GridCon 5 (2024) Convention Report
November rolls around again, and once again it means it’s time to go to my favourite local convention – GridCon. Run by Paul Grogan and crew from Gaming Rules!, it’s a play-focused and very friendly con which is the highlight of my gaming year. I got back from 2024’s event yesterday, so while it’s all still fresh in my head, let me tell you all about it because it was good. It was really good.
The games
The highlight of any convention for me is the people, but you’re probably not here for that. You want to know about the games, right? This year was a mix of new and old games for me, and here they are. Note that some of these will be getting full reviews in the not-too-distant future, so these synopses will be kinda short.
Castle Combo
The first game was a good recent one. Castle Combo is a cute, easy-to-explain tableau builder. Claim a total of 9 cards from the market in the middle of the table, each of which has a scoring condition. The aim is to get as many of those scoring conditions to depend on the other cards in your tableau. In an ideal world that’s 9 chances to score. It’s quick, the iconography is great, and there’s a surprisingly wide decision space for a game of nine limited turns. Good stuff.
Courtisans
Another quick and easy game we played at the bar, and one of my favourite small games this year. So much so that I played it multiple times over the weekend. There are six suits of cards in play. On your turn you play one to your own area, one to any other player, and one to the queen’s table in the middle. Essentially you’re trying to influence which suits are esteemed and which have fallen from grace, bumping the score for you and hindering your opponents. Quick with gorgeous cards, good times.
Lords of Vegas
The venerable Lords of Vegas is still relevant, moreso now than recently thanks to the crowdfunded reprint. I took it along and played it with three others, and we had an absolute blast. Laughing, groaning, cheering and absolute involvement from everyone. You get surprisingly attached to your little cardboard casinos, and there are few things in board games as satisfying as having a single die involved in rerolling a huge casino and winning ownership of it. A modern classic and no mistake.
Cascadero
I’ve already sung the praises of Cascadero. You can read my review right here. I love introducing new players to it because the concept of the game is so simple, but it offers so much choice in what becomes a cross between a network-builder and a race. More Knizia genius, but not the last of the weekend…
Shackleton Base
I have a full review of this coming soon, so I won’t dwell too long. I taught this to three new players and everyone had a great time. The shared map you build on combined with multi-use astronauts is great, and while it feels a lot like a traditional Euro game, the area control is so interestingly done, using intercepting lines and checking for dominance. It’s really, really good, and I’ll expand on why soon.
Flip 7
This was new to me, and I’d heard a lot of good things, so I actually bought this from Games Lore’s stand at the convention before I played it. I even fell foul of FOMO from time to time. It’s a really simple push-your-luck game. the deck has one 1-value card, two 2s, three 3s etc etc. Your turn is as simple as stick or twist, knowing that being dealt a second card matching one you already have means you bust. Get to 200 points and you win. That simple premise with some modifier and action cards makes for a really quick, enjoyable example of pure push-your-luck.
The Great Library
This one was a bit special. Vital Lacerda is one of my favourite designers (check out my reviews of The Gallerist and On Mars). Last year he brought a prototype of Speakeasy, and this year it was Great Library. Set around the fabled great library at Alexandria, it’s a heavy, cleverly-integrated euro game which uses time as a resource. Despite managing to dig myself into a hole, I had a great time with the game and can’t wait to see what the final game looks like with Ian O’Tooles artwork on it. Big thanks to the man himself for taking the time to teach us the game.
7 Empires
I love Mac Gerdts’ games, so seeing his name on the front of a PD Verlag box was very exciting. 7 Empires looks like Imperial, but is very definitely its own game. It’s another of those games where nobody directly controls any one empire directly (although they do at times), and you’re trying to influence what the map looks like when the game ends, and how much of a stake you have in each of them. Despite playing at two players we really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to trying it with more people.
Arcs
You already know how much I like Arcs if you read my review. I got the chance to play with three experienced players for the first time, and we had a blast. It was the usual chaos which came down to all three ambitions being declared for trophies in the final act. Cue a lot of space fisticuffs and despite losing (handy hint: if you swoop in with a massive fleet, make sure you get to act first in the next round…), I had a great time and made some new friends. Good times.
Hegemony
Hoo boy, it’d been a long time since I played this, so I was glad to be given The State to play as. We had a new player so there was a long teach, which meant we met at 2pm and put the game away at 8pm. Five hours of game flew by though, and it was fantastic. It’s such a shame that the theme and explaining of the game can seem too dry to so many people that they’ll deny themselves the chance to play an extraordinary game.
Pixies
Pixies was a surprise to me. Another 3×3 card tableau builder in a tiny box. The scoring options are really interesting and it gives you turns where you have to choose between benefitting yourself and denying someone else what they want. It’s cute, it’s clever, and I’ll definitely be looking for a copy for my convention bag.
Cities
Cities is another game about making a 3×3 grid in front of yourself. This one is about creating a little bit of a city in front of yourself, choose the tiles which represent the buildings, parks, and water, then adding little plastic houses and other decorations to increase their scoring potential. It does the little things correctly, making you choose between which row you want to pick from first, knowing someone else is bound to jump on the think you want on a different row. I really like the way you pick up an extra end-of-game scoring card in every round too. My second-favourite surprise of the convention.
Rebirth
Finishing things up with the second Knizia game of the weekend, and my favourite new game – Rebirth. This one got its hooks into me instantly. Placing farms and buildings one at a time, trying to make long chains while messing with the other players’ chains. Majority control of castles offers more opportunities for scoring, building next to cathedrals gives you more personal scoring objectives, etc. And that’s just on the Scotland side of the board, let alone Ireland on the other side. It’s a winner and I’ll be picking up a copy as soon as I get the chance.
The people
As much as I love playing games for hours, days at a time, it’s the people that make a convention what it is, and GridCon is the perfect example of this. I’m fortunate in that I’ve been to the last four in a row, so when I head to Taunton in November it’s to catch up with old friends and to make new ones. Getting a hug from a friend from hundreds or even thousands of miles away who you haven’t seen for a year is special.
I caught up with people I play games with on BGA and talk to every day on Slack from the USA, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands, Malta and more besides, as well as those closer to home. The sense of belonging to a community is something I think many people need in their lives, and I’m very fortunate to have that in spades.
I laughed, yawned, groaned and cheered with friends. I sat and ate breakfast in a post-slumber stupor with people I barely knew. I chilled at the bar with like-minded people who just wanted to be around people like them, and it was wonderful. It’s the perfect antidote to the way everyday life can grind you down without you even realising it’s happening.
I want to say thanks to lots of different people. To (and I’m going to forget names here, so forgive me) Chris, Bob, Mark L, Krissie, Brett, Tobias, Andy, Mike, Joe, Ian, Matt, Mak, Alex, Glenn, Mark B, Neil, Albert, Paul, Lee, David, Willem, Mark M, JP, Rob, Becky, Kerley, Adrian, Ayden, Scott, Elaine, Marton and the many others who chatted or played games with me over the weekend.
Thank you to Paul and Vicky for organising the event down to the nth degree every year, and to the team of volunteers who help the whole thing run as smooth as a crokinole board. To everyone who chipped into the raffle and helped raise nearly £7,000 for charity. To the hotel staff who were always helpful, happy and patient despite the onslaught of hungry and thirsty nerds.
If you’ve never been to a convention before, find yourself a smaller play-focused con like GridCon and experience first-hand what it is to be accepted and welcomed into this wonderful hobby.
Same time, next year everybody?
