Top 10 Board Games to see at UKGE 2026 and some tips!
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Transcript
We are 10 days away from UK Games Expo. I fly out next Friday for a limited vacation in London. And I wanna give you some tips and tricks and show you the 10 games I'm most excited for. And I'm gonna show you how to use the interactive planner that I developed. Let's hop into the games first, shall we? These are 10 games that I'm excited to go see. First up, Sashi and Sashi's new railway porters. I love Sashi and Sashi's games. I love the Japanese import games. The first three of these are all Japanese import games. And I'll be able to get them for the best price at the show. So I do plan on buying railway porters. I do know now that'll actually be 32 pounds. They got back to me on that one. The next one I wanna get is Green City from Cinca Games. This is a collaboration with Fabio Lapiano.
So it's both a Japanese game and a Euro game. So that's really exciting to see what's gonna happen with that one. That's no price update on that one yet, or if it's for sale, but it is going to be there. So I'll at least get to see it. Ghost Live with a huge hit at Spiel. Also a Japanese import. This one's from EN Games. It'll be 20 pounds. These three, I'm kinda gonna be rushing to kind of go get. I'm gonna go in here, here, and here to get these games. Next up is Peacock from Unfringed Games. This was called Fetching Feathers. And so this was also really popular last year at UKGE before it launched its Kickstarter. It's since had its Kickstarter. It's now got its retail release ready and that's gonna be 17 pounds. Plate has a ton of really cool things and there's actually even a pre-order that you can do and you can get this shipping container filled with Plate games, but particularly I'm looking for Med Nebula Colors, which is from Marcia Lehman.
No, Marci-no, Lehman? Sorry, I'm pronouncing your name wrong. And where is it actually? Marceline Lehman, there we go. Who is also a trans designer, and I'm really happy to help support there. And I love Plate games. These ones are actually Korean games, but this one, of course, is designed by an American designer. That was originally released under a different title and now has updated, I think the artwork is actually the same as the indie market one, but this was also really popular at the PAX indie market. So they are now published, which is really exciting instead of just a self-publish, which is great, but still valid. Next up is a solo-only game from Envy Born Games, from Hercules into 12 Labors. I have decided I'm not gonna buy this one because I bought it already.
I am backing the new Kickstarter, Jason and the Argonauts, and I just went all in and bought everything so I can save some suitcase space. And I know that it's gonna be really popular, and it's gonna be around 22 pounds. It's 30 US dollars, so whatever that's gonna end up working out to locally. Next up from Inside Up Games is Critz and Tricks. I did a preview of this one, really like it. Really cool take on trick-taking game where you're gonna be assigning the value to the cards, and the cards don't have a value on them, so you get two different spots there. Really, really neat, and that's gonna be 30 pounds. This one I know nothing about. This is kind of my wild card. This is from Smart Flamingo, and it's West Story, a town building game, but it's a Western, and it's got worker placement, and it's got really cool Western artwork, and so that would really go well with my Western Legends and my Bantam West game, and that's gonna be 42 pounds.
I will possibly buy it. This one I want a demo, and then speaking of demos, the last two are demo only. They're not out yet, so Cardred Alchemy has been working on the Whisperwood, and so I'm really excited to see where that's come along. I got a little bit of a preview at PAX Unplugged last year, so I'm excited to see where that's at, and the other demo is Drillers, which is going to be CGE's major Essen release this year, and so I had a chance to playtest this. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to actually playing it, but I have read a little bit about it. It seems kind of neat, and so I'm excited for that one. Now, all of these have boost numbers on them, which means you're gonna have one of the biggest tips I have for you for UKGE is trying to plan when you've got especially these things you wanna do, and so I have put together a website. It is ukge.boardgamesjames.com, and it is an interactive floor map.
It is very similar to the one that you see on the UKGE website. In fact, it is the same one, because it uses the same underlying code with some added enhancements on top of it, so you can come into here, and when you first load the website, you're gonna have a pre-generated list here. You can give yourself a new name, and then when you do that, it's gonna switch to that one, and you're gonna start designing. You can delete the old one, and you can switch back and forth. You can come in here, and you can go in and click on the thing and add it to your favorites, and then now you've got a way of seeing where you're going to be going that day. You can then also print this, and so it's gonna pop up a printable version here for you, and it's all local data stored on your phone or your device, so if you wanna do this on the desktop, just click Share Current List.
