A Wargamers journey to Mecca.

[Danguinius]

Day #1 Thursday (Aug 15)

Back when the events schedule was posted for Gen Con 2013, I noticed there was no Monsterpocalypse event - probably because PP is not supporting the game now (long story, I`ll explain it in another thread). But there is still a lot of support for this game among players, so I asked on the Monpoc forums if anyone would run an event. A wonderful chap named "Delphin" said he would. It would be a four player battle royal on a giant map (4 times as large as the standard Monpoc battle map). I signed up immediately. Gannon signed up soon after. Later, we learned that the event filled up, two more players also signed up. The event was called Monsterpocalypse: Alien Annihilation and it would start at 19:00.

So, that was my only goal for the first day. I just wanted to get down to Indianapolis from my hometown in Michigan (5-6 hour drive), get checked into my hotel, get my badge & tickets, and get down with some Kaiju suplexing Giant Mechs into nuclear power plants (typical game of Monpoc! ). Unfortunately, my buddy who was supposed to drive could get out of work until sometime in the afternoon. He picked me up at another buddy`s house and we loaded our luggage and gaming bags into his car. When we got in, I tried to do a Blues Brothers-ish quote, but I changed the last line to "...and we`ve got a half-a-tin of six sideds". We didn`t exactly speed away from the scene like Jake and Elwood did. In fact, we stopped at Wendy`s on the way out of town.

We came in from the northeast, drove straight through the heart of Indy and made it to our poorly located hotel in the southwest of the city. Check-in was remarkably fast and it started to look like I`d actually make it on time. We hit downtown and could even see the Indiana Convention Center at 18:55. Tell-tale signs that we were in the right place were everywhere: people carrying wargaming bags, a dude with goat horns (fake, I hope), a girl dressed as a punk-rock fairy complete with transluscent butterfly wings...Yet, we could not find a frigging place to park! We drove completely around the Center and parked about three blocks from it in a strange parking lot that didn`t charge you when you left (only when you came in) - which we would use to our advantage the next day. I got my Monpoc stuff out of the trunk and my buds (might as well tell you there names - Kurt and Ralph) ran to keep up with me. At that point, it looked like I`d only be 5 minutes late or so; a miracle all things considered. Ralph said, "No need to hurry. They`re gamers, so they will be late getting there, late setting things up, etc."

Upon entering the Indiana Convention Center, I had to split up from Ralph and Kurt, they had to go through the long line to buy a badge/tickets. Mine was waiting for me in the pre-paid line (which I zipped through). I told them I thought I was in Hall A. There was a main hall for vendors and about 50 (not exaggerating) rooms for smaller games (mainly RPGs), but most of the games were in five gigantic rooms (1000 years wide). They were halls A-E. I went down and checked the door for Hall A and it was locked "F@*&!" Only the doors on the other side of the hall were open apparently. That meant I had to walk like 4 city blocks around to the other side. Maybe I could cut through Hall B - No! It was locked too. But Hall C was open and, after checking my badge, I was let in. I walked about 50 feet (literally like 2% of that hall) and saw Gannon sitting down with some other gamers about to play Monpoc!

He gave me a wierd look, like "What are you doing here?" I`ve known Gannon for about 8 years and though we were both born in the U.S., we`ve only met in Iwakuni, Fukuyama, Hiroshima and Saijo. I guess it was strange to see him in another country. I said, "Sorry, I`m late." It was 19:30. But everyone said they had just finished setting up and that I was player #4. I took out Alpha and Ultra King Kondo (no megas allowed in this game) and set him up. I was looking across at Gannon with Laser Knight (GUARD), a guy who turned out to be from my hometown with Tharsis 5 (Martian Menace), and another guy with MechaCthugrosh (Ubercorps). Nobody looked OTT. Laser Knight is mighty in close combat, but not overly mobile on this huge map...Tharsis 5 loves a map with a lot of buildings and can fly, but he can`t take a beating very well...and Cthugrosh is constantly healing (thanks to the UCI flying repair vehicle thing) nuissance, but can`t dish it out the pain in huge amounts. My King Kondo (think, King Kong) would be fine throwing people into buildings early in the game and swatting planes at people late in the game - I hoped.

