Airecon 2024 Day 1

 

 It was a very late decision for me to attend Airecon this year. Due to the success of my various social media platforms, I had been lucky enough to be granted a pass access to the event but the thought of attending alone as a solo player was daunting to say the least. However, early on the prior weekend I decided to take the plunge, even extending the trip to the Thursday evening so I could experience the event in full!

 

I figured I would not be alone (in attending alone) so I decided to launch what turned out to be a popular group chat via the Airecon Community Facebook page, targeted at Solo players….and it worked a treat. After commandeering a table for the weekend, the group met up several times and there was always a place to “go back to” should one fine themselves at a loss of what to do. My overall theme of the next few blog posts will be one of encouragement to anyone who is on the fence about attending Airecon to take the plunge!

 

Day 1

The Thursday evening marks the official start of Airecon Harrogate, with doors opening at 4pm for a night of open gaming and dropping off items for the Bring and Buy. I was astounded by the sheer volume of games entering the bring and buy and by the end of the night the official app showed over 1700 games for sale! I will try to take advantage more of the Bring and Buy next year, as I kind of ignored it this time around with my focus being on playing games!

 

You will read about how big Airecon is in the anything you research about the event, and the sheer amount of space for gaming will instantly impress you. As you walk in on the first evening, the Airecon lights on displays, the vast amount of table space in the initial Halls will take you back. After meeting a fellow solo gamer or two in the queue, I was able to settle my nerves and before long had taken my seat ready to teach my pre-arranged game of Wyrmspan. I had not played it multiplayer before, nor had I really taught a game to fellow serious board gamers, but had a wonderful group to experience the game with and my thoughts on Wyrmspan remain the same…..a Wingspan-beater with so much more going on!

 

Now I had settled my nerves, I relocated to the table of solo players that had been arranged prior to the event and began to game. I had taken a bag of some of my favourite larger group games, as well as some of games I hadn’t managed to play as of yet and over the weekend I thankfully got to play them all!

 

‘That’s Not a Hat’ was a particular highlight of night 1 of Airecon. I had been struggling to find a group to play it with, but in a sign of things to come for the weekend ahead, everyone was open to playing and after moving onto to games of ‘6nimmit’ ‘Skull King’ and ‘Just One’ the group had already bonded and I knew a great weekend was in store.

 

As the night wore on, with an 11pm closing time on day 1, one of the group headed to the library (as it suggest a huge source of games open for rent) and brought back ‘Isle of Skye’. I wasn’t familiar with this game prior to this, but enjoyed being introduced to a title which is best described as Carcassonne with auctions.

 

And just like that the evening was over, 7 hours of games and all nerves and reservations quashed. The Thursday is intended for open gaming only, so I’ll mention more about the exhibitors hall and other aspects of Airecon in future posts.

 

Walking back to the hotel on night one of Airecon, I knew I had made the right decision in attending ….