The new venue in Remuera was packed to the brim, most notably on the Saturday, with more than a hundred people in attendance at one time.

There was a broad age range among attendees, and all skill levels – from beginners to veterans – were represented.

A math trade on the Saturday proved to be extremely popular, with an impressive 59 lots offered up for trade, a creditable 24 of which found new homes.

That, combined with prizes, a vast gaming library, and the latest titles being sold at discount, made for a weekend to remember.

Award winning designer (and recent New Zealand resident) Martin Wallace was also in attendance, play testing his upcoming designs as well as offering prize support and autographing copies of his games for his diehard fans.

Board Games By The Bay events continue to grow, with Auckland more than doubling in size since 2011.

Future BGBTB events in 2013 are being held in Hamilton in July, Palmerston North in September, and again in Auckland in November.

To secure discounts for upcoming BGBTB events, order your tickets today.

Still not convinced?  Feedback and photos can be viewed below:

“Great venue, well organised, excellent game library and [a] really good turn out. Excellent event.” – Robert

“Excellent event. Stunning venue, amazing selections of games, and some (or should I say LOADS of) stunning prizes! Big thanks to the organisers.” – Chris

“An excellent weekend’s event… Great to see such a large venue packed with keen gamers, old and young.  Thanks again for organising this… Looking forward to the next event!” – Damian

“Had a great time. I love the new venue, the fact that there was reasonably inexpensive food, the HUGE games library, [and] the maths trade.” – Katherine

“I had a really good time. I like a good balance of gaming and good conversation, which is exactly what I got. Saturday was really humming with activity, the location was really flexible for all types of game and I never had trouble hearing the person next to me because the place had noise soaking up carpet!” – Louise

“It was a fantastic weekend.  Played some new games, some I’ve played once or twice before, and a couple of old favourites. I never had a problem with teaching games or being taught new ones.  The Math Trade was great.” – Dan

“Impressed with the venue. Warm inside, carpeted was a bonus, great car park. Easy to get to from motorway.  I thought the 10pm finish time was excellent. Evening gaming with slightly thinned out numbers was really enjoyable.” – James

Y’keen?  Get your tickets now!

The post Board Games By The Bay Breaks 150 appeared first on Seriously Board.

Talking about travel with our hosts we started our second game: Travel Blog. And then, the guy on the box walked in. You might not have heard of Travel Blog, but you probably know Through the Ages and Mage Knight. Yes, we ended up playing with Vlaada Chvátil.

After we finished playing Travel Blog we spoke with Vlaata about developing it, and potential future ideas he has for the game. Then we played La Boca with him, Peter, and two other gamers from the group. La Boca is fast, physical and fun – and you need great spatial awareness. You might not be surprised to find I didn’t win.

Vlaada with Craig (and a Czech-language copy of Travel Blog).

Congratulations to Brad Thompson for correctly guessing who I was gaming with last night on Facebook. He won free shipping on his next order.

The post Gaming with Vlaada Chvátil appeared first on Seriously Board.

We’re really motivated about seeing Kiwi game designs succeed, so if this can contribute to that in even a small way, we’re glad to play a part.

The panel is being led by true blue Kiwi Martin Wallace, as well as other names that are probably familiar to most of you. As a result, games will get scrutinised by people involved in the design, publishing, selling, and – most crucially – playing of games.

If you or anyone you know has a design from New Zealand, please encourage them to submit an entry. We know there are some great games being designed by our countrymen and countrywomen, and with a panel that knows a thing or two about modern board games, we would love the NZGA Awards to reflect the impressive quality of titles that have Kiwi origins.

A full list of the judging panel, along with bios, can be seen here: http://nzgames.org/nzga-announces-judges-for-2013-awards/

Submissions are only open for the month of May, so get cracking!

The post We’re Seriously Judgmental! appeared first on Seriously Board.

Historically the biggest BGBTB event on the calendar, Auckland will feature all the gaming goodness of previous events: a great place to play games, prizes to be won, and games for sale at below internet prices.

In addition to the above, we’ll also have a few other things that will make this a weekend to remember:

• Martin Wallace – The award winning designer (London, Discworld: Ankh-Morpork) has confirmed he’ll be at our Auckland event.  If you want a game autographed, if you want to playtest one of his designs, or if you just want to meet a world famous designer, this is your chance!
  

  Martin Wallace signing a game at BGBTB Tauranga 2013.

• Math Trade – After the suggestion was raised in February for us to run a math trade, we’ve decided to take the plunge.  The entire trade will be based on site, meaning you don’t have to be a member of a website to make it happen – just bring along your unwanted games on Saturday morning and you might walk away with something better!

  Not sure what a math trade is?  In short, it’s a way to trade a game you no longer want for someone else’s game that you do want.  A more detailed explanation can be found here.

• Much More – As with recent events, we’ll have prizes to give away, plus promos, food and drink on offer, games for sale at discounted prices, and a library of gaming goodness for all attendees.  We also have a couple of other ideas in mind to sweeten the deal!Not sure if your favourite game in your collection will be there?  Bring it along and add it to the playing pool!
  

  We’ll be using a giant dice for giveaways. (Child not included!)

