It is hard to believe that it is a whole week since the start of the sixteenth UK Games Expo.  With the Friday falling in half-term week for most schools, attendance reached an all-time high with reports of 32,000 unique visitors over the three days of the event—a remarkable bounce back from the 10,671 in 2021 (the first Expo after the cancellation in 2020).  As in previous years there was a viking encampment outside the NEC, and the queues to get in to the main halls were substantial.

– Image by Jade

Inside, though busy things were more manageable, gamers from boardGOATS managed to run into each other by accident, which was quite remarkable considering the massive crowds.  Queue conversations were quite a thing this year, especially in the queue for the Bring and Buy which was spacious and well laid out.  The Bring and Buy itself was especially good for Buyers this year as there were constantly new items being put out (though it was perhaps more frustrating for Bringers as their items weren’t put on display until there was space).

– Image by Teal

There were some great demonstrations of new games. One highlight was playing as the State in Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory, a great, new, heavy-weight, political board game.  There were also demonstrations of Undaunted: Stalingrad as well as for Vivarium and Vaalbara from the marvelous folks on the Hachette Boardgames UK stand (all of which came out last year).  There was a hilarious reading of Ian Livingstone’s City of Thieves and foiling a dastardly aristocrat’s demon-summoning plans in the new, one-shot RPG, Candela Obscura was memorable too.

– Image by Jade

As usual, there were also a lot of designers about, including Tony Boydell, Alan Paul, Andy Hopwood, Bez Shahriari, Rob Harper, Gav Thorpe, Florian Sirieix and Morten Billcliff all sharing their games, chatting with gamers and signing boxes.  Copies of Condottiere, Azul: Master Chocolatier, Next Station London, Earth, Tiwanaku and After Us were also acquired amongst other things, and will likely be played over the coming weeks.

– Images by Teal and Jade