You know that old chestnut about the stars and wet paint, right? Tell a man there are a million stars in the sky and he’ll believe you, tell a man the paint on a bench is wet and he’ll have to touch it to know for sure. Or maybe the Eddie Izzard bit about the scale of murder? You murder one person, you go to jail. You kill six or seven people, we put you in a padded room with a window and observe you. You kill millions of people, we don’t know how to process that. “You must get up very early!”

The attendance numbers for Spiel are a bit like that. 230,000 attendees, 1,000 exhibitors, 15 football fields of space, it’s all so large that it’s rendered abstract. “Boy, that sure does sound like a lot” is about as close as you can get to a cogent response. If you happen to work in event planning, your response is likely something approaching the Wilhelm Scream. It is a lot, I assure you. The city of Essen is stretched to its limits; try finding a seat for dinner on that Saturday night. Messe Essen, home to Spiel, is itself at capacity. For the first time, this year saw nary an inch of unutilized conference space.

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The end of every day at aSpiel is met with cheers and applause by those working the event, but the celebratory outburst that erupts come 6:00 pm on the Sunday is particularly enthusiastic. Understandable. Every convention is a lot of work, but few more so than this one. It requires months of planning, international travel and the accompanying jet lag, a day or two of load-in, and four high-intensity 10-hour days, days during which you are either interacting with an endless onslaught of customers/consumers/enthusiasts as you teach them the same game over and over and over again in a Sisyphusean act of pedagogy, or you’re in meeting after meeting during which you are constantly “on” and seldom with a break. There’s a reason publishers ask people like me, people who spend those four days roaming the floor, what we’ve seen that’s exciting. Sure, it’s polite, but it also smacks of a soldier asking if there’s any news from home, desperate for a reminder of what all this is for.

6:00 pm hits, the barbaric yawp is released unto the world, a palpable feeling of joy and relief runs through the halls, and then everyone gets to work. For the attendees, 6:00 pm on Sunday is a called game; for the people working, there’s one final, frantic burst of activity. An…

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Essen SPIEL 2026 will be here in just over two weeks; the largest board game convention in the world, and a mecca for board gamers of all stripes. Nearly 1,300 games will make their debut into the European market; an overwhelming number. The Meeple Mountain team has spent their time sifting through the list to come up with our most anticipated games of Essen SPIEL.

K. David Ladage

Cascadia: Alpine Lakes

I have the entire Cascadia collection, including the roll-and-writes (one of the dangers of being a completist). I love the structure of the game, the way scoring works… everything. It plays well at two players and at higher counts. So yea, even if this is just a “more stuff” release, I am all in for more Cascadia pleasure!

Publisher: Flatout Games
Designer: Randy Flynn

Read our review of Cascadia: Alpine Lakes

Foundation: Isaac Asimov

Anyone who knows me knows that my absolute favorite book series of all time is Foundation. I have read them all, including the extended universe he managed to create…

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Two Worlds Collide

PAX West is a bit of a deviation from the traditional board game conventions we typically cover here at Meeple Mountain. Nestled in the tree-rich city of Seattle, PAX West offers a convergence of both the video game and tabletop hemispheres.

I had the wonderful opportunity to experience the show as an exhibitor, showcasing For All Mankind from Bad Cat Media. Though I’m fairly well traveled, I had never visited Seattle or attended PAX West, so the promise of new surroundings was absolutely tantalizing.

I’ve been a video gamer all my life, from my very first console, a red Game Boy Pocket, to now, where I recently beat Capcom’s Pragmata (fantastic) and Bethesda’s Ghostwire: Tokyo (very good). Tabletop gaming, on the other hand, is something I stumbled into only within the last six years. Given that I now write almost exclusively about board games, it’s actually a little puzzling considering I’ve had another gaming love for far longer.

So my coverage of PAX West was always going to focus on both worlds. Both have an equal place in my heart, and to say I was ecstatic to…

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What a long day! Made up mostly of travel but I’m exhausted. We left my house this morning at 8:30am via an Uber to the airport where we made it through security and to our gate for a 10:15am flight from Indianapolis to Chicago where we transferred over with a 2-hour layover to a 1:30pm flight to Columbia, South Carolina.

We landed in Columbia at 4:30pm, grabbed our luggage and picked up our rental car to make the 35 minute drive to Camden, South Carolina on I-20.

We checked into the hotel and made our way over to the Camden Revolutionary War Visitor Center for the opening social event where we gathered with about 60 fellow wargamers who have all made the effort to travel here to play games over their weekend and also to tour the historic sites in and around Camden. If you didn’t know, Camden was pivotal to the story of the Southern Campaign during the American Revolutionary War with two battles fought within 6 miles of each other, bracketing the British occupation of the town. The Battle of Camden in 1780 was a decisive British victory that crushed the American Southern Army and brought disgrace to American General Horatio Gates. The Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill in 1781 was a British tactical victory that proved to be a strategic defeat.

We were able to catch up with lots of viewers of our videos and friends we have known for a long time as well as several designers, including Sam London and Justin Fassino. I also got a chance to chat with Gene Billingsley from GMT Games for about 30 minutes on a number of topics including gaming, publishing games, life and the event. I want to say that I took this opportunity to beg Gene to see about making a Deluxe Edition of Here I Stand as they have done with other games such as Combat Commander and For the People with new updated art, components and boards. He was not spilling any beans on the subject and wouldn’t give me an indication if it was either in the works or planned fur the future. Bummer but I made my pitch.

We then had a fantastic introduction on the event and the commemoration of America’s 250th Anniversary from Battles of the American Revolution Series designer Mark Miklos and Gene Billingsley. There were a lot of very touching and patriotic words spoken by these 2 and I truly felt great pride in our nation and the experiment that created it and has kept us strong these past 250 years.

We then were treated to a live artillery firing by local volunteers of a period 1-pounder and it was quite impressive. When it was fired, it was past sunset and quite dark and the explosion was quite impressive and very loud.

Here are 2 videos we took of the firing with one being in real speed and the other in slow motion.

That was our evening and I’m very excited for tomorrow as there is an opening ceremony at 8:30am followed by open gaming. Alexander and I will be playing Oriskany, which is a bonus game included in Newtown from the American Revolution Tri-Pack #2, followed by a 4-player game of Liberty or Death. The evening will conclude with a group dinner.

-Grant

Pandasaurus Games has heavily downsized its Spiel Essen booth this year, after finding it can still sell similar numbers of its hit games through Asmodee arm EPN while slashing its overheads and logistical workload.

