Day 1 of Essen Spiel 19 has come to an early close, and I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings about attending the largest board game convention in the world.
My first thought is simply…. wow. My only other experience has been the UK Tabletop Gaming magazine’s convention at London’s Alexandra Palace a few weeks back. It occupied most of the exhibition hall, and I was already quite impressed with the number of gamers who turn up to test out new games, play older ones and take home some discounted products.
Essen Spiel is on another plane of existence. For Singaporean readers, take a large local convention, like an IT show or travel exhibition. Now multiply the exhibition space by 4 to 6 times, and the number of people accordingly, and that’s Essen Spiel.
I spent about 2 hours on my feet and I think I only managed to glance at 1/3 of the total number of booths and exhibitions. I was totally exhausted by the day’s proceedings (some 4 – 5 hours of walking the exhibition halls), but also amazed by the reception that board games have in Germany (and in Europe). Before I go into a meta conversation, take a look at my best highlights of Day 1 of Essen Spiel
Gaming and Beer:
In what must be the quintessential German mash-up, there was a large communal gaming space hosted by Game Brewer that also served up a pint. Many games were well lubricated by copious amounts of beer, which is indeed cheaper than mineral water.
CMON’s booth with pre-production miniatures of upcoming games
It’s always amazing to be able to see pre-production miniatures, almost as if you’re party to some secret that the rest of the world can only vicariously and enviously access through you. I was salivating over the upcoming release of Ankh, Gods of Egypt and Zombicide Ver 2, of which I am a kickstarter backer. I also got an early look at Cthulu: Death may Die, which is supposed to be shipping to me soon as I am also a kickstarter backer of this. (there seems to be a pattern emerging)
Long queues to buy discounted board games.
The last time I was in Paris, I noticed that the various luxury good shops on the Champs Elysses had velvet cordons and bouncers to control the number of shoppers that entered the retail outlet at any one time. Demand was so strong that they had to throttle it in order for the luxury goods sales teams to cope.
Fast forward to Spiel 19, and there are snaking queues outside different booths and exhibitors to buy the latest (or most discounted products). What really surprised me was that attendees were absolutely willing to spend 30 – 45 min in line just to buy board games. Local Singaporean board game retailers would kill to have that kind of demand for product. When I was in London for the UK Tabletop Gaming magazine convention, there some crowds sure, and lines to make payment, but never at the level where you had to get in line just to browse products. It just goes to show how board games have a different place in different cultures.
And on to my biggest disappointment for Spiel 19…
Games Workshop, I’m sad
This is the Games Workshop booth (pardon the blurry pic). By all accounts it is a medium-sized booth stocked with products and promoters and dioramas, just the way a Warhammer store would be if it were magically transported by Realmgate/Webway to an exhibition hall. The dioramas were cool but not all that impressive, and the selection of products was actually quite pathetic (they had some exclusive and forge world products, one shelf of start collecting boxes, as well as the latest of Rise of the Phoenix Eldar boxed sets).
But where’s the latest releases? In the Warhammer Community posts, they teased releases of new Necromunda gangs, Ogre Blood Bowl teams and the Spire Tyrants warbands for War Cry. And there was absolutely none of that on display at Spiel 19 except for the chaos Necromunda gang. This was a massive bait and switch! There was nothing launched at Spiel 19! Even smaller companies like Mythic Games, Parabellum Games and the CMON monster teased/launched authentically new stuff. Terribly disappointing of GW, and it goes to show that their social media hype can be full of totally made up BS.
Final Thoughts
Day 1 of Spiel was an eye opener. I went in with zero plans, and my wanderings were some what unproductive. Tonight, I’m going to draw out a plan of exhibitors to look at, games to try out/observe and then have a more productive outing.
