Handycon January 2019

So Diana and Aishwarya embarked on their first journey together to Handycon 5, an open gaming convention based in Maidenhead, in January. Here's what happened...

Diana

I first discovered Handycon in 2018 so I am a Handycon veteran! This was my second time there and I absolutely enjoyed it.
 

I arranged to play a few games with friends beforehand, and because I was only there for two days, it turned out to be quite a hectic schedule! Here're the highlights of what I played over the weekend and some thoughts (friends' names will appear in my articles as initials until they agree to appear as normal 😝 my partner shows up as Chris cos he doesn't have a choice!):

The games I played on Saturday were mostly with Chris, N and A. The first game we tried was Gugong. I naturally relate to it because I was born and grew up in China. It involved quite a big element of luck as you are somewhat restricted to the cards in your hand, but I like that it allows you to do two things by playing just one card – double decision-making is always good. However, it was not very thematic – the background could have been set anywhere – needn't have been China. The part about building the Great Wall also seems to be a relatively easy job compared to actual history. 

The other long game we played on Saturday was Teotihuacan: City of Gods. I had been hearing good things about it and it didn't disappoint. Both Gugong and Teotihuacan are worker placement with an ancient theme, but I prefer the latter much more. I particularly liked building the pyramid – because unlike Gugong, in which you just put your meeple down – in Teotihuacan you have to actually lay out bricks to build the pyramid in steps. Although, the process was obviously not as difficult as reality! It didn't remind me much of Tzolk'in, which is always a good sign that the designer wasn't merely repeating himself. But some part of it did remind me of Monopoly where you get $200 by passing Go! 😝

We played two small-ish games over the weekend. One of which was Arboretum, which was a nice surprise. It involves a lot of depth in such a small box if and only if you can remember all the rules. The copy in Handycon's library is the old version, which many consider to be nicer than the new print. The other game was The Estates, which I later discovered to be a remake of Neue Haimat. We played it twice, first one to learn with N and the second one, with M and Sara, was really vicious. It started off as M robbed Chris' skyscraper, then Chris put an impossible extension to M's lane, finally M dragged everyone (except for Chris!) down with him.

There was a lot of hype around Wingspan before Handycon and I managed to play a game with Chris and Tom on Sunday (it was Tom's copy). In Tom's words, the materials used in the game are probably the finest known to mankind, and to be fair it is a nice little game, but it really depends on what cards you draw at the beginning. If you get a handful of stupid cute water birds, which are useless at the beginning of the game, then it's very difficult to catch up. The other thing about it is that it discourages you from eating mini eggs while playing the game, because you don't want to accidentally eat the wrong thing!

On Saturday night we had an indoor picnic with Posh Gamers from Peterborough, which was a lovely short break from non-stop gaming. Actually, we did play Time's Up during the picnic as well, so technically it was not a break from gaming, but I considered it to be one of the highlights of Handycon 5 cos it's always fun to catch up with friends! It's only been less than a month but I'm already looking forward to the next one in the summer. 

Aishwarya

Handycon 5!
 

It was my first convention since I moved to the UK. I went with Posh games friends and had a great time over the weekend. Bring and Buy was a pleasant surprise. Besides the fair warning from my husband, just like he does whenever I go to the casinos, I couldn't control overspending. I started a few days early, when people posted their games for sale on Facebook discussion page. I usually get into such unwarranted excitement and suffer in a later period. Lol. But I must say that I got some of the good games to add to my collection including Viticulture, Deep Space d6, Coffee Roaster, etc. And who would miss the opportunity of trying inaccessible games in a convention? Not me. I did manage to accomplish as many as I wanted to play, which kept me busier the whole weekend. Games played and what I think of them:

I registered for Calimala from Spielworxx for Sunday afternoon and rest of the games are open gaming, chosen on the spot. When I talk about Spielworxx, I should say at this point that I am a huge fan - Arkwright, La Granja, Gentes, Dilluvia Project are a few of the favorites to mention. Especially Arkwright is a unique design and one of my all time favourites.

So the first one I played was Dominant Species Marine. It was Paul Grogan's (a popular reviewer in the UK) review copy and the group as such got it taught by the designer of Dice Hospital, whom I later came to know about. Another of my all time favourite game "systems" is Dominant Species. An inspiration to many of the Euros and no wonder it's from GMT. The Marine version that's coming as a part of GMT's P500 (the crowdfunding style followed by GMT), is a lot different from the original. In my opinion much more accessible with a whole new special action selection and the more forgiving Dominance cards, which removes the stressful experience of the original game. 

Then I played Key Flow, the card game version of Keyflower. Learnt it from the Keyper demo table. The host seemed to be a big fan of "Key" series games. Quite an enjoyable experience besides the fact that I still would prefer Keyflower the board game. 

Then a few more for the night including The City, Heck Meck and Endeavor (which cries for the letter 'u' lol ). Endeavor is a classic game packed with strategy and fun, but also the new one with all the fancy components in the creative Gametrayz so to speak, showcases the brilliant craftsmanship behind it. 

Then, I got to play one of those clever designs, The Gallerists. Vital Lacerda, the name is just enough to get me intrigued. His games certainly add value to my collection. Got to teach it to a couple of friends and everytime I teach this to someone, it ends up as a gratifying experience, of course for the game itself and not my teaching.
 

I also did Teotihuacan - another great game that needs a separate post to describe its beautiful design from the designer of Tzolk'in, and Gugong - an interesting take on card play but not my cup of tea - finally ending the convention with winning a game of Dice Hospital and scoring second place in Calimala.

I have to mention the Posh games friends who were there to help me whenever I needed. Also thanks to them for arranging an indoor picnic at the hotel, that added a great deal of excitement to the funfilled evening. 

Forgot to write about the playtest tables. Tried two unpublished/design level games- Aquanauts and a time travel game (forgot the name). I wish them luck in successfully launching their products.

 
That was a short story of Handycon 5! Looking forward to more unforgettable memories and good times to come by in the future. 

(photo credit: Aishwarya)