The team here from Canadian Tabletop Gamer showed up and left. The Wednesday before the show was a whirlwind of activity as folks pilled into the city and found their convention homes and launch pads. Thursday would be early rise, madness, crowds, and plenty of excitement.
That evening after driving the last half of our trip we met up for dinner at Rock Bottom and scouted out the routes into the city and where to park. The food was awesome and welcome after the long drive. Ontos, Jon, Yasha, and CS arrived and joined Burns, Shonty and myself for beer and food. Forgotten and Molotov were still on route and showed up a few hours later.
L-R: Jon, Burns, Shonty, Yasha, Ontos, and CS
Thursday was crazy. Last year Ontos and I showed up and parked in front of the main doors at 0700. The odd person was there and we sat around resting until the doors opened. This year there was already a couple dozen of people sitting in front of the main doors. So we parked ourselves in front of the next set of doors and waited.
Camped out waiting for the doors to open in 1.5 hours
It got busy very quickly and when the doors opened the chanting of "Don't Run" the wave of gamers was epic in size. On the way to pick up a few things I stopped off at the Corvus Belli booth and was greeted by Carlos aka Boistra. After saying hello I picked up a full GENCON bundle and moved on to do some shopping for Garcia. Before meeting up with folks to drop off all of the newly purchased goods at my car. Then it was time to get ready for Legend of the Five Rings. It was eleven am and I signed in for the noon start time. With an hour to kill I stopped by a few booths and checked things out.
My badge with my GENCON exclusive Scorpion Pin
Legend of the Five Rings started out with a big show before the shit show started. Don't get me wrong, I had fun with my three matches. The game is structured but fun, I think I'll be following along for a while.
The problem was the size of the event. We got our boxes at 1pm/1300 and we were all ready to play by 1:45pm/1345. I left the event at 8pm/2000. In the span of 7 hours I built my deck and only played THREE games! The first match they gave you an hour, each match afterwards was 45 minutes. 2.5 hours is pretty good for three rounds of a card game.
I had only played for half of the event and I was pissed off. Not at the game. Not at the players. Not as the event staff. I was pissed at the level of effort and the lack of readiness to meet the need of a 700+ player tournament.
Lucky for me, a quick stop to the Omni Hotel's bar with the wife and Burns calmed my soul. It was filled with stories from Jack the bartender, some good beer, and excellent steak tacos.
The next day was a whirlwind of activity but much less so compared to last year. Friday is the second Infinity tournament and I had a great day of gaming. My first match was against the person who would be the event winner - I set him up for success by rolling over with a 10-1 loss.
Future Event Champion
My second game was against Burns for a close 2-1 match in my favor. It's tied for my favorite game of the event with my third match with Atomic.
Burns
I won a hard fought match where a Lizard held it's ground and had MULTI HMGs do all the talking. I was close a few times but the Lizard held ground allowing my Spektr to come out of the shadows last turn to steal the win.
Atomic
I was really happy with the action shots I got with my game. My Lizard was rocking the board really well.
My last game was me playing Forgotten and I was doing very well before I let go on the first half of the last round. I rushed in and wasted the rounds. I figured we were going to get called for time and in my haste I gave Forgotten too much time to make me pay for sloppy play. Now it was a great game and he earned that win. I was just pissed at myself for not being 100% of an opponent to Forgotten.
Forgotten
We hit Buffalo Wings, filled up on meat and beer before Garcia ordered a round of Tequila. The night ended in room shared by Ontos, Jon, Yasha, and CS. With more drinking, Molotov's copy of Fairy Gloom, drinking, painting, and oh yeah more drinking. This was my favorite part of the whole event.
L-R: Shonty, Forgotten, Garcia, Jon, Yasha, Ian, Molotov
Out of picture: Burns and Ontos
Picture taken by Dozer
We had traveled 12+ hours to come to GENCON and we were all having a great time playing games and meeting folks. That night in the hotel room I watched my friends and family be happy (and a little drunk) and enjoy each other's company. You heard things like "Shit I that's Tequila" as Garcia dipped his brush into the liquor instead of the water cup next to it. You saw folks showing new games and there collected swag. It was an awesome time.
L-R: Ontos, Garcia, Jon, Yasha, Me, Shonty, Forgotten
Out of picture: Molotov and CS (in front of Yasha)
Picture taken by Burns
Saturday was more Corvus Belli as many of us hit the seminar. CB showed off the long awaited Blackjack for Ariadna, an updated scuplt for the Avatar and Szalamandra, and walked us through the creation of Aristeia! Boistra was entertaining as normal making folks cheer and laugh. I met back up with folks from the event before I spent the day with my wife Shonty in the vendors hall.
