Origins

Since getting into hobby of board gaming my husband and I have traveled to Columbus Ohio a few times to visit Origins.  We usually make it a day trip - head out early, cruise the dealer hall, have dinner at North Market, and drive home.  It makes for a long day, but we have always enjoyed it.  This year we decided we wouldn't be going because of the date change.  Both of us would need to take a personal day and it would be too close to the end of school.

But after debating between a trip to Ohio and a trip to GenCon, Origins won out this year.  We both took a personal day and heading to Ohio early Thursday morning.  With the option of having more time we would be able to see more things, meet more people, and try out more demos.  I also brought along my copy of the Battle of Red Cliffs hoping to test it out with a few people.

After registering (yeah Educator's Hall Pass for 1/2 price) we headed into the dealer hall.  I had honestly expected a sparse year but was pleasantly surprised to find at dealer hall nearly full.  There have been past years with more dealers.  This year seemed to have way more room for demoing.  Game Salute had a huge area displaying many great Kickstarter success stories and hopefuls.  Rio Grande also had is usual large area and lots of Catan tables.  I was so excited to play test "Mice and Mystics" with Colby Dutch from Plaid Hat Games.  I am very excited about this game and hey we got to play with Colby.  The game was a lot of fun even if I was the last mouse standing left to fend off Brodie, the cat, a centipede and other assorted bugs.  We went down in a blaze of glory!

We spent most of the rest of Friday just walking the dealer hall and picking up a few games.  I tried out my mad caveman curling skills and picked up "Defenders of the Realm" with painted miniatures for 40% off the show special.  We also picked up the next most have from the convention, the new Dominion base cards.  Finally the money won't all look the same!


We found a hotel room and then ate a late lunch at the North Market not far from the convention center.  I certainly recommend this location for a great meal.

There is so much variety and all wonderfully prepared food.  And, in case, like me, you didn't know there is a second floor with seating.  This information would have been quite helpful to know two years ago!

After the dealer hall closed we walked down to the waterfront to check out the Art Festival.  There were some pretty amazing pieces of art there and I enjoyed walking through the displays.  What really amazed me as well was how nice people were, I accidentally walked out in front of the bike policeman and he actually apologized to me!   And everyone was like that. The people of Columbus are great.

I had planned on trying some open gaming Friday night but since I had been up since 3:30 and still felt like I was fighting off a cold we cut the evening short and decided to get up early the next day.  I never did get a chance to play test the Battle of Red Cliffs with anyone regrettably.

Richard Borg from Dan Edelen at Bordgamegeek.com

Friday we actually got to the convention before the dealer hall opened.  That was a first.  We planned on demoing a few more games and focused on Samurai Battles. We were hoping to see Richard Borg and play a game with him.  My husband talked to one of the workers at the booth about the "Art of Tactics" game play while I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman about the game and my enjoyment of Memoir '44 and other games by Richard Borg.  He surprised me by introducing himself as Roy Grider, and explained that he, Richard and another friend actually started the game in his basement.  He does the historical research and miniatures while Richard designs the board game aspects and does the marketing.


He then introduced me to Richard Borg and we talked for quite awhile about their history together and all the expansion they want to have for Memoir '44 (in the works to about 2014 right now) and new games they are thinking of trying.  Both of them were so enthusiastic and so friendly.  I felt like I was talking with a couple of old friends.  My husband soon joined us and we must have talked for about an hour when we finally purchased Samurai Battles and Richard Borg signed the game box for us.  I can tell you from our conversation that this is a very well researched game and the game play really does try to mimic the actual events of the Samurai battles.  Now my husband will have lots of fun putting all the miniatures together.

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying out some more games, picking up a few, scoring the last expansion of Heroscape Dungeons and Dragons we didn't have and then some amazing ice cream from Jeni's at the North Market.  I happily say that I was able to win as the good guys in "Revolver" from Sronghold games, one of the other new games we purchased.

Origins was great and I left feeling good about the board gaming industry.  There are a lot of amazing people: Richard Borg, Colby Dauch, the folks at Game Salute and Myriad Games, and so many others.  I'm glad to be a part of it.