The rules were sort of complicated. We got .25 points for killing units. We got a point for securing one of the 5 unique buildings in the middle of the board. We got a point for killing a monster form. And, we lost FIVE POINTS if we accidentally destroyed one of the five unique buildings in the middle of the board (i.e. got thrown/smashed/suplexed into it). We took turns and eeked out points by crushing units. I managed to get a little ahead of everyone by securing the middle of the board, but then failed THREE STRAIGHT power up rolls (83% chance of success each time). Then, I found a loop-hole in the rules and swatted Gannon`s G-1 Strike Fighter (airplane) into one of those buildings - Gannon lost five points instantly. He cursed my name and shook his fist. Then the battle picked up! Poor Gannon`s Laser Knight got chucked around like a rugby football and died. Tharsis also took enough punishment to where he had to get out of the middle or die. Tharsis 5 finished the game just running over Ubercorps power base and wracking up power dice. I thought it would come down to MechaCthugrosh and King Kondo and it did. At the end of his turn, he was up by .25 points. I stomped on a few units to take the lead at the end of my turn (and I was player #4). Delphin asked if we wanted to continue, but the Ubercorps player siad he had another game starting at 22:00, so we stopped there and cleaned up. My Apes were victorious. But more importantly, we had fun and played a great game on that crazy huge map. And, most importantly, I made it in time to play Monpoc at Gen Con.

Just before the end of the battle, Kurt and Ralph found our table. They said, "I see you found your game in time in HALL A!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I said, "Well, it turns out...ummm...it was in C." That would be a running joke the rest of the week whenever we went to Hall C (the main hall for wargaming) - we just called it Hall A. So, me, Gannon, Ralph, and Kurt and a friend of Gannon`s all went out. We hit Hard Rock Cafe and ate heartily. I washed my meal down with Flat Tire drafts and that, combined with the driving, running, and playing Monpoc, made me sleepy. So, I called it a day. The next day was Warmachine/Hordes Hardcore Tournament and I knew I`d need all of my energy for that...

Danguinius

P.S. Pics to be added at a later date.

[me_in_japan]

Ta for the rundown looking forward to pics soon

[Danguinius]

Day #2 (Friday, August 16)

This day was the real "meat and potatoes" of my Gen Con trip. I wanted to play in one major tournament and see what it was like and see how I`d do. Gen Con had three huge tournies and 2-3 more smaller ones for WarmaHordes. The big ones were Masters (2 lists, 50 points), Iron Guantlet (same as Masters, but it`s also a qualifier for an end-of-the-year national championship kind of event), and Hardcore (1 list, 50 points, fully-painted, deathclock). I chose Hardcore since I wasn`t sure how many minis I would bring (one list = fewer needed minis) and I love to play fully-painted on both sides. Gannon also signed up for this event. It was only $10 and it was scheduled for 64 players and 6 rounds. My goal was to finish 2-4 (or better) since some of the best WMH players in the world would be there.

Hardcore lived up to it`s name. It was 7 minute turns with the deathclock, so as soon as your opponent said "Done!" and slapped the deathclcok, your 7 minutes started ticking away. There were no extensions in this tourney either. Get all of your activations and combats done in 7 minutes, or else you watch as your army did nothing and got slaughered for their inactivity. The game clocks were 70 minutes (I`m assuming with deviations of 4 minutes) and the games went by fast! There was only a 10-minute break between matches and no lunch break. When I inquired about the lunch break, the Tournament Organizer said, "Just kill your next opponent faster...or die faster!" and chuckled. Almost all of my battles went the distance, except one (in which I got totally destroyed). On the upside, there were some really nicely painted armies there. I expected to be among the best and at least get my shoulder tapped as a possible candidate for the painting prize (I didn`t, but Gannon did!)...but my army was maybe "middle-of-the-pack" painting-wise.

