With the expo kicking off Friday and my expo experience starting tomorrow. This will be the last Road to post of 2024.

In something very out of the norm for me I’m actually prebooked on a demo for the boardgame Yonder. I know absolutely nothing about the game except that it’s by the favourite designer of Sarah (Boardgames in a Minute) Haakon Garder. Sarah very kindly invited me to join her on the demo and handled the booking.

Earlier on the same day I’ll be playing Inventors of South Tigris with Sarah and Luke Hector (Broken Meeple). So it looks like finally I’ll get to not only meet Luke in real life but play a game with him.

I’m also going to be picking up a couple of games at the expo. Marcin and I have both bought games before even stepping foot in the halls of the expo. That’s the danger of For Sale posts with collection at the expo going up on the Facebook groups. I’ve managed to get a well loved copy of the Gears of War boardgame. There is no way I could have afforded one in much better condition. The money they go for is ridiculous, well over a couple hundred quid.

I’ve also decided I’ll be using my Markill Peak Ignition gas stove to heat up my evening meal of 6 bean chilli. It could have been my og Jetboil but I wanted the flexibility of which pot I use. Which I haven’t decided yet.

Right next post will be me at the expo.

Despite having hundreds of games for sale, plus a games library. I like many others will be taking games with them to the expo!

One of the games I plan to take is my latest arrival (as in it came this morning) For the Queen.

This storytelling card game has been a “grail game” of mine for a while. It’s been out of print for a while, and hard to get hold of.

Luckily Darrington Press (the publishing arming of the Critical Roll cult of Mercer) got their hands on it rights and have just published a second edition with updated art, and question text.

I have to say for a card game the production quality is phenomenal. I really love the art.

It really is a size where it can be kept in a bag all the time ready to be played at a moments notice.

So I’m hoping that whilst at the expo I can get it to the table.

The 3 by 3 below shows my current leanings of games to take along with me.

Obviously it doesn’t show my box of dice, deck of cards, to play games such as Ship, Captain, Crew or LCR. It should be a given that will be with me.

I’ve tried to go with games that are small, quick to teach and play, plus if possible support a group of players. Although there are a couple that are two player.

Whilst at the expo I will post about which games actually did make it.

With only approximately two weeks left until UKGE is upon us I did something I haven’t done in a long time. I pre-booked my tickets.

I don’t know why.

There is no benefit buying them in advance. No early bird discount. You still have to queue to get your ticket when you arrive.

Maybe it’s because I was feeling a bit low about the whole thing.

I knew Ben was no longer going due to reasons. Reasons that were totally understandable and relatable. I’ve been in that situation myself.

Then Jonathan who also seems to be not as enthusiastic as he once was (I don’t know how else to describe it) about gaming and the expo, has decided he will not be going. The expo was a father daughter thing for him. A shared experience they both enjoyed. This year would have been the first year that that would not be true, with his daughter still being at uni. I totally understand.

Strangely for me the show has been a social thing, over a gaming or purchasing thing. I rarely spend (or had the funds) to buy lots of games at the expo. My visits have always been on a very tight budget, and trying to get the maximum bang for my restricted budget.

I rarely do the open gaming. I still don’t get that side of the expo or even expos like Airecon, where gaming is the main focus. Why travel all that way, with the associated expense of tickets, accommodation, etc. to play games with your friends? And let’s face it the majority of folks there are playing games with the people they went there with. Why not save the money and time and just play games at home?

Last year I met Sarah of Board Games in a Minute. Sarah came all the way from the US to go to the expo. She’s a really cool and kind person. Hey anyone who feeds and provides shelter for “wild” cats is pretty cool in my book.

Sarah is returning to the expo this year, so I’m hoping that we can get a chance to play a game at the expo. Or at least catch up, talk about the expo and what games caught our attention.

Last year I didn’t get a chance to meet Luke Hector of Broken Meeple fame irl. So hopefully that can happen this year. I’d love to play a game or two with him as well.

Now I know Luke and Sarah are YouTube content creators and this all sounds very fanboy like etc. I rarely do this content creator cult of personality thing. There are some that are so head stuck up their own arse, clicky. Luke and Sarah are not like that. Which is probably why I like them as content creators and people.

