2024 was my third trip to UK Games Expo, my first full 3-day trip and my first trip solo. It was also my first trip travelling on public transport so when “Train strikes for May bank holiday week” was announced in April my heart sank. Thankfully for me it was the early bank holiday and not around Expo this year. This review is a bit later than I wanted but I’ve been back at the NEC this week for a work exhibition.
Friday Travel
My weekend began early on Friday morning with an Uber to Rotherham train station. This was the part of the journey I was most concerned about. The Rotherham to Sheffield leg was the first train of the day and only left 10 minutes to change in Sheffield. Northern Rail is notoriously bad for running late. Happily, it turned up, on time.
The Sheffield to Birmingham train was quite empty and on time, It didn’t take that long and wasn’t too expensive for a UK rail journey. I’ve been to the NEC a lot this last year for work and a few times on the train so getting to the NEC was quick and easy. It’s just an 8-minute train ride from New Street to the NEC. This was handy as I was staying in central Birmingham for the weekend.
Friday at the NEC
I got to the NEC at about 8:30 and went to get my tickets. There was a queue already but it moved quickly and I got to the queue for hall 1 just before the doors. This was the biggest day 1 queue I can remember for opening in the 3 years I’ve been which signalled how busy the expo was going to be this year.
I had a few places I wanted to get to early and a few things I didn’t want to miss this year. Those were my first few stops. First up was picking up a Dice Dragon from Liv at Lapin Crafts. I wanted an orange and black one which I’d seen on social media. Sadly I was already too late. Liv offered to make another one overnight and I’d pick it up Saturday or Sunday.
I’d bought a Neon Orange Meeple T-shirt from Shirts and Merch in Hall 2 which I needed to pick up but next stop was to book a demo of War of the Worlds, One More Day. This game is a single-player survival deck builder. I’ll write up more separately, but I got to wear a cool hat, play a game with Dan (BoardGameAddict on Instagram) and will be keeping an eye on this.
My rough plan for the weekend was to explore the halls on Friday while playing games when an opportunity arose. Spend most of Saturday playing games and demos and Sunday whatever I had missed.
With that plan in mind, I spent the day exploring what the halls had to offer. I Bought a few games and some craft items. The craft sellers are one of my favourite parts of Games Expo. Some amazing talented people are making some top-quality things.
I also had an opportunity to have a taster of Yonder from Haakon himself who designed the game. This is another one I’ll be picking up after release.
Saturday
I got to the NEC early on Saturday as I was on the train and didn’t want to leave it to chance of missing opening. As it turns out I made it way too early but the NEC was already busy and queues were forming before 8am, over an hour to doors. Saturday’s first task was to head over to Blood on the Clocktower to book in for a session. I’d never played before and missed the previous year as you have to book early. I was 2nd to the stand and booked on for 11:15. In the time it took to decide what time there was a queue of about 40 people waiting to sign up.
When the time came around I was one of only 2 new players, the other was with a group of friends so knew more what to expect. I drew a team evil token but not the demon so was a little lost for a bit but managed to recover enough to make the final 4 but the information the good team had got essentially means I was caught.
I tried and had explainers of several other games. SETI which was one of the games I really wanted to Demo but couldn’t get a full slot so settled for an explanation from one of the helpful staff. I’ll no doubt pick this up after release. Fire tower which I bought and looks to be a fun addition to my collection. Flying Gang is due on Kickstarter later this year is another one I’ll be keeping an eye out for.
I’d have liked to have a go at Redwood and Windmill valley too but couldn’t get in for a demo so watched a bit of others playing. I did buy Windmill Valley through fear of missing out but didn’t pick up Redwood before it had all gone.
Open Gaming
Dan who I mentioned earlier had set up a facebook group designed for solo Expo travellers to find people to play games with and I say this without hyperbole that it made my weekend. This was my first solo trip and at times was a bit of a weird experience and without the friendly people from the Solo’s group, I probably wouldn’t be going next year if I didn’t have someone to go with. I made some good friends from this group and plans are in the works for another meet up to play more games.
By about 2:30pm I’d had enough of wandering round the halls and went to find the Dan and the Solo’s. Dan had grabbed a table and posted it in the group to make it easy to find. I had the opportunity to play a lot of games I’d not played before. These included Trio & Colt Express both of which I will pick up at some point.
Sunday also included more time with the Solo’s in Open gaming trying out Harmonies, Lakes, Scout and Mind Up which I’d not played and will probably pick up too.
Sunday
Sunday’s plan was not to buy anything else other than doughnuts to take home from Project D. Nothing other than pick up my dice dragon that is. I was looking to pick up Trio if I found it but everywhere had sold out. While searching for Trio I found a slightly damaged Ark Nova for £40 which was probably my bargain of the weekend.
I did play a few rounds of Europa Universalis too. I love the PC game so this was a lot of fun. I’d love to buy this game but I’m just not sure it would ever make it to the table. 2 other games close by were Hegemony and World order both of which I want to do more research into but look interesting.
Thanks also go out to Chris who offered me a lift back up north on his way home to Harrogate allowing me to avoid carrying heavy bags full of goodies on trains.
Expo Expansion
There’s some changes to halls next year with Hall 1 already being booked which gives the organisers to look at the layout of some of the aisles. Saturday was really busy and some pinch points and around the big retailers were just thronged with people making it impossible to get around. This has to be improved and from what I’ve seen it’s something they are looking at.
Bring and Buy
I heard a lot of grumbling that Bring and buy had barely anything left after Saturday morning. Whether this was due to the limiting of numbers of games I’m not sure or whether most games had just been priced to sell.
If it is the former perhaps this could be rectified by having a “10 games and under” lane for booking in and a slow lane with a higher limit that have less people booking the games in unless the express lane is clear.
Summary
I was a bit nervous about travelling to the Expo on my own but all in all, it was a good experience. Having 3 days to spread things over helps too as there wasn’t a rush to do anything.
I’ve booked a hotel for next year which I can cancel up until 2 days before as a backup. He countdown to 2025 and the 15th UK Games Expo Starts now. COuld definitely do it all again this weekend… well, maybe after payday.
Games Haul Pic
It wouldn’t be a review of Games Expo without a Haul Picture
