GamesCon UK is an annual board game and RPG event in Emsworth, Hampshire, and was founded by my good friends Sara and JJ. It also falls on my birthday so I can fool myself into believing that my good friends set up a board game event just for me! (though in truth it is entirely coincidental).
2019 is it’s second anniversary and it certainly is growing with over 50% more ticket sales this year – over 150 people attending – which is a fabulous result for a small local convention.
The venue is split over three rooms; 1 for RPG sessions which run morning, afternoon and evening slots, 1 for the games library and open gaming run by Dice Portsmouth, and 1 for the shop run by CGC Emporium plus more open gaming space. There were also a few other exhibitors there selling their wares or demoing games, including Havant Wargaming and a chap demoing Heroscape so there is plenty for anyone interesting in gaming to do.
I’m mainly a board gamer but one of the chaps from Havant gaming gave me a brief overview of The Lord of the Rings; Middle Earth Strategy and some of his minis were epic! I don’t envy the poor fools that get pitted against the Balrog of Moria but I’m guessing it would be fun to play regardless which side of that battle that you’re on.
I was also lucky to be joined for the day by some friends whom I used to play a lot with who are from London and Bristol so it was both great to catch up with them and also to play some games with them – as it turned out every game we played was new to at least someone and it felt good (as it always does) to teach someone a new favourite game.
I went loaded with a bag full of current favourites and although we couldn’t get them all to the table, we managed to play most of them either on the day, or the evening before or morning afterwards.
We also played a new game that was out on the tables which was Just One. This is an really fun word game for 3-7 players and by the end of the day 3 of the 4 of us had purchased a copy for ourselves. I would thoroughly recommend you give this one a go as it is simple, funny, fairly cheap and you don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy it.
These are the games we managed to get to the table over the weekend, and I’ll write up a little more about each one in a separate post.
For all the fun of the games, and the great venue and support team that Gamescon_uk put on, it really is the social aspect of these games days I enjoy most. I was lucky to be joined by some really good, and old friends, however it is easy to go along to these events and meet new people to play with – you just have to be brave and ask to join in! There are also flags that people can put up ‘looking for players’ and ‘looking for a teacher’ so you can set up a game and someone will undoubtedly sit down with you shortly thereafter; you won’t be alone, in being alone, and before you know it you won’t be alone any more!
I cant believe that throughout the day I didn’t take a single photo of all the games we played or of the group (as this is unusual for me) as I was obviously having so much fun, however I did grab this one at the end of the night as the Londers were about to catch their train home;
All in all; a fantastic day.
Thank you Gamescon for a great day and I look forward to 2020!
#boardgames #bgg #gamescon_uk #gamescon_uk2019 #tabletopgames #tabletopgaming
steveslaw 