Sadly it’s looking unlikely my friend, game creator, and all round really nice guy Byron will make the expo. Health problems are throwing a spanner in the works on that front. Which is a shame, but I do wish him a speedy recovery.

Although I’ve not gone specifically with anyone to the show. But with my friends there it feels that I have. We bump into each other, arrange to meet up, maybe try a game demo, etc.

So with two of my good friends not there. I’m not sure how the expo will be this year.

It does seem that the majority of Fenland Gamers and friends will be at the expo on the Sunday. So that day may feel more like the expo for me.

Yeah, yeah. How can the expo be a social thing for me? How can I talk fondly about meeting people and enjoying my time with them, and even missing them?

I know. I don’t see myself as a social person, or people person. But somehow it’s something I enjoy when it comes to gaming! I suppose in a future post we can explore this dichotomy. A look into the warped world view and mind of Darren. That’s a very scary thought.

For now you just have to accept that this sociopath both enjoys these social interactions and will miss those not going.

UPDATE: Ben is now attending the Friday. So it will be great to see him there and catch up. Life for both of us has conspired to get in the way of us playing games. It’s been too long.

Didn’t think I’d be writing another UKGE post so soon. I thought my next post would be nearer the time going over what I’m looking forward to at the expo itself.

But here I am.

As you know I’ve set myself the goal of returning to the hills this year. I pulled the trigger on a TREKOLOGY Ultra Lightweight Compact Portable Chair. And although I won’t be lugging the it into the middle of nowhere. Its main use is for campsites.

What helped make the decision easier was the light bulb moment of I can take it to the expo with me.

Now hear me out.

One thing at the expo that is in very much short supply is a place to sit down and have a moments rest. You often end up finding a spot and sitting on the floor.

But what if I had my own chair?

No more sitting on the floor.

I’ve also decided what I’m going to do about my evening meals, and eating during the day.

Breakfast is taken care of. That’s part of my Travelodge booking.

I’m going to make use of my backpacking skills and equipment and take my food with me.

Along with the camping chair above I also have some Ziplock Aluminium Foil Bag, Resealable Food Bags on the way.

These will allow me to prep before hand, bag the food, and reheat it as a boil in the bag.

What stove I’ll take will be decided at the time depending on how I feel.

Then all I need to do is find a quiet spot, maybe even on the benches in front of the small lake at the NEC, and enjoy my home cooked meal.

The final bit of paying in advance for the expo has been done this morning. That is booking my NEC parking for the three days.

Paying in advance saves you about a fiver (according to them). It also means no queuing at the car park ticket machines to pay each day.

So clearly a little benefit for doing this before hand.

Something I wish the organisers of the expo would take on board.

For some reason the organisers make a big thing of tickets for the expo going on sale. Making a big hoo ha encouraging people to buy in advance.

But I see no benefit of doing that. There is no early bird discount for doing so. The price you pay is exactly the same as buying on the day. It doesn’t save you any queuing. There is no danger of not being able to get a ticket on the day.

I think the organisers need to rethink the encouraging people to book early. Offer a discount.

On the Thursday I’m giving Ben and his eldest Harrison a lift to the expo. They are staying at the same hotel as me. So once settled in and fed I’m sure there will be some gaming in the evening.

That’s it for these posts until nearer the time. Not much on my side will be happening as I’ve done everything I need to before hand.

The holiday request has gone in at work for the expo dates (Fri 31 May – 2 Jun) plus a couple days after to give mum time to recover.

My trips away are always draining for mum. Apparently the two attack chihuahuas (the deadly breed) Nico and Loki can be little sods, and play her up something rotten.

So I need to factor this in for any trip away that is not a day trip.

I’ve also asked Nathan if he wants to come. He needs to check dates as it might clash with dog sitting duties for his mum.

So hopefully next week I’ll be sharing that I have the time off, Nathan is going, and hotels are booked.

And that’s a wrap.

Yep another UKGE done and dusted.

So how was it for the first real expo for me since we came out of lockdowns and other restrictions?

Well it was busy. Very busy.

