Tag Archives: Kavango Lodges Expansion

UK Games Expo 2026

Today, Sunday, is the final day of the twentieth UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham. There has been a notably larger presence of mainstream news reporting on the event this year, and it is reported that there are expected to be over fifty-thousand people attending what the organisers are claiming is the largest hobby games convention in the UK. The milestone was commemorated by the presence of a “museum” at the entrance, with displays and photos dating back to its first event in the Clarendon Suites in Edgbaston.

– Image by boardGOATS

The idea was originally conceived by Richard Denning and Tony Hyams in 2006, but as the event grew, more people became involved and venue expanded, first to the Hilton and now to the NEC. UK Games Expo (also known as UKGE), now features a wide range of activities covering different genres, including exhibitors, shows, seminars, re-enactors and cosplay. There is also a large organised Bring and Buy Sale, with open gaming space for people to play their purchases. Every year, the event grows and changes, and while some recent years have felt very, very cramped, this year felt much less so.

– Image by boardGOATS

Many of the boardGOATs have made the journey, some just for a day out, with others working on stands or visiting for multiple days. The trade-fair grows year-on-year, but the origin and focus of UK Games Expo has always been current games and open gaming, there are also organised play-testing and tournaments. As usual, there is a lot of game-related geek-fare (including puzzles, furniture, mugs, clothing, jewellery, and other nick-nacks) and there are more cool dice available to see and buy than most “normal” people would ever believe!

– Image by boardGOATS

Most games companies have a stand at UKGE, some with sales, some just demoing and most with both. Games stores including Zatu, Travelling Man, Chaos Cards and Waterstones had a presence, as well as large multinational companies like Asmodee, Allplay, Czech Games Edition and Hachette, and many smaller, independent games producers. One of these was Mazaza Games who produced the popular game, Kavango, and were demoing its upcoming Lodges expansion and their next game, Scavengers.

– Image by boardGOATS

Surprised Stare were there as usual, with a solo version of The Cousins’ War and their recent reimplementation of Kingmaker. Matagot presented a cute little painting game called Kanō, and for those with an interest in both cats and B-movies in game-form, Cheatwell Games had Cat Earth available for purchase (no, not a bag of cat litter…). This is just a flavour of what is now such an enormous event that it is impossible not to miss something, indeed, it is pretty much guaranteed. But that’s OK, it leaves something to see the next day!

– Image by boardGOATS

Essen 2025

Today is the conclusion of the largest annual gathering of gamers in Europe. The Internationale Spieltage is known to gamers worldwide simply as “SPIEL” or “Essen” and is a four day fair with lots of new releases scheduled to coincide with the event, just in time for Christmas sales. This year, there have been lots of exciting new games available to be seen including Galactic Cruise, Brick Like This!, Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor, Waddle, Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock (which was sold out before the end of the first day) and Origin Story (which was sold out by Friday).

– Image by boardGOATS

In addition to new games, the rise of crowd funding has had a large impact, and increasingly there are stands presenting current live projects in the hope of seccuring additional backers. Examples of this included, Eldertide: A Thousand Lights, the Lodges expansion to Kavango, Cascadia: Alpine Lakes, AstroNavigators, and the re-release of Nippon to name just a few. There have been a lot of really good deals to be had too, and there will be even more on the final day today. It was with sadness though that the Snowdonia spin-off, Alubari was found at a discounter for €15, as this was a great game released with much fanfare a few years ago.

– Image by boardGOATS

Old favourites typically often get a new lease of life with the release of expansions. This year, relatively recent releases like SETI (which was confirmed as the winner of the Deutscher Spiele Preis), Faraway, Castle Combo and Windmill Valley recieved new additions, but older games like Underwater Cities and Wingspan also got some love (with the new Data Era expansion and the fan-designed promo packs). As well as new games and expansions, there were also a number of re-releases of old favourites including Ra, Bohnanza (with Dahlia artwork) and Botswana, and even Ticket to Ride which has had a bit of a face-lift with new artwork.

– Image by boardGOATS

For those that were prepared to stay late on Friday, there was a world record attempt for the most people playing The Settlers of Catan together. This was achieved with CATAN-Connect, which is a new version of the game designed for large parties that has large groups playing around single islands with elements of simultaneous play and everyone working to one electronic dice roll and a timer. The record had been set at Essen in 2015 with one thousand and forty, only for Rotterdam to set a new record two years later with one thousand and ninety-six. At SPIEL, one thousand, one hundred and seventy players joined in the game (watched by a few more who were just curous), successfully bringing the world record back to Germany where it arguably belongs.

– Image by boardGOATS

UK Games Expo 2025

Friday was the first day of the nineteenth UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham. It is bigger than ever, and it is rumoured that it is fifty percent bigger than last year. In truth, though it is difficult to tell, as the organisers had to move out of Hall 1 (apparently to accommodate Tesla who then cancelled), putting all the stands on a single level spread over a large, more or less continuous space. So this year, it just feels, very… large. Additionally, There are the now regular attendance of the Vikings and Romans camping by the lake, but fewer cosplayers, or maybe they are just more spread out…

– Image by boardGOATS

Although there are some new releases, the focus of UK Games Expo this year, as always, is the current games and open gaming (both in the halls and at the nearby Hilton). There are also organised play-testing and tournaments, with plenty of game-related geek-fare, like puzzles, furniture, clothing, jewelry, nick-nacks and other sundries. Indeed, there are more cool dice available to see and buy than most “normal” people would ever believe!

– Image by boardGOATS

Most games companies have a stand at UKGE, some with sales, some just demoing and many with both. A new innovation this year is the collectable pin badges. A variant of these is the live-action Catan game, where attendees can acquire a starter set of resource button badges to trade. Collecting a full set of five, enables the owners to claim a sixth from the stand. This game was remarkably evocative of a real game of Settlers, with players desperate to find wood for their large pile of sheep!

– Image by boardGOATS

There are lots of opportunities to play demo games, both old and new. New games include The Hanging Gardens and Critter Kitchen while slightly older games on display include Panda Panda, River Valley Glassworks and Harmonies. There are also expansions and variants of old favourites, including the Grand Tour expansion for Snowdonia, the upcoming expansion for Shackleton Base, the award winning Heavy Rain expansion for Heat, the Athena expansion to Akroplolis, the new Lodges expansion for Kavango, and the Correspondence expansion for In the Footsteps of Darwin.

– Images by boardGOATS

This year, about half of the boardGOATS are making the trip to the NEC in Birmingham, some for one day some for more, with others working on stands or at the Play Testing. The event is so vast now though that you can no-longer guarantee accidentally bumping into people you know, but SMS is a great way to communicate onsite. The event is great fun and well worth a visit. UK Games Expo continues at the NEC in Birmingham until 4pm Sunday 1^st June.

– Image by boardGOATS