Gnomecon 2018 - Friday and Saturday [post 700]

Gnomecon 2018 has been a blast. I hung out there Friday and Saturday playing lots of games. I think I'll stay home today - I'm beat after a marathon day of gaming yesterday.

Friday afternoon I took my new roller derby-inspired game Rink Racers down for a public demonstration. It was well-received and created good interest. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

My son Cameron (in blue and orange) and his buddy Wyatt playing RR.

I also got to take in a demo game of Rumbleslam, a fantasy Pro-Wrestling miniatures game. It's interesting for sure. It would seem to be what amounts to a small-scale skirmish with no terrain. If there had been any starter sets available, I probably would have picked one up. Two days removed from playing it, I might hold off. The minis are great.

Saturday morning I headed up bright and early and set up Wings of Glory WW2.

David took control of the Japanese interceptors while I drove the B-25 and Mike ran my escort P-51. It was a simple bombing run scenario, and we'd recycle casualties until we were tired.

So, during run 1, David got me locked up caused massive damage to the bomber early on.

A few shots later and she was done. Japanese get on the scoreboard big time early! We did manage to knock out one of the interceptors, although it recycled...

We had been joined by a couple other players when Mike had to dip to manage his game of Ogre. The Santa Claus-looking fellow took over running the Mustang, while the guy next to him piloted one of the two Ki-84s. You can see that my second bomber is making nice progress up the battlefield.

Ol' Mustang Sally gets a great angle on the Jap plane and shreds it!

David and I trade shots, but I'm so close to the drop zone!

A move or two later and it's BOMBS AWAY! Scratch one yakatori stand. Two bomb runs, one Japanese victory and one US victory. Good times.

Next on the slate was the Second Annual Gnomecon Rubber and Lead Grand Prix brought to you by The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant.

Crowd response to R&L was equal to last year. I got a great location and loads of walk-by traffic.
 

Race one is underway. That's the 2017 champ, Mark on the right with the Gnomecon V shirt.

And two laps later, our first winner is John, driving the Greased Lightning!

It was on to race 2, a particularly violent affair.

 Milkrun ends up behind a destroyed Coppertop.

And plows through in fourth gear! See how far Coppertop has been pushed and the wicked position that it ends up in.

And our race 2 winner, Jennifer, driving the H8 Team. There's nothing wrong with lurking, and letting everyone else destroy themselves.

Game 3 got started. My son Cameron got in on the nuttiness driving the Lamborghini, Raging Bull which will be renamed to Lambo Calrissian.

In a first of it's kind situation, The Green Machine smashes into Jack O Lantern and spins it 180 degrees! He's headed the wrong way! Coppertop and Lambo are inbound and The Green Machine has looks like he's in the clear with no one close.

But tragedy strikes as The Green Machine comes in a bit hot into the last corner! He catches the wall at a steep angle and is destroyed! So Close!

The Jack crosses the line first, with Cameron's Lambo in second. A hell of a comeback from being reversed on the track!

And the driver, I think his name was Don.

Heat 4 featured James versus the pack of kids. The kids were wonderfully violet and killed each other in no time. James, in Ol' Yeller, coasted past the wreck of Jack O Lantern for the victory.

On to the finals..

We switched to the higher difficulty "track 2.0" and in no time at all, John in The Silver Bullet cement truck shoved two opponents onto the dirt section.

And once they were back together, The Silver Bullet kept up the battering ram behavior!

The fury didn't slow down as Watch Your Head got in on the pushing and shoving. Both Pickemup and the Bullet lubed the track. Excellent!

James and the convertible got into the co-lead, James was again forced onto the dirt section but deftly avoided the mines he'd left earlier.

In the end, James' Flatbed was the fastest and most durable vehicle of destruction.Congratulations James on a race well run!

The final four.

No rest for the over-committed Game Master! It was 7:30 and SFB was set for 8:00PM. Mike made the call to push it back to 8:30 so we had a bit of a breather and time to get the table set up.

The scenario was a convention favorite of ours. We used Cadet ships (16 impulses) and essentially ignored EA but limited what ships can do. Eight asteroid clusters were set up and at the center of each was set a token. One of the tokens is a MacGuffin that everyone is after.  A shuttle or ship can search for the MacGuffin if it ends its movement for the turn in that hex. Once the MacGuffin is found, it is picked up and taken off the map. If the carrying ship is destroyed, the MacGuffin stays in the hex until something else picks it up.

Ships were randomly assigned to the seven players. Mark for the WYN Aux Cruiser, David got a WYN Sand Shark, Mike drew the Fed CA, Al got a Gorn CA, I drew a Hydran Hellbore cruiser, Gabby drove a Rom KR and James got a Kzinti cruiser.

