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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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And there you have it! It only seemed like the day before yesterday when I was driving up the M5 in the hotness of a Summer's afternoon and, already, the whole Expo is over - done and dusted for another year!
The night was somewhat disturbed with the fire alarm going off TWICE in the early hours due to a faulty smoke detector; I trundled my suitcase and play-test games over to the venue car park (and my little car) for around 08:15 - an outrageously early time to be up and about on a Sunday morning. Meeting up with pals Iain (now the 2011 Expo Agricola Champ) and Ray (not the 2011 Expo Agricola champ), we bantered and drank coffee until I could be bothered to get off my arse and do some real work...but only after a refreshing game of Fzzzt! (which I won reasonably handsomely - Iain forced to buy THREE Fzzzt! robots in the last round - LOL!).
A definite shift in the attendee demographic (from gamers to families) accompanied the 0930 'doors open' - most of my demo efforts being expended on building colourful Totem Poles.
Some of you may have seen the live demo I did around lunch-time - Mark and I failed to discuss the political hot potato that is the String vs Paperclip Railway argument - shame, as I'd brought a fulsome legal statement and a baseball bat 'just in case'...
Come 3-ish, the results of the Expo awards were announced: I would be a liar if I said I wasn't upset that neither Paperclip Railways nor Totemo managed to bag something, but we lost out to worthy opponents: Discworld: Ankh-Morpork and a Cubulus respectively.
Still, there is nothing to complain about - we had three demo tables of Totemo on the go for the duration, plus a happy little side-table of paper clip goodness for the curious and the (only mildly) gloaty pre-orderers! Sales were steady (and very satisfactory given the reticence of Expo-ers to spend too much - we're not talking Geeks with a years worth of savings here, this is normal Brit families with normal, somewhat austere, gaming budgets!)
Then, at 4.30, the calls to 'clear the Halls' were heard and within 30 minutes we had dismantled, packed and loaded our entire presence despite the cool drizzle. The trip home traditionally involves a large coffee at Frankley Services and a general debrief of how it all went...happy and enthusiastic noises from the SSG crew (Alan and Charlie), followed by jammy biscuits and a parting of the ways.
A HUGE thanks must go to Richard Denning, Tony and all of the others involved in putting the Expo together - it was great fun and very productive. I hope that after a suitable rest they will be inclined to take the challenge on all over again for 2012!
Finally, some snaps from last night...
Giant Paperclip Railways - note James, the winner, with a link he built that was taller than he was!
Glory To Rome - four newbies, with a freshly-minted copy, needed teaching (I saw them open the rule book from across the room and was instantly drawn to instructional duties!). An hour later, they had navigated their first game, with my aid, and immediately shuffled & dealt for a second - how I envy the journey of discovery they have set out upon!
As always, it's been a pleasure...
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