The US publisher has shifted to using European Player Network, Asmodee‘s specialist English-language sales and distribution operation in the region, to handle its stock and sales at the giant German show – removing the need for Pandasaurus to transport and store hundreds of games, staff its own retail operation and devote much of its booth to selling them.

Pandasaurus had run substantial booths at Spiel – the world’s biggest board game fair – for several years following the Covid-19 pandemic, but told BoardGameWire its experience using EPN last year persuaded it to heavily scale back its own footprint for the 2026 show in October.

CEO Nathan McNair said Pandasaurus previously spent more than €50,000 ($57,000) attending Spiel with its larger setup, compared to between $20,000 and $25,000 under its current model.

He said games Pandasaurus expects to be hits still sell similar numbers of copies – typically 300 to 500 – under the new setup – although added that Pandasaurus now receives roughly half as much revenue per sale.

“The revenue is lower because obviously EPN will get a portion of the proceeds, but our cost is so much lower that the overall cost to revenue ratio is very similar,” McNair said.

This year EPN will handle the company’s stock and sales operation and host three Pandasaurus demo tables within its booth, while the publisher’s own, smaller stand will be focused largely on meeting space and additional demos of upcoming games.

Titles being shown off by Pandasaurus this year include Alex Cutler design Sandcastles, Machi Koro: Life from Masao Suganuma and embroidery-focused card game Fadenfroh from Jordy Adan and Alexander Pfister.

McNair said, “The show is very expensive to get to and logistically trying to run a large booth half a world away is a lot. Running a show like GenCon is already a lot – but finding booth staff for the show when we need to staff 20 or more demo tables, stock games, sell games, figure out how to legally import/pay VAT/collect cash/deposit the cash in the US bank or get a correct license to take credit cards in Europe is a logistical nightmare.

“So, what we found is a way to more economically attend the show, get some marketing done, sell games to players, make sure we are demoing games and getting the meetings we need without having to spend €50,000 or more on the show itself.

“Our cost to attend with this model is roughly 1/3rd as much overhead, and while we make less per order when a game is sold our sales are actually just as strong, so players are still getting the games they want – we come close enough to ‘breaking even’ and it’s just a lot less work for us.”

McNair said US publishers “typically have a smaller footprint in continental Europe than we like to think”, and questioned the need for some English-language publishers to operate such large stands at Spiel.

“A lot of us run booths but I find it a bit strange given our limited sales in the region that so many have large booths,” he said.

“Some of course do sell and distribute in German (or other languages) themselves so that makes more sense – but for English only US publishers continental Europe isn’t our core market.

“If you look at US trade shows for the most part the only European companies with booths tend to be those that sell themselves in the US.”

He added, “I don’t want to tell other folks how to run their business and I’m a big believer that the folks with larger booths probably know more about their situation than me – so they may have found that this is really effective for them.

“I would absolutely prefer this model – it’s just a lot less work – besides the money difference I mentioned has taken the workload of prep and running the show to a fraction of what it was to try and run a larger booth in Germany.”

Pandasaurus’ decision to cut back on the size of its booth comes as Spiel itself continues to move in the opposite direction – with an expansion into all eight main halls at the Messe Essen exhibition centre for the first time expected to see the event challenge its record 220,000 attendance set last year.

Spiel said earlier this year that it had reached the reached the limits of its expansion at its long-time home after boosting floor space to 81,200 sq m – larger than 15 American football fields – amid what it called “overwhelming interest” from exhibitors.

Merz Verlag said demand for the additional space was coming both from existing exhibitors wanting significantly larger stands and an unusually high number of first-time exhibitors, with all available stands booked before the April 30 registration deadline.

And Pandasaurus’ smaller presence does not mean it sees less value in attending, according to McNair.

He said, “For me I really like to focus on meetings, seeing friends, trying to check out some games and building awareness of the new titles at the show – and I think the setup we have works really well for just that at a much lower lift,” he said.

“Essen is a much more international show in a lot of ways than most other board game conventions, so we know there are fans there who want to check out our new games really badly and I want to make sure they can – but if I can do it in a way that is less work and less risk for us I prefer that strongly.”

Spiel Essen 2026 takes place at Messe Essen from October 22 to 25.

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After 20 years growing the UK Games Expo into one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the world, founders Richard Denning and Tony Hyams are preparing for their eventual exit by bringing in AireCon co-founder Mark Cooke as operations director.

Cooke joins following another record year for UKGE, which has seen its annual unique attendance surge almost 65% since 2023 to reach more than 51,000.

The show has already well surpassed Gen Con in terms of trade hall size, with the British event now spanning about 44,000 sq m – about 40% larger than Gen Con’s trade hall area – and hosting around 900 exhibitors in 2026.

That soaring growth has put increasing pressure on the small organising team at UKGE, with Denning telling BoardGameWire last year that the show had strained a full-time workforce which stood at just six people – although UKGE also relies on more than 200 volunteers, GMs, umpires and other helpers to deliver the convention each year.

Cooke is no stranger to growing a UK board game convention, having co-founded and built AireCon with Ben Clarkson from a 28-person gaming weekend in his flat a decade ago into England’s second-largest board game con, with about 5,000 attendees this year.

His hire by UKGE comes just three weeks after AireCon revealed that despite its own soaring growth, its 2027 show in Harrogate would be its last – saying a combination of factors had “made it increasingly challenging to run AireCon in a way that preserves the character and spirit that made it so special in the first place”.

More than 5,500 people are expected at the final AireCon – which has been nicknamed Airemageddon – with Cooke set to continue working on that final show before moving to UKGE full time.

A statement from UKGE emphasised the hire was part of a phased transition for UKGE’s organisers, and was “not a sudden change of leadership or direction”.

It said Cooke would work alongside Denning and Hyams “over the next few UK Games Expo events”, ensuring that knowledge, experience and responsibilities the pair have built up over the last 20 years are handed over “gradually and thoughtfully”.

Denning said, “As UKGE has expanded to now one of the world’s largest shows we have gradually grown our team, adding event managers, administrators and logistics support.

“Bringing in Mark as operations director is the next logical step as we put in place plans to ensure UKGE can run far into the future.

“We have known Mark through AireCon and other industry roles for many years now and he is an ideal choice bringing both event management experience, energy and fresh ideas to the team as well as a safe pair of hands as and when Tony and I eventually step away from the show we have built together with others.”

Cooke added, “I’m incredibly excited to be joining the UK Games Expo team and to have the opportunity to play a part in the next chapter of such an important event for the tabletop gaming community.

“I have huge respect for what Richard and Tony have built over the years, and I’m looking forward to working alongside them over the coming events.

