SPIEL '22: Day 1 - Shopping Spree!
It's Thursday, time for the official first day of SPIEL! The halls open for the general public today. After breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Messe. We always like to enter through the main entrance because it has a nice waiting area where you can feel the excitement of SPIEL growing as the clock ticks closer to 10 AM.
10 AM, the doors start to roll while the crowd applauds the opening of SPIEL, the must-visit event for boardgame enthusiasts. People begin to run for their favorite games as the frequent visitors know that the Hot titles will probably sell out in the first few hours or days. We decided to split up for the first half hour; I set my aims at acquiring Planet B and The Wolves while my girlfriend rushed to get Woodcraft and Flowar. Luckily, we managed to pick up all these games because they were the highest on our wishlists.
After picking up these highly anticipated games, we could relax and enjoy the show. We picked up multiple other games and received a special Similo edition with board games! Even though I've never played Similo, I'm still very excited about this because the cards contain various images of games released at SPIEL '22. I can't imagine a better Similo edition!
In the days leading up to SPIEL, I got contacted by Tablescope to try out their game Light Speed. In Light Speed, each player has a deck of spaceship cards. Once the game starts, you keep drawing and placing a card from the deck and placing it anywhere on the table. Each spaceship has a specific health value, lasers, victory points, and initiative value. You try to put your spaceships, so they shoot down the spaceships of the opponent. Once a player has played all their spaceships, the game ends. Now, you can take a picture of the table as it is, and an app will show you how the battle unfolds, stepping through the initiative values and activating ships. They call this ComputerVision, and I'm looking forward to what they can do next with this technology.
Another game that caught my eye today was Monster Lands 2. The first Monster Lands was pretty interesting, and I got a short overview of the changes in the new edition. It seems like an evolution of Monster Lands, and it seems to fix and streamline some things I didn't like. I look forward to Monster Lands 2 coming to Kickstarter in 2023.
Besides this upcoming Kickstarter, I also got a first look at Septima, A Kickstarter game that launched earlier this year. Septima is a competitive, highly interactive strategy game of witchcraft. As the leader of your coven, you must prove your worth in the town of Noctenburg to become the successor of Septima, the High Witch. Practice your craft and gain Wisdom by collecting herbs, brewing potions, healing the townsfolk, mastering charms, and rescuing your fellow brothers and sisters from the trials. But beware: magic, even if used for good, invokes suspicion in the townsfolk...
We didn't have much time to play games because it took a lot of time to collect all our pre-ordered games and look at the titles we were interested in. We did manage to play one full game of Ecosfera. Ecosfera is a cooperative deck-building game for 1 to 4 players. You use combinations of elements to get cards from the plant and fungi kingdom, which allows you to get cards from the animal kingdom to create different biomes. I enjoyed my first play of this card game. The game feels unique, plays smoothly, and the artwork is gorgeous. Ecosfera comes to Kickstarter in 2023
After a long day of wandering through the halls, we are back at our hotel, exhausted but with many new games. The complete loot picture will have to wait until after Spiel, but I've left a sneak peek below. Tomorrow I have meetings planned with Bgnations, Sit Down games, and Board and Dice to get a feel for their new releases this year. See you tomorrow!
Checkout even more pictures of SPIEL '22 in the Photo Report: