Wargamescon Wrap-Up

This past weekend was the third wargamescon/bolscon I have been to, and the first one where I didn't play a single game of 40k. The con was a ton of fun, as always, and one of the events I look forward to every year. Even though WGC isn't a big Warmachine event (yet) I still wanted to talk a bit about my experience there. I'm hoping in the next few years that the event will continue to grow and get some wider attention.




First of all, I wanted to toss out a huge thank you to the Texas Renegades  for putting on the event. For the most part, everything was run smoothly. There is always room for improvement of course, but this was a very good first year for the group running WGC. the only complaints I had were the last-minute switch to deathclock (after the packet said there would be no changes after June 1), and the fact that every event other than Hardcore lost a round due to time. Otherwise the staff running the event were great!

Aside from the events themselves, the big highlight was having two Privateer staffers at the convention talking to the gamers. I am always impressed with PP's connection with the community, even sending staffers down to a smaller 'con half way across the country. And of course the Gargantuans spoilers they gave us made a lot of people very happy. I can't wait to get my hands on a Mammoth!

That cannon is gonna be awesome

the events themselves were a ton of fun. Friday we had an "Old School" Hardcore tournament. I had never played in one before, but figured I would go in with a fun list and see what happened. I played an oddball eMorghoul list, figuring if I was going to play a game based on assassination, I needed to bring the Lord Assassin! I went in fully expecting to lose all of my rounds, but instead ended up winning the whole thing! with eMorghoul. At that point, I didn't really care how the rest of the weekend went, I already did way more than I expected. For those that are interested in such things, I'm writing up a full set of battle reports and lists from my Hardcore experience. Look for that in the next few days.

Saturday my wife (playing Circle) and I played in the Masters qualifier. I had already qualified for Masters in the hardcore event, so I came with some fun lists and went in to have fun instead of being super competitive. I broke out the Siege Animantarax with eHexeris, and an infantry spam pMakeda list. I got tabled on round one playing Hexeris against pIrusk and a ton of IFP. I won round 2 against an eKreoss T4 list after a failed assassination run. and round 3 I found that I just couldn't roll an 11 when it mattered. I played round 3 against pHaley, and managed to knock her down to 2 or 3 boxes with a random shot from a Shaman. I got greedy and ran my Bonded Bronzeback up and arched several black spots and hellfires at her (with the feat) and couldn't roll an 11 to hit her on 3 dice. eHexeris died next turn.

On Sunday, I played in the Masters with eMakeda, pMorghoul and Zaal. Round 1 was A Flag Too Far against a guy from San Antonio who was playing Venethrax. I played eMakeda. he feated a little too early, and only caught a few of my models. on my turn I feated, and turned most of his army into fiery clouds. thanks to the large amount of extra movement in a Makeda list I avoided losing much in the fires, and those flames got in my opponent's way on his next turn. On turn 3 I controlled both flags for 2 points, and won on scenario the following turn.

Round 2 was probably my favorite game of the entire weekend. I played against Mike P, who went on to win the Masters. we played sacrifice, and ended up pairing Harbinger and pMorghoul. The game was too long for a quick recap, it went on for 6 or 7 turns of very intense back and forth. I lost a rhinodon and bronzeback early, and he got a control point that turn. I moved everything way out on the flank to the zone, leaving a couple of swordsmen to go after the flag. I had one huge turn where I shot Harbinger with a Sniped Shaman, knocking off 11 boxes. I then had my Gladiator slam the Avatar at Haringer, but the angle with just centimeters off of hitting her with a nice pow 16 to possibly finish the game. I also didn't roll quite high enough to follow up to the Harbinger (needed a 3, rolled a 1). He ran away with Harby and I scored a point. Had I run a swordsman behind the forest near the flag, I could have possible won on scenario the next turn. as it was, he barely killed my swordsman, ending my chance at a scenario win. He finally killed off my beasts and killed morghoul with the Vessel of Judgement. It was a great game and a really great opponent. I felt good that I at least gave the eventual winner a close game.

Round 3 was against another skorne player who ended up picking Naaresh vs my eMakeda. it was a big attrition battle. the turning point was on his feat turn. He managed to kill my Archidon and Bronzeback, but even with the +3Arm I killed his Bronzeback and Gladiator the next turn with stupid-good rolls. Naaresh made a run on Makeda and failed, Molik finished him off. Round 4 was cut to the final 2, Steve and Mike. Mike ended up pulling out the win with a very close charge on Ossyan that had to be carefully measured by Will Hungerford with multiple laser pointers and close measurements. it was a fun game to watch, even though it meant the rest of us only got 3 games.

My wife played in the Flanks For Everything and went 1-2. At the end of the event, she won a random drawing for a Stormwall! Of course, as a circle player she didn't have much interest in a Cygnar model, and before I even heard that she had won it she sold it to one of the other players for cash! Now she'll be able to finish out a couple of lists she was looking at building.

As one final note, Wargamescon was the first event attended by our new club "FA:U"! Our San Antonio press ganger Steve made us all t-shirts to wear to future events to build some community between the Austin and San Antonio clubs. We had a pretty good showing for our first outing as an official club! Our team took 1st place Hardcore, 1st place in one of the Steamroller Qualifiers (my first round Masters opponent), Best Painted Hardcore, Best Sportsmanship Hardcore (both went to my round 1 hardcore opponent), and Second Place in the Masters (Steve, our founding press ganger). Not too shabby!

Well that's all for now. later this week I'll post my Hardcore battle reports. Thanks for reading! And if you were one of my opponents from the weekend, drop in and leave a comment!