My one list was this:
Haley1
Stormwall
Ironclad
Squire (a.k.a R2-D2)
10 Long Gunners
5 Tempest Blazers
The Black 13th
Arlan Strangeways
1 Stormcaller

Round #1: Gannon got matched up against a player who somehow already had Butcher3 and had him painted up (the model debuted the day before at Gen Con and quickly sold out). So, there battle was streamed live by some wargaming site (the name escapes me now)! I drew a very nice Khador player named Jeff who used Butcher1. As Prim can attest - Butcher 1 is my Nemesis - I`ve lost to him twice using Haley1. And, it just so happened that my Hardcore Tournament list was Haley1 (sigh...) There is a single scenario for Hardcore. It`s simple: dominate a central zone and your opponent loses 5 life...and if you are not more than 14" from any table edge at the end of the second turn, you warcaster/warlock loses 5 life. So, basically "get into the middle or die".

It was easy to see why my opponent picked Butcher1 since he excells at two things: staying alive and killing anything that gets close to him. But, we both played very defensively, just moving up to the edge of the control zone. Neither of us would give up domination, but neither player would commit to an all-out assault either. We seemed content to keep taking post shots at each other. That would seem to play into Cygnar`s strategy, and it was (my Long Gunners and Stormwall were slowly dropping Man`O`War Troopers while Haley1 kept casting "Temperal Barrier"), but he had a fairly shooty Khador list. He had Destroyer, Beast 09, the Behemoth, 2 units of MoW Shocktroopers, a ShockTrooper Mech guy (forgot its proper name) and a unit of field Mechanics. He was basically "camping" 3-4 focus on Butcher every turn (bringing him to 22 or 23 armor) but he wasn`t upkeeping Iron Flesh on him...so I though I might have a chance for an assasination. Eventually my Tempest Blazers got behind his whole army and started shooting stuff in the back at will. This seemed to irritate him and he actually turned the Butcher around to take a blunderbuss shot at them! He boosted hit and damage rolls, leaving one focus on the Butcher. It was late in the game and I decided I probably wouldn`t get a better chance than this. The next turn I loaded up the Stormwall with focus, Haley1 feated, I checked to make sure I could see part of the Butcher`s base (he was standing a bit behind the Behemoth) and charged him in. I made it to with 1.9 inches of the Butcher (and the Stormwall, like all colossals has reach) and missed the first attack, I hit with the second one doing damage straight up - about 7 points (same P+S vs. ARM). I bought another attack and missed. I used another focus and attcaked, hit and did about 5 damage. the Butcher still had like 8 life left and I only had one more attack...which hit and did 6 damage! He sighed in relief...but I remembered the extra attack from the feat, rolled, hit, and finished him off! Jeff was gracious in defeat and we spent a few minutes reviewing the battle and talking about what we could have done differently.

Then, we got the call for round 2. I was matched against a player named Chuck using Vayl2 and the Legion of Everblight. His list was basically four heavies: Typhon, (the cursed, blasted, hated) Angelius, Scythean, and Ravagore PLUS two "pots", a Shepard, a Foresaken, 2 Deathstalkers, and the solo who rides a Reindeer and shoots everyone to pieces. I can`t say he was a nice guy; he seemed more intent on winning than making any friends. He went first and basically moved half-way across the board due to Legion`s speed, some spells/animi, and easy access to Pathfinder. To avoid losing on scenario, I had to move up and that`s where he started picking me off. My Longgunners, Arlan, and the Stromcaller were shot up by arrows. That being said, I still had a pretty good shot at killing Vayl, but I screwed it up. I forgot to feat, loaded up the Stromwall with focus, and all five Tempest Blazers made it behind his army with clear LOS to Vayl. But I triggered some sort of defensive ability when I moved too close to her (within 6") that allowed that damn Angelius to move over an intercept four of them! The were only 8+ to hit, with brutal damage (3d6 + PS 10) and she only had two focus to transfer with and 14 armor. I was sure to get like 2-3 shots in that she would either transfer or eat the damage. If I had remembered to feat, it would have been 6+ to hit. The Stormwall then went. He had lower RAT and she was partially behind a wall, so he needed 12s to hit, but I had three focus to boost each shot doing +1 damage (POW 15 vs. ARM 14). So, I need 12s on three dice; you think I could get one or two, but...I missed all of them. If I had feated, not triggered that defensive ability and just rolled a little better with the Stromwall, there`s a good chance I could have pulled off a major upset. But, Chuck just methodically took apart my army after that. I had only Haley1 and the Ironclad left and chose to die by being outside of the killbox and letting him dominate the zone (rather than getting eaten by a dragonspawn). Chuck would go on to win the entire Hardcore tournament and take Vanquisher honors (most army points destroyed - so glad I could help him with that ). (IIRC) He said he made it to the final table of the Harcore tourney the last three years at Gen Con, but failed to win it all...but this time he did. I learned just how good some players can get at this game.

