Day 2 of the UK Games Expo is almost half way through and it really has been a morning of miniatures…kind of.

Okay, so the day started similar to yesterday – coffee and a bap. Following that, and queuing just to book spaces for a Blood on the Clocktower demo at 3.30pm (yes, we had to queue just for a demo!) we spent the morning wandering around looking at miniatures. Games Workshop (Warhammer) have showed up in force, with incredible dioramas. These pieces are huge and really impressive to look at. The full pieces are insane, but the detail is something truly special. These dioramas are densely packed with detail and small nods to all kinds of action. I’ll be uploading more in due course, but needless to say they are more than impressive.

What has really taken me back this year is not the miniature side of Warhammer however, but rather the literature side. For the first time ever Warhammer have set up a reading area for kids towards the back of the show. There are a few tables for them to partake in activities and beanbags to sit on. The whole concept is that they are promoting a kids line of books called Warhammer Adventures.

Warhammer Adventures is, for those who don’t know, a series of books set in the Warhammer universe, designed to introduce kids to the world of Warhammer. There are two ranges – one set in the fantasy setting and one set in the 40k setting. Apparently the books have proven really popular and some schools have started stocking them in their libraries.

Warhammer Adventures

To be honest, I love this concept. It’s fantastic that Games Workshop (or Warhammer as they have rebranded) are putting themselves out there and doing two things. Firstly, they are encouraging children to read, and secondly they making the Warhammer brand more accessible.

Following browsing Warhammer stands and products we caught up with the guys at Arcworlde. Again, for those who don’t know, Arcworlde is a superb miniatures skirmish style game with additional RPG elements. What makes it different is that there is a feats difficulty system that allows for any possible action to be chosen during the game once a difficulty setting has been agreed upon for it.

Arcworlde in action

Arcworlde, and this is where it passes the boundary to be something truly unique, is the passion project of the designer, Alex. He sculpted all the miniatures himself and has developed the rules from scratch. We’re hoping to catch up with him in more detail either later on today or tomorrow, but it is an incredibly impressive feat that he has done a superb job with. Below is an image of one of the trolls in the game –

An Arcworlde Troll

As you can see – it is a stunning miniature. As I said, we’re hoping to catch up with the designer in more detail later, and are also looking at demoing the game tomorrow. It looks amazing.

Finally, non-miniatures related, this morning we also managed to catch up with Dr Graeme Fraser-Bell who was the designer of Frenetic. Dr Graeme has a PhD in chemistry and has created a word game based on the Periodic Table. It’s become really popular, having won a load of awards, and is a fantastic piece of work.

Giant Frenetic

We love games that promote education at their core, and Frenetic is a fast paced game that is structured around learning as well as coming up with words using elements as the letters. The scoring is based on the atomic number of the element, and it is great fun to play.

Frenetic is a game that is accessible to everyone, and we can’t wait to break it open again with friends. I imagine it is the kind of game anyone can play and find challenging, so it should be really fun.

I must dash now as we have Blood on the Clocktower coming up soon. Let’s see if it lives up to the hype!

Published by Luke

Board game nerd, comic book geek, Rubik's Cube solver, Splendor player, and Blogger. View all posts by Luke