1. What’s the “real experience” like of going to this Retreat as opposed to attending a regular meetup?

Meetups usually comprised of the same set of people. In a Retreat – and in our World Cafe model – you’ll get to play with different groups of gamers in these two days, and across different types of games (and since 2013, mostly Essen Spiel’s latest releases). It’s like a whirlwind tour and it can be “intensely exhausting” (in a good way of course) to some gamers.

Feel free to read-up our past BGC Retreat reports (2010, 2011, 2013) for a detail walk-thru of the gaming sessions.

2. Do I need to stay the full course ie attend both days?

Yes you do.

We appreciate if you do since we plan the Retreat on the assumption all gamers stay the course – and not leave early. This is to ensure everyone gets the same set of experience till the end. If you have some engagement that requires you not to be able to participate in all the gaming sessions (except the After-8 session as that’s optional) or need to leave early on Sun, then we would suggest you reconsider this event until you are able to free up your time. Sorry if we sound “rude” here but we simply want to ensure a good overall experience for everyone. 🙂

Also note our door gift and promos (discount on games) are only given to gamers who have completed both days in full.

Note: This “stay full course” will not apply when the Retreat is in Quasi mode which is free-n-easy. Our Quasi mode is similar to a convention/festival where you can join or leave whenever you want to.

3. I do not know many games. Is there someone who’ll teach us how to play?

Yes, that’s part of the attraction of the Retreat – you do not have to read rules (if reading rules bore you) as we’ve facilitators who are happy to explain the rules to you. You’ll get to learn a lot of new games over a compact weekend! We’ve mentioned it earlier, it’s intensely exhausting yet at the same time awesomely FUN!

4. I do not play “heavy euro games”. Would the games fit me?

Yes. The format of the Retreat only allows for short to medium length games to be played since we want to rotate thru as many games as possible in the 2 days of gaming. You won’t find (too) heavy or brain-burning games like Arkwright, Age of Steam, TI4 or any of the 18xx. Most of the games fall in the 60 – 90 minutes rating with one or two rounds of 120 minutes type of games. We do expect our Retreat attendees to be comfortable playing games that last up to 2 hrs.

For the After-8 session you are however free to propose / suggest games to play during the After-8 session and in the past, we’ve done 1856 (a real heavy), Dune (the original Dune) and there’ve been talks of TI4 (ooooh).

5. Is there a discount to the Retreat Fee?

There may be an Early Bird fee and beyond that, we do not offer any group or other discounts. The Retreat seats are on limited first-come-first-served basis (secured with deposit / full payment).

6. Is the deposit / fee refundable?

Unfortunately no. We are keeping the retreat gamer count to a low number so that we can ensure a fantastic experience for everyone (unlike a convention). The deposit/fee is to guarantee your seat. However, if you can’t make it and you can find a replacement gamer to take your seat, the deposit/fee is transferable to your replacement. Obviously all your benefits & promos would transfer to your replacement as well. 😛

7. When do I have to pay the balance?

We’ll advise you shortly but we reckon we’ll ask for the balance a few weeks before the Retreat actual.

8. Will you extend the number to accommodate more gamers?

Not likely. We explicitly chose the word “Retreat” – instead of meetup, convention, or festival – as we wanted to create a deeper and more meaningful playing experience of a smaller – and more intimate – group of people. Increasing the headcount would mean we’ll likely deteriorate the gaming experience. What’s more important for us is to ensure the attendees leave the Retreat with a Feel-Good experience and not pack more people into the event.

p/s We are planning a more free-n-easy one-day convention which can cater to a larger group of attendees. But for now, we would still want to keep our Boardgame Retreat as a special intimate event.

9. Can I give the game discount to a friend? Are there any games I cannot use the rebate on? Is there a time limit to this offer?

We don’t really mind who “owns” the discounted game but you’ll need to make the purchase yourself since we validate the purchase by your name/attendance at the retreat. We won’t accept an order from someone who call us up and say, “Hi, my fren Joe went for your retreat and I’m calling to buy this game at 30%”. Joe will need to come and buy from us.

So yes, you can buy the game and give it to someone (doesn’t matter to us) as long as you make the purchase personally.

The game discount offer expires 3 months after Retreat date and you’ll need to complete the Retreat (ie stay until end of 2nd Day) in order to qualify for the discount voucher. There’ll be some games excluded from this promo, namely the latest Essen Spiel arrivals, Kickstarter Editions, some titles with low retailer margin, amd titles marked with “/nodiscount/”. You can browse for available games in our webstore.

