Welcome to Fun with Boxes, Ep 335: Our AireCon Harrogate 2026 Board Game Convention Haul Video
AIRECON - one of the best Board Game Conventions in the year - and here are all the games we bought
@aireconuk.bsky.social
And managed to get home on the train!
youtu.be/T4nxQndZb5Y
#airecon #boardgames
Welcome to Fun with Boxes, Episode 334: Our AireCon Harrogate 2026 Board Game Convention Adventures!
@aireconuk.bsky.social
Join us as we look back at our adventures this year - 4 days of fun, friends and games!
youtu.be/iKN-RbPfSGA
#Boardgames #Airecon #tabletop
A selection of games I purchased at Airecon in front of a kallax full to bursting with other games. The games pictured are - Akropolis: Pantheon, Bella Vista, Overparked, One Hit Heroes, Symbiosis, Bus & Stop, Prey, One for Sorrow, Johari's Window and Agent Avenue: Division M.
Forgot to share the #boardgames picked up at #airecon last weekend. Missing from this photo is the Faraway: Under Starry Skies expansion which got added to the base box during the weekend itself.
Was back to work today after #airecon post-con blues not got me just yet. I do find conventions overstimulating. Combined with me pushing myself to try and squeeze as much as I can out of my time... not necessarily the healthiest or kindest on your body to treat events this way! Regardless... 1/3
Blog - #Airecon 2026 After Action Report
TL;DR: my write up of the Harrogate based convention which features boardgames and #ttrpgs - or as the conventioon describes it "an analogue gaming event". I ran two games of #Traveller, mainly to new players and folks who haven't played in years. Some […]
Trick-taking Werewolf the card game, box art showing two chibi witches
On a less grave & depressing note, I really enjoyed Trick-taking Werewolf at #Airecon, & got a copy. It's a 4 player blend of trick taking & Werewolf, where you're magic students trying to investigate a lycanthropy outbreak at your academy. Cute, quick, lots of fun.
#UKTTRPGCONS
I was reminded at #Airecon at the weekend that there are wonderful people who turn general gaming cons into general gaming cons that also offer TTRPGs as a forethought, not an afterthought.
There a brand new boardgame convention in Chester this coming weekend. #Victrix.
1/3
I've written a short post- #Airecon blog. It has nothing to do with tabletop games, but is all about being autistic & ADHD. It's very personal & a bit heavy. Maybe it can be the start of some better conversations. I want to make things better, for everyone.
www.timclarepoet.co.uk/under-the-ma...
A few reflections on #Airecon Harrogate 2026.
farhavens.ttrpg.uk/airecon-harr...
Thank you to all the GMs who put in both the quiet preparation and energetic play for your games. And thank you to all the players who came to play and, in some cases, try #ttrpg for the first time!
Until next year!
A shout out to @openhearthrpg.bsky.social from #Airecon where three 'Hearthers' had a great time ...
Finally at #Airecon inplayed the eternal classic Capt’n Clever. If i do become lists person this is high up as its the perfect game. 2 rules and 15 minutes of glorious spite and malice.
Then i played Ruins at #Airecon. The idea felt fun, card shedding with the ability to modify the cards. But trying to shuffle and deal cards of different thicknesses felt strange.
At this point of #Airecon my ability to think was lacking. So when i played Knizia’s Money! I mist have some inate ‘Knizia strategy’ gene and pulled a victory out. Not 100% we did rules right as the zero bid card seemed fairly meaningless when bidding was simultaneous.
I played a quick game of Deep Sea Adventure. Id love to be able to design a game this that so tiny yet fun to play. #airecon
My #Airecon Sundays these days usually involve very few games and its more a chance to speak to all the people I’ve missed! My face shows my tiredness I feel! I did get few abstracts in and apart from Quarto, that I know, I forgot to note the names.
Also note Flav’s amazing Micro Macro Suit.
Final day at #Airecon i playtested
the Beeching Axe as player prefer this theme to Numbers Station. Ive got a couple or fiddly bits that always confuse players i need to iron out. But i hope to be pitching this at UKGE too. Also I’ve realised Im terrible at it.
Had a wonderful weekend at Airecon!! Learned some new games and had loads of fun playing some old favourites with good friends ❤️ #bgstats #boardgames #airecon
Dorfromantik Tournament Set - two villages drafted from a single set by two players at the end of a game
Took part in a Dorfromantik tournament at #airecon - this used a tournament set of tiles and different ruleset. You do a full open draft of the available landscape and task tiles with your opponent - you then shuffle them up and play simultaneously - each creating your own village.
Delayed day 2 and day 3 #airecon game roundup - First Rat, Gibberers, Framlet, Waypoints, Covenant, Typeset, Castell, Harvest, Gachapon Trick and Dorfromantik (tournament set) - more on that shortly!
#Airecon
Summary:
Friday am - refereeing Steampunk game
Friday pm - on the desk helping people, checking in to my B&B & collecting my ticket & lanyard
Friday night - my Star trak game got One player. Found him a game to play in but too tired from travelling to fight for a game to play myself.
1/x
#Airecon
The one and only reason the TTRPGs at Airecon are so good (20 tables, up to 6 players per table, 8 sessions, great rewards) is the hard work of @firstage.bsky.social . Even without all his work on Garricons, his work on Airecon alone should earn him an OBE.
Thanks mate!
#Airecon
With the afternoon session of TTRPGs ending at 6:00pm and my train back being at 6:42pm and me not knowing the landscape of Airecon, I’d left the Sunday afternoon free to see what turned up.
As it turned out, I could theoretically walk to the station at 6pm and still arrive in time…
1/x
#Airecon
All over now but that doesn’t mean I’m going to shut up about it. As planned I played in a game of the Great Martian Tripod Race. Martin continues to expand the world and refine the rules. We foiled the dastardly yanks (my word).
Someone had clearly been playing Dragonbane recently.
#Airecon weekend successfully completed. We recorded 17 plays with 12 different games over the last 4 days. Great times were had. A picture of our little haul heading home below. Can't wait for next year!
Final day of #airecon. Woken at 2am by the fire alarm at the hotel. Urgh.
Played The Cunning Folk this morning. GM and players were grand, but I don’t find much in the game to grip onto - playing fantasy creatures causing chaos and panic among perfectly innocent humans for no reason.
Driving home from #Airecon. Really busy year. Lots of thoughts, lots of gratitude for the kind people & friends I got to spend the time with. Might find some way to write my thoughts up if/when I recover. Thank you if we hung out & played games
Crokinole, the old Canadian flicking game and one of the world's best games
Atiwa, a game about bat conservation in Ghana by one of the great designers Uwe Rosenberg
Cooperative plane flying game Sky Team
Whitehall Mystery detectives trying to track down the bad guy Scotland Yard style
Airecon in Harrogate this weekend, always one of the absolute highlights of the year. Crokinole, Atiwa, Sky Team, Whitehall Mystery among some of my favourites we played this year #boardgames #airecon
Yesterday's big #airecon game was Limit! This was a crunchy beast, which I mainly enjoyed.
This reminded me of Terraforming Mars, Ark Nova and chunky mechanics like that.
The theme is really well captured - I just found the shortage mechanics required constant checks of the rules.
#boardgames
Last day at #Airecon. Spent morning running round looking for lost car keys. Found them thank goodness. Everyone here has been so friendly & kind. Really glad to have expanded my game knowledge some more this year
#Airecon
A friend (yes, apparently I have a friend) has just agreed to share a room with me at Airecon next year if we’re both Refereeing.
Highly likely, he’s almost as addicted as I am.
