Convention Report: Essen 2008: October 23, 2008 – Day 1

By W. Eric Martin
October 24, 2008

Rather than cover everything I’ve seen, heard or played in depth at Spiel, then die due to falling asleep in the middle of a busy German roadway while walking to the Messe, I’m sticking to a few quick notes from day 1 in Essen:

• People were lined up across most of Hall 5 in order to snag one of the few copies of Duck Dealer that splotter Spellen had available. No one in line had any idea of what the game was like, but no one wanted to miss out either. Splotter did run DD demos later in the day once its booth was cleared of those pesky games.

• A similar line of people ran out of the British booth, which boasted what looked like a pallet of Martin Wallace’s Steel Driver.

• The line for Duck Dealer and the Treefrog titles was topped only by the number of people waiting for access to the Lookout Games booth, whether for Uwe Rosenberg’s new Le Havre or the multitude of Agricola-related items: vegimeeples, Euchre decks, drinks, postcards, and of course signed L-deck cards. I played only a half game of Le Havre before needing to jet for an appointment, but such is the way of convention life. I liked what I saw, but there’s time for more playing later.

• Five game companies from Korea are showing titles in a large booth in Hall 5. One of the publishers mentioned that the Korean government had recently shifted away from support of video game companies to support of board games, partly as a result of game addiction coverage in the media. The games are somewhat family-oriented; one of them is similar to the much-beloved, hard-to-find Lexio, the publisher of which is no longer in business according to one of the representatives in the booth.

• Dominion is this year’s omnipresent game, that is, the game that you see being played on tables throughout the fair. In the hotel in the evening, three tables out of six were playing the game.

• Planet Steam has the largest box that I’ve yet seen for a board game. I plan to take a closer look at the game, but any thought of buying one has been quashed as I’d have to devote more than half a suitcase to carrying it. Others have suggested planting a sail in the box and riding across the Atlantic on it.

• Repos has almost sold out of the limited number of Ghost Stories that it brought to Essen. As he did at Spiel 07, Pierô is adding beautiful illustrations inside the boxes.

• As Dale mentioned in his Wednesday column, Age of Steam has been picked up by FRED Distribution. There are no changes to the game play, but the graphic design and presentation are still underway.

• The gameboard for Chicago Express is gorgeous, and Queen Games has devoted a lot of table space for the game.

• Conflict of Heroes: Steel Rain – Russia, 1943-1945, the second title in the CoH from Uwe Eickert should be released at Origins 2009 in June. The swamp board, previously released as a bonus item, is being packaged with a few scenarios from Eickert and should be available from distributors by the end of November.

• A new Dutch designer/publisher had an innovative way of displaying his designs for potential licensors: two-foot-wide touch screens that allowed you to play the game.

• The new Matagot title Giants was one of the few released games that I’ve played, and it proved to be pretty interesting after a slow introductory round in which no one had a clue of what to do. By the late stages, I could see several things that I could have done better – a good sign, from my point of view.

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