10. If I do not wish to take any or some of the meals at the venue, can I get a rebate?

Unfortunately no. Meals and coffee breaks are part of the package we negotiated with the hotel/venue and we do not wish to get bogged down with the administrative work of adjusting for those who do not wish to take meals, or want lunch but not coffee breaks, etc. We would rather spend our time on planning for this event.

We are however not arranging dinner. We used to do that in our earlier iterations but have learnt that attendees typically prefer to take a break to self-organize their own dinner arrangement and get some non-playing face time with the other attendees.

11. Are the food halal? Vegetarian?

Yes the food is halal. If you have requirements for special diet eg vegetarian, pls let us know when you sign up.

12. What type of accommodation are we staying in?

You’ll be staying on twin sharing basis which has two single beds that can fit two people. If you wish for more privacy, we may be able to provide options to upgrade to single room (at additional cost, subject to availability of rooms). Do ask us for the upgrade cost.

For those coming for the BoardgameKids Retreat, you’ll be staying in a room large enough to accomodate 2 adults and up to 2 children (below 12 yo). Feel free to discuss other room arrangement with us and we’ll try to see if the hotel/venue can accommodate your request.

Note: Please note that due to room scheduling logistics, we cannot promise we are able to upgrade to single-sharing room. We’ll do our best to accommodate but please make consideration for this when you sign up. TQ

15. Can I buy extra Retreat t-shirt for my friends or families?

The Retreat t-shirts are exclusive only to Retreat participants and since it’s a commemorative item we do not offer extra t-shirt for sale. Why not invite your friends or families to join us too (if they love Euro Board Games like us)?

16. Alrite! Where do I sign up?

You can sign up by checking out the BGC Retreat 20xx item from our webstore. Make sure you select the one for the current year.

Read what our past Retreat gamers have to say about this event

(note: the pictures are not directly related to the gamers providing the comments)

“The opportunity to try out many other games was good, however, I think, better was for the opportunity to meet other players, and enjoy playing with them while socializing! I think what really made the event fun, was the people. Everyone was out to have fun. And everyone was laughing, joking, enjoying the games very very much. It was really good.”

“Overall the retreat was great, I got great exposure to numerous games and got to know more people in the local boardgaming community.”

“Will bring more friends along hehe. At first few of my friends were interested but pulled out last minute because of financial issues. After Jacelyn and I came back from the Retreat and shared our stories, they all regretted not going! The post retreat 35% discount was really awesome by the way.”

“Another great thing from the retreat is that we get a shirt for attending the retreat that we wouldn’t otherwise =).”

“Throughout the whole 2 days, the adrenaline rush was crazy because there were so many new games to learn and I was hoping to win the prize =P. Before I knew it, the retreat was already over! It seemed so quick and I was sad that the trip was over but I had loads of fun just playing all the games that I played. I didn’t win most of the games but getting to play them was the best part of it all =D!”

“Well, i had an awesome experience! From the moment we got there before the organizers to having a little teaser round of Serendipity, meeting new people, teaching and playing games. Having a good laugh, not to mention prolly the worst shower experience ever. lol. It was sincerely awesome you guys.”

“we didn’t need to know how to play these games either. the peeps from BGC taught us, as well us some bg (boardgame) gurus. whoaa!!! 2 full days of gaming? awesomeness!”

“do we want to do this again? Is the Pope Catholic? OF COURSE we’ll do this again! with like minded geeks who wanna sabotage each other on the game board?definitely! hehehehe we all have that innate urge to outdo one another.”

“A great write-up on the whole event and great pictures taken! Some were really priceless, like Emils laugh, LChings stare, JCs funny faces lol etc XD!!! I can proudly claim to have participated in all the Board Gaming retreats so far since the 1st Euro Game Retreat back in 2006. I am glad that Boardgamecafe.net revived it again last year in 2010 @ Genting and is running it as an annual community event. I hope this event will continue to grow in the future and you can count on my support!

If you are reading this article and have yet to attend this event, make sure you mark your calendars next year when the date & location is announced! Pictures tell a thousand stories and I’m sure you can tell that all the attendees in this years event had a BLAST of a time there!!!”

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If the FAQs did not answer your question, feel free to throw us your question(s) in the above event page. Or if you prefer to email us, send your questions to events@boardgamecafe.net

See you at our next Retreat!

PAST BGC RETREAT SESSIONS