UK Games Expo 2022 - What a Blast!
As Major Sponsors, we at Wayland Games were delighted to attend UK Games Expo 2022 where, over the course of the three days (Friday 3rd - Sunday 6th June), 30,000 people attended the event!
Personally, as this was my first time at UK Games Expo this event was one I was very much looking forward to, as an avid lover of board games and merchandise it surely did not disappoint.
Blog Highlights
Co-Exhibitors: Warcradle Studios, Kraken Wargames, and Para Bellum
Working alongside the team, we all relished in how busy and popular the event was from opening day - which was hardly surprising! It was great being able to help hobbyists using our own experiences with the games we’ve played ourselves.
Co-Exhibitors
As we were lucky enough to have other exhibitors on our stand, we were not just busy with avid tabletop gamers of all ages shopping for deals, but we were also lively with demos thanks to none-other than Warcradle Studios. Demo games of Dystopian Wars, Wild West Exodus, and Mythos were full all day… I took a long look at those Mythos miniatures to appreciate Daren’s hard work.
Chris, Warcradle Studios Studio Manager, had the pleasure of accepting an award whilst at the event as well! Winning the Judges Choice of Best Miniature Range 2022 with the Victory Battlefleet Set for Dystopian Wars.
Not only that but congratulations to all of the award winners at UK Games Expo 2022, which involved many of the manufacturers we retail!
This included Fantasy Flight Games, Alley Cat Games, Free League, Osprey and more. If you’re interested, take a look at all of the winners from the 2022 awards here: UK Games Expo Awards.
Flying all the way from Germany, Kraken Wargames joined us as well and brought with them quite a selection of gaming mats, as well as their new paint storage solutions.
This delighted Jake from Operations, who was very excited to get to finally meet Tobias in the flesh, who he had been talking with for quite some time.
But that isn’t all; Para Bellum joined us by also demoing two games in one, Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings and Conquest: First Blood.
Now, as we are all very aware, UK Games Expo is one not to miss if you’re a tabletop game fan. There were stands aplenty of tabletop games and merchandise but the amount of demo tables set up across the event for visitors to use purely for experiencing new games was astounding.
I saw demo tables for board games I’ve already enjoyed, including Azul and Pandemic along with lots of tabletop games I hadn’t heard of before.
Some of the demo tables which fascinated me whilst taking a look around were Wonder Book, Nine Worlds and Mob Sitters (I must say it looked like they were playing a game of poker) to name only a few.
UK Games Expo isn’t just for board game lovers though, it is also about miniatures, role-playing, merchandise and more!
Below are some more of the awesome stands I caught a glimpse of whilst experiencing the event.
What was one of the stands that really interested me?
I must say I was captivated by the Jim Henson company stand whilst looking around the event.
Having watched Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, the recent Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, as well as the documentary which details the work that goes into a Jim Henson picture, I was naturally drawn to this stand once I saw the fabled face of the Goblin King, David Bowie.
I haven’t had the pleasure of playing the Dark Crystal board game yet, however both the board game and the alternate art adventure book have taken my fancy and I am very interested in trying these out.
What antics did some of my colleagues get up to?
Throughout the three days whilst working at our stand we would see cosplayers coming and going all day. Katherine, from Warcradle Distribution, even managed to snap a few pictures with them!
Check out the gallery below to see just a small snippet of cosplay (and other) antics at the Expo, including some merchandise you could buy to take part in the fun with!
Sam, our SEO Specialist, met one of his favourite miniature painters, Guy from Midwinter Minis and couldn’t not get a photo to commemorate the moment.
What did I treat myself to at the event?
Having not long prior to UK Games Expo treated myself to a Jolteon and Vaporeon Funko POP!, once I saw them on our site, I reminisced back to both playing and watching Pokemon when there were just 150 species - oh how times have changed!
Whilst at the event Craig, from Customer Services spotted a stall with both Eevee and Flareon Funko POP!s and made sure to let me know where to find them, and I just couldn’t not take them home with me…
Not only that, I wanted something small which when used in my hobby would make me think of when I went to UK Games Expo ‘22. A stall next to us had barrels full of hand-crafted resin dice and it was a lot of fun to be able to have a rummage around to find something unique to take home with me.
I chose a green multicoloured dice, which has some sparkle to it that you may not be able to see in these photos, but it is something very different to my other D&D dice!
As a first time UK Games Expo attendee I must say it was a really interesting event. If you’re looking at trying out a range of board games and interested in checking out the newest miniature games, paints and modelling supplies and merchandise, then this is the event for you.
Hopefully we see you at our stand next year!
Didn’t get the chance to be there?
The entire event was covered live by OnTableTop so that everyone could join in on the fun either at the event or at home.
Make sure to check out OnTableTop’s youtube channel if you want to take a peek at UK Games Expo 2022 or if you’re on the fence about attending next year.
