The day started more gently with light through the curtains of my hotel room and the realisation that I had slept in until 6 (I work in a brewery so I am usually up at 5). The sleep had been sorely needed after the journey of Thursday and the afternoon and evening of gaming and friends. Friday would be the first full day of the convention and more friends were arriving to this church of gaming in the middle of England. Breakfast at The Franklin was excellent and then I met Tim Clare over at Crema for a coffee and so he could get something to eat. Another strong recommendation here.
With being press we were allowed in early and had a quick look over the exhibitor hall before finding ourselves a place to camp for the day. We were quickly joined by Richard and Paul and as the doors opened more of our group found their way to our idyll at the back of hall 1. We kicked off the day with some Magical Athelete, a nice gentle ramp up into the day. Seen a few people playing this, and it is just such a good ice-breaker game.
Tim wasted no time in suggesting Joraku when it was just Simon, him, and me as Paul and Ricahrd went wandering. I had played this once before with Tim and really enjoyed it, but had forgotten just how tasty it is. Set during the Sengoku period of Japan you are all rival warlords marching to Kyoto to ‘protect the Shogun’. The core mechanism is a trick taker where the higher a card you play the more action points you get to spend to move troops about and eliminate rivals. They get on the map by you choosing to forgo action points to place up to 3 troops on the space matching the number on the card.
Sounds straight forward enough but here is the twist. At the start of the game the places furthest from kyoto are worth most points at the end of the round. As the game progresses, places closer to Kyoto become more valuable. You have to balance winning tricks to carry out battles that get you points, and playing cards that get you the support you need, where you need it. It really is a very tight game full of agonising decisions. Fantastic stuff.
After a quick Compile with Simon, because why wouldn’t I, Tim introduced me to two player game Confusing Lands. This was an 18 card game of creating a strange, little world where each card could either be played primarily for its different contents, or for a scoring goal that relied on those contents. The twist was that each scoring goal gave you minus 10 points at the end of the game so you had to balance playing them with managing to make them profitale. Fun game with a load of different options for goals, and some lovely art.
The food situation at lst year’s Airecon had been a bit of a disaster. Matchams, the centres own food provider, had been the only thing available in the centre and it was right at the other end of the convention halls making it feel like an epic trek in its own right. This year that still exists but the convention had arranged for food trucks outside the nearby Hilton hotel. I’d go to these a couple of times over the course of the day and the food was excellent. Some provided indoor sitting was most welcome as the rain battered Harrogate once more.
When I got back to the convention centre Ava Foxfort had arrived as Simon, Paul, and I setup El Grande. Along with Ava’s friend Simon, I know confusing, we dived into this absolute classic. It is one of Ava’s favourite games so they did a fantastic teach and I lost badly. It was a total blast. If you aren’t familiar with it El Grande is THE area control game and it still really stands up. We’ve covered it on Cult of the Old, it is free to play on BGA, and this new version of the game is gorgeous. Shot to the top of my ‘get it in my collection’ list.
One of the games I had been asked to bring was Old King’s Crown and it was time for me to teach it to Ava and Tim. It took me a moment or two to get in the swing of it, but the teach felt good and I think I balanced givning them enough information alongside not front loading too heavily. We made our way through a shorter 4 turn game, with everyone making some great moves, diving into the crunchy systems, and generally doing their best to make sure I came in last place. Which I did.
Tim came out on top with Ava second and Simon beat me by turn order tie break. Thanks to Simon for helping me with the bits of the teach I wasn’t as hot on. I still don’t full know what to make of this game. More time is needed. I like a lot of it, but it is ‘too much’ at times.
After two relatively crunchy games it was time for a bit of The Gang with Tim and Simon. We romped through a couple of games and I had forgotten how much easier the game is at lower player counts, even when you up the difficulty. Still enjoyable of course. Really curious what the expansion will bring later in the year.
We took the opportunity to play Moon Colony Bloodbath again, introducing Ava to this wonderful enginge builder/destoryer of cracking open buildings for the tasty humans inside. That is theme right? Haven’t added this one to the collection yet, but I feel that is in my future. As the night drew to a close we were joined by Paul Flannery, and friends Sam and Doug who we had played multiple games with over the last couple of conventions. Sam is a purveyor of weird games and he had Persuasion.
Ooh boy. Strap in. Persuasion as you might be able to intuit from the name, is a game based around Jane Austen novels and specifically the writing of letters to potential partners. Everyone has a hidden goal, trying to find someone that has more of a particular symbol, without having too much of the symbol you don’t want. You disocver these by passing them sleeved cards where you have written your ‘seal’ on the back. These are letters you are writing to them, allowing folk to use different powers depending on whose missives they have received. I am not going to pretend I fully understtod this one, but I had a blast and we all ended up married or happily independent which means everyone won! A very strange game that is currently quite hard to get.
We finished up with a glorious game of Flip 7 which I won due to my superior understanding of strategy, and ludicrous luck. Mostly the latter.
It was well past my bedtime when we headed our seperate ways but it was totally worth it. Being shown weird games like Persuasion is the reason I come to coventions. Sharing those moments of confusion, revelation, joy, and defeat with friends around a table, while being in a totally safe environement to express those is salve to the soul. It has been a busy few months for me and this was a reset sorely needed, and gratefully received. I can’t wait to see what day 3 brings!