This year we were leaning more towards meet ups and conventions where the priority was geared around playing games (old and new) instead of the cult of the new and going home with massive purchase piles. While there are a lot of games I would love to add to our collection, we currently don’t have the money or space to indulge like we have been able to in previous years.
So, with a couple of Instagram meetups under our belt and a fantastic experience at the 24hr Board Game Marathon a few months ago, we have now added GridCon to our board game events for 2023.
GridCon is organised by Paul Grogan (of Gaming Rules! fame) and his wife, Vicki. This years location was the Holiday Inn in Taunton, and I have to say that the layout and amenities of the hotel were perfect for the weekends event.
Other than a few aquantances we knew were going (like the organizer of our local Board Gaming group down here in Fareham and the team from the Whose Turn Is It Anyway Podcast), it was just the two of us.
Would we find a table? Would anyone want to play games with us? Could I win more than one game over the entire weekend?
Read on to find out . . .
DAY 1 – FRIDAY
It’s about a two and a half hour drive for us to reach Taunton. After dropping my son of at school, we carried straight on and made it to the event around lunch time. We managed to get a room at the Holiday Express which ended up being closer than we expected.
After signing in, we looked around and immediately felt intimidated. It wasn’t busy, not like it would be on the Saturday and Sunday. But people had been at the event for a few hours by the time we got there and gaming was well underway.
To start things off we found a table and grabbed WOK AND ROLL from the library. This is a pretty simple Roll ‘n’ Write game that I’ve always wanted to try. The game is pretty good, with food items across the six dice, two of which are red and only useable by the active player. This means you can plan meals tactically so that your opponent(s) can’t get the same as you, which I definitely did in the final rounds so as to trigger the end game and take the win.
After that we sat down with AZUL. We were still a little tired from the journey, and somewhat overwhelmed by the people, chatter, and new location, so thought it best to play a game we knew really well. As we were setting it up, we were joined by a gentleman called Keith who is also from Hampshire. He knew how to play AZUL and it wasn’t long before our 3-player game was underway. It was a close game, but Keith pulled out the win with a stack of end game points to claim a commanding win over Ali and I.
Keith then stayed with us for two more games. He chose TINY TOWNS for the first, a game we own but don’t often play at higher than two. I thought I had the game in the bag thanks to my super powerful Monument (place completed buildings anywhere). But when I overreached near the half way point and was forced to take the one material I didn’t need, my board got a little locked out. Meanwhile Keith struggled with his town too, leaving Ali to power ahead of us and score twice our totals combined.
We were starting to relax into the event now and the three of us fancied something meatier. I lit up when Ali bought CAYLUS 1303 back to the table as it’s one of my favourite games. With the three of us knowing the game it was a quick set up and straight forward play. Despite us all making a few tactical errors or having the odd inefficent turn, it was a very close game all the way to the end. I think Keith triggered the end of the final round and I didn’t have enough meeples to make my final move that would have got me the win. But I came a close second and was pretty chuffed with how I played. Great game.
Playing games with just the two of us between meeting new people became a habit over the weekend. Before heading out for some dinner at the nearby Harvester, I spotted the Special Deluxe edition of THE CASTLES OF BURGUNDY sitting on the library shelf and it was calling to me. It’s one of our favoute games and I’ve been wanting to experience this beautiful looking version since all the unboxings flooded YouTube a few months ago. A mix of excitement and stress hung over me as I couldn’t wait to unpack all the quality pieces, while being nervous handling all the quality pieces. But the anxiety was worth it. As always, this is just a game that I rarely win but still enjoy the expereiance of playing it. And the deluxe components make the normal experiance a hundred times more fun. Perhaps one day, when we have the space and the money, this well be a well deserved treat. Being a top five game for us, it would definitely get played a lot.
