Warhammer Fest Europe 2018 – Part 1

This weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, was the first time for Warhammer Fest Europe to open. It is a new event following in the steps of the former Games Days. Games Days in Germany were held in Cologne at the Gürzenich and the new event uses the convention area of the Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf, right next to the Düsseldorf Airport (DUS).

Parking was not a logistical problem, as there were plenty parking lots around the Hotel and the airport area. At rates of 3,50 EUR per hour they weren't exactly cheap. But the airport brought for those who didn't travel by car a couple of benefits. The visitors were quite international, so they had an easy way to get there by plane from the UK, France, Italy or Spain (and from what our readers told me, even Australia!), and for the "locals" of North Rhine Westphalia, the state has superb local service by train and bus.

Around 09:30 there was quite the line in front of the venue. Some people registering for the seminars and / or picking up their cards at the door. Well prepared and friendly service desk, a very hearty welcome to the convention.

There were venue maps set up for easier orientation and every customer got an official programme booklet with the schedule and information on the events. In one of the halls the tournaments were held. Including a moderated overview in the front.

We had the chance to take a couple of pictures prior to opening. To the left you can see the prepared cabinets for the Golden Demon competition. On the upper row sat the designers, showed novelties and to have chats with the hobbyists.

Games Workshop stocked up quite well. So they had quite a lot of boxed sets of the more or less sold out Grandmaster variant of the new Adeptus Titanicus boxed game. The Forge World booth covered some Warhammer World and event exclusive miniatures. They even brought along some of the Warhammer World exclusive tank bundles. These are sold at 70 GBP at Warhammer World and are sometimes offered on eBay for 100-130 EUR. At the show they were 85 EUR, fair price for the set.

On the second floor the several studio departments showed novelties and recently released miniatures, along with sketch books. Forge World showed the new Dark Mechanicus character along with more Horus Heresy goodies.

At the Specialist Games booth Daniel / Dino had the chance to follow up with Andy Hoare, and we could see the incredibly well done new kit of the Nurgle Rotters. It is a chaos team for Blood Bowl, dedicated to Nurgle. The new release will cover all the additional products we know from the other teams, like a gaming board, a new spike magazine, dice and such.

Another Specialist Games product is Adeptus Titanicus. In the display case we could see the new Reaver and Warhound Titan, painted and in pure plastic, along with the sprues of both Titans.

Lord of the Rings will have a come-back as a larger scale combat system, covering some of the old plastics along with new miniatures made by Forge World. I really like the new measurement sticks.

Right on time at 10:00 am the gates opened and the customers entered the main venue.

On the second floor they brought along some displays from the Warhammer World Exhibition Centre.

The Warhammer Design team had their own booth as well, covering the upcoming release of Kill Team Rogue Trader and the world wide release of the prior Japan exclusive Space Marine Heroes range. We had the chance to have (another) chat with Jes Goodwin. And after 10 years it was time for a new picture with him.

One of the members of the Warhammer Design Studio, Maxime Pastourel, brought along his Nurgle Chaos Space Marine army. Loyal chaosbunker readers may think, wait a minute, I know this army! Well, that is for a reason, in our Christmas calendar 2016, we covered the Blog le Kouzes with his Plague Centurion. Maxime even published a booklet on his Plaguebones Chapter, the Book of Contagion.

As we're covering more than 100 pictures of the event, the article is split into two parts, with part one ending here.

Hope you enjoyed the coverage so far and stay tuned for part two.