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