lördag 6 juni 2015

UK games Expo 2015 (Part one) - The trip and the Expo

So know I have returned from Birmingham, UK, and I am ready to conclude my experiences from the Expo. In part one I will conclude my experiences from the Expo. In part two I will go through the Bushido tournament.

The trip started as much that I do in gaming with a spur of the moment idea, in this case it was me and Peder one day saying; "Maybe we should go to the Grand Master of Bushido in Birmingham." We had talked for some time that it would be fun to go and visit some bigger gaming event outside Sweden. When we saw that it was a limit of 24 players in the tournament, we thought that we never would have a chance at getting a ticket.



So when the tickets was released they didn't sell them out that quickly, so we got tickets, as they where only six pounds each we thought that it wouldn't be a big loss if we couldn't go.

Suddenly both our families was in on the trip and our Expo experience would be limited to Saturday and the Bushido tournament. But I don't think neither had any problems with that. A few weeks before the trip Peder´s wife broke her leg in three places and she wasn't allowed to fly. So suddenly the whole think was in jeopardy, at least for Peder.  But after a weeks soul searching he decided to go if it was ok with us, or should I say my wife, cause it would be her that would take care of three children aged 4-7 during the entire day we would be playing. AND it was her birthday...

At Thursday we arrived at Birmingham airport, and after eating, checking in at the hotel and a small tour around town, we were ready for an early bed.

Friday were spent at Drayton Manor, an amusement park that includes Thomasland, which was a great success at least if you ask the kids!

On Saturday we all went to the Expo but my wife and the kids soon realized that it was to big and crowded so they went back to the city. I´ll go into detail about the Bushido tournament in part two.

The Expo in itself is by far the largest gaming event I ever been to, with over 7 000 attendees over the weekend. Several crowded halls cramped with gaming companies showing of their products and lots of small and big rooms for gaming, even one specially dedicated to children. From what we gathered they have grown out of the Hilton hotel (they even had a large tent, Marquee to accommodate more gamers) and for 2016 they will expand to the nearby N.E.C. which is a huge convention center.

The Bushido tournament was a four game affair, so we didn't have much time to really take in all the things at the event. The little free time we had were spent at GCT sales stand, which you can see pictures further down in this post.

The food was rather nice arranged with street food carts in the outside area of the hotel. Expensive but really tasty and a lot to chose from.

On a whole it was a real nice experience and would love to go again, but maybe have at least one more day at event.

Sunday and Monday was spent in Birmingham with our families.

One of the big gaming halls

Dropzone commander tournament

PSC showed their "new" game 'the Great war'

One gaming hall dedicated to children

R/C Dalek

Trade show

Dropzone commander display

Cramped!
Street food



Lost in N.E.C.

Bushido display

GCT had a stand at the Traders area, where they had their painted models on display and some of the new and coming stuff. I must say that the pictures of the models don't do them justice. Up close and live the look even more awesome, which in most cases is saying a lot!


Rakki
A new model that is coming for Silvermoon syndicate, Rakki the golden Kami!

Rakki

Tengu Descension
A brand new faction is soon coming out in Bushido, Tengu Decension. They had some unpainted models of the. In the second picture you can also see a new Samurai for Prefecture of Ryu, who comes with a dog!
Tengu - unpainted

Tengu and new Samuraj


Rise of the Kage
Here is some plastic models from GCT new board game 'Rise of the Kage', which they had a kickstarter to fund it last year. It pits Ninjas against the soldiers of Prefecture of Ryu, as a extra bonus they will do cards for the models so you can use them in Bushido to.
Rise of the Kage

Ito
I bought two new models for Ito, Yuui and Mizuki, who both are rather new models. And they also showed a new Hebi
A new hebi (the male one)

Yuui


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