Day 2 of the convention came early and I awoke with a pretty massive cold with a stuffy nose and a bit of a headache. Frankly, I think that the rigors of our trip have finally caught up with my 52 year-old self and I just feel awful! But, I won’t let this keep me down and took some aspirin, drank plenty of water and sucked it up. There are games to play and things to see!

One aside before I hit the convention report. I am a bit addicted to my sweet Diet Mountain Dew and they don’t have this delectable beverage here in Europe (it’s a great place but not perfect!) and when we were leaving the airport in Chicago I purchased 7 20oz bottles of the delicious yellow concoction to take with me and drink on the trip. It is now day 8 and I still have 2 bottles remaining meaning I have done a good job of rationing them and didn’t have any all day yesterday. I am proud of myself and have experienced some personal growth this week! Hahaha.

We made it to the convention hall by 9:00am and entered through Hall 1, which is where the miniatures are housed. Alexander and I spent about 30 minutes looking through Warlord Games inventory and found so much that we wanted to buy including lots of WWII terrain, several new vehicles and some Japanese soldiers to use with our soon to arrive War Stories RPG from Firelock Games and more. I like that Alexander is a bit sheepish in this picture and am glad we got these minis.

While there at Warlord Games, I also got a quick look at the production sample of their upcoming game Vanguard: Normandy, which is a tactical level WWII skirmish combat miniatures game that had a successfully crowdfunding campaign earlier this year. They couldn’t give me a timeline but at this point I’d expect it to fulfill early next year. I am a backer and am very pleased with the quality of the miniatures, boards, dice and markers. It looks really good!

We then met up with Wolfgang Klein and Erich Rankl with Assault Games to get a look at their newest offering called Assault Sicily Primosole Bridge. They presented us with a gift as they gave us mini covers of their first game (Assault Red Horizon ‘41) and the 2nd Edition of the same game published by Sound of Drums. It was pretty cool!

We then shot a video with them discussing their new release, which should be shipping soon, called the Primosole Bridge Expansion. They also introduced themselves on the video, discussed their philosophy and some of their upcoming projects. Look for this video on the channel in the next few weeks.

We then made our way over to the NAC Wargames booth and got a look at the gaggle of their new games including titles such as Berlin 1945: The Fall of the Reichstag, The Other Side of the Hill 2nd Edition, The Republic’s Struggle, Asturias 1936-1937 among other titles. Their games are extremely well made and of the highest quality!

Next we found the PHALANX booth and met lots of their great people including Waldemar Gumienny (CEO), main marketing contact Adrian Turzański, and designer Mariusz Rosik (Punica: Rome Versus Carthage).

We actually sat down to play 1920: Nest of Eagles with Waldemar Gumienny and had a really great time with the system. 1920: Nest of Eagles is a 2-player, intermediate complexity, strategic-level wargame simulation of the Polish-Soviet War, which involved the Soviet attempt to conquer Poland. Soviet and Polish forces fight on a large area stretching from Kiev and Smolensk in the East to Warsaw and Thorn in the West.

This is a unique hex and counter wargame as there is a very interesting concept used called Lines of Friction, which mimic the effects of Zones of Control but are not sticky and units simply have to use extra movement points when they come in contact with enemy units. This system creates a lot of interesting maneuver and makes movement a very critical part of the game.

Combat is simple and used a CRT that compares Attacker vs. Defender Combat Strength and then provides a specific to hit number that must be rolled less than or equal to on 2d6.

We only played 4 turns but got a good feel for the system and mechanics and will be playing this one again upon our return home with our brand new copy.

We then visited Dragon Dawn Productions to play their newest trick taking wargame called Verdun, which recently fulfilled off of a very successful Kickstarter campaign. We met up with one of our Patrons named Asbjørn who taught us the game and it was great to meet him.

Verdun is a card game that is focused on the famous siege of Verdun during World War I. As player’s hands dwindle down as they play 2 cards per round but only draw 1, players will also have to play cards that help the other side, timing it strategically to minimize their own casualties. The teams alternate being the Attacker, and each card played leads to more and more deaths. You are fighting over positive victory points from trying to win several positions through over the top attacks that are worth a set amount of VP but that are hidden from view until they are taken so you never know if you are going for the high VP area or the low ones.

A game of Verdun lasts about 16 rounds as players start with 12 cards, which they then play in a series of 12 tricks. When you win the trick, you gain the VP for the position but the winner will lose their lowest valued cards while the loser will lose their highest value cards to the dead pile representing mounting casualties. Low cards have fewer skulls on them representing deaths while higher cards have more.

In the end, the player with the highest score will win and this number will be very low or even negative. In our game, my French defeated Alexander’s Germans by a final score of 3 VP to -14 VP. What a great little trick taking game!

The game is also gorgeous with fantastic original period art used on the cards and amazing graphically layout and design. Just a very slick little thematic game.

We then made our way to the booth of Black Mask Verlag to meet with Christian Blaßmann who is the designer of the very interesting and beautiful Echo Team: Spearhead, which is currently on Gamefound at the following link: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/black-mask-verlag/echo-team-spearhead

Echo Team: Spearhead is a tactical wargame where battles take place in and around urban terrain. The player takes command of a Delta Force unit that conducts operations around the world against various enemies such as Mexican Drug Cartels, Somali warlords or units of ISIS West Africa.

Echo Team: Spearhead is a card-driven board game. The two players play one or more Command Cards from their hand to activate their units on the game board for various military functions or to trigger events. The players try to achieve victory by moving their combat units around the game board to attack and take or defend objectives.

The game uses custom dice that are different with a different makeup of symbols representing hits and the like and that can be modified by things like cover or terrain.

There are various Asset Cards that can be used to carry out air ill missions or to perform powerful attacks but at the chest on Command Points which might mean you cannot move units this turn.

The game includes variable turn events controlled by cards. Events such as weather, reinforcements or the number of Command Points can vary and occur at random intervals to add uncertainty to each player’s plans.

This game is really going to be great and I could feel Christian’s passion for the subject and his chosen system. I am going to back this one and I would recommend you give it a hard look as well. There is a fully developed solitaire system and you can play this one by your lonesome.

After a long day, we met up with fellow content creators Michael of The Boardgames Chronicle and Clio from Clio’s Board Games for dinner at a place called Wiener Wunder, which was actually the best meal that I have had here in Germany. Great conversation with these 2 fine ambassadors of our hobby and we made a pact to meet up again here at SPIELE Essen in 3 years.

Again today we met a lot of people who like to watch our videos and read the blog. I will not name them as I will most likely get their names wrong but wanted to show some of their pictures.

We are blown away with the number of people who know us and consume our content. Thanks to them, and to you, for reading and watching our stuff!

Tomorrow is our last day here and we have a full day planned with a game of Assault Sicily Primosole Bridge, a video with Florent Coupeau from Nuts! Publishing, a look at A Bridge Too Far from PHALANX and a game of Punica from PHALANX. Thanks for sticking with me!

-Grant