 

The rogues gallery, plotting and scheming.

My Hydran was cleverly disguised as a Tholian.

At the end of turn one, only one search was made by the Gorn and the device not found.

On turn two, James' Kzinti got crunched. Let's take a look.

Gabby had launched a Plasma S earlier and it chased the Kzinti. James' ship took light to moderate damage.

At the end of turn two, ALL asteroid fields were checked, bar one. The one not checked was indeed the MacGuffin! Out of eight cards, the Joker was the one not pulled. We all knew where the treasure was now - Gabby and I were closest to it. The race was on.

She plotted 4, and I, 6. We'd both end up in the target hex at the same time. I made the conscious decision to hold my fire until I was at range "0" seeing as though that's what Hydrans are best at.

Booya.

32 internals later. The resulting explosion tore down my front shield. No bother.

So I was now at decision time. My ship was 15 hexes from the edge but I was balls-deep in an asteroid field. I checked the asteroid collision chart (P3.2)

The choice was obvious. My competitors were all facing the wrong way to give chase. I announced that I would move speed 16 on turn 4. My ship was in good enough condition to weather a severe asteroid strike.

Impulse 1. I move.The table watches as I roll a die.

Yeah. pretty well saw that coming. I shrieked and the rest of the table erupted in laughter. Fifteen internals.

Impulse 2. I move my second hex through the rocks. The table goes silent.

Yeah. pretty well saw that coming. I shrieked and the rest of the table erupted in laughter. Fifteen internals.

My ship was destroyed. Ah well... it was a bold plan! Anything other than boxcars and I'd have been OK.

I had left the item at the edge of the ship graveyard but had a shuttle nearby. I decided to eff with the table and send him in. Al (the Gorn) goofed a move and I again got the MacGuffin! Huzzah!

I kept playing keep away. The Gorn had re-loaded his torps and added a third hull to the graveyard. Kzintis out!

A Starfleet selfie.

The Gorn got hammered by the Feds and WYN and headed off the map. David sneakily arranged a pickup of his shuttle that had gotten its mechanical hands on the treasure. The blue and silver ship now had to make a run for it!

Though James and Mike gave it all they could, luck was on David's side and he managed to avoid their worst, took hits on still functioning shields and really just "making it happen." A win for the WYN. Congrats David on a very hard-fought victory.

That game ended at 1:00AM. It had been a four-hour affair and absolutely fantastic. We all had enjoyed it tremendously.

2018 was a great Gnomecon experience. Looking forward to the next one.

Gnomecon VII Plans

Another Gnomecon is a little over a week away and again I'm getting myself committed to running a few games. For starters, Gnomecon is Savannah's game convention. It's actually out in Pooler again this year - that's fine, the venue is pretty good. If you're within a couple hours of Savannah, I strongly recommend it - it's a fun con. It's board game and dress-up heavy, but old farts like me keep the miniatures out and on the tables.

Friday I'll be debuting my new roller derby-inspired board game Rink Racers. I've had a full demo unit produced - custom dice, mouse-pad material game board, etc. Hopefully that'll generate some buzz. I really need "stranger feedback" on it. I'm also planning to lug the Wings of Glory WW2 with me for Friday evening / Saturday morning. Maybe both.

Saturday at 1:00PM I'll start the Second Annual Rubber and Lead Gnomecon Grand Prix. It was a hit last year and I hope it does as well this go around. As in 2017, it'll be four heat races then a final race with the four heat winners. Prizes include ribbons, trophies, game accessories, gift cards, etc.

At 8:00PM Mikey and I will co-wrangle a Cadet game of Star Fleet Battles. Nothing too serious, just a free-for-all with randomly assigned ships. If experience tells me anything, it's that long days and late nights typically result in very memorable SFB. Here's hoping 2018 is no exception to that!

TEXT ONLY!

Hi all. It's been a distracty time recently for me but I have made time for game-related things. Last weekend, I went down to Jacksonville Florida to RapierCon with David and Mark and we met with Mike and others. It was a long, fun day of gaming. I've got pics of the games I played and will post a trip report soon.

I also put some effort into getting a new game together. More details on that later. Because I'm having game components made, I want to take some precautions. It's a board game that David and I kicked around ideas on last year at Gnomecon and this year it'll make its debut.

Speaking of Gnomecon, I'll be running the Second Annual Rubber and Lead Tournament this year on Saturday afternoon. Trophies, prizes, ribbons, etc. have arrived or are in the mail. I'm pretty excited. There have been a few tweaks to the game since last year's tournament that I think make for a better game. Now if I could just find an cost-effective way to publish it!

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.