Wow I bet you folks thought I had stopped the blog with no posts happening for 3 or 4 days.

But as you know I was at the UK Games Expo, helping out on the White Wizard Games (WWG), demoing (as it would turn out) Epic the card game.

I did post some photos on Instagram that got shared on Twitter and Facebook. Don’t worry about finding them, most of them will be further down in this post.

Day 0 – Arrival

Thursday is the usual day I like to travel to the expo. Drive across mid afternoon, so I arrive between 4pm and 5pm. I hopefully avoid all the traffic that way, can get registered in to wherever I am staying and settled in. It also means I don’t have a silly start the next morning to get the expo. I can have a nice and relaxed start instead.

That’s the usual plan from previous years. When I’ve had the resources to attend.

This year was a new experience for me.

The previous day the contact for WWG had arrived at the hotel I and the other demo staff were meant to be staying, and there had been a problem with the booking. Apparently there was a mad scramble to sort something out for us. We were given details of the new location, which was an apartment (or flat for us unsophisticated folks).

By the time I arrived at the flat I still hadn’t received the codes for getting in. I texted the WWG person who sent them back 5 minutes later.

I negotiated the locked key boxes. Like any good RPG open the first one gets the key to get inside the building. Open the box inside gets the key to the flat.

As you can see from above the top two photos (taken from the hotel website) were where we had initially been booked into. It’s walking distance from the NEC Hall 1.

The bottom three photos above are where I actually ended up!

The outside I think you would agree looks a bit rough. And that is being extremely kind. But it had free parking, which solved a problem I had for the day if we were at the original 4 star extravagance (I had planned to just leave my car in the NEC car park for the 3 days of the expo – which is cheaper than the airport parking I’d been directed to, but it left me the problem of parking for the night).

The flat was a 2 bedroom flat, with a double room (the couple helping out had that room) that had an en-suite bathroom, the small bedroom (that I was in, picture above), a second bathroom, kitchen/living room. It also had free WiFi.

Having a kitchen was handy. It meant I could cook, get milk etc. Location wise the flat is really good. Within 2 minutes walk there were 2 Chinese take-aways, pizza/kebab establishment, kebab establishment, fish and chips, fried chicken, Co-op, cash machine.

It’s just that the exterior isn’t the most attractive.

Our WWG contact wasn’t going to be able to meet me due to a minor accident the previous day. They had sprained their ankle, and was unable to get around for a day or two. It would appear yesterday was not a good day for them.

I had curried baked beans on toast for my tea. Sometimes the simple things give you the most enjoyment. And this is one of those things for me. Mind you baked beans on toast always brings back memories of when I used to have tea round my friend Gareth’s. We had other food, but that is the one that I will forever associate with being round his.

The couple from France arrived around 7pm, and after they had settled in invited me to join them to get something to eat. But I had already eaten. Routine (if not broken) has me eating at 5pm. Today had not broken the routine.

Day 1 – Showtime

After an early night I was up early as usual. I don’t use an alarm, my body clock seems to be programmed (by the dogs) to wake at 5am. I snoozed for an hour before getting up and having my usual breakfast routine.

I arrived at the NEC and at the proposed meeting point with our WWG contact by 8am. I was early. I sent a text saying I had arrived and near the meeting point. Just in case they were inside the hall already. The reply let me know I would now be meeting some-one else from WWG who would have the passes etc. The injury meant our contact was unable to get to the show.

I was there early, because that’s me. But there people already at the ticket office, queuing up for their tickets (hence that photo below), the doors didn’t open until 10am! I sent photo to Jonathan to let him know the queues had started. But he was nearly at the entrance himself, because he was on the bus from the car park. So we met up for a brief chat.

After getting our badges, we went inside to the stand. After putting on our WWG tee’s we set up the tables ready for the “punters”. Because I knew Epic, myself and the French couple were assigned to doing the demos of that for the day. It was easier for WWG to find people that could demo Star Realms and Hero Realms, but a bit harder for people that could do Epic.

Epic was very popular due to the promotion for the expo of get a demo of the game and get a free copy of the game. However we had an allocation that we could give away each day. Naturally this went very quickly. Anyone coming along after lunchtime didn’t stand a chance of getting a copy.

