EXCERPT
This year, the 7th instalment of our signature event the BGC Boardgame Retreat is going to be held at a training resort near to Broga Hill. With a blend of the new crop of games from this year’s upcoming Essen Spiel and the wide selection available from the OTK Games Library, you can look forward to a weekend of awesome gaming! Mark your calendar for this Dec 9 & 10, so let’s retreat for 2-days of intense Euro Board Gaming. Early bird pricing till this Fri 17/11. Don’t miss this…

IT’S BACK TO THE COMPETITIVE HAT AGAIN!

One distinctive feature of our annual signature event The BGC Retreat is the semi-competitive mode for the gaming sessions. The intensity of trying to survive remain at Table 1 or keeping pace with almost 2-days of non-stop gaming (brain, don’t sleep now) fuels the adrenaline in your body. That is the space a boardgamer should strive to be in.

BGC Retreat offers you 2-days (and 1 night) of non-stop semi-competitive gaming including the latest Essen Spiel releases

We also get feedback (occassionally) that some participants prefer a less competitive mode of play. So we carried out an “experiment” in the middle of this year with our (first) BGC Quasi-Retreat @ Broga Resort where families and non-gamers mingled in a free-n-easy unstructured manner. Some took dips in the swimming pool, some read books, and some got to play their fave boardgames.

I think everyone who came enjoyed that weekend. I suppose they got to do whatever they’d wanted there; be it spending time with their family, taking a weekend off-work, or getting some casual gaming sessions. The Quasi event appeals to a different crowd, and helps us cater to a more diverse market. If you are interested in a more Quasi-type of Boardgame Retreat, check this page as we’ll certainly be back middle of next year with our 2nd run of it.

Our recent inaugural Quasi-Retreat held in Aug this year offers a free-n-easy relaxing 2-day gaming (or non-gaming) session for everyone (including young children)

However feedback also tells us some gamers do miss the competitive adrenalin rush. It was never our intention to replace our annual Retreat with the Quasi-Retreat. Both events do not have to be mutually exclusive to each other. There is room for both to co-exist.

This brings me back to this post. We are now confirmed for our BGC Retreat 2017 this Dec 9-10 weekend. I know this year we are late in our planning for this event (overall this has not been a good year for us in planning / backlog; just swamped but in a positive way) and this announcement might be too late for some but for those whose schedule are flexible and can make it for this event… here are the details you want to know.

WHAT

An offsite retreat over one weekend devoted primarily for like-minded boardgamers like yourself to gather and enjoy each other’s company over two full days of intense boardgaming!

We start sharp on Sat 9 am sharp and play till 6 pm. There’ll be two tea breaks and one lunch break for Sat. After 6 pm, we refresh and have dinner. This year, a simple dinner is included in this package (you are also free to go out and arrange your own dinner). It’s free-n-easy time after dinner where most of us would gather for the much anticipated After-8 session (see below). On Sunday, we resume at 9 am sharp and close the event around late 5:30ish pm.

The intensity of gaming in our Retreat session…. Ghaz displaying awesome “calm” demeanor to remain seated while everyone’s standing in THAT game of CAYLUS

Here we would like to emphasize one key point. The gaming sessions in our Retreat is unlike going to a GameCon or Meetup, where you can moderate the intensity and duration in which you play, rest or just chill out. In our Retreat, you’ll get to savor the experience of learning, playing, cramming and competing over 7-8 sessions of mid-heavy Euros back-to-back in two days.

You do not rest nor stop. There is no break in the gaming sessions; you simply move from one session to the next. You just game, game and game even more. Leave the resting / chilling till you get home. 🙂

WHEN

Our Retreat is usually scheduled 4-6 weeks post-Essen Spiel so that our latest Essen can be shipped back on-time for the event. This year’s BGC Retreat shall be held on the weekend of 9th & 10th of December.

WHERE

The Retreat has always been hosted at someplace close by – or at least no longer than 1.5 hrs away by car – to minimize travel time and maximize playing time! We’ve done this at Genting (2010), Port Dickson (2011 & 2014), Bukit Tinggi (2013), and Kuala Selangor (2015). For this year’s Retreat, we’ll be returning to the vicinity of Broga (where we hosted our Quasi-Retreat in Aug). Not the same venue but somewhere nearby.

This year’s Retreat will be hosted at EXCEL (Broga) just 45+ min drive from KL

WHO

Who is this Retreat suitable for? Our Retreat Persona is someone who loves boardgames – not Monopoly or Risks but Euro games like Terra Mystica, Concordia, Five Tribes, Power Grid among others. You are more than a social or casual gamers – i.e. while you may love to play Splendor, it’s games like Castles of Burgundy and Voyages of Marco Polo that scratch your itch. While you do not necessarily have to love Terraforming Mars or Russian Railroads, it would be helpful if you do since we expect our Retreat participants to be able to sit thru two days of full 8-hours of almost non-stop gaming day (yes, you still get time to take food & bio breaks) and some of the game sessions may last up to 2 hrs per game.

If you feel our Retreat Persona matches you (and have not made you click the Back button yet) and you are excited about trying out the latest Essen Spiel games with a bunch of friendly and at times semi-competitive but always fun gamers, dun wait. Sign up now!

p/s Those who feel the above sessions might be too intense/heavy, I think our BGC Quasi-Retreat would be a great fit for you. Do check back on us next year when we host our 2nd Quasi-Retreat sometime Jul-Aug.