Here we spent time chatting with folks, shopping, and trying out games. We hung out with a creative director from WETA and chatted about the last Ghost in the Shell movie. We tried out GKR: Giant Killer Robots where Shonty said she had fun. Glad I backed the Kickstarter. It was a whirlwind of of activity as the vendor hall didn't seem any bit less busy since Thursday. It ended with nap back at the Hotel before we hit the D20 Burlesque show - which was awesome!
Shonty (Right) playing a GKR Demo with me at the WETA Booth
Sunday was quiet. We picked up a few more odds and ends, said hello and goodbye to some folks. Collected a special prize for the upcoming Capital Conflict and hit the road.
GENCON 50 was busy as all get out. At times it was simply exhausting. Most of all GENCON was fun. The primary topic of conversation over the 12.5 hours driving back to Ottawa, Ontario was how would we do it next time.
The hobby got smaller and that is always sad. People put time and effort into their games. This is true as a player and a designer. When the hobby gets smaller it means we have less as a community. It means those efforts are no longer there. For some their efforts may feel wasted.
Ontos and I were really looking forward to pick up a starter set of Dystopian Wars @ GENCON. I am a huge fan of the Covenant of Antarctica in look and story. The whole setting of the game is fantastic.
Ontos has a whole table of their 28mm terrain and we're always looking for more. I loved their bundles that made it easy for clubs to start up the game.
Good bye Spartan Games.
We hope those who worked there will find another place to share their ideas and find meaningful employment. We hope the various IPs dont fall into the void but return when the world is ready for Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars.
On Monday I stayed up until 1230 (Tuesday) and left the house for work at 0530. With just 5 hours of sleep I finished off work so I could focus on GENCON. I got home and finished off my Infinity army. I finished off my basses, and varnished what was left from the night before. After an hour of work my Infinity army was ready and painted. I put them on their bases and they looked great. After some last minute packing - boom we were ready to go.
So we traveled ... Shonty, Burns, and I. We left Ottawa and went south passing by Toronto and into Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge.
Shonty (Left) and Burns (Right)
We left home and traveled to Cambridge met up with CPun and stayed over night (4+ hours) with his mother, who is also my aunt. By 0430 we were in the car heading to Sarnia to cross into the United States of America.
L-R: Me, Shonty, Burns
Onto, Yasha, Santi, and Ferrus left a few hours later around 0200 hours cross over into the United States around Watertown, NY.
L-R: Ferrus, Yasha, Santi, and Onto
Molotov and Forgotten left Ottawa a few hours after that around 0630. Molotov established a Facebook messenger thread for all of us to keep in contact during the trip.
Molotov (Left), Forgotten (Right)
With me driving and keeping in contact with the other two teams, I took advantage of me being the only one awake. I was listening to Nine Inch Nails famous live album And All That Could Have Been.
After a long trip we got on ground first and I was set on cleaning up and getting some much needed sleep. A shower and a nap was calling to me to make up for only having 9 hours of sleep in the last two days...
I am a day away from hitting Indianapolis. Today I leave with my wife and Burns to stay overnight at my Aunt's home. Tomorrow I cross into the United States of America and drive towards Indianapolis.
Thursday will be the GENCON opening ceremony followed by a quick burst of shopping to snag some GENCON exclusive sales at the Corvus Belli booth. Then I'm off to Broken Egg Games to pick up my token pack for the Legend of the Five Ringsinaugural event known as the Kiku Matsuri.
This is the first public release and event for the new take on the IP since Fantasy Flight Games took over the IP from AEG. Legend of the Five Rings is one of my favorite settings. Instead of a fantasy setting taking from a European background the Legend of the Five Rings takes it's inspiration from a Japanese (with some Korean and Chinese) background. When Fantasy Flight Games took over the IP they decided to reboot the history of the setting cutting away 20+ real world years of history.
This makes sense to me. There is a lot to know about the setting and diving into the deep end could get new players lost and discourage them from playing. Rebooting the history is a brave decision by Fantasy Flight Games since this move could alienate the fans of the series. I do believe that this will serve the game as a whole.
One of the reasons AEG sold the IP is because sales have dropped over the years. The plot becomes more and more complex and it became harder and harder to keep folks buying into the products. Outside of a very loyal fanbase Legend of the Five Rings was only mainstream for a short period of time. Small groups of fan does not make sales, so loosing a few long term fans for a large influx of new fans makes sense for Fantasy Flight. This feels like Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition after TSR sold the IP to Wizards of the Coast. I trust many fans will come over and join the new players to the game.
In the Legend of the Five Rings (LCG) Living Card Game you will build a pair of decks representing one of the seven major Clans of Rokugan. Now each clan has something I liked over the 20+ years that makes up the original game. At GENCON I will be playing the Scorpion clan.
