Essen 2010 Post Mortem

So... I'm back. What can be said that hasn't been said by others already? Probably not much. Here are some random observations:

• At least for me, one full day at Essen is more than enough. Towards mid-afternoon I had the distinct feeling my brain was melting down, and I was causing a permanent lifespan reduction.

• Essen has the best Con food ever. The Germans know how to do junk food. Nothing like a fully loaded (sauerkraut, etc.) 12-inch bratwurst to get your HP back where they need to be. Of course the 3 Euro cokes kind of sucked... but, you have to expect to get screwed when you're trapped in a massive convention center.

• The high end luxury hotel adjacent to the convention center entrance has the swankiest, cleanest, most full featured restrooms I've encountered outside of the United States (including Tokyo). After a seven hour train ride to get to Essen, this was much appreciated.

• By planning out my booth targets in advance I was able to get everything I wanted to buy or pick up in less than one hour, which loaded full a backpack plus another large carrying bag. Overall the Con seemed to have a much smaller crowd this year than when I was last there. I'm sure having a mental map from my previous visit helped a lot as well.

• Next time I go, I'm going to somehow get a press pass and get in on Wednesday. Waiting in line is for suckers.
  

• Germany in October is COLD. I have new sympathy for the participants in the Battle of the Bulge.

• At least a quarter of the floor space at Essen is devoted to children's games, which is a huge area. There was also a big inflatable bouncy castle zone, making this a potential family destination... assuming your spouse will hold down the fort while you go do the other 75% of the Con.

• The night before the Con I had dinner with three native Germans I work with, all architects and engineers. They asked me what I was going to do the next day. I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm in Germany where everyone is a hardcore board gamer. Its the national pastime, right? Surely they'll all be pumped about Essen as well!" I told them, "I'm going to the go to Essen to the Spiel board game convention! Isn't that awesome!" ...Crickets... crickets... "Ugh... you're going to do what? Where? Ummm... why? Have you ever been to Essen? Its probably one of the least interesting cities in Germany. Why not go someplace nice or fun like Heidelberg? Board gaming?" So... pretty much the same reaction you'd get from a random group of Americans. Myth dispelled.
  

• Sean: I have your Power Grid promo cards.

Anyway... now to play some of these new games!

Back to Essen

Well... it now appears about 95% likely I'll be there again this year, though unlike the photo above the Essen I remember was dark gray and full of rain. I managed to hornswoggle a business trip to Europe during exactly the right time to enable me a day at the Con. Still, getting there will involve 3.5 hours each way on a train and a very long day.

Worth it? We'll see. Last time I finessed my way into the Con during dealer-only set up day (Wednesday) and snarfed up all the good stuff before it was tainted by the masses. This year I'll be there on Friday, which I remember as being akin to Mortal Kombat (with wall-to-wall German chain smokers in your face)!

If I see any good free stuff I can get extra copies of, I'll definitely do so.

In other related news, Master Persuader Michael seems to have sucked me back into something I swore I had forever forsaken: WoW.

I think I just found my first Essen purchase

And it's Dungeon Lords. The rulebook is pretty damn funny, and who can argue with Vlaadi's track record? Here's some quotes from the first two pages:

Oh, you’re here already? Um... do come in. My name is [redacted to comply with advertising regulations]. For over 300 years, I have been in the service of the great [redacted to comply with advertising regulations]. The Ministry of Dungeons has asked me to round out this text with notes and comments from my centuries of experience. It is my honor to comply. Although if they don’t stop censoring me, they can take their pencil and [redacted to comply with obscenity regulations].

At the end of the "Overview of play":

You call that a summary? This is a summary: build, fight, build, fight, score. That’s all there is to it.

On Priests:

Priests hate their roles in adventuring parties and do not get along with the others. With lawyers, however, they are quite chummy. They take the Adventurer’s Code literally when it says, “Priests are required to heal the party after battle to the best of their abilities.” See? “After battle.” No battle, no healing.

On your first game's simpler rules:

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, I’m a hardcore gamer. I can handle the full rules.” Well guess what? This game is designed for hard-core gamers. And we still want you start with the simpler rules. You gotta learn to irk before you can torment, kid.