Thursday, August 12, 2010

GenCon Report

So, my plane arrives in Indianapolis at 8:20 AM Central time, Thursday, August 5th, 2010. I am a vegetable, but one capable of panic. I make it to the Convention Center directly from the airport in a taxicab by 9:15. I pick up my badge and ticket package from Will Call after another line up and then try to find the Privateer Press tournament (which has moved from the Wabash).

I find it in time to register and play Rite of Passage. My first game is against Orboros. This picture was taken before the start of my first turn. My army looked nice. I lost. I can't remember why.



This is towards the end of my second game. What fun we had in this game; I was throwing his Thunderhead about (I missed Nemo with it! Gah!) and he was frying me up pretty well.


This is after the first round of the third game. I thought it was sick that I had to play the very winged Legion list I sort of picked Legion in order not to play. It's kind of like circumcision...you're awake and it hurts a lot. Most of his models were somewhat painted.


In this game I lost to a man wearing a kilt. This has happened to men all over the world for many centuries, Highlanders being what they are. There were a few kilts at GenCon this year. No tartan though.


This is the crowd before one of the many doors into the exhibit hall on Friday morning. The picture doesn't do the scene justice.


I have to get one of these forts for the boys. Fantastic. By Conte.


Okay, now we are into the serious worship of minis. Dark Age had their booth with Cool Mini or Not. I think the latter now owns the former. Anyways, these are the Dragyri, which I quite like. I picked some up and am modeling them as I load these photos. We played a test game. A truly excellent small scale skirmish game. Very good mechanics. Nice. I'm in. Totally.


Ah, Kenoth of Menoth loves the Skarrd.


These are the Brood. Yum. We saw the new rule book (sans colour). Excellent looking. I can't wait.


So, Cool Mini or Not also are now producing Gamezone in North America. This is one of the Dark Elven figures. Jaw dropping.


As is this fellow. I have this figure.


And I have this Sandra Garrity sculpt, of a miniature formerly of the now defunct Magnificent Egos line, which Cool Mini or Not appears to possibly own as well. I have to paint this.


This is an original Cool Mini or Not release for Gen Con. It was worth every bit of the $70 they wanted, but I had to eat. And I already had my $70 miniature for the convention, Lord Chompy Bits and Nightmare (see below). By the way, this eagle is huge; that's a 28mm elven figure on its back.


Now this is a new release for Hell Dorado, which is now owned by Cipher Studios. We couldn't get a demo of Hell Dorado despite three visits to the Cipher Studios booth. This figure is called Augustinius Raimond, and I had determined to pick it up before the convention. I looked at it twice or three times in its blister and I thought the detail was soft and the cuts shallow. I didn't buy it.


This is my first Iron Arena game on Friday, against Quinton P. In this first picture my army is approaching the ball of metal death. He shoots my Carnivean to the right, but it has the spell Unnatural Aggression on it.


Here is the result. I was able to advance 6' in my maintenance phase with said Carnivean and charge Karchev. I feated but the winds of stupidity blew into my cranium and I did not cast Manifest Destiny. Karchev had three points left after all was said and done, and I died. Quinton was a good guy.


This is another Iron Arena game on Friday. In this first picture I am in the bunker with most of my army (the deployment rules meant large base models had to start inside). Approaching is a double pronged assault of Khadoran fury.


Here is the picture when I spew out of my hive. This game was another I lost in my assassination run, this time leaving two points on the Butcher. Fun stuff, great table.


Now this picture and the one following are of one of the best wargames I have ever had the pleasure to engage in. Myself and my buddy missed Hardcore on Saturday morning. We were each eating a very fine omellette when it started by my calculations. Never the mind, we decided to play on this exquisite railroad table instead. What a game.


Here is the view from the position of the black robes. Funny, I travelled three thousand miles to play a game against my buddy.



Here is Lord Chompy Bits riding Nightmare. Oh my God, this creation of Wyrd Miniatures for their Malifaux game has to be one of the best miniatures I have ever seen. I am going to convert him into a Khadoran caster for my son. His Feat will be Tantrum, when he will create Nightmare.


Here is the young master, sans Nightmare.


Another view of Nightmare.


And another.


And one final view, complete with a fanatic onlooker.


This is a Wendigo Yeti from Crocodile Games. Superb.


More of the Wendigo. What a painting job. Fine sculpts.


The new Skorne Nihilators from Privateer Press. They actually look better than this.


The new Legion Nephilim Bolt Thrower. Cool paint job.


The new Legion Ravagore. I saw the card. Cool, but I still prefer my Carniveans.


The new Cicle Warpborn Skinwalkers. Nice. And the fellow in the front is another new release, some kind of stoneskin phallus or other if I recall correctly.


The new Skorne Warlock, Dominar Rasheth. My buddy picked up the Skorne army book. Cool warlock.


The new Skorne Ancestral Guardian character solo Hakaar.


The new Skorne Warbeast Titan Sentry. It's contained in Hordes Primal MK II.


The new Skorne Extreme Titan Gladiator warbeast. Huge. Probably unplayable. Marvellous paintjob.


Cryx Warcaster Lich Lord Venethrax. This is long released but I really like the sculpt (very imposing figure) and the painting job.


New Cryx character jack (add-ons for standard Reaper Warjack build).


New Cygnar character jack.


New Khador character jack.


New Menoth character jack.


Cool terrain from Acheson Creations. This would make a great Menoth fort said Kenoth of Menoth. I could only agree, on fear of immolation.


This year I looked at the artist's section in the exhibit hall. I was very impressed, so impressed that I posed for my portrait. It's a reasonable likeness, probably a little understated. And my teddy bear doesn't have a smile.


This piece won the painter's award. I could see it. (Ha Ha).


Kenoth tries for yet another dimension. There's simply no point talking to him, he will not join the real world.


Ex Illis figure. This shows that their plastics can be quite excellent if modelled and painted properly.


This Ex Illis monks are very cool.


The detail on the wings of these Ex Illis angelic warrior types has to be seen to be believed. These sold out almost immediately on Thursday.


This monster works in Ex Illis because their system doesn't rely on basing of individual models. Great price too, less than $50.00.


Here is another one.


Here is my vote for the army of the convention. What a great paintjob, and he was just there playing pick-up games of WFB. Notice the Max Mini helmets on the unit in the front closest to my camera.


There were some nice touches to the army. Here, on the top of the pillar, we see two depraved demonettes (that's redundant) in an embrace.


Here the Lord rides two pony girls.


Here is the pole dancing demonette on the army standard. However, leaving aside these little details, the painting was just amazing. What an achievement.


So here is the last thing I did at GenCon, which was to watch the Privateer Press championship. This is the deployment of the armies, Khador with nSorshca on the left and Cryx with eGoreshade on the right.



The Khador player won with the following 35 point list.

nSorscha
War Dog
Behemoth warjack
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Winterguard Infantry (10)
2 Winterguard Infantry Rocketeers
Winterguard Unit Attachment
Kovnik Joe
Koldun Lord
nEiryss
Widowmaker Marksman
Manhunter

Which just goes to show that it's not the list, it's the player.

2 comments:

Stanley S Nolan said...

Tournament is A competition among players for a set duration of time, often with widely varying rules.

Keir said...

Yes, fine, but I'm curious as to the particular reason for this comment?