We have some interesting news! This year, we will be making a trip to Europe to attend SPIEL Essen in Essen, Germany. SPIEL Essen, often referred to as Essen Spiel, is the world’s largest public fair for board games. The convention is held annually in Essen, Germany, typically in late October, and attracts a massive crowd of visitors and exhibitors. The fair is intended for board gamers to be able to discover new games, play demos, meet with game designers, and purchase new products. The convention is more about board games than wargames but we are going over due to the generosity of Sound of Drums and Uwe Wallentin.

While there at the convention, we will be meeting several European wargame publishers such as the likes of Sound of Drums, Assault Games, PHALANX, Nuts! Publishing, Black Mask Verlag, NAC Wargames, Salt & Pepper Games, Portal Games, Osprey Games, VUCA Simulations and others. We have not finalized our convention itinerary and schedule as of yet but will be reaching out to many of these folks to get something setup. But our hope is to meet with lots of these publishers, talk with designers, play some prototypes and just have a great time. This has always been somewhat of a bucket list item for me and Alexander and we are finally getting the opportunity. We also hope to meet many of our foreign followers and chat and maybe play a game or two.

But, I wanted to also announce our plans to do some touring of historical sites. We will be arriving in Germany a full week prior to the game convention starting on Thursday, October 16th in order to get in a bit of site seeing and to visit several historical sites that I have always wanted to see. Our flight will come into Frankfurt and from there we will rent a car and begin our nearly 23 hour, 2,086 kilometers (nearly 1,300 miles) driving tour of western Europe.

In this long trip, we tentatively plan to stop and visit the following sites:

Metz – site of the Battle of Metz during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.

Verdun – the location of the Battle of Verdun during WWI in 1916.

Maginot Line – this is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations that were built by France in the 1930’s to deter invasion by Nazi Germany.

Bastogne – site of the Battle of Bastogne in December 1944 between American and German forces as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge.

Sedan – site of 2 pretty significant battles – one during the Franco-Prussian War and the other during World War II.

Paris – probably more so for the culture and the food but we are stopping in Paris to see the sites for at least a full day.

Normandy – I have always wanted to see the invasion beaches and particularly those attacked by the Americans in Utah and Omaha but also to soak in the atmosphere of this reverent place.

Sainte-Mère-Église – the site of some of the first airborne landings during the Normandy Invasion during World War II.

Mons – site of the Battle of Mons during World War I in 1914.

Waterloo – we all know Waterloo as it is where Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars.

Liège – site of the the opening engagement of the German invasion of Belgium and the first battle of World War I.

Hells Highway – Highway 69 in Holland where XXX Corps raced up trying desperately to reach the bridge at Arnhem during World War II.

Nijmegen, Eindhoven and Arnhem – the 3 bridges that were objectives during Operation Market-Garden during World War II.

We are also planning on doing a series of daily travel log videos showcasing our trip and hope to be able to share this trip with you through our blog as well in some form or fashion (such as possibly the Daily Debrief Series).

I know that this is a lot to try and see over a 5 or 6 day period but we are going to do our best to get this all in as this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. What other sites would you recommend?

One final note. We would love to meet many of you at the convention or even along the route of our trip if you would like to reach out and coordinate something. I cannot promise that we will be able to get to everything and meet everyone but we will do our best! You can email me at theplayersaid@gmail.com to make arrangements.

Thank you.

-Grant