And that was UKGE 2022

It’s the day after UKGE 2022.

Three exhausting, yet amazing days surrounded by board games, and the awesome people that make them and play them.

Here are the highlights of our time there.

DAY ONE

We arrived at out hotel just before 9am, after leaving our house at 6am. Traffic was much more forgiving than last years four and a half hour slog (where we passed three major accidents on our route). We met up with our friends who had arrived the night before to find they’d already got our tickets. This allowed us to walk straight in.

And what a sight.

This is our second UKGE, after the scaled down and quieter 2021 show. In a way, I’m glad we did the softer version first, as this would have been quite overwhelming. It may be seen as odd that I’d go to something this big as I struggle in crowds. But it’s the church of UK board gaming and I wanted to experience it.

First we walked around to see what we could see. We eyeballed stalls we were interested in and found amenities we’d need over the weekend.

While I trailed my friends, I was also planning meetups with fellow Instagramers. I had some ButtonShy wallets I no longer needed and had organised handovers to those that wanted to take them off my hands. So I met Mark (@diceinthedark), Kay (@kay_plays_games) and Sarah (@boardgamesinaminute). Three super nice people.

As well as crowds, I struggle meeting people in real life. So this morning was quite the challenge. But it all became much easier once I was face to face with the folks I’d chatted with and followed on social media for some time.

With all that done by midday, we grabbed some lunch and settled down to play CENTURY: SPICE ROAD. My girlfriend and I have played a lot of the Golem Edition, so it was easy to get this down and quickly teach our two friends. And as we only normally play just the two of us, it was nice to experience it as a 4-player game. Needless to say, I came last.

The afternoon was spent shopping around. Mostly dice (we each have an obsession at the moment), though we did grab a few new games too.

And then we hit the low point of our day. Already tired, but hoping to get an early dinner before the rush kicked in, we grabbed our purchases from the Shop & Drop only to find that three items were missing. Two were found in the neighbouring box, but a dice set my friend purchased was never recovered. And we were told that nothing could be done.

Already on a downer, we headed over to TGI Fridays where we’d reserved a table for 6pm. This didn’t go well either. With the convention, plus half term, and the added complication of some stock deliveries not turning up, we ended up with a long wait, lack of choice, and cold meals. We didn’t end up eating much. But one stand out member of staff, plus a very polite and caring manager, meant we left without having to pay for the drinks or cold starters.

Heads hung low, we headed back to Hall 3 and used the UKGE library to cheer ourselves up.

We had a fun session of MEDIUM, where it looked like it would be a dud, until on the fifth turn, my friend and I matched on the second guess, and then we all suddenly started to get good at mind reading.

We ended the evening with a 4-player version of SANTORINI. I hear that this is a fantastic 2-player game, and one day I hope to try that player count instead. For 4-player, it just didn’t work. We played two games of it back to back but it didn’t gel well.

After that, we were so tired, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

HIGHLIGHT OF DAY ONE: Playing a giant version of KING OF TOKYO. I want this!

DAY TWO

With no early rise and long drive, we got a more relaxing start to day two.

We had more of a plan on this second day, after being kids in a candy store on the previous day. There were games and accessories we were hunting for, and stalls we wanted to get to.

The first thing on the agenda was meeting the brillant creative duo behind Cogito Ergo Meeple, the team responsible for PHILOSOPHIA: FLOATING WORLD (one of the best looking games in our collection) and recent kickstarter SOLAR 175.

While a campaign space game like SOLAR 175 might be a difficult game to demo, espacially at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, we were fortunate enough that they we showing a spin off game set in the same universe. GONZA INDEX, a dice rolling, stock trading, back stabbing game, is an easy teach with a short play time.

It was mere minutes before we were off, and it became apparent quite quickly that I would once again become the target to my ‘friends’. My stocks were manipulated so that I was staring down the barrel of negative points, while the others were looking like they would end the game rich beyond their wildest dreams.

