Last year we attended AireCon in Harrogate, UK for the first time. Compared to our other UK convention experiences at the UK Games Expo, AireCon was a much more chilled out convention, focused on open gaming. We had the chance to play with lots of friends, old and new, and to take advantage of the games library and, of course, the Bring and Buy sale.
This year we'll be extending our stay to the whole weekend and we're excited to catch up with some old friends, as well as to take advantage of a few more of the events on offer. Here's a few of the things we're looking forward to at this year's AireCon, taking place from Friday 8th - Sunday 10th March 2019, at the Harrogate International Convention Centre.
Exhibitors
AireCon has a smaller exhibitor zone than most major conventions, but it definitely highlights the UK board game creators. This year, they're definitely attract some additional, larger, publishers from Europe and further afield. Some of the highlights for us are;
- Drawlab Entertainment are a small publisher from Greece who are perhaps best known for being the original publishers of Project Elite. They have since published some smaller games, but for this year, they have announced Fired Up, which has amazing artwork. I'd love to find out more while we're at Airecon!
- LudiCreations are most well known to us for their game Crisis, which was very popular in our gamnig group, as well as having an active Kickstarter with Pulp Detective. I've not seen much information about 2019 releases, but hopefully we'll see some new games or get the chance to try some old ones at Airecon.
- Sinister Fish really increased their profile in the last 12 months with Villagers becoming a runaway success on Kickstarter. I remember demoing Villagers at Airecon last year and hopefully we can see some developments or maybe even something else new and exciting at this year's convention.
- Playfusion Games are likely to be promoting Lightseekers and the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Champions Trading Card Game. We cannot say enough good things or tell enough people about the Age of Sigmar TCG, so we're always excited to see how much space is dedicated to the game. We're also interested to see what else is coming from Playfusion, with hints at other Warhammer content and a forthcoming confidential project for 2019.
Events
Last year, the only event we attended was the quiz, but this year we're keen to do more. We'll definitely be checking out the mega games of Karuba and Nmbr 9 hosted by Rodney Smith of Watch It Played. There will also be some non-gaming events for the first time, which could be a really nice touch - we'll be thinking about attending the baking and craft beer events.
Our good friends at Board Game Exposure have also been organising a HUGE charity raffle, which is a must see for us, with an unbelievable amount of great games up for grabs, generously donated by many, many publishers.
If you want to check out other events, you can find more information here.
Open Gaming
Other than being (probably) the second largest UK board game convention, Airecon is best known for its open gaming. It boasts the most seats for open gaming of any convention in Europe, so if you often struggle to find seats to game at the UK Games Expo or just want an opportunity to sit down and play games with old and new friends, then Airecon is the place to be. They have a fantastic board game library and, of course, you can bring your own games or play any of those new shiny purchases from the trades stands or the excellent bring and buy.
If you're attending the convention, then please come and say 'Hi'. We'd also be very happy to play games with as many new people as we can.
And if you haven't booked your tickets yet, then check out https://airecon.uk/tickets/ to join over 1000 unique attendees, who are already planning to attend.
No comments:
Post a Comment