“This will be a gradual transition, giving us plenty of time to share knowledge, ideas and experience. My aim is to build on the fantastic foundations already in place while helping UKGE continue to grow and thrive for many years to come.”

Denning and Hyams launched UK Games Expo at Birmingham’s Clarendon Suites in 2007, when the convention attracted about 1,000 visitors.

It moved to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre in 2013, and had grown to more than 25,000 unique attendees by 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted its run of physical events.

Its growth has accelerated since returning, with unique attendance passing 31,000 in 2023, 39,000 in 2024 and 42,000 last year, before jumping beyond 51,000 at its 20th anniversary event this summer.

Denning told BoardGameWire last year that building a world-class trade hall in the UK had been a personal ambition stretching back almost two decades, adding at the time that UKGE was “now fully on the world stage of ‘mega-cons'”.

Despite this year’s record attendance, Denning told BoardGameWire after the show that there was still room for further expansion, particularly around the roughly 500 events taking place during the convention.

The next UK Games Expo is scheduled to take place at Birmingham NEC from June 4 to June 6, 2027.

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Games tackling subjects ranging from the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests to the 30-year holdout of Japanese WW2 soldier Hiroo Onoda have been named as finalists in this year’s Summit Award, which aims to recognise historical game designs which have attracted new players or introduced new subjects or perspectives to the hobby.

Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, Chicago ‘68, Molly House and Onoda will compete for the fifth edition of the award, which is run by the San Diego Historical Games Convention – an organisation which aims to create a diverse and supportive gaming community dedicated to playing, discussing, designing, and promoting historically-based board games.

Molly House’s nomination continues an extensive awards run for the Jo Kelly and Cole Wehrle design, which won the Complex Games category at this year’s American Tabletop Awards and was also shortlisted for the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming and best heavy strategy game at this year’s Origins Awards.

The game puts players in the roles of the gender-defying mollies of early 18th century London, attempting to build community and joy while facing persecution by the Society for the Reformation of Manners.

Chicago ‘68, designed by Yoni Goldstein and published by the Dietz Foundation, was the most-selected title during the Summit Award’s public nomination process this summer.

The game explores the protests and police response surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention, dividing players between Establishment and Demonstrator factions including the mayor’s office, Chicago Police Department, Yippies and National Mobilization Committee To End The War In Vietnam.

Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, designed by Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini and published by Ingenioso Hidalgo, uses four different battlefield maps to recreate engagements from the Napoleonic Wars in sessions lasting between 60 and 120 minutes.

The fourth finalist is Francisco “Pako” Gradaille’s Onoda, a 25-minute solo game published by Salt & Pepper Games which explores the experiences of Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, who continued guerrilla warfare on the Philippine island of Lubang until 1974. Judges praised the unusual subject and the way the game asks players to engage with Onoda’s story and decisions.

SDHist also named two honourable mentions in this year’s awards: GMT Games’ The Bell of Treason: 1938 Munich Crisis in Czechoslovakia, designed by Petr Mojžíš, and Absurdist Productions’ Winter Rabbit, designed by William Thompson.

Winter Rabbit, which draws on traditional Cherokee animal stories and was created as a counterpoint to common colonial themes in games, was runner-up in the 2021 Zenobia Award and won the Light Strategy category at this year’s Origins Awards.

The Summit Award considers games across five criteria – ease of teaching, ease of play, uniqueness of topic, novelty of approach and effectiveness as a historical game.

Its previous winners were Fred Serval’s Red Flag Over Paris in 2022, Tory Brown’s Votes for Women in 2023, Alex Knight’s Land and Freedom in 2024 and Dave Neale and David Thompson’s War Story: Occupied France last year.

SDHist, which was launched mainly as a local wargaming group in 2015, is led by wargaming experts including Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection designer Harold Buchanan.

The organisation’s board and board of advisors selected three of this year’s finalists following the public nomination process, which put Chicago ‘68 on the shortlist.

The same groups will select the winner, which is set to be announced at the SDHist Summit convention in San Diego in November.

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Gaming convention major PAX is doubling down on the success of its tabletop-focused Unplugged show by launching a second event in Houston, after growing the original into the second-largest tabletop gaming convention in the US after Gen Con.

PAX Unplugged Houston is set to take place at the George R Brown Convention Center from June 25 to 27 next year – marking the first expansion of the Unplugged brand since the dedicated tabletop convention debuted in Philadelphia in 2017.

Company event manager Sean Gonzalez told GamesBeat that PAX had considered several major cities while investigating the feasibility of a second Unplugged show, adding that Houston stood out based on infrastructure, demographics, data from other ReedPop events and demand from the industry.

“Most importantly though, Houston is where exhibitors wanted us to place the event,” he said.

PAX said in a separate announcement that Unplugged Houston will feature an expo floor for tabletop exhibitors alongside panels, tournaments and community events, although it is yet to reveal exhibitors, floor space, expected attendance or badge prices.

The show marks a return to Texas for the business, which previously ran PAX South in San Antonio from 2015 to 2020.

That convention featured both video games and tabletop gaming, but was discontinued after organisers said it had failed to expand during its four years, with the impact of Covid-19 ultimately delivering the final blow.

Gonzalez told GamesBeat Houston offered an opportunity to bring PAX back to the community which had attended PAX South, while giving the new event a more specific tabletop focus.

He added, “While we know that the current state of the economy impacts everyone, we are extremely confident based on the tremendous success we continue to see with the PAX events, particularly our Philadelphia PAX Unplugged, that the market will support PAX Unplugged Houston.”

PAX was launched by Penny Arcade web comic creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik in 2004 as the Penny Arcade Expo, after the pair decided they wanted a show exclusively to celebrate video gaming and game culture.

About 3,300 people attended the inaugural show, but that attendance had already soared to 58,500 by the 2008 event, leading to organiser to team up with New York Comic Con organiser ReedPop in 2009, and to launch a second con, PAX East, in 2010.

The company expanded again with PAX Australia in 2013 and the short-lived PAX South two years later, before launching the inaugural PAX Unplugged in 2017 after seeing the tabletop sections of its existing PAX conventions continue to expand.

PAX does not disclose precise attendance figures for PAX Unplugged, but says the Philadelphia event draws “tens of thousands” of visitors each year – believed to be north of the 30,000 mark. Its record 2024 show sold out all three days for the first time, filling all 528,000 sq ft of exhibition hall space with more than 350 exhibitors.

That growth puts it some way off the giant attendances of veteran North American tabletop convention Gen Con, which continued its record-breaking run this year to draw in more than 74,000 attendees.

