Avoiding too much time to pass between the event and when I am writing this blog, to keep my experience still fresh in my memory, I decided to do a little write up on Inchfest, which happened about a week ago in the heart of the German Ruhrpott, in Bochum.

Now, for the folks with the shortest attention span, the TLDR of Inchfest is: a (German-focused) get-together celebrating tabletop wargames of the indie kind, mashed up with live music acts, heaps of cool merch and art to buy and even some tattooing on site. Really, it’s a super cool excuse to meet all your friends, throw some dice and have some good fun. It’s organised by Gerrit (@grim_snug_miniatures ) and Felix (@inchmeasurer ), and will hopefully see many repeats in the coming years – no pressure, guys!

Okay, that’s it, if you now just want to scroll through the photos, but otherwise, I have about another 1000 words describing the experience.

I think one of the keys to making this event so awesome is the location, hands down. The Rotunde in Bochum used to be Bochum’s post-war main station. Once the new station opened, the building eventually fell out of use and found a new function as a venue for cultural events and gigs, and really has “a vibe” that fits a miniature event really well. Gerrit has first used the venue for the last TUFT (Turn up for Turnip) event, and it might hopefully become a mainstay for future events of all kinds.

Across several rooms over a dozen games were placed and showcased. Trench Crusade and awesome Kill Team and Mordheim tables would be considered probably the most “mainstream” games (don’t come at me for this, I am just comparing!) on the floors, but beyond that we had a ton of other indies that I even had the pleasure to try for the first time. There were tables and games and demos with Space Gits , Necropolis28 , Greathelm , Drudenfuss , Flames of Orion , Turnip28 , Pulpo Meter, 1490 Doom , Yalk , Moonstone , Omen Tide , Tolks, Scabz , Podracer.

In the spirit of the event, I did not bring a single mini of my own, but really tried to play a few games that I haven’t tried before, as they were offered as demo games. In the short amount of time I managed to play Flames of Orion, Yalk, Omen Tide and Greathelm, and all of them were a blast to play. Admittedly, I tried Greathelm the night before when we met up for some dinner and left to a pub later. Stefan (@fistfulofbits ) was demoing Greathelm at Inchfest, and brought his amazing, custom-made and re-purposed Backgammon box that he transformed into a Greathelm arena. Perfect pub size, and Sebbo (@magabotato_sebbo ) smashed my little troupe of knights into pieces in this fast-paced and surprisingly tactical game.

Speaking of magabotato – Simon (@4ydra ) and Sebbo did a live podcast of “Indie Dunkelheit ” on stage during the event, which was for them also a first, I think. For all my international friends, it’s basically a series of the german tabletop podcast shining a light onto the indie tabletop scene (Dunkelheit meaning darkness and doubling as an excellent black metal band name. Also, there is a wordplay in there, but I can’t be bothered to explain that now).

Yours truly got himself a little bad moon as a tattoo, by Jana (@jkl.tattoo ), as a permanent memory of Inchfest. :)

There were plenty of cool merch / stickers / minis to be purchased, and while I arrived without any mini, you can bet that I left with plenty. There were stickers and artwork by Dom (@macdungeon ) and Gaz (@brutal_whimsy_ ) – who by the way also made the event poster – and lots of other things, e.g., miniatures by @wolpertinger_miniatures , lino-prints by Jana (@jkl.tattoo ), Felix (@inchmeasurer ) and Paul (@badvibeslino ), chainmail jewelry by @dodschains and many more little things.

The event was closed by 3 dungeon synth gigs, by Narghaash , Trauma Kingdom and Potionmaker , who made a return after premiering already at the last TUFT event.

Overall – fantastic event, not just to try games, but really to enjoy the company of like-minded miniature hobbyists, meeting old friends and putting faces to people you interact with almost daily on Discord or the dreaded Gram.

Hope to see you all next year!