WargamesCon 2011 was one fun and fast weekend! Anyway I am back and rested enough to get give some impressions, photos, interviews, army lists from the event. Let us dive right into it with some overall impressions…
The Good
In year three WargamesCon ran smoother then ever before. The most notable difference was how fast round pairings were posted. It also seemed like WargamesCon doubled their staff even to the point Goatboy never had to judge a single thing and was instead left to draw on people’s army bags all day. If you ever needed a question answered there was always someone close by to help. WargamesCon had vendors: not the Adpeticon level, but what you needed. Battlefoam with bags and Spikeybits with gaming supplies and good deals. Who could ask for anything more? Now on to the events themselves. Mirror Match was fun even though I got tanked shocked to death out of any chance ANYWHERE close to winning anything. It was an event that really had you thinking outside of the box and understanding that tactical marines on tactical marines is one pathetic slap fight. The narrative event: other events really need to think of adding some sort similar event to get the more casual team orientated players something fun to do. The biggest improvement from last year was the terrain. I sorta went on a rant on the sparseness of the terrain last year, this year that problem was solved. High hills, buildings, ruins, and even aegis lines added enough variety that it really felt as nature intended it. Judges everywhere! Last year there was very few judges with mostly Nick Rose running around from table to table putting out fires, this year they had more than double the judges.
The Bad
Time limit/point level. I ranted about this last year, but this year it seemed a really big problem. For whatever reason and you can have many, 2 hours and 2000 points is not the pace at which enough players are comfortable playing at. Too many games didn’t finish or weren’t given a chance to finish. With a seven game format fatigue and other things played a big part in games just dragging on. Table 1 baby sitting. Having too many judges is usually a good thing, but watching three judges camp table 1 after game 4 was no good. If you want to make the top table special only one judge is enough, it only aggravated the time problem. It all started at Dash and Russell’s game. They were sorta going slow, but both their lists are ridiculous dice throwers. Couple that with rules arguments you ended up on Day 2 with a judge nanny state of epic proportions. Putting a judge table system in place should take care of that problem. If you have enough judges, assigning one to each of the top three tables seems appropriate, not four at one.
A few things I noticed…
Players especially Dark Eldar players need to have some chip system to mark what units have shot and which haven’t. Grey Knight players need to know the their rules not just for themselves, but for their opponents as well. Dash didn’t slow play his list just had ridiculous amount of dice and even then he was able to finish or at least get to turn five in almost all his games. People need to stop saying Orks suck, until you get out of your basement and off the Internet actually show me where they are sucking? Grey Knights not ready for prime time (yet) once people get the rules down and figure out the rights lists Grey Knights are still a few months away. Razorspam/MSU can only get you so far: after about game three or four you saw some nasty net lists creeping up to the top tables. On day 2 they were all beaten to a bloody pulp showing again that while netlists might make you king of your of your local pond it rarely takes you national. Dark Eldar breaking through, they won Alamo and now WargamesCon giving Xenos players something to cheer about. Tyranids are really hurting, the FAQ and GW general hate for one of the most popular armies is bad for the game and bad for competitive play.
What you really were waiting for…
Here are the army lists by the Top Three Tables for game 7 before is some pictures from all the top table games.
Table 1
WargamesCon 2nd Best Overall Allen Bajramovic Orks
vs.
WargamesCon Joe Cherry Grey Knights
Table 2
WargamesCon Shawn Lowrey Best Overall Dark Eldar
vs.
Table 3
WargamesCon Ben Mohlie Best General Space Marines
vs.
Dash of Pepper Dark Eldar (I think)
HQ: Baron Sathonyx
HQ: Haemonculi with Shattershard and Crucible of Malediction
Troop1: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop2: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop3: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop4: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop5: 5x Warriors with a Blaster inside a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop6: 9x Wyches with Haywire Grenades inside a Raider with Torment Grenade Launcher, Grisly Trophies, and Flickerfield
Elite1: 4x Trueborn with 4x Blasters in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Elite2: 4x Trueborn with 4x Blasters in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Elite3: 3x Trueborn with 4x Blasters in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Fast Attack1: 3x Beastmasters, 5x Khymerae, 4x Razorwing Flocks
Heavy Support1: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
Heavy Support2: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
Heavy Support3: Ravager with 3x Dark Lances and Flickerfield
I also interviewed Ben and Shawn about their experience winning at WargamesCon
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbPb5Vvfke4
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ap_9w8Cuk
Here is some more video and picture coverage from WargamesCon for those interested…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK8pBqbM7Y0
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1KqBfs6jrM
Well that does it have to get back to sleep still sick! Damn you Austin! Anyway had a great time and thanks to everyone at WargamesCon for letting me run around with my camera and iPad in everyone’s face. As well thanks Jwolf for the couch!