We split for dinner after that, and on our return we decided we wanted another game with new folks. Ali grabbed IKI, we also braved putting up our first ‘Players Wanted‘ sign. It wasn’t long before Paul stopped at our table (no, not that Paul). Now, I really like IKI. And we’ve played it a fair bit. But we do occassionally find the odd rule here or there that we’ve been playing slightly wrong. It took us a few plays in the early days to iron it all out. This did make me a little nervous of the teach.But, despite two small errors, the game went well, and Paul was very kind to us. Unfortunately, it did look like I hadn’t actually showed up for the game. I did so badly that it almost looked like the two of them were playing and I was just a badly thought out Autonoma. Bless them both for humouring me.
It was getting late by then and Ali wanted to return to our Hotel room. But I was starting to get a buzz and wanted to stay up a little later. So Ali dropped me off at the Whose Turn Is It table where I was welcomed in and got to join a game of STONG POINT. This is a trivia game were a player is asked five questions around a specific catergory and the other players guess on how many they’ll get right (from 0-5). I was a little intimidated as they are all good friends and all I had was their Podcast personas. I was also nervous that I’d embarress myself as I’m not good at General Knowledge. But all that was dispelled when I smashed 5 for 5 on DC Comic Characters, and a round later it was max points again for 80’s Kids TV Shows. I was riding high on my new Genius . . . until my final round came up and I crashed and burned. As people placed high bets on me based on my previous results, I prayed that I’d get one or two by accident. Unfortunately, Cocktails are not my strong suit, and it was a big fat zero.
After the game ended I headed back to the Holiday Inn Express ( a brief 5 minute walk away) and settled down for the first of two uncomfortable nights away from home.
DAY 2 – SATURDAY
We hit the ground running on the second day. Brother and sister, Sam and Becky, were looking for two players to make a 4-player game of EVENFALL happen and we were in the mood to learn and not to teach. It was a long game for us, but really simple to understand as we tried to maximize our turns, gathering resources, and playing cards, all while utilizing our asymetric abilities. I like the mechanic where you can bind cards to locations, giving you better abilites or extra Witch placement spots. The game definitely shone at four, while I don’t think it would be as good at two. EVENFALL is a game that we wouldn’t own, but I would absolutely love to play if someone had a game going.
For lunch we decided to find a small table and sit down with a 2-player game of CARCASSONE while we ate. Sometimes you just need a faithfull classic to relax with. This gave me my second win of the weekend, but there were only two points in it at the end.
Heading back in to the main hall we saw that the table for THE WHITE CASTLE was not only free, but hadn’t been booked out for the rest of the day. We love the game and have played a whole lot since adding it to our collection. We booked the table and sat down, but thought it would be nice to try it at higher then just the two of us. After putting the sign up for more players we were joined by Kasturi and his son. Unlike the IKI teach I did the previous day, I was much more confident going through the rules here, and it wasn’t long before our game was underway. The game scales well and going forward I would easily enjoy this game at any player count.
After that, Ali and I sat down for another small recharge game, this time picking 6 NIMMT! At just two it’s super quick but it didn’t have the same tension and regular row pickups as it does at higher counts. After playing at three and four recently we were considering adding it to our collection, but I don’t think we will now. Though we will always say yes if somone gets the game to the table.
After a very tasty burger and chips for dinner, I grabbed BEER & BREAD from the event library and got stuck in to the rule book. This 2-player only game from Scott Almes of Tiny Epic fame has players gathering resources to make . . . beer and bread. I really like the multi use of the cards. Split into three sections, you either play the top for resources, the middle for the orders, or the bottom to add to your extra abilites. I did mess up one rule around the gathering step, but other than that we really enjoyed our play. While we’re not buying too many games at the moment (need to make room), I could see this being added to our collection at some point in the future.
Our final game of the Saturday and it was a big one (bigger than I extected). I have the BGG Top 100 scratch poster from 2020 and I’m always looking to scratch games off when I go to events. I spotted UNDERWATER CITIES in the library on the Friday and I knew we’d have to try it before the event was over. It was a tough learn and teach, and I bless my fiance for her patience, especially as we were both tired after a bad nights sleep, and it was already 8pm. But, while it nearly wiped us out, we both think that the game is really good. I can see why it’s rated so highly. It’s technically Worker Placement, but here the Workers are you cards. You play cards to locations around the main board while trying to make sure you play a card whose colour matches the spot (red, green, or yellow). If the colour doesn’t match, you can only use the board’s ability. While the boards and components pushed our table space to it’s limit, it all looks really nice, especially the multi layered player boards and plastic components. I really want to play this again.