But Pax Unplugged’s success has seen it displace long-running peer Origins as the second-largest tabletop gaming convention in the US – and its decision to launch a second event just 12 days after Origins 2027 is due to take place puts further pressure on the latter event.

Origins has been rebuilding its attendance since the pandemic, but unlike other major tabletop conventions such as Gen Con, Spiel Essen and the UK Games Expo has yet to regain its pre-Covid record of about 20,600.

The show’s attendance fell 2.5% this year to 18,700 – its first annual decline since the pandemic, although the fall came as other measures of activity at Origins remained stable or continued to grow. Exhibitor numbers increased marginally from 410 in 2025 to 413 this year, while the number of scheduled events climbed about 10% from 7,810 to more than 8,600.

PAX has not overtly positioned Houston as a competitor to Origins, but publishers weighing whether to exhibit at both now face the prospect of getting their teams and products to two major US tabletop shows within less than two weeks, alongside the associated staffing, travel, freight and booth costs.

That segment of the year also features the UK Games Expo, which has continued its meteoric growth into one of the world’s largest tabletop gaming conventions after more than 51,000 people descended on Birmingham’s NEC for the show’s 20th anniversary this year.

Badges for PAX Unplugged Houston are due to go on sale later this year, with applications for media and content creators also opening before the end of 2026.

The original PAX Unplugged returns to Philadelphia for its tenth show between December 4 and 6 this year.

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Spiel Essen has launched a dedicated B2B matchmaking system aimed at helping publishers, designers, retailers and other industry professionals find potential business partners and arrange meetings before arriving at the world’s biggest board game fair.

The new service, which is restricted to exhibitors and people with business visitor tickets, lets users create profiles detailing what they are looking for and what they can offer, send specific business inquiries, connect via chat and schedule appointments at the show using the built-in calendar.

Spiel said today that the system will be integrated directly into its dedicated app, adding that the move is intended to make networking between trade visitors, professionals and publishers “more targeted, simple, and effective”.

Business has long been an important part of Spiel despite its status as a public-facing convention, with major publishers operating their own dedicated B2B areas for meetings with retailers and other industry professionals.

B2B-specific companies such as manufacturers, crowdfunding services and trade organisations were still scattered across various halls in 2019, but that situation began to change after Spiel was taken over in 2022 by Merz Verlag – whose core event, Spielwarenmesse, is one of the world’s biggest B2B toy trade fairs.

Those companies began to be more concentrated in Hall 4 during the 2022 event – a move which intensified the following year amid a major reorganisation of the halls which attempted to more obviously split the fair into themed segments such as children’s games, family and light-to-medium games, expert games, tabletop and miniature games, roleplaying games and TCGs.

Florian Hess, managing director of Merz Verlag, said after last year’s record-breaking Spiel, “For exhibitors at the fair the focus is also on the joy of the games. At the same time, an incredible number of effective business developments emerge here – and this happens naturally alongside everything else.

“I don’t know of any other event that is as strong a springboard for a business’s launch as Spiel. I have met exhibitors who started here a few years ago with a small booth and are now occupying several hundred square meters and selling games internationally.

“Experiencing this kind of B2B rocket launch never ceases to fascinate me.”

The new system arrives as Spiel prepares for its biggest-ever event from October 22 to 25 this year – with an expansion into all eight main halls at the Messe Essen exhibition centre for the first time expected to see the event challenge its record 220,000 attendance set last year.

Spiel said earlier this year that it had reached the reached the limits of its expansion at its long-time home after boosting floor space to 81,200 sq m – larger than 15 American football fields – amid what it called “overwhelming interest” from exhibitors.

But despite the show bumping against its space limits at its long-time home, a Merz Verlag spokesperson told BoardGameWire in March, “We love Essen – as a venue and the city – and have no intention of leaving. For the foreseeable future SPIEL will remain in Essen as it has for more than 40 years now.”

The fair’s expansion into a seventh hall last year helped the four-day show to its record 220,000 attendance, outstripping the 209,000 visitor record it set just before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Spiel might have broken its attendance record in 2024 were it not for a self-imposed visitor cap, which limited the number of attendees each day to about 50,000 – a measure introduced alongside wider aisles post-pandemic to help visitors move around the often crowded halls more easily.

More than 920 exhibitors from 53 countries are expected at this year’s event, with Merz Verlag saying in March that demand had come both from long-term exhibitors keen to “significantly increase” their booth space, as well as an “impressive number” of first-time exhibitors hoping to attend this year.

About half of the available tickets for Thursday, Friday and Saturday have already been sold, seven weeks before the show opens, with Sunday sales currently “lagging slightly behind”, the show announced today.

Access to the matchmaking platform comes as part of Spiel’s €46 business visitor ticket, which compares with €25 for a standard adult day ticket.

Spiel Essen 2026 takes place at Messe Essen from October 22 to 25.

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Fledgling Dubai board game convention tabletop.me is facing a very different challenge as it prepares for its second year: persuading overseas publishers the commercial opportunity of reaching the Gulf’s growing tabletop market is worth pursuing amid safety concerns around the US-Iran war.

The three-day event, which debuted last November as the Middle East’s first dedicated board game convention, attracted about 3,000 attendees and 55 publishers according to founder Mark Azzam. He told BoardGameWire ahead of the convention’s 2025 launch that he ultimately hoped to create something akin to a “Gen Con of Dubai”, drawing visitors from the UAE and across the region.

The show is aiming for at least 5,000 visitors when it returns between November 6 and 8 this year, Azzam said – but he added that the US war with near-neighbour Iran had already caused some publishers not to return for this year’s event, while others plan to wait until September or October before making a firm decision.

Azzam told BoardGameWire, “The main concern has been staff traveling here. Several publishers have told us that, because of the current situation, their companies are simply not allowing employees to travel to the region for the time being.”

He said that although tabletop.me offers the option to take care of booth builds, staffing, game demonstrator training and product logistics without a publisher representative being present, tighter publisher budgets this year were also factoring into its challenges.

“Many publishers are being more selective this year and focusing on their established convention schedule, such as Gen Con and Essen”, Azzam said, but added: “We believe emerging markets like the Middle East are exactly where brands should invest for long-term growth.”

This year’s show has already signed up companies including Asmodee, Allplay, Dice Throne, Oink Games and Blue Orange Games, alongside TCG brands that participated last year and seven publishers which did not attend the first event, according to Azzam.

But the continuing uncertainty around the US-Iran war makes the task of building an international exhibitor base considerably more complicated than it appeared when tabletop.me first launched.

Dubai and the wider UAE have continued operating as major international business and aviation hubs since the war began in February this year, but the conflict has affected air travel and freight through the region.

