Day 1 Is Almost Over

I'm here in the Messe hanging out in smoke-filled hall 4A between 4 and 5. Sorry for the lack of posts, but it is such a non-stop craze that it is hard to find time to even sit down for 5 minutes.

So far the day has been great (it is 6pm here). Havoc continues to be our best seller and we've nearly sold out of our remaining supply, including the expansions we brought. 24/7 is gaining momentum but wasn't the first day hit that Havoc was last year. The good news is that when people sit down to try it we almost always convert the demo into a sale.

Games I purchased today (I'm on about a $300 budget this year):

• Through the Ages - automatic purchase from the Czech Games dudes
• Turfmaster Deluxe - this is my big buy at 69 euro, but the game is a blast and I love the components.
• The Experiment - a cool little Belgian card game that won a design competition and got a free 1000 copy print run from Carta Mundi.
• 3 copies each of Pickomino and Cartagena for my games class - all of the above for a total of about 50 euro.
• A bunch of small stuff for Peter Loop and Mike Deans.
• Astoria - I don't care if the game is good... 20 euro for an engraved wooden box with 4 glass bottles and gems in it. Great value for bits.
• I pre-ordered the three train games / expansions from Winsome and picked those up today for 75 euro.

One highlight of the week so far is spending an hour in Reiner Knizia's hotel room getting pitched about 6 of his games for possible publication by Sunriver. We are going to try out 3 of them.

We've had great support from our demo team, and many fans have come back to say hi after purchasing Havoc last year. Most ask where my family is :-(.

Hard to tell what the big buzz of the show is. On the Underground is getting some hype but reviews are mixed from the folks I talked to. Gloria Mundi and Perikles look pretty nice. I have room for 1 or 2 more games so I'll be picky and get something on Sat or Sun.

I'll try and get another report out tomorrow! Check out some photos over at Flickr - I'll keep adding to the set.