HOW MUCH?

Standard fees per person (quad sharing room) is RM350 which includes all meals, accommodation, our special BGC Retreat t-shirt and a commemorative door gift direct from Essen! Getting yourself to/from the venue would be at your own cost and we suggest you to car-pool if possible.

EARLY BIRD Pricing of RM320 valid till this Friday 17/11.

Exclusive BGC Retreat t-shirt. Available only for Retreat participants.

WHAT: BGC Boardgame Retreat 2017 (FB Event Page)
WHERE: Excel Training Resort, Broga
WHEN: Dec 9 (Sat) 9:00 am – Dec 10 (Sun) 6:00 pm
COST: RM350 per pax including retreat fee, accommodation, meals, Retreat t-shirt and Essen door gift. Exclude transportation.

AGENDA (all timings are tentative and will be finalized closer to event date)

Dec 9, Sat
8:45 am – Arrival of gamers & tea break
9:00 am – Retreat Briefing
9:30 am – Game Zero starts
10:00 am – Retreat Day One starts
12:30 pm – Lunch break
3:30 pm – Tea break
6:00 pm – Retreat Day One ends
7:00 pm – Dinner (included in Retreat package)
8:00 pm – Free-n-Easy or After-8 Gaming

Dec 10, Sun
9:00 am – Retreat Day Two starts
10:30 am – Tea break
12:30 pm – Lunch break
3:30 pm – Tea break
6:00 pm – Retreat Day Two ends (prize giving)

What do you get?

• 2.0 days of gaming (Sat: 10am-6pm, Sun: 9am-6pm)
• Accommodation on quad sharing basis (chalet)
• Four tea-breaks as scheduled, two lunches, one dinner
• One special edition BGC Retreat 2017 t-shirt
• One special commemorative door gift (from Essen Spiel 2017)
• Opportunity to play the latest Essen Spiel 2017 new games and even some OOP games
• Learn lots of new (and old) games and play with other friendly gamers!
• Opportunity to win exclusive hot prizes from Essen in our LUCKY DRAW!

What’s not included in the package?

• Your travel to / from the location. If you need help with transport, pls ask us.
• Fine Dining on Saturday (tsk). A simple dinner is included and useful for those who wanted a quick refresh/shower/dinner before jumping back into After8 gaming. But you are also free to take a break and go out for a nice dinner before resuming the evening gaming (or sleep).
• Mosquito repellant (yes pls bring your own unless you are not a mosquito magnet)

BONUS – Generous Discount on Game Purchase

Finally to thank you for your support, all paying Retreat attendees would get to buy one game from our BGC webstore at 40% discount (from retail price)! Click here to check the list of games we currently have in stock. T&C applies.

Note: This discount is valid for 3 months (after the event). Some games from our webstore eg Essen new arrvals are be excluded from this promo. To qualify for this discount, you need to be a paying participant for this event, and participated the event in full from Sat-Sun. No deserters!! 😛

Some of the latest Essen Spiel games that would be played either in the Retreat sessions or After8

SPECIAL BONUS – Hot Games & Prize from Essen

Beside getting the chance to have an early testdrive of Essen 2017 releases, there’ll be spot prizes and podium prizes at the end of the Retreat. For this year, we’ll be offering one of this year’s Essen Fairplay Top 10 games, CALIMALA (from ADC Blackfire) as the podium prize (the winner for this Retreat gaming).

We’ve one copy of CALIMALA to give away as top prize for the Retreat Winner (most points). Are you the one?

AFTER-8 GAMING

Our BGC Retreats are famous for its After-8 Gaming, which is known to be the “real deal” after a full day of gaming! After-8 Gaming is an closed-door gaming session held after dinner where we will bring to the table games that are of longer duration (epic games), out-of-print games and/or those with higher level of complexity. Or just some crazee, fun, party games!

After-8 gaming is self-organized and we’ll leave it to the attendees to decide among themselves what’s going to hit the tables (and who’s going to read the rules). It’s also an optional event as some attendees may prefer to have an early night or spend the time on their own.

After-8 gaming starts 8 pm and last till as late as you want… it’s just like Retreat gaming except you can play all those crazy fun games!

HOW DO I SIGN-UP?

To sign-up for this Retreat, please visit our Facebook Event page (link here). Seats will be reserved on a first-come first-served basis subject to receipt of your full payment to our CIMB acct (details below). We’ll close the registration once we hit our optimal target of 24 participants.

GOT QUESTIONS?

If this is your first participation to our Retreat, do check out the Frequently Asked Questions for our BGC Retreat event.

BGC RETREATS IN THE PAST

BGC Quasi-Retreat 2017 @ Broga Hill (read all about it here)	BGC Retreat 2015 @ The Kabin (read all about it here)
BGC Retreat 2014 @ Port Dickson (read all about it here)	BGC Retreat 2013 @ Kin Tick Orchard Resort (read all about it here)
BGC Retreat 2011 @ Port Dickson (read all about it here)	BGC Retreat 2010 @ Genting Highlands (read all about it here)