It's gonna give you a link. Mail that link to yourself. Open it up on your phone, and you're good to go. So that is my little floor planter there, but in addition to what is not on the website is where you can get all the food from over at the NEC, and so this is tip number two, is head on over here in front of the Hilton to the food truck, so you're gonna exit the Piazza, and you're gonna walk around this path here, so this is the Moxie Hotel. You're gonna go around the back of the Moxie Hotel. There's a pathway here, and you're gonna follow it over to the Hilton Hotel parking lot, and in that parking lot, there's gonna be a bunch of food trucks. Last year, there was also some food trucks along here by the BP Pulse stage, but that was because there was a Mariah Carey concert at the same time, or Kelly Clarkson. I can't remember which one, so if there is a special event at Pulse, there might also be some food trucks here, but otherwise, over here, and then additionally, you could also head over inside the Piazza.
There is a Witherspoons, a Bagel Factory, a Starbucks, a Subway, and a Cornish Bakery, and the Street Eat kitchen. I think I managed to eat all of them. Subway happened to somehow be the best. Witherspoons is cool, but everybody wants to go there, so it's really, really, really full all the time. Also in the train station, there is another Subway. There's also a Chicken Wing place, and another Starbucks, and then if you go outside the next suite, and you follow yourself towards the BP Pulse station, and over here to Resort Worlds, you can pop into here, and there is a bunch of food in the food court here. That is the pink ones, so there's a Karagi place, a different Dave's Hot Chicken place, Five Guys Burgers, Zizzi's, La Iguana's. I might try and go there, I love Mexican food.
And so there is all of that. Now, as for the remaining tips, make sure that you've got your ticket. You can still buy tickets up here. Are you gonna go buy tickets, and you can select which days you wanna go on, and it's gonna filter out what you want. And if you are planning to go to the Bring and Buy, or if you're going to shop at some of the Asian import games like I am, you're going to need some cash. The UK is pretty much card exclusive most of the places, but at the convention, if you're gonna go into the Bring and Buy, or if you are going to go into some of the Asian stalls, you're going to need some cash. So do give yourself a little bit of cash for someone like me that's gotta bring it from overseas. I'm trying to plan out exactly how much I have to get for each of those booths, so that's why the prices were really important for me to get this year.
Otherwise, the next one that you wanna check out is that not on the maps, over here in hall four last year, this was all open gaming. Not sure if they're gonna do open gaming in the back hall again this year, but on the full site itself, hall one is now also all open gaming. So once you've gone through hall two, three, three A and four, and seen all of the exhibits, you can come on over here to hall five, or hall one, and you can go and game. Over in hall five will be where you pick up your ticket, as well as where the Bring and Buy will be. Now this is significantly larger, so hopefully that means the Bring and Buy is a lot less crowded and has a lot easier flow, because the queues for the Bring and Buy are wild. You don't wanna get stuck in that, you're gonna waste so much time.
So if there's a queue, see if you can come back later. There's nothing that's gonna be in there, I think, that you're really, really, really gonna want. And if there is, you can check it out online. So all of that Bring and Buy stuff will be available on the website, da da da da, I believe, in the what's on in the Bring and Buy area here. Once it is open, there will be this, you can click here to browse online, and you'll be able to see all the items that are there, so you know whether or not it's worth it for you to queue up for. Finally, also make sure that you take a look at the events and see if there's any of these that you need to register for, because you will need to register those beforehand. Registering the day of is likely not gonna get you in. This is a very big convention. It's the largest in the UK, and it is possibly, it's either third or fourth largest in the world.
So you've got Spiel, Essen, GenCon, and then it either packs you or this one, but we don't know the stats of packs you. So it's either third or fourth, so it's pretty big. Now, hopefully this year they have air conditioning working because it's already super hot over here in Canada. It's gonna be 30 degrees here today. Last year it was really hot as well during the March, the May weekend. And so I needed to bring a fan. So that is the last tip I have for you, is that bring a fan. I have this big giant clack fan. It's really nice, makes lots of noise. I'm not gonna throw it in your ear right now. Did scare some people with it, but they are tremendously amazing, and they're big, and they get the air flowing. So nice, it feels so great when that haul gets super, super warm.
So when you're packing, make sure that you are packing some shorts and some light flowy T-shirts. You can buy my own T-shirt now on my boardgame, james.com website, which hopefully, I'm now a YouTube partner. So hopefully you can see those down below and the things. So we will see you there. Let me know if you're there. I wanna play all of the games with all of you. I primarily go here to play games and see all of my European friends. So we'll see you in 10 days. Ciao.