Which the official provisional figures show (see tweet from yesterday below). With the 32k unique attendees, we are seeing approximately a 10k increase in unique attendees over 2022. Which doing some quick mental maths and just plucking a number out of midair, gives us somewhere in the area of a 45% increase. Not a bad guess as the calculator has told me it is in-fact 43.5%.

Before I go on about the expo itself I have a story about the hotel to regale you with. I should warn you this post is going to jump all around the timeline like a badly written lost Back to the Future script.

The Hotel Saga

Let’s jump back in time to last Thursday morning when Jonathan called The Saltley Inn to confirm his booking. Whilst on the phone with the Saltley Inn he kindly also checked on the bookings for the rest of us also planning to stay there.

It turns out there had been an error in my booking and I was only booked in on the Friday night, and not the Saturday as well.

This was no good to me I was planning on being at the show all three days. I’d paid for three days parking at the NEC. What bloody good was one night to me?

So I tried to cancel the booking with the plan of driving to the expo each day.

Sadly the Saltley Inn wouldn’t let me cancel for free (they saw it as my error that should have been picked up back in January when I booked, they have a point). So I said if I was going to pay for the room anyway that I would not be cancelling.

I’m going to jump now to Friday evening and arriving at the Saltley Inn. I’ll talk more about Friday at the expo once this tale is over.

I arrive at the address of the Saltley Inn. It’s not obvious where the hotels parking is, so I park on side street next to the Inn.

Inside I approach the woman behind the bar to check in.

All I can tell you about the next few moments as I was checked in is that this was a very uncomfortable experience where I was most definitely made to feel like an inconvenience.

Oh and a heads up the Saltley Inn requires photo id to check you in. A fact not mentioned on the Inns Booking.com description. It was lucky that I had some with me.

I did ask about the hotel parking and was told about a blue gate on the side street to go through. If only there had been a sign of some sort identifying it as belonging to the hotel and their parking. At best without being blocked in there was space for three cars. Hardly adequate for a twenty room inn.

My room for a double was small. There was no tea/coffee making facilities in the room. So how was I to make a hot drink if I wanted one, especially in the morning when I woke up?

I definitely had to draw the blinds to the room considering that the first floor bedrooms of the terraced houses on the street next to the inn looked directly into the room. Being able to draw the blinds was a fluff that involved climbing on the bed, and reaching up to the cord mechanism that was three quarters of the way up the window. I think it is fair to say not easy to get to.

Not long after being “settled” in my room I needed to make use of the en-suite facilities. There was not much toilet paper on the holder, and no sign of a spare roll anywhere in the room. Even worse was were they had put the toilet roll holder. Not to one side within easy reach. Nope it was directly behind you above the cistern.

There was no free Wi-Fi, or hotel Wi-Fi (as you can pay for at a Travelodge). No if you wanted Wi-Fi so you weren’t burning through your data plan then you could pay the extortionate BT Wi-Fi fees. Not an ideal solution at all.

I was beginning to think that I had had a lucky escape not having to spend a second night in this over priced unwelcoming inn.

Once Charlene and her family had arrived and got settled in I met up with them to see if it was just me that the bar staff/receptionist had an issue with. It turns out their experience of checking in was similar to mine. It wasn’t just me. It was the grump behind the counter.

Charlene also dropped the breakfast bomb as well. If we wanted breakfast at the inn then that was only served after 9am! Was the Booking.com description just a work of fiction.

What hurt even more was Charlene was paying half what I was for her double room! and I booked earlier!!

Hold on folks we are now going to jump forward to Saturday morning.

I had plans for the expo which meant I needed to be there by 8am. So I was up, showered, packed, and ready to hit the road by 7am.

Guess what the Saltley Inn doesn’t have at that time of the morning? Any staff. The bar is locked up securely. So I ended up putting my room key through their letter box, and messaging them that I had done that. Good job I didn’t need toilet paper.

And that is the end of my bad experience at The Saltley Inn. A place I intend to never return to.

No for our next time jump…

A bloody early start

It’s dawn, five am to be precise. A little chill in the air for the Friday morning. But I had a plan. I needed to be on the road by five thirty.

I wanted to be at the NEC by eight at the latest.

