Hey,
Well I just wanted to post a few more thoughts about my 2014 GenCon experience to kind of summarize some of the pics and my time there. I've been to GenCon twice before, once in 2011 and again in 2013. I'm planning on making one more trip next year, hopefully with my son.
Battletech events have occupied most of my gaming slots on all three trips. This year I played in three Storyline events. Always, the volunteer staff running these games have been polite, kind and willing to coach and guide players. They also have a phenomenal grasp of the rules. I've marveled at one volunteer (I didn't catch his name) for the past few years who's always at the Storyline events. He has the Mech Hit Location Table and Cluster Hits Table memorized. It's amazing. He told me he was a mathematician and it shows. It just makes things go so much faster for guys like me who have to look at the table on every roll. The Storyline events were great and a lot of fun. And as some of you have commented, the board was pretty cool as were all of the players crowded around the table. Great bunch of guys and gals to spend the hours with. I've been playing Alpha Strike pretty exclusively since it released but playing in these storyline events reminds me how great regular Battletech is on hex maps.
I also played in an Alpha Strike intro event both staff members stated they were new to Alpha Strike and just learning the rules themselves. It kind of showed. There was some confusion on the jump modifier for the attacker and target and what happened when units were in base to base contact. Further, my table was using a homemade Alpha Strike unit cards. I'm not sure why they just didn't use the actual MUL cards to promote that resource. Despite this, the game was fun and played quick just like it should. And to be fair to the agents running the event, Alpha Strike has seen a lot of revision especially when it comes to the TMM. The table rules tried to incorporate some of these changes and I think this was a mistake. What the player ends up hearing is, "Well in the old rules its this way, but we do it this way now." I realize there are changes to the core Alpha Strike rules but when your teaching new players, those original rules work just fine. Alpha Strike needs a revised/updated rulebook to reflect the new point values and changes to the TMM. I hope one is in the works. Further, I hope we see more than intro level events for Alpha Strike at Gencon 2015.
The other tables running grinders and Solaris matches stayed packed throughout the con. It was good to see.
Further, like last year, at the last event on Saturday night, Catalyst splurged on a load of pizzas for all the players at the events running there. The pins for participating in events was also a nice and unexpected touch. Thanks!
The Catalyst booth was much improved over last year. It was more spacious and the traffic flow through it better also. I think they may have had more registers running compared to last year too. Then again, Shadowrun 5 wasn't releasing either. The Shadowrun Crossfire deck building game sold fast. Honestly, the Shadowrun RPG lineup is pretty impressive to put it bluntly. I've tried playing it a few times and just find it very rules heavy....yes, worse than Battletech which is easier to scale to your level of desired complexity. The new plastic Battletech lance packs seemed to be doing very well too. I picked up one of each myself. The new Alpha Strike Cards are also a great improvement over the last batch. I think they are still a little too dark but the quality is much improved. I wanted to buy two packs but worry that there still might be changes to the cards in the future. Again, the staff in the booth was great. Very polite and eager to please.
Despite this, I find the Ironwind Metals Booth to be the shrine of Battletech at GenCon. It's hard for me to walk into this booth and not salivate. For the past two years I've blown 75% of my spending budget here. But then, I'm a minis fan. I think the con exclusives were very cool this year. I'm hoping next years con specials are a little cheaper, however. Overall, I'm so pleased with the direction Battletech minis are going. The detail on the new sculpts is amazing and I'm liking the beefier mini to boot. Again, staff here were very helpful in searching the huge inventory. One thing to improve on, is the Piranha decals that are sold here. There are typically two boxes jammed full of them. It would be great if they could be organized by houses or something. I always pick up a few but usually wind up frustrated leafing through the hundreds of packets in the jammed confines of the booth.
A side story on Piranha Graphics. Friday, while I was admiring the diorama I was introduced to Brian who owns Piranha Graphics. (I may be getting some of the details wrong here so excuse me.) He was sitting by the diorama and I mentioned my dilemma with the decals at the IWM booth. I told him I would contact him after the con to place an order because I couldn't find any Sorenson's Sabers decals in the boxes. He said, "No problem. I'll print them up and bring them to the con tomorrow." He said he lived nearby and would be able to get them here. I thanked him but wasn't sure what to expect. Sure enough, the next day waiting at the IWM booth were two sheets of Sorenson's Sabers sheets. The kindness and service was overwhelming! Thanks again!
The diorama was incredible. As I stated earlier I got a chance to talk to phlop (aka Phil). What a great guy. Very easy to talk to and you could tell he was passionate about the game and painting. So much has already been said about it in this thread I can't say much more. I was glad to see it return. I really missed it last year and its such a great draw for people passing by in the hall.
Thanks to all that stopped by and it was an enjoyable time. We were kept quite busy and when not we all were painting some minis.
I would especially like to pat Dave Fanjoy on the back as 3 lads that play MWO online asked if they went over and bought some minis would someone give them guidance on assembly and painting. They spent all day assembling and painting the minis. They seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.
Met God and Davion and he too painted a mini while there. It was almost a paint along with CSO.
This is a great idea for CamoSpecs! First, if I would have known that the CamoSpecs staff would be sitting by the diorama, painting and helping people paint.....I would have brought stuff to the con to paint! To be able to sit next to them and get painting tips?! What a great idea! There was so much painting going on by the diorama I actually sat around and watched for a little while. Could it be an event.....sure. But what a great way to spend some time. Second, I'm gonna bring something to paint next year in the hope the same happens.
The What's Up With Catalyst was good but could have been better. Catalyst thought they had two hours when they only had one. Further, this event got posted so late it wasn't even in the con print catalog and I already had other event tickets in the mail by the time it popped up in the event database. So I had to return an event ticket in the hopes of attending. Otherwise it was informative and I walked away from it feeling like Battletech is where it belongs. Like many here I don't know Randall Bills or Loran Coleman but I definitely got the "good/smart people" sense from the hour spent with them. You can tell they love the game. Due to the brevity of the seminar both Bills and Coleman offered to answer questions in the Catalyst booth afterward. Over the course of the remaining hours I caught up with both of them. I spoke to Bills about how much I was enjoying Alpha Strike and he clarified some of the "timeline" issues I wrote about in earlier posts. Talking about Alpha Strike he said that it really is kind of an experiment on getting new players into the game. We have the regular Battletech ruleset and then Alpha Strike which is similar to many other mini games that utilize stat cards. Later I caught up with Coleman who confirmed that the House Kurita book SHOULD be going to the printer in September. I also asked him if they planned on getting a Battletech Line Developer again and he gave an emphatic, "Yes." He said Bills has a lot on his plate and they are still looking for someone to fill the position.
Other notes. Fantasy Flight and Piazo booths were always busy. I didn't even bother to try as there was always a line. I did get a chance to try 5th edition D&D and really like it! It is so much less codified than 3.0, 3.5, 3.74 and 4.0. and puts control back in the DM's hands rather than the players. Indie is a great city. Its clean and the weather is great. This year it seemed like their was a huge increase in the amount of homeless sitting on street corners begging for change and that was a little disturbing. Businesses appreciate GenCon and the people it attracts and that is a welcoming feeling. The city is small enough that you don't get lost and big enough that you feel like your some place...different. I worry that GenCon is outgrowing it though. Finding housing downtown is becoming increasingly difficult and for people traveling by air, that is a problem and a huge expense. I paid almost $1000 dollars for four nights. It hurts.
Well, this ended up being longer than expected. Just my thoughts and a few things I heard. I hope to hear from others who went also.
I'm gonna try to go back to lurking now.
Mike
