Well, this year looks to be a bit different than years past. As with all things, changes are inevitable, and Spiel is no different.

The major plans to the hall organization remain from last year. The booths are theoretically grouped by style (family games, strategy games, serious strategy games, Asmodee games, tcg games, etc). Ok the Asmodee thing is kind of a joke, though they go have a huge portion of hall 1 and hall 6…

The big change this year, at least from the press standpoint, is that the halls are now off limits on Wednesday. In the past, many people had informal access to the halls, and it was not uncommon to have meetings scheduled on Wednesday. It was a nice quiet time to catch up with people as they took breaks from setting up.

This year, that is no longer the case. The show organizers sent out an email a few weeks ago explaining the new policy.

“Wednesday is a set-up day. This means that booths will still be set up in Halls 1 to 7 on this day and heavy equipment will be used, among other things; the halls are considered a construction site.

For this reason, access to Halls 1 to 7 is not permitted for representatives of the press and no meetings with publishers can be held in these halls.

We expressly point out that we or Messe Essen cannot be held liable for any damage suffered in the halls if this safety measure is disregarded.”

Thus one of the chances to look around without the crowds is now gone. However, the Novelties show has been expanded, and it’s like a mini exhibition open to just the press for Wednesday. From 1100 to 1700, all of Hall 8 is dedicated to the Novelties show.

Exhibitors could rent a table, 1.8m in length, and each is split up into three equal sections to allow three games to be displayed.

The location and organization of the Novelties show is much improved. There is now much more room for the folks to move around, and with each publisher having a dedicated space, it’s a bit easier to see the games.

Some companies were definitely treating this with a big display. Here you can see the Mattel booth which has props and lighting and all the trimmings you’d expect at the fair stand.

Thoughts from the Novelties show

• From my standpoint, this was a way better way to do things. There was enough room to move around and enough space between the aisles to move safely…
• I was able to get about a dozen nice demos during the event
• It was the only place to legally get demo copies today, and I did get a few to play tonight
• It was a super good way to spend three hours. I felt like I got at least a day’s worth of Spiel exploration in that time due to the ease of getting demos and essentially no time lost traveling between booths (given the fact that I have heard the full show passes are already sold out, I’m anticipated very crowded halls this year)

One previously unknown to me surprise was a micro macro jigsaw puzzle? I am still trying to work out the details. It’s doesn’t look like there are cases to solve but there are 50+ things to find in the same wonderful art as the games.

So normally this is where I’d post my Day 0 haul. Well that’s another big change for this year. Publishers have been instructed not to start selling games until 0930 Thursday morning, and the possible financial penalties for selling early appear steep. Between this rule and the prohibition of being in the halls in the first place, there really wasn’t a lot of chance to get games. Looks like Thursday and Friday are just going to be busier!

Finally, the rarity… I played a game on Wednesday. A really neat hidden information game from La Mame games called Saer. You fight over five different colors, starting with three face down cards in your hand, but each time you want to add a card to your area, you have to flip over one of your already played cards. So you make your play stronger but you give away information. A really neat push and pull here. Additionally, whenever you pass you draft cards to add to your hand for the next round. So you also have to decide when you want to stop playing cards in the current round in order to get priority on what cards to have next round. The whole game is three rounds, total of about 20 minutes. Fun times. Recommend checking it out 3Z111

And as usual, a bit of a travelogue to end the first piece. The trip here was mostly uneventful. Due to a surprisingly low fare, I booked direct with British Airways this year. And thus far, I am not a fan. Online check in was difficult, and I couldn’t get an online boarding pass. Also it British airways now is like southwest where you cannot check in and select seats until 24 hrs before the flight leaves. That is, unless you’re willing to pay upwards of $100 for seat selection on the transatlantic flight and $40 for the short hop to Chicago.

If I end up paying for advance seat assignments on my five legs, the total price would then be higher than booking a ticket through American Airlines. For the exact same planes. Lesson learned for next year I guess.

The flights themselves were fine, and I did get an extra two hours at Heathrow due to weather delays. Terminal 5 is one of my least favorite places to be. Other than the bookstore, Boots and WH Smith, everything else is high end shopping. And from my perspective, the food choices suck. No fast food options. You can sit down at a few restaurants. But if you want to grab and go, it’s a super overpriced sandwich at Pret or drugstore sandwiches from Boots.

Surprisingly, the meal combo at Boots didn’t break the bank and it solved the hunger issue. All this for 5 pounds!

But from a traveler’s perspective, I’d like to see more choices to grab and go.

By the time I made it to Essen on Monday, it was nearly evening and I just made my dinner meeting with friends from 2F games. Had a great German Mexican dinner (much better than my last German Mexican experience about ten years ago… it’s always interesting to see how other countries take on different styles of food.

Tuesday was my usual shopping day. I like to just walk around the downtown area, take in the sights, window shop and do a bit of people watching. The weather wasn’t a bit damp and that made it relative quiet.

One thing I noticed about the town center is that is seems to be in a bit of decline. Many of the department stores are closed (Kaufhof and Karstadt). One of them has been replaced by a discount snack store!

Also as I walked down the two main shopping streets, some of the usual shops have closed and there are a number of resale shops now open. This definitely seems like a downgrade in tenancy.

For lunch, one of my favorite things. German fast food Chinese. Because they have duck. I can’t get enough of this crispy duck on noodles. Best 8 euro meal of the day.

And in case you thought everything was different, still time to find some interesting snacks for the week including pickle flavored puffs and KFC flavored chips…

To end the night, we resumed our tradition of sharing a meal and a game with Frank Kulkmann. We always try to catch up before the craziness of the week. Dinner was wonderful and then we played a rousing game of War of the Ring card game.

Frank and his team write up great recaps each day of the fair, and I’d definitely recommend checking his site out…

https://boardgame.de/specials/messe/essen24/essen24.htm

Well time to prep for the real start of the show! Looks like I’ll be double busy tomorrow as the game pickup list remains long!

Here’s a selfie with me and Meeps, the official mascot

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor