Visiting Gen Con 2011

Posted by Ranillon on 11. August 2011 01:13

Last week was Gen Con 2011 and like every year I made sure to visit for a few days.

While it was as fun as ever I have to say -- sadly -- that the convention looked smaller than previously.  Attendance seemed lower and the dealer's room was certainly smaller than usual.  Likewise, whereas in earlier years gaming, miniatures, and card games all had their own individual large rooms this year they were all brought together in a single (still quite large) room.  That doesn't mean that Gen Con was "small" by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems that this lousy economy has hit Gen Con like everywhere.

Yet, to be truthful it wasn't that I found really despressing.  No, that came when I was walking through the miniatures section and seeing just about every mini game I could think of being played -- except, that is, for ANY Games Workshop games.  I saw Battletech, Herocliks, War Machine, Dystopian Wars -- pretty much everything.  Many had crowded tournaments going.  Yet, not one single Warhammer, 40K, Battlefleet Gothic, Blood Bowl, or any other GW product game.

Nice Looking Battletech Board at Work

It wasn't always like this.  The first few times I was at Gen Con there were entire Warhammer and 40K tournaments.  Later on there were at least some few boards of GW stuff being played.  But, this time I couldn't find a single one anywhere.  Admittedly, I didn't check every day and hour of the convention, but by any measure the Games Workshop presence was eclipsed by...well, every other miniatures company out there.

Why Isn't There a Similar Sized Space Marine to Contend with this Warmachine Warjack?

In the past you could almost understand GWs disinterest in visiting places like Origins or Gen Con -- they had their own conventions.  But, those have been reduced to almost nothing (with Independent GTs like ours taking up the slack).  Besides, since when it is a bad thing to expose your product to tens of thousands of potential fans?  I just don't understand the GW approach here, but I hope they see how they are hurting their hobby and reverse this trend of distancing themsevles from their own best customers.

Now on to some pretty pictures, namely many of the winners from the Gen Con painting contest (Click to Biggie Size):

More 2011 Origins 40K Indy GT Pictures

Posted by Ranillon on 8. July 2011 23:28

Here is a selection of more pictures from the 2011 Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Tournament.  Enjoy!

Origins 2011 Warhammer 40K Indy GT Results

Posted by Ranillon on 30. June 2011 21:28

Here are the results for the latest Origins 40K Rogue Trader Tournament:

First Place Best General: Thomas McFarland
Second Place Best General: Stefan Olson
Third Place Best General: Adam James
Best Sportsman: Michael Brown
Best Painting: Steve Olk

The complete results:

Note:  The two painting scores in the seventies include extra judging to determine
the painting winner as there was a tie.

Before you ask there was no overall winner for this tournament because Games Workshop mandated that the Golden Tickets we gave out had to go to the top two Best Generals.  Rather than have a situation where the Best Overall didn't win the best prizes we decided to leave out that award altogether. Also, please note one player did receive a zero paint score. This player admits he did not paint the army in question, so we scored him a zero in paint simply to keep our awrds straight. This score is in no way intended to slight that army, or it's painter and creator, we simply left it scored there as a means to keep things simple.

However, as it turned out Sportsmanship and Painting were still vitally important to determining the Best Generals as we ended up with ties at the high end.  We needed to use Sportsmanship and then Painting to finally figure out who won the Golden Tickets.  Thus, the moral of the story is to make sure that you act your best and paint your best even if you are going "merely" for Best General.

Origins 2011 Coverage -- Saturday

Posted by Ranillon on 28. June 2011 00:57

The main action on Saturday was of course our 40K Rogue Trader Tournament.  But, it wasn't all that was going on...

Introduction to Warhammer Fantasy

I spent most of my time running both the Introduction to Warhammer event and its follow-up our Dwarven Smithy game that featured Dwarves vs. Empire.  Both of our Introduction to 40K and Warhammer events were spectacularly popular and almost always full up.  In many cases people who had the first taste of either game in the Intros quickly signed up for the larger scale "intermediate" games such as the Dwarven Smithy.

The Meeting at the Dwarven Smithy

This particular games was especially enjoyable with plenty of amazing and unlikely rolls really adding flair to the event.  In one memorable Empire turn the force's Fire Wizard managed to blow up himself and most of the group of spearmen with him.  This caused the unit to run which in turn produced failed panic checks in the nearest two Imperial regiments as well.  Then, to top off everything off in the following shooting phase the Empire's great cannon proceeded to explode into bits!  The dwarfs found this all properly entertaining, no doubt taking out the beer steins and bags of popcorn to sit back and watch the fireworks.

Fortunately, the fleeing half of the Empire army subsequently managed to finally make their leadership checks and return to the battle.  That and the later charge of the Imperial cavalry made a good fight of it, but in the end the dwarves successfully defended their smithy.  All involved had a great time and hopefully Warhammer Fantasy has gained a few new permanent players (they certainly asked me plenty of questions about how to get into the hobby).

Anyway, on to the Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Tournament coverage.  Here are a whole gaggle of pictures from the event (Click to see larger version):

More to Come...

Origins 2011 Coverage -- Friday

Posted by Ranillon on 24. June 2011 22:27

First off, I would like to congratulate Joe Miksa for winning the Eight-Army Tournament on Thursday:

The Eight-Army Tournament tests to see just how well you have mastered Warhammer 40K.  We provide eight small 40K armies and during the course of the contest you get to play each of them.  To win you need to have mastered not just the rules in general and those of your favorite armies, but those of your enemies as well.  Joe proved he had the 40K "right stuff" -- and in the process won the winner's trophy and a Tau army box!

On friday came the 40K Pairs Tournament.  Here are a selection of pictures from the event (click to embiggen):

More to come...