“Expo’s, Tweets and Counting 100’s of Pieces!” www.hulagaming.com [email protected] Lords of Waterdeep Winner Contents o Introduction o Lords of Waterdeep Winner At the UK Games Expo, we ran a o What’s Hot competition to win Lords of Waterdeep o Tweeting the best board game for all those people who o UK Games Expo signed up to our Newsletter, and a lucky o Conventions and other Expo’s winner was chosen at random. o Recently Added o Incoming (at some point) o About Us We are delighted to announce that the winner of our competition was: Introduction Gino from Caerphilly. Firstly, hello and welcome to Hula If you are interested in owning your own Gaming’s first newsletter. copy of Lords of Waterdeep, it’s We aim to share some interesting available to buy from Hula Gaming for articles with you as well as product great price of £29.99. information that we hope you will find useful. If not please let us know! NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] What’s Hot Medieval Mastery: Here we will give our own personal opinion on what we think is hot at the moment which we’ve played: Lords of War: Orcs vs Dwarves Me annihilating my opponent Mechanics Summary: A random hex based board with different map sizes depending on number of players. An interesting way Mechanics Summary: to represent knights using dice (nope Fixed deck, drawn randomly, positional you don’t roll them); an added strategy icons to attack directions, fixed place - of using your random abilities ment rules, complexities of support and effectively. turn resolution of all on table cards. Mini Review: Mini Review: I found this to be an easy to learn fun Being an old school Magic player I was game which leads to complex strategies expecting yet another Magic without the once you understand the mechanics. I Magic rip off, but was impressed to find lost all my first 4 games to the designer a good strategy element to a simple to (which I guess is to be expected!). learn card placement game. The mechanics are easy and you can teach I feel this offers a new mix of the rules in a matter of minutes, but the components and strategies I’ve not strategy will certainly take longer to experience before and is a worthwhile master. Planning your moves can be a addition to my “Must Play Again” list. brilliant conflict of minds as you try to get the elusive 20 kills. A must play for all gamers alike! NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] Tweeting the best Most complicated Board Game Ever: Here you will find a selection of our tweets related to interesting game relating articles from around the web. If your childhood Board Games were German: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oOD9U9VQ5Y &feature=youtu.be Martin Wallace Interview: http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6891231/if- your-childhood-board-games-were-german German game of the year announcement: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1799046854/a- study-in-emerald?ref=ca Henning Ludvigsen (Game of Thrones) art: http://theologyofgames.com/2013/05/21/award- announcements-the-spiel-des-jahres-kennerspiel- des-jahres-and-kinderspiel-des-jahres/ http://kotaku.com/if-you-play-board-games-youll- know-this-mans-art-497495654 NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] Arctic Scavengers Designer Review: From Inspeaquence to Bohnanza: http://theologyofgames.com/2013/05/01/an- interview-with-kyle-gabhart-designer-of-arctic- scavengers/ http://opinionatedgamers.com/2013/05/06/138- games-part12/ Why board games matter: Wil Wheaton newborn: http://kotaku.com/wil-wheaton-tells-a-newborn- baby-why-being-a-nerd-is-aw-486019434 http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/05/hid eout-why-board-games-matter NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] hours and felt ready for the next day albeit some of our stock still being sat in UK Games Expo crates on our van and our miniatures 24th – 26th May 2013 stand to be laid out first thing the next Hilton Birmingham day. We attended our first Expo as Hula After a restful night at the very cost Gaming at the end of May and what a effective Premium Inn and full English great experience it turned out to be. breakfast, we were ready to head back to the show. I have to admit to being slightly apprehensive leading up to the UK Games Expo with absolutely no idea whether it would be a success or failure for our small shop. We had opted to buy space for a starter stand as this was our first Expo and we literally had no idea how much or little we might sell but despite knowing the dimensions of our stand, were still taken aback at just how small the space looked on arrival on the Friday afternoon. We had mocked up a stand Paul ready for our first customer on at home but the sheer scale of the Saturday interior of the Palace Suite at the Hilton NEC dwarfed our teeny tiny space and Our first face to face sale on Saturday we began to wonder how we were ever was for a miniature for £1.49. At this going to fit all the games we had point we hoped this wouldn’t be our only brought with us on the stand! sale of the day but fortunately it turned out to be the beginning of many sales Despite the terrible weather whilst over the weekend. ferrying the equipment from our van into the Palace Suite, we still managed to set up our stand within a couple of NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] So much so, that we had to make plenty Nick from Black Box Games introduced of trips to our van to find more stock that himself to us early on and was very was being requested that we knew we helpful and interested in our store and is had but unfortunately wasn’t on our now one of our suppliers, meaning stand at that moment. We began to we’ve managed to list Lords of War realise very early on that we wanted to before many other retailers. come back next year and that we would buy a bigger space so that we could display more of our stock. There was such a good atmosphere at the UK Games Expo and everyone seemed so friendly. It came across from our customers just how much they loved their hobby and Paul got to have some great discussion with gamers about the mechanics and strategies of various board games. It was an excellent networking opportunity for a new, upcoming online retailer like ourselves. Our neighbours were a bricks and mortar store called Shadow Games based in Rugby and were very open and friendly. We were also lucky enough to be placed opposite Black Box Games who were destined to win Best Strategic Card game for their ‘Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves’ card game. Our mini’s display NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] Sunday was a quieter day overall at the For me personally, one of the show but was still worthwhile and I got highlights of the show was being able to visited by a number of clone troopers meet face to face some of my followers and got my photo taken as promised. on Twitter, and it was great to finally put a face to the name! One of those was Stuart who was filming the event for the UK Games Expo team and who interviewed Paul on the Sunday for the film he was pulling together for them. I had also spotted various characters in costumes walking around the Expo and really fancied having my photo taken with them. Fortunately it turned out that one of the clone troopers attended a Lana and her gang of followers regular board game group in Bristol and had bought a game from us and All and all I can only recommend the UK promised to come around for a photo on Games Expo for gamers and traders the Sunday. alike. It was a fabulous experience and we were able to engage with our By the end of the Saturday we were customers like we never have before. feeling exhausted and now it seemed We can’t wait till next year! silly that we had ever contemplated that Lana we wouldn’t sell a thing! However, we still had a 4 hour round trip to drive back to Bristol to collect my daughter who had been staying at a friends and then drive all the way back to Brum ready for the next day. NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] Conventions and other Expos I only have one additional point to add, We are either booked or awaiting more about my fading memory than confirmation that we will also be at the about the Expo, when a potential following forthcoming Conventions and customer asked me to describe the Expos: mechanics of Illuminati (one of my top London Film & Comic Con 10 games of all time) my mind went 5th – 7th July 2013 blank and all I could picture is cards on London Nine Worlds Geek Fest a table (I couldn’t picture how they th th move, what you do or anything else!). 9 - 11 August 2013 Well if the customer is reading this Cardiff Film & Comic Con st st please excuse my fading memory and 31 Aug – 1 September 2013 the mechanics are: Dragon Meet (TBC) Dec 2013 Card Drafting with dice rolling to Salute (TBC) acquire opposition’s cards and added April 2014 bonus based on cards you have in play UK Games Expo, Birmingham plus your player powers (I hope I have (TBC) May 2014 this right!) Paul At the London and Cardiff Film & Comic Cons, as well as London Nine Worlds GeekFest we will not only be selling board games but also our extensive, yet to be listed, collection of Star Wars memorabilia! NewsLetter #1 June 2013 www.HulaGaming.com [email protected] Recently Added This is the place to see a brief overview of items we’ve added recently.