion of open gaming spaces – tables where you can just rock-up with your games, and play to your heart’s content. These are usually smaller events, such as BayCon, KCon, and AireCon (here’s another write-up of this year’s event).

GridCon sits firmly in the latter. There’s only one retailer in attendance (Games Lore), and even then they only had one table in the corner of one of the rooms. If you want to spend money, your best bet is the bring-and-buy.

My time at GridCon 3

Thursday

I had been eagerly looking forward to GridCon all year. Paul runs Gaming Rules!, a YouTube channel which specialises in how-to-play tutorial videos for board games. As a Patreon supporter of his, I have access to the supporters’ Slack server, where I chat daily, and where I’ve made quite a few good friends. GridCon is a chance for lots of us to get together in person, so the excitement has been building there for months now.

After a detour on the way up to help Paul and Vicky (Paul’s partner) cart some boxes over to the venue, and after checking into my Airbnb home for the weekend, I headed to the hotel hosting the convention and caught up with old friends, including Mark and Andrew who’d travelled all the way over from Malta just for the event. It’s worth mentioning early, and I’ll almost certainly repeat myself, but the most pleasure I get from a convention is the time spent with good people. It’s incredibly good for my mental health, and I’m sure it does the same for others.

We shared a few beers, hugs and laughs, then settled in for a multiple-hour game of Food Chain Magnate. It was my first time playing one of Splotter’s games in person, but it certainly won’t be my last. What I remember of it was very good: cutthroat, tactical, and a surprisingly light ruleset for what is a heavy game. Tiredness (and maybe beer and cider) got the better of me, and I headed back to my room, ready for the start of GridCon proper.

Friday

On Friday morning I treated myself to that most extravagant of breakfasts – a Subway from the petrol station – and arrived to see a packed hotel bar, full of eager and excited board game fans. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first convention, or your fiftieth, the feeling of anticipation combined with excitement doesn’t fade. It’s a special feeling.

After the doors opened at 9am, the rest of the day was a bit of a blur. I got in a game of Scout before a scheduled teach + play of Unconscious Mind, which was excellent. Keep an eye out for that one, which is on Kickstarter at the time of writing. From there, straight over to a game of Pingyao: First Chinese Banks which I organised. By that point, it was late in the afternoon, and what I should have done is take a break for some food and rest. Instead, I agreed to a four-player game of Beyond The Sun, which was great.

Now, while it’s not exactly a hardship to be away from home, playing games for a few days, by the time the sun goes down, you can feel pretty spent. Your brain gets frazzled, and you’ll probably want to stretch your legs and move around. I just wanted something to eat, a cold beer, and an hour not thinking – which is exactly got. The food at the Holiday Inn which hosted the con was tasty and hot, even if it did take a long time to order sometimes.

From there I just milled around with friends, chatted, caught-up with people, and then had a game of Hadrian’s Wall (review here, the best flip-and-write game available). There’s a lovely feeling towards the end of the night at a convention like this, where the buzz of the day quietens and those with the stamina to keep going, retire to the bar and restaurant area to play quietly under lamps. It’s times like this where the sense of belonging really hits hard.

Saturday

First thing on Saturday morning, I’d booked out one of the ‘Hot games’ on offer, fresh from Essen. As soon as I saw Uwe Rosenberg had a new game out, I knew I had to try it, and Atiwa did not disappoint. I won’t go into too much detail, because I fully expect to be reviewing it before took long. Let’s just say that even after a single play, I think it might be my game of the year.

Thanks to a 6:30 am start to the day (I watched the England women’s Rugby Union team take on New Zealand in the world cup final – so close, girls!) I was already fading, so I headed off to the restaurant to grab some food and a coffee, and to watch the huge game of Dark Ages going on in there. They’d commandeered three or four tables to set it all up – a truly epic undertaking.

After that came the game I was looking forward to most all weekend, a four-player game of Cuba Libre. I’ve reviewed other COIN games here before (Gandhi and All Bridges Burning), and Cuba Libre is another example of how good they can be. Part of my excitement was for the game, the other part because I knew I was going to play with friends from Slack, including Peter, and George, who flew in from Greece for the weekend!

Sadly, my GridCon came to an end after four hours of trying to control Cuba. It was time for me to say my goodbyes, get in my car, and drive home. I get so exhausted at these gatherings that I need a full day to recharge before going back to work, and I had to work on Monday. I can get a bit emotional when good things end and I have to say goodbye to friends, not knowing the next time I’ll see them, so apologies to anyone I missed, or if I seemed like I was rushing off.

In review

I sit here writing this on Sunday, the day after my GridCon came to an end. There’s a really funny feeling that lingers for a day or two after a good convention – and this was a great convention. Your brain feels fuzzy, your heart feels full, and it’s an all-around life-affirming thing. A good convention is incredibly good for your mental health, as long as you can mitigate any triggers for you before going. If you suffer from social anxiety for example, then it’s handy to get there ahead of time and watch the place slowly fill up around you, instead of opening the door and walking in on a couple of hundred attendees.

I had a truly wonderful time. Not because of the games I played, the place I played in, or even the people there. It sounds trite, but it truly is an example of something being greater than the sum of its parts. I mean, I’ve not even touched on things like the ridiculous pile of games donated to the charity raffle, which itself raised thousands of pounds. Nor did I talk about world-famous designer Vital Lacerda coming along to teach his new game to a select group of people, and he was only one of many designers in attendance. I didn’t mention the well-stocked games library, all available to play for free, or the chances to play huge new games, months before others will get a chance to.

Even without including all of that, it was still an outstanding time. It was (for me) three days of good people having good times. If you have never been to a games convention before, and you’re on the fence about it, please go, and go to one like GridCon. Go to something local, focused on the games. Every single person was made to feel as welcome as if they were family, regardless of their skin colour, age, ability, nationality, beliefs, gender or orientation. It’s a big, incredibly diverse group of people, stepping outside of the demands of real life for a few days, for a break they all deserve.

Long may it continue.

Special thanks

I just want to name-check some people who helped make it as special as it was for me. First and foremost I want to thank Paul & Vicky, who organised and ran the event. There’s a crazy amount of time and energy that goes into it, and it really showed. Without them, there’d be no GridCon to go to. The staff at the Holiday Inn were amazing too, very patient, friendly, and accommodating. They still managed a smile even when there was a big queue at the bar, and when they ran out of glasses and drinks! What can I say – we know how to have a good time.

I want to thank my friends, new and old, who spent some time with me. These include, but are not limited to: Andrew and Mark, who made the trip from Malta, along with George who flew in from Greece, and had to miss a game to work from his hotel room. Mark P, Jill, Peter, John(s), Mark L, Lee, Alex, Natalie, Leanne, Ian, Emma, Scott, Paul R, Paul M, JP, Ian, Monique, Tom, Matt, Márton, Jonathan, Tim, Luke, Rick, Bob, Becky, Vic, Carl, Joe, Maddie, and anyone else whose name I’ve forgotten. Also to Lyndsey and Piran the Beagle, my hosts for my stay.

It was nourishment for the heart, mind, and soul. For now, I feel sated, but already I can’t wait to see my chosen extended family again.

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