All joking aside, we’re really looking forward to playing this again when my Kickstarter arrives early next year.

After that there was more shopping (even more dice where purchased!), and then we sat down for some lunch and played a game that none of us had ever heard of.

FRUTTI DI MARE is a battle game where players are controlling seafood across a plate of spagetti. I kid you not. My girlfriend liked the cover, and the player count and play time was good, so we gave it a go. And while we might never own this game, damnit if it wasn’t a great laugh. You earn coin to recruit creatures which you use to attack the others while trying to get your King Crab to the centre. It’s crazy, but it works. Would never say no to a game of this.

After that we tried ORIFLAMME, a game I own, but still haven’t got off our Shelf Of Shame. Playing cards in a line, trying to earn points, or deciding to reveal your card and carry out its effect. It has a clever mechanic where you’re trying to place your card in the optimum postion in the chain as the cards are resolved from left to right. Really enjoyed it (despite missing out the stacking rule – whoops). Glad we own it as it went down well.

The afternoon was a return to walking around and shopping. And it ended up containing the low light and the highlight of the second day.

With my anxiety getting the better of me, plus not eating as much as I should have, I may have gotten more than a little light headed as we passed Kosmos. I managed to grab their stand and steady myself before lowering myself slowly to the ground. And bless my friends who immediately protected me and took care of me. As did the nice staff member at the Kosmos stand who offered me a seat, or water, or a sandwich, and finally a Sprite. I remained light headed on/off for the rest of the day, so we took things a little easier.

But the highlight was almost right around the corner as we wandered over to the Funforge tables and managed to play a game of TOKAIDO DUO. I’m already a big big fan of the original, as well as 2-player only games, so this version feels like it’s made for me. And as an extra cherry on top, I got my first win of the convention.

As the evening closed in we headed to Five Guys for some dinner. It all went much better this time, or though we did witness an interesting rendition of ‘kids fighting’ as one group harassed another with taunting and stone throwing. Luckily security were on it, and other than a broken window, no one was hurt.

With the drama over, we headed back and started to play some games.

While I was prepping 7 WONDERS, and had my head deep in the rule book trying to refresh myself, a gentleman by the name of Karl approached and asked if he could join us. While he wasn’t applying for a position with us, his knowledge of the game we were about to try, with the added gusto to take over the teach to my friends, saw us all unanimously vote him to the table. I still wasn’t feeling 100%, so I saw his arrival as a sign. And he did a great job. And when the game was done, he tipped his cap, and was up and off in search of his next mission.

After that we got stuck into the small box dexterity game that is TINDERBLOX. This is an evil little game where you draw cards that instruct what pieces you need to place on the camp fire and which hand to use. The game is short, so several plays were needed, and it’s a great laugh. One of my girlfriends turns nearly saw a flame cube leave the atmosphere as the tweezers slipped. Would make a good filler game.

Next up, my friends did me a favour and let me get ARLUKKACHASE to the table. This is a demo that was passed on to me. It has EXPLODING KITTENS like mechanics to it, but a completely different style. My last trial of it seemed to get stuck in a loop and we quit after 40 minuutes. This time we did get a winner. I’ll write more about this one in a breakdown in the future.

More card game fun was required, and my girlfriend returned with POINT SALAD. This is such an easy game to teach, though we are both finding that the people we teach always beat us. And this continued the tradition.

We ended Saturday night with a game my girlfriend has been wanting to try for ages. We enjoy the original AZUL, and absolutly love AZUL: STAINED GLASS OF SINTRA. But we’ve only played those two. So when I saw AZUL: SUMMER PAVILION, I grabbed it so fast, I nearly gave a guy a heart attack as I appeared from nowhere to his left, and disappeared almost as quickly.

Thankfully we’re all well versed in the first two games of the series, so it mades the teach a little easier. That being said, I definitely fluffed a few rules (which I discovered while watching a Meeple Universtity video the next morning). Will want to give it another go, and we’re currently hunting down AZUL: QUEENS GARDEN to complete the set.

