Spiel is very different from a UK games convention – because a UK games convention is about playing games and it might have a table down one end to buy stuff from where as Spiel is about selling games and ends at 7 o'clock. In fact for local people (ie Germans) it's a case of storming in buying everything and storming out again but then there so much closer. Our plan involves overnight ferry’s and a hotel who's bar gets invaded by gamers every night.....
That is not a convention – it's just what happens when you fill a hotel with gamers.
If you and your play group can read German you can pick up some amazing bargains but if you are an English speaker the bargain aspect is much less significant (although the rise of international versions is helping with that -as long as the 'German' version also contains English then the price will be very low) and very quickly outweighed by the cost of doing it at all. So your going for an experience rather then a cost saving exercise. It is an experience because where else would you be able to find people selling a game based around running a heavy metal festival who got meeples throwing the horns made?
If it had been in English – we'd have totally brought it.....
It is possible to save money – bargain hunt, by an awful lot of games, pick up things you might otherwise have had to pay delivery from states (for example anything kick started) but I don't buy enough to actually save money and this is the amount I buy.:
Which looking at it is pretty similar to two years pile.
Of the things I brought 7 were not on my list before the event – so why did I buy them?
Sylla was brought because it was 5 euros and I've seen it in the works sale previously and it's got a reasonable right up. And it was 5 euro's.
La Isla was brought because it's by Stefan Feld and well I was only going to buy one Stefan Feld game but then it was there and it was only 25 Euro's and I was already buying something from that stall and....
Kings Pouch I played and quite liked – pouch drawing mechanics are in this year so I thought I'd best get at least one of them.
Camel Up I brought because it won a game of year award which is generally a good sign – it's not going to be a terrible game even if it's not your favourite game.
Istanbul I brought because it also had a game of the year award and I rather liked it.
Praetor was a last minute impulse buy because it had an interesting mechanic about retiring workers once they got to the top of there tree – and having played it on the ferry home I suspect another play through will want me to write a review about it.
Fields of Arle I brought because I managed to haggle 5 euros of the price and it's by Uwe Rosengerg who's game I generally like. Although quite how many different farming games I need is a bit of mystery – and when I'm going to play a two player game is rather unclear.
And finally the Antike 2 conversation kit which I did not know exist – and I'd been tempted by the the new version anyway but decided I could not justify it......
Comparing my purchase with the Hotness at board game geek is interesting - because a lot of the stuff in the hotness I've not even heard off....
One other thing you might not be able to see is some bags of little bits – as I brought a pile of meeples and disks in matching colours to try and help me get back into doing stuff. I suspect this is the game designer equivalent of buying a nice fresh notebook...... But hopefully there
It's very tiring – and you know what – I think a nap might might a really nice idea....
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