Wow did the morning fly by. Before I knew it, it was 2pm and I hadn’t had a break. Luckily WWG got subway subs in for everyone earlier. So I had mine, and then had a quick wonder round the hall. I used this time to meet up with Jonathan again. who let me know the new expansion for Memoir ’44 was on sale at the show (which was early as the official date was the 6/6). So I snapped that up from the place he had seen it on sale. I also got a bonus scenario booklet with it as well. Which was a pleasant surprise.

Unofficially I heard that the Judge Dredd version of Wild Lands might be compatible with the original. Rules to allow this were being worked on at the moment. If that was the case, it would make the decision to keep investing in Wild Lands easier. Because if push comes to shove I’d take the Judge Dredd version over the original every time.

The rest of the day passed equally as fast.

A discussion late in the day between WWG and the demo team (that’s me and the others) we were told we could claim our store credit from sales stand. That all we had to do was tell them using store credit to pay and how much store credit we had.

Sorcerer the new game from WWG had been selling really well. The bundle deal was nearly sold out.

As we were leaving for the day to return back to the flat, another joined us. They were also staying at the flat. This was fine, I was expecting a fourth.

However once back at the flat I had a text saying that a fifth (who was the real fourth person) was arriving after 7:30pm.

Wait! What? Five in a 2 bedroom flat? I was not chuffed. Luckily there was a fold out bed in the flat. Sadly no extra towels, or bedsheets. Our contact when informed of this did manage to get the cleaner to come in and sort that bit out. But this really wasn’t on.

We all decided to get some take away. After getting supplies from the Co-op (I purchased fizzy drink, and apple juice), we hit one of the Chinese take-aways. The chow mein and salt and pepper ribs were fine.

But everyone was shattered. Who knew teaching and playing Epic could be so exhausting? The French couple were able to get an early night. However I and the other guy weren’t because the fifth person hadn’t arrived yet.

They finally arrived close to 10pm instead of the 7:30 as told. But we had no option but to stay up. Our contact suggested that we leave the key in the key box outside the front door and they could let themselves in. But I pointed out that was a pointless exercise, because if we did that we wouldn’t be able to lock the front door!

Eventually after the new arrival got settled in we could all get some much needed rest.

Day 2 – YNWA

Once again I was up early. This time the advantage was I got to use the bathroom first and the shower.

With the fifth person sleeping in the living room/kitchen. It made making my own coffee a bit awkward. So I snuck in and grabbed my breakfast and drinks for the day, and then left the flat hoping to find a McD or something on the way.

In the end I ended up grabbing my favourite hot beverage from the NEC Starbucks franchise the Chai Tea Latte.

It was kind of relaxing sitting in the empty exhibition hall having my breakfast.

I did have to get the NEC staff to organise cleaners to clean up a large puddle that was right beside the aisle to the WWG stand.

As soon as staff turned up on the retailer side for the stand I asked them if they would put a bundle aside for me. Which they did.

They day went pretty much like the previous day. Except that we had extra copies of Epic to hand out after a demo. I think the copies lasted an hour longer before running out.

I saw Jonathan again throughout the day, and also one or two friends that had also come to the expo for the day. I really did enjoy this part of the expo. Probably the highlight for me. And I even got a chance to get a brief play of a proto type game a friend had brought along to get feed back on.

Late in the afternoon it emerged that WWG had none of the kickstarter stuff for Sorcerer with them! have to admit being disappointed at this news. That was the side I wanted to pick up really if I was going to get Sorcerer.

The day didn’t get any better on that front. I went to get my bundle that had been put to one side at the start of the day. Yep you can guess what I am about to write. It hadn’t been kept at all. Plus they bundle had sold out, as had a lot of the Sorcerer stuff. Then as I was taking this in a rather grumpy boss of the stand told me that we should be getting our product from WWG not them. I was getting a bit miffed. But before I waded in all guns firing I wanted to talk with the others to make sure my understanding of being able to buy from the stand from the previous day was an accurate memory.

