UK Games Expo 2013

Andy and I braved the holiday traffic and drove up to this year's UK Games Expo, now expanded and in a new bigger venue at the NEC Hilton.  Wide variety of attendees - old & young, families, hard-core gamers, cosplay fans, steampunks (including one shopper wearing a gas mask with an Orhan-style leather hat - we don't think it was Orhan.... :-)

Loads of traders, large and small, including folk with their cardboard prototype games.  Looked over the Bring & Buy but managed to resist.  B&B is of course the games that people don't want.  I know that's how I discovered Pelopennes but I've also brought home a lot of rubbish in the past.  But Android's BoardGameGeek app remains the most valuable thing to have at the Expo after your wallet, and saved me again a couple of times today.  There are competitions all weekend (Fields of Glory, Warhammer, Settlers) as well as tens of demonstration/promotional games to join in with.  Our favourite setup was a large scale Ticket to Ride.

And so to my purchases.  The first is a card game from newish company NSKN Legendary Games and is called Wild Fun West.  Four to eight players take the role of a classical Wild West character and work to build a town from scratch. To do this, they employ various professions, from Stagecoach Driver to Sheriff, earn money and construct buildings.  The interaction is in the bidding for the profession cards, the cooperation is in jointly investing in buildings, and the competition is that each player has a secret list of six buildings - and the first to build any four is the winner.  Looks like a quick fun game, especially with larger numbers.

The second (and last!) purchase is an expansion for the amazing Village.  We've really enjoyed every play of that game but as it's only for four, we don't get the opportunity to play it that often.  Well now we will.  I've bought Village Inn, which adds extra buildings (a brewery and a pub, which neatly fit onto the original board), an extra game mechanism (cards representing influential people you meet in the pub), and beer goods tiles.  Importantly, it also provides an extra set of counters for a fifth player, along with bigger graveyard and chronicle tiles to accommodate the wooden figures of all five players.  Really looking forward to playing this one.