Gulf News reported this month that most UAE flights were operating, although airlines continued to warn of cancellations, rerouting and short-notice changes, while the European Union Aviation Safety Agency recently extended an advisory covering UAE airspace until August 31. Reuters reported this week that tensions between Iran and the UAE had again escalated, while shipping uncertainty has persisted around the Strait of Hormuz.

Azzam said those developments had clearly affected publisher decision-making, despite day-to-day life and business activity in Dubai having largely normalised following the most intense period earlier this year.

He said, “From our perspective on the ground, the situation has been much calmer than many people outside the region may have perceived. The first few weeks were a little shocking, as you had never experienced anything like this here before, but the UAE authorities responded extremely well.

“Since the ceasefire on April 8, things have largely returned to normal. The airspace is fully open again, flights have normalised, and Emirates and Etihad Airways are operating as usual. From what we see day to day, life in Dubai feels very safe and business has picked up again over the past couple of months. I have remained in the UAE throughout the entire period and have always felt safe here.

“There has definitely been a difference between the international perception, mostly due to the media, and the reality on the ground in the region. While the news coverage naturally focused on the wider conflict, daily life in Dubai has continued largely as normal, and confidence is steadily returning.”

Azzam, who also runs a trio of Back to Games board game stores across Abu Dhabi and Dubai, said that rather than the conflict denting his retail business, demand had actually risen at points during the last few months.

He told BoardGameWire, “Interestingly, it has almost been the opposite of what we expected! It reminded me a little of the early days of Covid, where more people started spending time at home and looking for ways to connect with friends and family.

“We saw a noticeable increase in demand for tabletop games, particularly TCGs and board games. With many large events cancelled or postponed over the past few months, people seemed to turn toward tabletop gaming instead.

“Rather than seeing a decline, our retail business actually grew during that initial period when the conflict started. It was a pleasant surprise, and now that things have settled down, business has largely returned to normal.”

When asked what he would say to publishers whose management has ruled out attending because of regional tensions, Azzam said, “I would tell them that, if anything, the conflict increased demand for tabletop gaming rather than reducing it. We saw that directly through our retail business, where sales, particularly in TCGs and board games, actually increased as more people turned to the hobby.

“Distribution was affected for the first month or so while freight and logistics adjusted, but that has now completely recovered. Products are arriving on schedule again, and the market continues to grow, with new game stores and cafés opening across the region every month.

“From what we are seeing, thankfully, the long-term opportunity in the Middle East remains just as strong as it was before.”

Azzam has spent more than a decade building businesses around that opportunity.

Spotting a gap in the market, the former airline captain funnelled his savings into launching a small kiosk in The Dubai Mall in 2015, before launching his first Back to Games store in Abu Dhabi six months later.

He subsequently built Back to Games into a three-store operation and became co-owner of publisher and distributor Boardgame Space in 2017. BoardGameWire reported last year that Boardgame Space had localised more than 55 games.

Speaking about the Gulf market for board games in general, Azzam told BoardGameWire, “I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that an internationally successful game will automatically sell well here just because it succeeded elsewhere. In reality, brand awareness and marketing are incredibly important in the Gulf.

“People are much more likely to buy a game they have already seen in social media or online, heard about through creators, or know is trending internationally.

“Presentation also matters. The box needs to clearly communicate the game and look visually appealing, as that first impression is often what generates interest.

“Also, publishers should be aware of some cultural considerations, which is exactly where local partners like us can manage easily. We understand the market and can help publishers present their products in the best possible way for the region.”

Azzam added that the show was spending more heavily on marketing this year, using budget freed up from the “significant” first-year setup costs that came with launching the event.

The show is also introducing a rewards programme designed to encourage attendees to try out unfamiliar publishers and games.

This year’s tabletop.me will take place in Dubai from November 6 to 8.

The post After successful debut, Middle East’s first major tabletop games con faces new challenge securing publishers amid US-Iran war first appeared on .

Vom 07.-09.08.2026 fand die jährliche Hauscon RatCon von Ulisses statt. Auch diesmal wurden wieder viele Neuheiten aus der Welt des Schwarzen Auges angekündigt. Vieles erscheint noch in diesem Jahr, aber auch der Ausblick auf das kommende Jahr lässt viele Fanherzen höherschlagen.

Dieser Beitrag wurde von Sabrina Höhne geschrieben

Africa’s longest-running board game convention is hoping to use its tenth anniversary to put more direct support behind the continent’s emerging designers, with plans for a new grant programme if its latest crowdfunding campaign reaches $20,000.

Nigeria’s African Boardgames Convention (AB Con) has set a $14,000 target to support its November event – more than 50% above the $9,000 goal it set last year – as it prepares to return to a two-day format for the first time since 2023.

The November 27 and 28 event in Abuja will include prototype playtesting, workshops, industry discussions, networking and a marketplace alongside its consumer-facing game demonstrations and tournaments, according to organiser NIBCARD Games.

But potentially more significant for Africa’s developing board game industry are the additions AB Con hopes to unlock if the campaign moves beyond its base target.

Reaching $20,000 would launch an AB Con Designers Grant, providing financial support and mentorship to African tabletop designers to develop prototypes, improve their games and showcase them at future editions of the convention.

A $22,000 stretch goal would introduce an Impact Award recognising people and organisations helping develop the continent’s tabletop ecosystem, while $30,000 would extend this year’s convention from two days to three.

The campaign describes the designer grant as an attempt to create “more opportunities for African games to reach local and international audiences”.

That represents another step in a decade-long attempt by AB Con and organiser NIBCARD to build infrastructure around what was an extremely small modern tabletop design community when the convention began.

AB Con says there were fewer than 10 known indigenous tabletop games and only three published game designers in Nigeria before it launched in 2016, with few places available for people to regularly play modern board games.

BoardGameWire reported last year that the number of known modern games from Nigerian designers had since passed 100, while the number of designers had grown to 25.

AB Con has provided a crucial meeting point and catalyst during that expansion, bringing together designers and publishers alongside manufacturers, retailers, educators and players.

Nigerian board game company NIBCARD’s role in developing that ecosystem was recognised with the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming in 2021.

The award committee described the company as being “the multi-faceted company at the heart of the nascent Nigerian games industry”, highlighting its work publishing games, manufacturing for other companies, mentoring designers, running a game café and organising AB Con.

NIBCARD itself says it has now designed more than 70 tabletop games since being founded in 2013, while its activities have expanded across publishing, manufacturing, education and digital games.

While those efforts have proved a pillar of the region’s hobby gaming growth, NIBCARD and AB Con founder Kenechukwu ‘KC’ Ogbuagu told BoardGameWire there were still large challenges around getting Nigerian and African designers and games to break into North American and European markets.

