About a month ago we loaded the boot of our car up with games and headed towards the Malvern Hills, to the Dell House, the UK's first (and only) B and B and B (bed, breakfast and boardgames!)
The Dell House is run by Kevin and Elizabeth, both boardgamers who organise residential weekends for fellow gamers.
After having been to Rome the week before and having seen the Colosseum, it seemed appropriate to do a slight detour on way and visit another of the Seven Wonders, StoneHenge, which led to this classic shot.
This meant we didn't arrive until the evening on Friday, when we arrived there were around eight people playing. A game of Istanbul and a game of Fresco was underway, so we had a game of Quadropolis with Kevin and Elizabeth, all of us learning it together, then some players swapped and Rob went and learnt Fresco while we played Puerto Rico. After everyone had finished their games it was getting late but we had time for a couple of lighter games with some of the other guests so we played some For Sale and Schroedinger's Cat. Then it was time for bed ready for a full days gaming on Saturday. We were staying in the appropriate red suite which was lovely and we got a good nights sleep.
Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast with a few of the other guests began to arrive. Including the lovely Orhan of Creature College fame. We played Bruges, Manhattan Project and took a quick break from Russian Railroads so we could sit and have lunch with the full compliment of all 17 guests!
We went back and finished our game at the same time as a lot of other people, so Codenames seemed an obvious choice to get everyone involved. Seeing as there were piles of games scattered around the place it was a perfect opportunity to tryout a few rounds of Code games, using 25 boardgames in place of the word cards. This actually proved to be a lot trickier than it seemed, with lots of the games having themes or mechanics in common.
Again, we all got together for dinner after which we enjoyed a game of Suburbia followed by another couple of rounds of For Sale before bed!
On Sunday our numbers were lower and many people were heading off early-ish to begin their drives home. We started the day with a game of Village followed by lunch. After that we had a game of Codenames proper and finished the afternoon with a Fresco before we begun our drive home.
We met and played with a great bunch of new people ranging in ages from 20s through to 60s and had a great weekend of gaming with all the stress of 'hosting' taken away. Tea, coffee, soft drinks and snacks were readily available (and taken advantage of!) all weekend and what we saw of the local area was a truly stunning setting.
Not only do we hope to be visiting again for another Dellcon, but I hope we can get a large group of friends together for our own gaming weekend!