And to top it all off, gaming will last for 4 more hours than last year, with Saturday night staying open until 10pm!  That’s 20 hours in all!

What: Board Games By The Bay – Auckland
Where: Auckland Bridge Club, 273 Remuera Road, Remuera, Auckland
When: 11-12 May, 2013 (10 AM to 10 PM Saturday and 10 AM to 6 PM Sunday)
How Much: $10 per person per day, or $15 for the weekend by purchasing through the website.  Attendees 12 years and under can enter for free, but they must be accompanied by an adult.

For more details or to secure your earlybird discount, head on over to the BGBTB event page here.  You can also keep up to date by stalking us on Facebook or Twitter, joining our guild at BoardGameGeek, or signing up to our newsletter on the SeriouslyBoard home page.

Get your tickets today!

The post BGBTB Auckland: Martin Wallace, Math Trade, And Much More! appeared first on Seriously Board.

Update, 30 March

The site is up and working again on the new server, however product images have decided to take an extended Easter break. We’ll find out what bar they’re hiding in and get them back soon.

Hi friends, gamers, and first-time visitors,

We’ll be doing technical magic tonight from around 1am. This means the site might be slightly disrupted from 1am until you wake up on Friday morning.

Due to the nature of the internet, it might take up to 48 hours for the changes to propagate. Knowing New Zealand, we expect 99% of you to be looking at the new server within about 5 hours of the change being made.

Any orders placed during this time will be safe: none of our security is being dropped during the move and, in fact, the move will allow us to implement even better online security measures for you. Nice!

I recommend you buy your Easter games tonight, before 1am

Have a great Easter, and we’ll update this blog post when everything settles down.

The post Server move from 1am Easter Friday appeared first on Seriously Board.

“[I] had a great time at BGBTB,” says Wallace.  “[It] was both fun and productive.”

20 hours of gaming were on offer, with prizes, promo giveaways, a vast library of games to play for free, games for sale at below internet prices, and a giant dice!

Our expansion Caitlin modeling the giant dice used for promo giveaways.

Gamers descended on Tauranga from as far away as Wellington to get in some gaming, playtesting, and prize winning.

Attendees pooled some money for a “welcome to New Zealand” gift for the Wallaces, and Martin Wallace also used the occasion to announce an upcoming event he’s planning to launch.  (Further details to be revealed later.)

As Board Games By The Bay continues to grow, we’ll continue to bring great events to gamers.  Don’t miss our upcoming events in Auckland (May and November), Hamilton (July), and Palmerston North (September).

And as always, the weekend provided an opportunity for David to display his gaming ineptitude!

If you’re keen to join us at a future BGBTB event, you can secure your tickets here.

The post Over 50 Gamers At Martin Wallace’s First Kiwi Convention appeared first on Seriously Board.

As soon as we unpack the trailer on Monday, we’re heading off again for a little camping trip. We’ll be back the following weekend, packing like crazy people that night and the poor couriers — brought to the edge of bankruptcy by our lack of attention — will be shipping games all over the country on the 26th.

Long story short, we’re still taking orders this week, but shipping (and answers to emails) are delayed until at least the 26th.

You’re all awesome! Thanks for bearing with us (and please pray for sunshine for our camping trip!).

The post Battlecry and crying couriers – shipping resumes on Feb 26th appeared first on Seriously Board.

With 230+ people attending our gaming events in 2012, there were more people at BGBTB than any other board game specific event on the national calendar.

And with award-winning board game designer Martin Wallace in attendance – along with the usual great games library, prizes, and games for sale at below internet prices – it’s only going to get bigger.

Board Games By The Bay will kick off for 2013 in Tauranga in March, with other events in Auckland (May and November), Hamilton (July), and Palmerston North (September).

Tickets can be purchased with cash or EFTPOS at the door, but if you want to save some pennies, we strongly recommend you pre-order.  And if you want to attend multiple events, the discounts get even bigger.

You can find more details on the dates, venues, and pricing by going to the main BGBTB website: http://boardgamesbythebay.org.nz/

The post Board Games By The Bay 2013: Tickets Available! appeared first on Seriously Board.

2012 was a busy year for us as we attended or organised no less than 5 events, gained added media exposure, and even had the occasional interview.

2013 is looking like it’ll be sizzling hot with some great new games coming our way, and five Board Games by the Bay events running across the North Island. We love you too, South Island… We’ll get there one day!

Keep up with all the latest, exclusive sales, and generally good stuff happening by subscribing to our email newsletter on the homepage. You can also find us on Facebook, and join us on Board Game Geek.

All the best for 2013! May the odds be ever in your favour. Wait, that’s something else.

The post Back In Business appeared first on Seriously Board.

2012 has been a bumper year for us.  We’ve interviewed award-winning game designers, seen Board Games By The Bay expand into a third city, and we’ve just had our busiest Christmas rush ever…

…so we’re going to have a lie down!

From December 22nd until January 6th, we’ll be in rest and recovery mode.  You can still place orders and send us emails, and we plan to hit the ground running on January 7th.

Until then, have a happy and safe festive season, may the dice roll in your favour, and remember who you’re hanging with when you come here for a visit:

The post Holiday Hiatus appeared first on Seriously Board.