Almost wiped out, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.
DAY 3 – SUNDAY
Our second night was better than the first, but not great. Hotel stays definitely make you appreciate your own bed. While it wasn’t spoken, I think we both agreed on some level that we couldn’t handle playing with others on the last day, so everything we got to the table would just be the two of us.
But that didn’t mean we wouldn’t want to learn more new stuff.
First up was SPELLBOOK. This recent release has a lot of comparisons to SPLENDOR and I can see why. But, while it’s simple enough to eventually be considered a Gateway game, it adds a few nice twists to the flow of play. Imagine taking your regular turns in SPLENDOR of gathering, but when it gets to gaining a card that just counts as a perminant resource, you gain a power instead. And while we both had access to gain the same spells, the order we chose to learn them meant it wasn’t long into the play where we were both following different stratergies. While we can’t own everything, this was a game I was sad to walk away from the convenetion without our own copy.
The next new game (to us) was LOST CITIES. This is one of those games that I’ve always been aware of and wanting to try, but for one reason or another it’s just not happened. So I figured now was the time. And what a great little card game it is. I messed up on round one and fell behind, but then it all clicked, and I stormed ahead for the next two rounds to take the win. I enjoy the decisions of what you place and when, not only to your Expeditions, but to the discard piles. You don’t want to risk giving something good to your opponent, so there’s a lot of holding off until the card you don’t need is also useless to them.
Our final new game of the weekend was PROJECT L. I’d seen some coverage of this and thought it looked okay, but a bit simple. Of cource our low energy levels meant this might just be perfect for us, and indeed it was. Gathering pieces and completing puzzles was a nice simple game for us to chill with, but the extra bonus of some fantastic components meant this looked beautiful when set up on the table. It was a short game at two, but a perfect way to round out our weekend.
And with that we were about done. We managed to not win any games on the raffle (which is actually a good thing with our lack of space), and nothing really jumped out at me from the Bring and Buy (though I nearly grabbed a copy of VENICE which was £10 and in amazing condition, and I might have been able to get designer David Turczi to sign it), but in the end I just went for a new copy of SKY TEAM from the Games Lore stall.
We said our goodbyes, jumped in the car, and made the journey home.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So how was it?
Being our first GridCon it was a lot. We definitely prefer these sorts of events where it’s just playing games. We got to experience some of our favourites with more than just the two of us. We got to try games that I’d been interested in for a while. And we played our faithful classics when less brain power was needed.
It didn’t have the high energy of the 24hr Marathon, which may be why we struggled on the final day. It sounds odd that I was less wiped out at an event where I didn’t sleep for an entire day, but the marathon brought people together in a different way to GridCon with the challenge of going for 24 hours becoming its own fuel. Here we were just playing games and the lack of that pushing yourself that inspired comeradery meant it all had a slower pace.
And from a mental point of view, I found that I missed hanging with a group or an individual for multiple plays. I was less drained on day one playing three games back to back with Keith because all the social interation is dealt with after the first game and you’re not having to start again and meet someone new each time. Playing three games back to back with the same person requires less effort.
As for the venue? Couldn’t be more perfect. The big room was great and never felt cramped, but if the noise was too much, there were multiple spaces around to settle down in. It never felt crowded. There was always somewhere to settle down for a game without being forced to play a table hog on a small bench.
Overall we had a great time, yet we don’t know if we’ll go back again next year. Cost is one thing now that I’m a poor student for the next three years. Tickets, room, food; it all adds up. And if we did, I think we’d bring a few friends with us so that we always had that higher player count if needed without requiring the wait to find someone.
But that’s more me than the event. I can’t fault the experience. I didn’t play a bad game. The new people we played with were all so kind and friendly. The food was great. I never felt lost or stressed within it all. If you just want to do nothing but play games and meet like minded people, I absolutely recommend.
Always Play Blue 