I foolishly didn`t go to lunch then - despite getting slaughtered so quickly - because I assumed there would be a lunch break. So, I just kind of waited around until we got called for Round 3...

Danguinius

[Danguinius]

Round #3: I played another really nice guy named Hosh (?IIRC). Our armies looked somewhat similar as he brough Protectorate of Menoth guided by Feora2. He also had a Judicator!!!!, a Templar, 2 Reckoners, a Mechanic, 2 obligatory Vassals, and the ubiquitous Choir of Menoth. Again, Haley1 kept casting Temperal Barrier to prevent him from charging, so (much like my first battle) we stayed on the edges of the zone and took pot shots at each other. He tried to walk his jacks in about the 3rd turn to start beating on the Stormwall - and it took a beating (!), but survived mainly due to Arcane Shield. It and the Ironclad then returned the beatings and scrapped the Templar and a Vanquisher. On my feat turn, the Long Gunners shot three combined ranged attacks at his other Reckoner, finishing it off. He then realized the Longgunners had to go and he lit them up with rockets from the Judicator. My Tempest Blazers again got behind his whole army and shot up (& electro-leaped) his support pieces to death. So, that after about 5 turns, I was clearly ahead in the attrition war with 4 Blazers, 3 Longunners, untouched Ironclad, beat-up-but-functional Stormwall and the Black 13th left. He had a virtually untouched Judicator and Feora2 only...but he wasn`t done. He feated and set nearly all of of my remaining dudes on fire - including Haley1! But Temperal Barrier kept him from charging the Judicator in and it`s rockets either wildly missed or just bounced off the Stormwall and he decided to keep camping focus on Feora2 to prevent me from shooting her to death.

Eventually, he left the Judicator a little too close - actually, I had tied it up with my last two Blazers (large bases, so he couldn`t trample over them) - and I charged the Stormwall and Ironclad in and trashed it. He was down to just his warcaster. However, with my two jacks moving up to scrap the Judicator, Haley1 was left a bit exposed (I usually just hide her behind the Stormwall) and Hosh decided it was now or never. He moved Feora2 up and fired 2-3 spells at Haley1, who had taken some damage from being of fire, but all of them missed; the combination of her high DEF and his cursed dice rolls kept her alive. He was ready to forfeit then, but there are some penalties for actually giving up, so we played it out...and the Stormwall moved up from the now focus-less Feora2 and punched her into the ground. The last damage roll hit the table as the Tournament Organizer yelled "Dice down!" So I was back to a winning record and there was no time to anything except pick up my minis and move to the next table to play my next opponent...