By the end of that play we were all struggling to keep our eyes open, and so we headed back to the hotel for our final sleep.

One more day to go.

HIGHLIGHT OF DAY TWO: Having our first play of TOKAIDO DUO. This will be a day one purchase.

DAY THREE

This was the sortest day for us. We didn’t rush to get in. We didn’t walk around as much. It was all about tying up lose ends. I needed some time to myself and so went on a final wander around lunch time. My friends hung out in Hall 3 playing DIXIT, and trying out new purchase BANG! THE DICE GAME. When I returned from my travels a few £££ lighter, and a few games heavier, we settled down for a game of DICE FORGE before calling it a day and heading back to our cars.

We left around 3pm and the drive home was as smooth as the drive up on Friday. No bad food. No troubled youths. No me almost passing out. A quite day.

HIGHLIGHT OF DAY THREE: Finding an awesome blue eyeball dice!

NEW BOARD GAMES ROUND UP

And now to look at our new purchases of the weekend.

IKI was the first game I picked up, probably within the first 45 minutes. Heard good things about it and we’re suckers for Japanese themed games.

HASHI was picked up by my girlfriend as it falls into Japanese themed games and is also a Roll ‘n’ Write, a genre which we’re a little addicted to at the moment.

GET ON BOARD: NEW YORK & LONDON was next. I got seperated from my friends briefly, and when I found them again, my bank account was a little lighter and this game had mysteriously appeared in my hand. The purchasing was going better than last years day one.

LONG SHOT: THE DICE GAME has been very popular since the Shut Up & Sit Down review and we were fortunate to find a copy.

STAR REALMS Expansions were added to our collection. We love the base game, and last year I picked up the Big Box, Colonies, Frontiers, and a bunch of small expansions. So this year I tried to fill in the remaining gaps we had.

NANGA PARBAT looks like a great 2-player game and I’ve been interested in getting it for a while now.

BANG: THE DICE GAME was my girlfriends final purchase of the convention. She’d seen some people on Facebook talking about it and thought it would be a good one for our group.

ABYSS isn’t at the top of my list, but I’ve wanted it for a while now and it’s not been easy to find. So when I went for my solo wander on Sunday afternoon and caught sight of two copies sat there staring at me, I grabbed a copy immediately. It’s an odd one, because I dont know a whole lot about it, but I’m drawn to it, and I hear a lot of positive things about it.

And finally I added ISTANBUL: BIG BOX to our collection It’s another game I’ve been wanting for a while but have never got round to actually getting it. So I made it my last purchase of the convention.

TTRPG TANGENT

Between last years Game Expo and this one, we’ve got into Role-Playing Games, namely D&D. A few of us had been wanting to dive into it for a while, and so last August we started our first campaign.

We’ve had a blast, and recently finished Lost Mines Of Phandelver. With a new campaign on the horizon, part of our excitment for UKGE 2022 was in grabbing loads of dice and cool accessories for D&D. And for the most part we did. But there was a slight detour at the same time.

We two DM’s (my friend and I) started to let our eyes wander. No, not to other woman, but to other Role-Playing Games. Why, when we’d only just started to get our heads around 5th Edition did we feel the need to discover new rules and new worlds? I don’t know. But we did.

So we may have walked away with a few other things too. My friend grabbed CALL OF CTHULHU and TALES OF THE LOOP, while I was intrigued by ZOMBIE WORLD and SPIRE.

Looks like we have a fun and interesting year of gaming ahead of us.

AND THAT’S ALL

And that’s about it.

I’ve spent most of today crashed out. Every now and then I browse the social media, and it looks like everyone had a good time over the weekend.

Despite my near fainting and struggle with anxiety, I’m glad I went again to see UKGE in full bloom. It was something special.

I hope everyone got home safe and sound. May you all enjoy your new purchases and I’ll see you all on what ever platform we cross on.