He said, “It’s a combination of several factors, but I would highlight visibility, access, finance, and market access.

“There is a significant lack of visibility for African games and designers. Publishers often don’t get to see the games being created here, while designers have very limited opportunities to meet and build relationships with publishers.

“I have experienced this personally. I once received fully funded support to attend Spiel Essen, but was denied a visa. Last year, I was invited to GothCon on a fully funded trip, but I couldn’t even secure an interview date for my visa application.

“Finance is another major barrier. Even when a game is ready, designers need money to market it, work with content creators and reviewers, attend international conventions, and run crowdfunding campaigns such as Kickstarter or Gamefound.

“And for those who choose to self-publish, international shipping can make African games extremely expensive and difficult to compete with in global markets.”

He added, “One of our mission is to see African designers creating games that are enjoyed globally and, ultimately, seeing African-designed games recognised among the best games in the world.

“We have already started working towards this. Last year, with support from the Spiel Foundation, we showcased games from three African designers at SPIEL Essen 2025. We also started a game studio as a way to bring African games to light.

“But even as we build, from over 10 years of experience doing this, a lot of the impact are limited due to lack of funding.

“We are intentionally building AB Con to become a platform where African designers, games, publishers, distributors, and international industry professionals can connect.

“We want publishers from North America and Europe to see AB Con as a place to discover new designers and games from Africa, explore licensing and publishing partnerships, and build long-term relationships with the African tabletop industry.

“This is one reason we are committed to maintaining a two-day convention going forward, with the goal of eventually growing it into a four-day event. We want to create enough time and space for meaningful meetings, playtesting, networking, showcases, and publisher scouting.”

The growing scope of AB Con has repeatedly run up against the economics of staging the convention, however.

The event previously raised more than $23,700 through its 2021 Kickstarter campaign, and self-funded for the following two years – but was forced to return to crowdfunding in 2024 after soaring inflation in Nigeria weighed heavily on its finances.

That year’s campaign raised about $16,000 from 225 backers against a roughly $8,000 target – and AB Con increased its target to $9,000 for 2025, ultimately raising more than $11,000 from 144 backers.

Its new $14,000 base target represents another substantial increase. Organisers said the higher figure reflects both inflation and the cost of restoring AB Con’s two-day format, and will be used for venue and production costs, volunteer support, logistics, marketing, accessibility and expanded programming.

Nigeria continues to experience significant price increases, despite inflation having eased substantially from the levels that prompted AB Con’s return to crowdfunding.

The country’s National Bureau of Statistics currently reports annual consumer price inflation of 15.9% – down markedly from an almost 30-year high of 34% when AB Con launched its 2024 campaign.

Last year’s AB Con campaign was initially intended to support ambitions for as many as 3,000 attendees, compared with roughly 1,300 at the 2024 event and about 1,000 in 2023. The 2025 convention ultimately took place as a one-day event on November 29.

At least seven Nigerian designers showcased projects at the 2025 convention, according to Nigeria’s Independent newspaper, while participating publishers included Althra Games, ICE Game and Jesus Native Games.

AB Con founder and lead convener Kenechukwu ‘KC’ Ogbuagu said, “When we hosted the first AB Con in 2016, our dream was bigger than organizing an event – we wanted to help build an industry.

“Ten years later, we’ve seen designers launch original games, communities grow across Africa, and more people recognize games as powerful tools for learning, culture, business, and connection.

“This anniversary is not only a celebration of how far we’ve come but an invitation for the world to help shape what comes next.”

The AB Con Kickstarter is live now, with the convention scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria on November 27 and 28.

The post Africa’s longest-running board game convention eyes grants for local designers as part of 10th anniversary crowdfund first appeared on .

Once again Gen Con did not disappoint in 2026, and Meeple Mountain scoured the halls in full force with a whopping six members of our team swooping down on Indianapolis for the convention. As always, attendance hit all-new highs in terms of con-goers and vendors as gamers from all over the world joined the festivities. With several new additions including a D&D Tower, drone show, and the ever-present construction downtown as the convention center expands to accommodate, there was plenty to be excited about.

Here are our thoughts on Gen Con 2026!

Crawl Con in Full Effect

With the recent crowdfunding efforts by Renegade Games for their new Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG and Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable it was already preordained that Gen Con would be beset upon by the full force of DCC fandom. Couple that with the appointment of author Matt Dinniman and voice of the series Jeff Hayes as Media Guests of Honor to the convention, and you have all the necessary ingredients for a DCC takeover.

Sure enough, heart-patterned boxers and tortoiseshell Persian cats were all over the place, especially when the cosplayers put on their Saturday best for the annual contest. Saturday also happened to be the day when 2,000 crawlers—as members of the DCC fandom are called—assembled for a photo at Victory Field. I've…

The post Meeple Mountain Goes to Gen Con 2026 appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Gen Con has hired longtime The Dice Tower presenter and convention organiser Camilla Cleghorn as its new head of events, putting a familiar face from board game media in charge of planning and delivering one of the tabletop industry’s largest event programmes.

Cleghorn’s new role will see her lead Gen Con‘s events team and oversee the planning and execution of the massive convention’s event programming, while supporting the organisers responsible for the thousands of events run each year.

News of Cleghorn’s appointment came less than a week after the close of this year’s show, which continued a record-breaking run by drawing in more than 74,000 attendees.

That figure extends the show’s steady post-pandemic growth, following record crowds of 70,000 in 2023, 71,000 in 2024 and almost 72,000 last year – all of which broke the 2019 pre-pandemic high.

But the convention, which has sold out before opening for three consecutive years, is operating at a hard capacity ceiling at the Indiana Convention Centre – and is set for a significant floor space expansion next year alongside its 60th anniversary.

The expansion includes an extra 143,500 sq ft of floor space – roughly the size of 2.5 American football fields – and 800 new hotel rooms through the opening of a new Signia by Hilton hotel.

Cleghorn told BoardGameWire that growth would create both exciting opportunities and new challenges, adding, “The opportunity is finding ways to welcome more people and experiences while maintaining what makes the convention special. The challenge is making sure the systems, communication, and support behind that growth scale along with it.”

She said, “From the publisher and exhibitor side, I’m fortunate to come in with experience working closely with many of those partners, but I don’t want to arrive with a list of things I think need to change before I’ve had the opportunity to listen and learn.

“Gen Con has an experienced team and a tremendous community of partners. My priority will be understanding what’s working well, where opportunities exist, and how we can continue to build on that together.”