Round #4 I feel so bad for forgetting this guy`s name, but I just can`t remember it, other than he had the longest last name ever and I think he was from somewhere in Europe. But, he was also a very nice guy, with a beautifully painted Cryx army (with a lot of color in it, not just "dark") lead by Skarre2. Basically, I`ve only heard how powerful Skarre2 is and had never actually play against her before - maybe that was to my benefit as I didn`t panic. He also fielded a Kracken, the shooty "Bone Chicken", full unit of Blood Witches with UA, 2 Pistol Wraiths, full unit of the Merc Nyss archers, Bane Lord Tarterus (with no Banes!), and a few other things ....maybe a Warwitch Siren and Withershadow Combine? Also, my opponent had an identical 2-1 record and (I`m not ashamed to say) was quite frankly a better player than I. The battle started with Tempest Blazers and Nyss archers exchanging shots, the Stormwall getting frozen by a Pistol Wraith, but then both Pistol Wraiths dying to Blazer shots and called lighting from the Stormcaller. Then, I foolishly casted Temperal Barrier. It had been my bread and butter all day, but like my battle against Legion of Everblight, this speedy Cryx army was already in my face and had made it to the zone in the middle of the board. This, combined with the Kraken`s extended 4" reach meant it could just walk into close combat and there was nothing Temp Barrier could do to stop it. The Kraken beat on the Stormwall (and benefited from BLT`s Dark Shroud as Bane Lord Tartersauce also took swipes at it) and I realized it probably wouldn`t survive another turn. In my turn I just decided to go all out and kill Skarre2...but she was standing behind an wall (linear obstacle) that was just inside the zone. This raised her DEF to crazy levels and everything I had missed - even boosted Stormwall shots.

My opponent then decided to go all out...he moved Skarre2 out from behind the wall so he could get a sliver of LOS on Haley2. He was just out of range to shoot her, but tried a few offensive spells which all missed. It was funny because he had an ability or spell effect that let him decided whether he wanted to boost AFTER he rolled two dice...but either his 2d6 roll was too low to even justify adding a boost, or he would need like 4 more, boost it, and roll a 3. He was starting to get frustrated...and he forgot to use his feat. He then activated the Kraken, shifted him over without leaving the Stormwall`s front arc and had enough reach to get Haley1...but he only allocated one focus to the Kraken and it missed it`s two initials - even one boosted and it started to look like Haley1 might survive the turn! He realized he was now in trouble and moved the Withershadow Combine over just to block a lane to Skarre2. But, in my turn, Haley1 allocated three focus to the Ironclad, the Stormwall punched BLT into the ground (just because I hate BLT)....the Black 13th shot up the Withershadow Combine, Haley1 feated and I sent the Ironclad over (it barely had a clear charge lane and the Kraken missed it`s free strike)...I boosted to hit and the boosted damage from the charge squished Skarre2 in one hit! My opponent was a bit frustrated since he lost due to a careless mistake (forgetting the feat), but after a moment we talked about the battle and he seemed to cheer up a bit. I complimented on his painting skills and his army list: it`s the first time I`ve played against Cryx without them having the obligatory full unit of Bane Thralls, UA, and BLT! It was a refreshing change....

[Danguinius]

Hardcore Summary and the rest of that day:

Well, there were only 4 players with undefeated record left at that point (including the Legion of Everblight player who beat me in Round #2), so the Tournament Organizers said the tourney was done for all other participants. There was literally no protest from the players: it was already well into the afternoon and everyone look whooped. The Iron Arena was right there for people who wanted to keep playing (this is Privateer Press`s "free play" area where you can play pick up games of WarmaHordes on their incredible game boards), but most people decided it was time for food.

The tournament was eventually won by that same Legion of Everblight player, but I didn`t stick around to watch. I heard the runner-up was Legion of Everblight as well...but I`ll resist the urge to call them the "Cheeze Faction"...since I normally reserve that title for Cryx.

My goal was to win one third of my matches (2-4) and in the end finished 3-1 - it was much better than I could have possibly hoped. Despite this unexpected success, I learned that to play with national-level players and actually have a chance at winning a tournament, I`d need to up my game considerably. But overall, it was a great challenge and I`m so glad I participated in it. It also gave me something to work with for organizing our own WarmaHordes Steamroller Tournament back in Japan in October.

