Gnomecon - Day 2 (Saturday)

I got back to Gnomecon around 11:30 or so and met up with David. I could have kicked my self for taking my Wings of Glory stuff out of my car, figuring I wouldn't have time to play, replacing it with Rubber and Lead and StarDust Ground. As we puttered around looking for something to do, we ran into one of Mike Baker's gaming buddies from Waycross who has with WoG stuff with him and we quickly put together a 4-player game.

Mark glares. He drew the P-40 Tomahawk. I drove a Japanese something or other, paired up with David in an Italian plane. Joe piloted a Yak-1. It was a simple Axis vs. Allies dogfight.

The final moments of Uncle Joe's plane. David was taken out next, by Mark. Mark and I duelled and eventually I shot him down - good vengeance from Friday night.

I retrieved my R&L stuff from the Avalon and got it set up. I worked on Heidi, one of the Gnomecon organizers, to give me a primo traffic spot. I figured Rubber and Lead would have a lot of visual appeal to passersby and really wanted that foot traffic.

A blurry shot of my wife, junior (far right), David (far left in orange) and two friends of my youngest son getting in a warm-up game before the tournament.

At 2:30 the first annual Gnomecon Rubber and Lead Championship began. It was to be four races, then a fifth race featuring the winners of the earlier four races.

Race one featured Heidi, James, Landon and I think his name was Jack. It went on for a good hour - easily the longest game of R&L ever.

Me in the StarDust shirt and Landon.

Landon's pickup ends H8 Team's day.

Heidi in the white Mini led for one and two-thirds laps, only to be overtaken by James going into the last corner!

She hit the oil, spun out and James' Pony took the checkered flag!

A serious man. Check out the 2017 Winner ribbon & medal.

Race two - Our drivers were Gabe, Ian, Ian's dad whose name I didn't get and Mark. This game was much more "traditional" - a bloody affair.

Ian and his dad take eachother out. BEAUTIFUL.

Mark's Flatbed is pursued by Gabe's Jack O Lantern but his lead is too great!

And Mark wins the second race!

The third race was the Kinderspiel. Gabe and Ian brought two of their buddies over. I think their combined ages is still less than my age. I was so happy to see kids this age enjoying a real game - not just video games.

The Flatbed's side flamethrowers were busy and poor Greased Lightning was hit early and often.

Gabe went on to win, driving the convertible.

The final heat race featured David, Alan (I think?) and Rich (in white) - a loooong time gaming buddy who I used to play Blood Bowl, Warhammer, etc. with. I was was very happy to have him play my game. Heidi came back for another race and was #4.

Poor Heidi who'd gotten snookered in the first race got T-boned and taken out early in this race.

So here's Rich in the yellow car about to win, followed by his buddy in Coppertop and trailed by David in Greased Lightning. It's a done deal, right?

Nope. Coppertop pulls in behind Ol' Yeller, killing it with a gun shot but also getting blocked! David's Mini sneaks past for the win!

Our four winners... on to the final race!

It's a close affair except for David's van in the back!

Kill of the day. David rammed James' convertible, shoving it into mines and the outside wall, then blasting it with his cannon. Perfection.

Mark's Mustang has a commanding lead as Gabe tries to get it together. David's van trails the pack.

David plots.

But wrecks his van against Gabe's Green Machine. Sadly, this halts Gabe's car, handing victory to Mark!

He'd taken no damage so the mines were of little concern...

Our champ with his prize package! Kindly vendors donated much of the loot. Congratulations Mark!

We played a few more screw-around games including one on the insane Figure-8 track. It was a blast.

By then it was 9:30PM and I was beat. I had been standing for nearly eight hours and talking for most of that. Rubber and Lead had been extremely well received in its first public showing and I couldn't be happier. People wanted to know how to buy it and how to buy into the kickstarter! Kickstarter... it gives me ideas for sure! I never even got a chance to pull out StarDust but who cares - R&L was a smash hit and the talk of the 'con on Saturday afternoon. I had board gamers leaving their games to come check out MY game! That's high praise. We found a few things to be tweaked but I'm confident R&L can go live very soon.

Wow. Highlight of my gaming career so far. A great con and a great day of gaming.