Back at the flat after grabbing a Chinese take-away again I watched the Champions League final live on YouTube. It was a nervous 90 odd minutes as a Liverpool fan, considering that Liverpool weren’t for whatever reason firing on all cylinders. Despite the performance not being the usual high quality for the team, Spurs failed equally to perform at their best. Although to be fair to Spurs they were the better of the two teams on the night. Sadly for them just not in front of goal and taking opportunities.

So Saturday ended on a real happy note. My team for the last 45 odd years won their 6th European League trophy.

Day 3 – Departure

I repeated Saturdays morning routine, and added packing away all my stuff and putting it in the car. Well it was checking out day for the flat.

At the expo I used the quiet time as an opportunity to briefly look around and also take some photos of an empty expo hall 1. Something as a punter you don’t get to see normally.

Once people started to show up on the stands, the saga of the store credit and where exactly it could be spent took twists and turns. The boss of the stand tries to make sure that demo staff don’t miss out, and puts copies of Sorcerer aside for those that wanted a copy. They would work it out later with WWG about payment. A very very kind offer that I personally really appreciated. But then once WWG get in it’s all change again. WWG will ship to us any product we want that they don’t have with them. And that we would be given an opportunity to purchase the demo copies of Sorcerer at a reduced price.

Naturally this annoys the boss of the stand. It annoys me. It means I have to wait for anything I want. I didn’t want a demo copy of the game. Missing pieces, mistreated cards etc. were a concern. Heck we had “borrowed” tokens to use as counters and tracking life with Epic for starters (we had to improvise somehow).

One of my fellow demo crew members was tasked with taking the order of what people wanted to spend their store credit on. They had prices for the kickstarter stuff as well.

It worked out I could get all the Kickstarter exclusives and add-ones, but not the base game with the credit I had. So that’s what I went for. I reasoned that I’d be able to pick up the retail game easily enough, and probably cheaper than WWG would let me have it for.

Now instead of driving home with my brand new copy of Sorcerer and add-ons. I have to wait a minimum of a couple of weeks. Which my gut feeling is telling me will drag on longer than that. Mainly because I think WWG will be distracted in the meantime with Origins in the US that occurs in about 3 weeks time. So now their priorities shift to getting ready for that.

I wasn’t able to hang around at the end of the show (4pm) to help pack away. Maybe I should say more accurately that I was unprepared to do that.

My journey home was uneventful. The Attack Chihuahuas were pleased to see me back. Loki even left me a welcome home present by the backdoor!

Final Thoughts

As I said at the start and in a previous post, this was a first for me.

Seeing friends again that I haven’t seen in a while (months/years) was a definitely a highlight. But also seeing my friends from back home was equally a highlight.

Tom and Zee still seem dead set on pushing the myth that Barenpark is a game.

The guys behind the Judge Dredd RPG are pretty cool (as is their podcast).

I really enjoyed teaching Epic, and playing the odd game with a “punter”. But all the stuff around it kind of soured the experience a little.

I think it is accurate to say that the problems were due to poor planning and communication. In hindsight the warning signs were there with the late getting back to people with details etc when they asked for volunteers. And leaving it very last minute letting people have details about where they were staying (and that’s before they knew about the booking snaffu).

A lot of stuff could have been avoided with better organisation, confirmation phone calls/emails, better communication.

I appreciate that things go wrong, mistakes happen. And you can excuse one or two. But this was mistake after mistake. And they were avoidable mistakes.

There was also a confusing bit for me. If this was my company I’d be there before the help (which is what I was) arrived. I’d want to be first on the stand. Make sure everything was right before the doors opened etc. But they weren’t. I was first on the stand. They have no idea about the water spill. They arrived just before the doors opened. Or at least delegate that to one of your employees who is there with you.

I know where I lay the blame. But this isn’t a blame game. It’s a learn from your mistakes and do better next time.

Would I do it again?

I think so, just not with WWG. Great games, but…

Plus if anyone reads this post they most likely wouldn’t want me now to help out anyway. Very few people these days want reliable, independent, thinking, hard working people. They want cheap. Ok I just described myself twice. But you know what I mean.