Me and the crew then walked around a bit and eventually headed out to the Tilted Kilt for food and beer. Great place, BTW. The bikers (who also had some sort of convention/gathering that weekend) shared the bar in peace; there were people dressed in Star Trek:TNG uniforms drinking next to guys in leather jackets. The food at the Tilted Kilt was so-so, but the atmosphere, staff and beer was top-notch and it was hard to pull ourselves out of there. Eventually we did and took a taxi out to another drinking establishment. Now that my tournaments were finished, I was determined t o do some drinking...and I returned to my hotel around 4:00 in the morning.

Danguinius

[Danguinius]

Day #3, Saturday August 17th.

There was a much different vibe on this day. It was probably twice as packed as the previous two days. I guess a lot of (local) players don`t come for the full four days and instead just hit the last two days on the weekend.

I had no tournaments or scheduled events. I just walked around; I spent 3-4 hours just walking around the vendor`s hall. Privateer Press`s booth was great; I picked up Trollblood Warders and the Goblin Tinker, but missed out on some of the limited release items. I also checked out the GW booth (notably smaller than PP`s); they had a nice diorama set up of Nurgle Daemons and Plague Marines vs. Dark Angels.

I also visited the Warstore. I have ordered from teh Warstore for 12 years (since I started wargaming in Japan) and I had hoped to meet Neal, who I corresponded with a lot over the years. But, I learned he isn`t big on the convention scene and didn`t come to Gen Con. O bought a lot of discounted Monpoc from them and another nearby vendor.

A game called "Cthulhu Wars" really caught my attention (unfortunately, their kickstarter just finished...but check out the video demos of the game on that site) and I talked with the creator of the game and ran through the basic play of the game. I later emailed the staff when I got back to Japan and they let me get in on the kickstarter (long after the closing period). The game looks like a lot of fun for us Lovecraft fans.

I also did a demo game of Dropzone Commander with my buddies at the Hawk Wargames booth. I could also meet and talk with the game creators there. The game is very smooth and plays quickly. They unveiled their upcoming plastic mini starter box at Gen Con.

I also want to give a shot out to the Cosplay Deviants; they also had a nice booth and were friendly with their meet-n-greet.

My friends and I hit up the costume parade at 15:00 and it was fun. Their were cosplayers there of all shapes and sizes. The parade was fun but there were a lot of rude, clueless douchebags who just walked along and even through the costume parade. One of my buddies likes to make Halloween costumes for his kids every year and he got a lot of interesting ideas here.

Gen Con actually ran out of food at one point...we had to leave the convention center to get lunch and dinner. The place we chose for dinner was also pretty much out of food; I guess that`s what you get for planning Gen Con the same week as a biker get-together. We played some more pick up games of Monpoc and in the evening I finally entered the Iron Arena and played just one game...against Gannon! Yes, the big thing I thought I would do every day at Gen Con - Iron Arena - I only got one game in against my regular opponent here in Japan. Gannon beat me and we checked the time - it was after midnight.

My Gen Con was over; I was exhausted from three days of gaming, shopping, gawking and drinking and very little sleep. But everything was still going strong as we left. There were literally hundreds of gamers playing WarMachine/Hordes, X-Wing, MTG, etc. etc. and several people playing a weird game called "Werewolf" in large circles of like 15-20 people.

The next day we drove back to Michigan. My camera was full of photos. My suitcase was full of gaming stuff. And my brain was full of great experiences. I left the U.S. the next day and headed back to Japan. Mission Accomplished!

Danguinius

[ashmie]

Thanks for sharing this. Sounds amazing! Good write up.

[Danguinius]

Thanks to everyone who checked out my Gen Con adventures...now, I bring a few pics (I`ve got like 300...but here`s a few)

Here`s a shot for scale...this was one hall and it was as wide as it was long...and there were 5 other halls the same size full of events and vendors...and dozens of smaller rooms...all for gamers.

Danguinius

[Danguinius]

A shot of the Monpoc event

[Danguinius]

plenty of cosplayers there