Cleghorn confirmed that Gen Con’s veteran director of events Derek Guder would be “transitioning into an adjacent role” at the business, but said they would work closely together.

She joins Gen Con after several years as a prominent member of The Dice Tower team, filming reviews for its more than 360,000 YouTube subscribers as well as helping to grow Florida-based convention Dice Tower East and working on the show’s annual crowdfunding campaigns.

Cleghorn described her decision to leave the review channel as “bittersweet” in a Facebook announcement to fans.

She said, “I’m incredibly grateful to have been a part of The Dice Tower’s journey over the last several years, and I’ll always be thankful to Tom, the DT team, and all of you for giving me opportunities I never imagined I’d have.”

She told BoardGameWire, “One of the things I value most about my time with The Dice Tower is that I’ve had the opportunity to experience the hobby from a lot of different perspectives: publishers, designers, content creators, convention attendees, and the people working behind the scenes to make events happen.

“It’s taught me that each group has different needs, but ultimately they all want a great experience and clear communication.”

Cleghorn added, “The timing also felt right for me personally and professionally. I’m incredibly proud of my time with The Dice Tower and everything I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of there, and I’m excited to take what I’ve learned into this next chapter.”

BoardGameWire contacted The Dice Tower creator Tom Vasel to ask about the impact she has had at the reviews giant, her biggest achievements at the business and what he will miss most about her moving on, but did not receive a response.

He did briefly mention Cleghorn’s new role in the most recent episode of Dice Tower News, joking about Gen Con’s “thievery” before saying, “We’re excited for her, excited to see that happening”.

He added “You’ll still see here occasionally here on The Dice Tower but she’ll be really busy working for Gen Con.”

The post Gen Con hires The Dice Tower’s Camilla Cleghorn as head of events as show looks to scale beyond record attendance first appeared on .

My WBC 2026 is over and I’m sad about it! Well, it actually ended last Thursday evening after 5 1/2 days of gaming goodness, but I am now just putting together this wrap-up post. I had planned to stay until Saturday morning and then leave to come home to attend a concert with my wife for our 30th wedding anniversary (Darius Rucker) but I had some pretty severe back pain late Thursday evening that haunted me through the night only allowing to me to get a few hours of restful sleep and when I awoke on Friday for my last planned day my back was pretty stiff and I couldn’t see sitting around for 12 hours at a gaming table and then having to drive home on Saturday. So, I made the mature decision to pack up and leave Friday morning to avoid it getting worse and making the 6+ hour drive home more difficult. This caused me to miss a rousing multi-player game of Virgin Queen from GMT Games on Friday and I am very sad about that. But, I made the correct choice and am now home safe and sound and my back got a bit better overnight on Friday and has pretty much now totally recovered. On Saturday morning and into the early afternoon, I did spend some time organizing the games I played at the convention but didn’t put up neatly and also clipping the counters for a few new games to ready them for play.

This was an extremely productive trip this year and I had a blast. I wanted to simply give you a quick look at my time at WBC and share what I was able to accomplish by myself as once again Alexander was not with me and I was flying solo. If you are interested in more detail than is found here, you can visit my Daily Debrief posts at the following links:

Daily Debrief Series – Day 1

Daily Debrief Series – Day 2

Daily Debrief Series – Day 3

Daily Debrief Series – Day 4

Daily Debrief Series – Day 5

Daily Debrief Series – Day 6

Here is a look at my overall statistics for what I accomplished in 5 1/2 days.

The Numbers

If you don’t know, I am infamous for my activity and schedule while attending these conventions. I just really love conventions and playing lots of multi-player wargames and also meeting great people. It is the fuel to my fire and I truly try to schedule my time while at the convention. I always play a ton of games but also try to get in many interviews with designers and publishers to share with you our readers. And this year, was extremely productive and I was asked several times how I have the energy to keep up such a torrid pace and I really don’t have an answer. But, you are the beneficiary of my pace and I am going to give you an overview.

Games Played

I played a lot of games. That is what I do. I am a content creator who loves to game and I played 2-4 games per day over the 5 1/2 days there for a total of 15 games played. I always feel like I am running from one thing to the next but it works for me and allows me to be exposed to a lot of different games. These numbers are a bit skewed though as I played 2 games on Sunday all day pretty much in Grand Tactical Series (GTS) Where Eagles Dare and The Devil’s Cauldron and counted that as 2 separate games when in fact it was just one large combined game that I played bits and pieces of as I was assigned by the overall commanders when chits were drawn and those formations were activated. But as you can see from the list below, I got in some bangers. Classics. Games that I have always wanted to play but have never had a chance. New systems. New games and some games that are still in playtest and development.

Now you might be asking what games did I like out of that list and I would answer all of them, with the exception of The Adventures of Conan from Gale Force Nine. We bounced off this one hard. Poor rules, lack of structure and little clarity, which is a shame. The art is fantastic, great components with custom dice but I felt like we had no idea what we were doing or how we were supposed to reliably get things done. Standout games were Baltic Empires from GMT Games, Korean Tide from Compass Games, World Order from Hegemonic Project Games and Above the Trenches from Flying Pig Games. But the highlight for me was playing the Grand Tactical Series from MMP with a combined game of Where Eagles Dare and The Devil’s Cauldron. I liked that one so much that I purchased the GTS Briefings Magazine with the pack-in game Strike – Counter Strike and look forward to getting this one played.

Interview Videos

As you know. one of things we do at these conventions is video interviews with designers and early looks at their upcoming games. This year was no exception as I was able to do a total of 7 video interviews. I am a bit worried about them though as I was having major technical difficulties with the camera and batteries holding charges and had multiple videos where the battery just up and died and the camera stopped working. I had to then change out the battery and try to start where I think it went off but I expect that some of the videos will have missing sections and I apologize for that. Below is the list of video interviews that I was able to accomplish.

Once Alexander gets back this week, and he has had a chance to download the videos, review them and try to stitch them together as best he can we will start putting them up on the YouTube Channel for your viewing pleasure. I would expect that to happen in the next 2 weeks. I still have to put together a debrief video as well and that one will probably lead the videos on the channel.

Games Acquired

Now, WBC is not a buying convention but there is a small vendor area at the site with publishers the likes of Compass Games, GMT Games, Flying Pig Games. Blue Panther, MMP, Decision Games, Wharf Rat Games (new this year), Sound of Drums (new this year) and B2M Games (new this year). They are open for sales on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and typically all of the vendors offer 10-20% off retail prices for attendees.

This year, I purchased or acquired 9 total games. Now I needed these 9 games like I needed a hole in my head but they were all nice looking games and several of them are solitaire offerings that I will play on my own time at my gaming table. Here is the list of games that I was able to acquire.