After filling up at the local Tesco, and finding out their cash machine was out of order (are any cash machines in Wisbech working at the moment?) I was on the A47 and heading towards Peterborough.

At Eye I pulled into McDonalds and got my standard breakfast order Double Sausage Egg McMuffin Meal with a latte., and was back on the road.

An hour and a half later I was at the NEC pulling into the East 1 car park.

After a gentle relaxed stroll from the car park to the expo I was in a small queue outside Hall 3 waiting for them to allow folks to buy/collect their tickets for the expo.

I decided I’d cut my losses and just do two days this year and head on back late Saturday afternoon.

At 9am as the Hall 1 doors opened I made straight to the shop and drop to get a box for the day (best £3 you will spend at the expo folks).

After a wonder round Hall 1 I was just about to make my way up the stairs to look round Hall 2 when I saw Ben coming down the stairs.

Don’t tell Ben this but I did rather enjoy spending time with him at the show.

Later in the morning I bumped into Sarah of Board games in Minutes who I follow and talk to on Twitter. Sarah came all the way from the US to attend the expo. That’s dedication.

However Sarah is so nice and friendly. I didn’t get a chance to play any games with her at the show. However Sarah did tell me about one of the shows hot games After Us. A game that did seem to tick a few boxes for me, such as deck building, theme (Planet of the Apes), art (which looks amazing). Sadly that days allocation had already sold out. I would have to try and get a copy Saturday before that days allocation sold out if I was interested in getting it.

My big purchase of the day was the Alley Cat reprint of Amun-re 20th anniversary edition. They had the deluxe edition and the regular. I went with the deluxe edition. I felt lucky that had copies to sell as it was only just being sent out to backers.

I also managed to meet up with my friend Byron and try his latest prototype currently called Tabletop Skirmish.

I liked the game a lot and shared my thoughts with Byron on the game. I do try and give honest opinions and constructive feed back. So if I said I like it I like it. Can’t wait for the Kickstarter.

I also managed to get a couple of samples of the coffee bags that WotC/Hasbro are offering on their new D&D themed coffee subscription service! Talk about diversifying. I’ll be trying that coffee later in the week.

The nice thing about Friday was I did bump into friends throughout the day. It sounds like I was meeting lots of people, but it was four or five at most.

I think that is the highlight for me of going to the expo.

Are you ready for our next time jump?

Saturday

My breakfast was a subway breakfast roll from a garage on the way from the Saltley Inn to the NEC. I also ended up buying a load of different flavoured Dr Peppers and Fanta to try with Mum when I got home. Hey in my defence these were imported American flavours that we don’t get in our supermarkets.

As I was queuing outside Hall 2 ready to dash and get a copy of After Us I got a message from Marcin. Could I pick up the last copy of the Outlive expansion from Firestorm Games as soon as the doors opened?

I don’t like disappointing friends, but I had got there early to get my hands on a copy of After Us. So I told Marcin I would go there straight after I got my game.

I was at the front of the queue for Hall 2 and still there were people already queuing for After Us before me! How? I call shenanigans.

Ok what was special about After Us? Well it was the UKGE exclusive box cover art that had Big Ben on it, instead of the regular Eiffel Tower art. Plus there was only one stand selling it with a limited supply. It was definitely one of the hottest games at the show.

As I was about to purchase my copy of After Us I saw that they also had the Outlive expansion Marcin wanted. I could kill two birds with one stone. Boy was I happy.

Midday saw those of us from Fenland Gamers at the expo for the day meet up for the traditional group photo.

I briefly bumped into Sarah in the morning. For some-one surviving on so little sleep during the expo she looked in remarkably good shape, and alert. Not sure how much of that was caffeine fuelled. She had purchased a rather stylish gaming bag. It looked very fabulous.

The other game I bought was Trek 12: Himalaya and it’s expansion. It’s a roll and write about climbing in the Himalayas with a “campaign” mode.

I also splashed out on a set of clay gaming chips to use with boardgames. They aren’t cheap but they are top end chips.

By mid afternoon I was getting tired and decided to call it a day for my time at the expo.

It was off home after an enjoyable two days at the expo punctuated by the hotel from hell experience.