Sorry for being a little of the blogging game after Spiel, sickness pre and post-Essen had me tight up, but what a magnificent few days it has been. Spiel 2018 was again fantastic, but as always I was also all over the place, meeting with a ton of fantastic people from the industry, playing the newest board games, hanging out with good friends from all around the globe, some late-night meet-ups at the pub with Heavy Cardboard & Paul Grogan from Gaming Rules, playing games at Motel One and of course most important, trying to see all the shiny (new) releases at the Messe Halls to share with you, the amazing online board game community taking the time to watch my stuff! Erna and I are so grateful for that and of course, we are also happy to see the growth of our little niche into something so blooming the last couple of years.

More people [190.000] visiting the convention, and more games [1400] releasing every year, 1400 this year. That’s just amazing, right?

There are some debates about the quality of those releases and if this was a great Spiel year or just a mediocre one, but that may be a topic for another post. Let’s get to the meat, shall we? This post is massive and comes in parts, but there are tons of photo’s, so take your time and scroll through them at your own pace. See you down below okay?

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Press Day and Pleasant Company fun

Spiel is something more, it’s not just a trade show, it’s an experience, it’s a way of seeing the world, it’s a beautiful lifestyle of analog & digital blending together in a surrounding driven by human passion.

My Essen adventure always kicks off a day early, before official opening dates, with driving from our home in The Netherlands to the biggest board game convention in the world at Germany to join my fellow media friends for the press conference and the pitching game fun at the Demo hall downstairs. I feel privileged I got that chance to be one of the first international bloggers to join the Press squad there a few years back and want to thank Dominique Metzler and everybody behind Friedhelm Merz Verlag again for their endless efforts to make this board game convention available for us to share with the online community.

After all the Press day activities (photos are down below) were done, I went back to the hotel, to meet up with my roommates. After a quick drink, we went out to Motel One to play some games. I played Arraial by Mebo Games with my Icelandic friends Magnus & Oskar. Adhil was already there playing Symphony No.9 by Moaideas with Jenny from Brettspielsuechtig.

This year I shared a room with my good friend from South Africa, Adhil. He is also known as boardgameguru77 on Instagram and has an amazing feed going there. He was together there with Robert van Zyl, the man behind Pleasant Company Games and designer of games like Ancient Terrible Things,  Konja and a new quirky one coming soon, The Dead Eye! But oh boy, what a fun character that one is. We had an impromptu dinner at Sabu Shabu, drank some beers, played a stupid crazy game called
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Panic at the Pleasure Palace, which I even won. I must have liked it, right? What’s a fantastic way to finish of day 0 of SPiel 2018!

But, enough with the rambles and my crazy feelings put down on digital paper, show us some photo’s and tell us what stood out, will you? I will! I will put the photo’s in a somewhat chronological order as if I were going through the halls. Enjoy them and I will see you at the end, let me know what you found interesting in the comments below or on the social’s.

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The Photo’s

Press day, which is essentially Day 0 of Spiel 2018

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DLP Games Press event

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Next Up

After a long first day with seeing already a ton of new games, old & new friends, slightly too many beers and having a great time, it’s off to bed for Day 1 at Spiel 2018 the next day.

Thanks for getting this far. Want more fun? I continue the coming days here, so keep an eye out on the blog for more Spiel 2018 reports soon and many, many more photos.

Love your board game life!

~ Marlon