Most of these games are brand new 2026 offerings, with the exception of GTS Briefings Strike – Counter Strike, which I believe came out a few years ago. The others are all new games and we will add them to our list for 2026 and try our best to get them played so we can share our thoughts with you.

I love WBC. It is the highlight of my gaming year and I very much look forward to attending each and every year. There is something to be said for being locked into a building with 3,000 gamers who all love gaming! They are there to play, discuss, buy, sell, compete at, enjoy and examine wargames. There are people who come to this event every single year and plan the entire week out with monster wargames. Where else in the world can you do that? Well, there are a few other places but WBC is a brotherhood. I feel a true kinship with the people that we have met there and played with. I feel true friendship for people that I have had amazing conversations with like Mark Herman, Greg Smith, Mark Holt Walker, David Heath and others. I feel the kinship and the closeness and it is wargames that have brought us together. That and a healthy respect and interest in military history and those who have served our country to make our freedoms possible.

Wargaming is a hobby like no other. We are crusty older people (at least I am) who sit in the dark for hours upon end pushing around cardboard counters to replicate or do better than the historical result from many a by gone battle. This hobby is about connections. I talked to people who have played with the same person in their basement for decades. I have heard from some who look forward to WBC each year for the B-17 Queen of the Skies events because they have flown with the same bomber group for nearly 20 years. What does that tell you about our hobby? Connections. We do this because of the connections that we make. The friendships. The relationships. And I love it.

If you have never been to WBC, please consider attending next year. I promise you will not regret it. And I might just be able to make a few new friends if you show up.

Here’s to next year when the convention will run from Saturday, July 24th through Sunday, August 1st.

-Grant

Last November, I attended the San Diego Historical Games Convention for the first time and it was one of the best events of 2025. When the SDHistCon board announced they would be putting on a new convention outside of San Diego, SDHistCon North, and invited me to attend, I was absolutely thrilled. Even more so when I learned it was just about an hour flight from Chicago, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Purple and Gold

Given my undying love of Prince, Hüsker Dü, and the Coen Brothers, it’s strange that this was actually my first time in the North Star State. The downtown St. Paul office buildings, ballparks, and breweries definitely gave it a different vibe from the tiny surf shops, bait shops, and oceanside restaurants of Point Loma in San Diego. The convention itself had a distinct feel, as well. To begin with, it was only a two-day event, as opposed to four in San Diego. While this meant that I had to pack my gaming schedule pretty tightly, it also meant that I didn’t spend too much time exploring the city.

SDHistCon North took place at the historic St. Paul Union Depot. Originally built in 1881, it was rebuilt in 1923 after the original burned down in 1915.…

The post Joseph Goes to SDHistCon North 2026 appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

Good morning faithful readers and wargaming enthusiasts! At the time this post uploads to the blog at 8:00am on Saturday morning, July 25th, I will already be on the way to the World Boardgaming Championships held at the beautiful Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. This year, unfortunately, Alexander will not be with me as he is visiting family in the south of France for a reunion. This is now the 2nd time in the past 3 years that I have flown solo to WBC but this time I am more prepared and more ready to take on the convention and its coverage. I will miss my friend and partner Alexander but will have a blast anyway. I am leaving earlier than I have ever left before for the convention and plan to make a pit stop in Pittsburgh, PA to pick up a friend Mike from the airport on Saturday afternoon to travel down together. We should arrive at WBC around 3:00pm on Saturday, July 25th and I plan to be at the convention for a total of 6 1/2 days leaving on Saturday, August 1st to come back home.

I already have a lot of plans laid out and will have 6 1/2 days filled with gaming, designer interviews, looks at new prototypes, visiting with friends, publishers and designers.

Here are my scheduled games as of today:

Sunday-Monday – Grand Tactical Series The Devil’s Cauldron: The Battles for Arnhem and Nijmegen and Where Eagles Dare: The Battle for Hell’s Highway from Multi-Man Publishing. I will be playing this one with Mike Heckman and a few others. I am very much looking forward to my first exposure to the Grand Tactical Series.

Monday – sit down with designer Gregory M. Smith and maybe a play of his Viking Dawn and a look at a new surprise Burning Banners offering (I won’t talk….yet!). But what I can say is that you will be able to play tactical battles in Kalar. We will also discuss his other in-process designs.

Tuesday – World Order from Hegemonic Games Project taught by our friend Tom and Coalitions: Realpolitik from PHALANX taught by Ric Manns from Southern Indiana.

Wednesday – The Emperor’s Choice and The Emperor’s Voice coming from Worthington Publishing designed by Wes Crawford and Maurice Suckling. I am very much excited about seeing these games and getting to play them.

Thursday – Imperial Elegy from VUCA Simulations. This will be my 3rd play and is sure to be epic!

Friday – Here I Stand from GMT Games. Our standard play of one of the best games in the hobby. Always look forward to this.

Plus I am trying to schedule a game of Small BoaR: The Battle of Cowpens from GMT Games with designer Bruno Sinigaglio, A Forlorn Hope from Wharf Rat Games, Above the Trenches: The Fokker Scourge 1915-1917 from Flying Pig Games with designer Bob Tkach and a sit down with Uwe Wallentin to get a look at Sound of Drums upcoming games. Already a full schedule and that isn’t even accounting for the opportunities that will present themselves. Should be an exhausting blast!

This year will be my 8th trip to WBC (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and this is by far the best of all the different conventions that we attend! WBC is an event put on by the Boardgame Player’s Association (BPA), which is a non-profit corporation established to support the shared interests of board game players everywhere. This is a membership organization and I have been a member since 2019.

At the end of each day, I will be putting together a short summary of what I was able to do that day at the convention. I would like to keep this to just a few paragraphs with several pictures to give you an idea of the games I played that day, designers I was able to speak with and other activities I found my way to participate in. I am still planning on doing some videos that will be released on the YouTube Channel over the next few months but this written coverage will supplement the videos and be a real-time look at my time at the convention. This summary will most likely not be posted until after 11:30pm EST each night, if not a bit later, so you might be checking it out the next morning which is fine.

If you might be interested in attending WBC in the future, here is a look at their schedule for the next few years.

Finally, if you are at WBC please feel free to find me and say hello. I love to meet people, discuss gaming and catch up so don’t hesitate. I will also have plenty of TPA buttons and stickers to give away so just ask. I also would like to take a picture with you so I can document it in our writings. As is usual at our convention attendance, I will be looking to get in some bigger multi-player games so hit me up if you are interested. Thank you and here is to a successful trip to WBC!

-Grant