Convention Report: UK Games Expo 2008 – First Thoughts

By W. Eric Martin
May 31, 2008

As part of my 40th birthday celebration (thanks, Linda!) I’m attending the UK Games Expo 2008, which is taking place in Birmingham on the same weekend as a Magic the Gathering Grand Prix tournament. While Magic fans might be busy elsewhere, the Clarendon Suites have plenty of boardgamers, card gamers, miniatures gamers, and non-Magic CCGers on hand. A troop of stormtroopers are also on hand, as are a few droids, who zip back and forth in the halls as quickly as the person riding the trike inside can manage without flattening any children,

The Games Expo is only two days long, and since a few dozen gamers adjourn to a hotel for games in the evening, I’ll keep this first posting short, with more details to come in future days. First, two new games making their debut at the show:

Confucius

Alan Paull’s Confucius is a rich stew of subsystems in which you try to influence members of different ministries, send ships out to discover foreign lands, hire armies to conquer neighboring territories, and train students who will be under your thumb in the government.

Behind everything is a gift-giving system in which you can give an opponent an item ("Oh, a new rice cooker – thanks!") and that opponent now faces certain obligations to you depending on various actions you take. The number of actions you can take each turn depends on the gifts that you’ve given and received, and that aspect – combined with the nature of the obligations themselves – turns niceness into a weapon.

Put the training wheels on for your first game because cash and license management affect your possibilities on each turn, and without experience, you’re preparing to shoot at targets that may or may not be in place when the time comes to fire.

Ice Flow

I published a preview of Dean Conrad and John Streets’ Ice Flow recently, so head to that write-up for the basics on how to play. After two games – once with four and one with two – I think this is a great family strategy game and most likely a winner for more strategic players as well. The possibility for forethought and layers of strategy is there should you want it, but you can also adopt a chatty game play style and razz your opponents and have lots of fun without much planning ahead.

Now an advance look at some other titles coming out over the next year:

Ascendancy

My quick take on the game is Agricola crossed with Roads & Boats iced with interstellar combat, but that might not do justice to Nigel Buckle’s design. We played a two-player basic game in an hour, which provided a taste of the technologies and possible actions as you compete against the Empire (which is played automatically by the game) and your opponents. You can choose to be more of an isolationist, or you can push your way in front of another and – if they’re not careful – make off with their geese before they have a chance to respond.

The advanced game adds unique player powers, an advanced tech tree, variable endgame bonuses based on player choices, and more planning and decision-making. Lots of stuff to explore in this one.

Carpe Astra

Jackson Pope of Reiver Games is making the jump to full-fledged publisher with Carpe Astra, which has become a co-design of Pope and Ted Cheatham. The space theme here is something of a ghost compared to the one in Ascendancy – squint a bit and it disappears. No matter for me, but others might care.

Over ten rounds, you’re trying to achieve hidden goals by moving your dudes around a grid and occupying certain spaces. You have only a few goals in your hand at any time, so you might be able to plan only a turn in advance, but the game seems to be more about leaving your options open for future development rather than intense planning. You can take the low road if you desire: assassinating your opponents, slandering them to knock down their status in various categories, and bribing them to stay off your turf.

Treefrog

While Martin Wallace is debuting Tinners’ Trail at this convention, he’s already laying the groundwork for the next twelve months, with four games due out by next May and UK Games Expo 2009. Briefly, those games are:

• After the Flood – a three player game due out in September or October 2008 that’s set in Sumeria, with players using resources to trade for goods not produced in the area while also building short-lived empires for long-lasting victory points. Competition among the players for goods, armies and turn order is relative rather than linear, so getting into an arms race with one opponent might hurt the two of you together and advantage the third player who can spend time on greater things.

• “Unnamed rail game” – the second title Wallace aims to have ready for Spiel 08 is a simplified type of 18xx game in which players bid for shares in six railroads over five rounds, with one share available each round. The winner of a share each round gets to decide what that railroad does, netting the income earned for himself rather than having it go to the player who controls the most shares overall. The share payout at the end of the game is affected by how diverse that railroad’s network is, so you’re balancing short- and long-term growth with your actions.

• Waterloo – a two-player game for early 2009 with the French and British fighting once again. The action system is a clever creation, with the opponent knowing how many actions you can take each turn; you know the range of possible actions, but the opponent having that knowledge strips the certainty from your preparation. Can you get your infantry back in a defensive position before the opponent thunders through with his cavalry?

• “Unnamed business game” – a 3-5 player game for May 2009 that bears a modern setting compared to most of Wallace’s releases. Players are competing in the U.S. auto industry in the early 20th century, purchasing factories that turn out low- medium- and high-valued vehicles. Each player knows a portion of the market demand each round and must make their purchasing and manufacturing decisions based on that. You can fund distributors across the country, but if you don’t supply them with vehicles to sell, they go bankrupt, taking your investment with them. As newer models make their way onto the market, the cost of older factories keeps bumping upward, encouraging you to keep pace with technology – a development that has other benefits as well.

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