Last week I had the incredible pleasure of attending UK Games Expo in Birmingham, the UK's biggest and the world's 3rd biggest convention for all things tabletop gaming.
This was my second gaming expo after going to the world's biggest, Essen Spiel, in Germany in 2024. Both events were amazing experiences, but it was interesting to see the difference. Essen felt a lot more professional and was more focused on the business side of the hobby. It’s THE date for the board gaming calendar, so it's where the biggest hits of the year are released and where people go to get their hands on the hottest games. UKGE by contrast was much more of a community initiative, having started as a way for a local games club to get some more members. The big publishers were still there but there was a much more casual feel to everything and almost every stall was being run by people who just wanted to show off their games to new audiences.
Getting There
The event was held at Birmingham National Exhibition Centre, an absolutely massive campus with even more halls than the 6 taken up by the event as well as multiple hotels which were also hosting Games Expo talks, workshops, entertainment and RPGs. We drove straight to the venue, but the centre is also a 5-minute walk from the train station and right next to the airport for those coming from further afield.
The parking can be booked in advance and was super simple. It did get really full on the Saturday, meaning we had to park further away, but luckily there was a regular shuttle bus to get us to the main halls in just a couple of minutes.
Getting into the event, there was a bit of a queue at first to pick up our lanyards, but once we had that we were able to move around the space completely freely with no queues or issues.
The Games
Obviously, the highlights of the event were the hundreds and hundreds of games available to try and buy.
After focusing on the shopping side when I went to Essen, I wanted to spend more time actually demoing games this time round. That turned out to be a great decision because there were so many unique games on offer! This included new releases, previews of games coming soon, and even demos for some older games that still had active communities like trading card games and minis games.
I made a point to demo a few of each, finding some great new board games, demoing Gundam Assemble, a new miniatures game out in October, and Netrunner, an old card game that was discontinued by its original publisher but has been brought back to life by its fans. This last one was particularly special, as this is a game I’d wanted to try for ages, and every single one of the volunteers on hand was clearly so passionate about this game they’d worked so hard to keep going.
The People
Just like with the demos, the real highlight of UKGE for me were the people behind the games. Every single stall I went to had people who were just so excited to talk about their project and share their passion for gaming. I got to talk to some big-name designers like Pablo Clark of Old Kings Crown and to meet so many new designers who’d just started their own game publishing journey.
Empires Out of Time and Kindred Spirits in particular are two games from UK indie publishers which I was thrilled to try out and just had to pick up a copy. Speaking of big name designers, it was amazing to get to meet one of my icons in real life too! Cole Wehrle, the designer of Root and Arcs was at the event to get some test games of his newest games and a small group of us even got a personal preview of the new expansion to Oath, one of my favourite games.
I spent some time talking to the folks at Loot Tavern, who are one of my favourite RPG publishers. It was great to hear about the projects they had in the works and have a bit of a chat about what inspired them and their ways of working. I also got to meet some of the team behind Blood on the Clocktower, another favourite and as they were absolutely swamped with fans all weekend.
Activities and Entertainment
As you might expect, there was also a massive games library (be aware you need a cash deposit to use it!). This was a perfect way to wind down after a busy day and people were really friendly. Right as we were setting up to play Agricola, a guy who had just finished competing in a Terraforming Mars tournament was walking past and asked if we’d already started. He ended up being incredibly friendly, teaching us the game as we went and even giving us some hints on the high-level strategy!
In addition to all-day board gaming there were a whole host of TCG tournaments at the show, RPGs all day every day, a whole LARPing (live action roleplay) camp outside the main halls and sessions of Blood on the Clocktower running throughout.
UKGE also had a whole range of talks about board games from all kinds of angles, including history, design, and even workshops for publishing your own game or running your own events. There were also live shows, including a comedy improv gameshow I attended, which was a great way to round off a full day of games.
Advice
One lesson I learned is to really set time limits on the shopping side, as I spent nearly an hour in the used games area. While it was an absolute treasure trove of hundreds of amazing games at great prices, I did feel like I was missing out on the wider show where I could have people talk to me about the games, they'd been working on rather than just browsing through them on my own.
I would also recommend having a look at the floor plan before the event because there's just so much stuff that it's going to be really hard to see everything you want to without a plan. Unlike Essen, which was much more clearly divided into sections, UKGE had a bit of everything in each hall. That really added to the community vibe of the event but did mean that I doubled back on myself quite a few times and there were quite a few stalls I didn't get the chance to see.
In a Nutshell
5 Games demoed: Don Quixote, Netrunner, Kindred Spirits, Gundam Assemble, War of the Toads
6 Games bought: Empires Out of Time, Off with their Heads, Kindred Spirits, Don Quixote, Chu Han (Second Hand), Crescent Moon (Second Hand)
Favourite game demoed: Don Quixote by Llamascape Games.
Favourite moment: Getting a sneak preview of the new Oath expansion personally from the designer.
Would go again?: Absolutely!