My great clan of choice was always the Scorpion. They were the guys who martyred themselves to the rigid Rokugani honor system in order to promote the greater good. They were never trusted and as such they had to prove themselves. They were the bad guy who was on your side. I love their ceremonies and superstition. The Scorpion make sense to me.
I will be one of 700 players who will be the first public group to access and play the new LCG. I am very excited since FFG is making a celebration out of the new launch. I expect them to also announce the new Legend of the Five Rings Role-playing Game, and it will be using the new Genesys universal role-playing game system that is already being used to support Star Wars. The celebration will then move to deck pick up, deck building and hours of gameplay.
The rest of GENCON will have Legend of the Five Rings (LCG) events everyday. All of these events will lead into the establishing the whole mechanic about roles and setting up for the Winter Court world event in November where players will vote on the first story decision point that will change the direction of the IP. I'm really looking forward to being back in Rokugan, and man do I want to play in a Launch event this September.
Thursday will end with plenty of new stuff, a day of gaming, and meeting up with folks for dinner. Friday will be Infinity all day. Saturday will be me and wife having a good time relaxing and checking things out. Sunday will be a final round of Magic the Gathering, before we leave for home.
Next set of posts will be from the trade floor of the "4 Best Days of Gaming"
Take a look at the video below and if you can support the event give it a try. The team behind it are putting a lot of effort into this event.
I spoke with Artimage the event organizer and asked a few questions - When is the event?
The main Extra Life event is November the 4th.
Due to constraints affecting the hosting store, Black Knight Games, we are doing the local event the week before, Saturday October the 28th. How long have you been running the event?
Five years.
Where is being hosted?
The event is being hosted at Black Knight Games at 864 Mohawk Road East, in Hamilton, Ontario.
Located on the south west corner of Mohawk Road and Upper Ottawa Street
Where can folks find out more?
People can find out more about Extra Life, and their mission goal, and maybe find or start a local event, at Extra-Life.org
For more information on my personal event, pay attention to my Twitter (@Artimage84) and my YouTube channel.
Thanks!
So for you folks living in Hamilton or close to Hamilton, take a look at the site and all the information that Armitage passed on.
From the team at Canadian Tabletop Gamer, We wish you luck.
By: Dozer
So GENCON is coming and it's time to look at the main tournament for most of us going down. Ontos, Burns, Forgotten, Yasha, and I will be playing the Friday Infinity Tournament.
The Friday Main Event
10 am start
4 rounds of ITS, 300 points, no spec ops.
Tournament Organizer: Mark Manlapas
Missions:
Sieze the Antennas
Capture and Protect
Cold Sleep
Rescue
I will be playing base Nomads. That means no bumps to units AVA from the sectorial lists. I'll be working with lower numbers for each unit type. Secondly no Fireteams so I'll have to work with individual units to get the jobs done. I will also be lacking some of the mercenary units that become available in the sectorial lists.
I do want to take advantage and represent each of the Nomad factions. I'm really looking at a Zero, Bandit, and Spektr in one of my lists. I also want to mix and match light troops and take advantage of the various options and costs. TAG wise I will want one list with a TAG maybe two after thinking more about the scenarios I've outlined below. I want one of the big three as I've been play testing them in every Strike Zone:Wotan mission I played. Heavy Infantry will be one or two, probably a Mobile Brigada. The same with troops with Airborne Deployment, Tomcats or Hellcats specialists will be front of the list. Hackers will have a big presence and one list will probably have Guided Missiles. Medium Infantry like my much love Sin-Eaters will be more rare in one of the lists if not both.
Seize the Antennas -
This mission is pretty simple. There are only three things I need to worry about and they are all worth 3 points, and Hackers get a +3 MOD to control them. I'll have only one random Classified Objective to complete allowing me to be able to work a spare point in if it's doable and only miss out on one if it's unattainable.
Being Nomads I have Hackers and a Hacker will get you that +3 MOD to the roll to claim those antennas. I also have lots of Hackers that don't have to walk all the way up the board. Zero, Bandit, Spektr, Hellcat... this list is long.
So my plan is build a strong front and engage the enemy. Depending on the terrain will help me pick between deployment (where you pick who sets up first and on which side) and initiative (deciding on who goes first).
Going first would mean I would need to quickly claim the closest objective, and take and hold the middle objective. I'd use my off board late entry units to cripple my opponents ability to kick me off an objective and maybe claim the farthest objective. Going second would be slowly cutting up my opponents forces. Close in and guard the closest objective while challenging the second objective. I'd keep a few of my off board units for a last minute push to cover advancing specialists or sneak out a quick steal. Cold Sleep -
This one is a first for me. I've never played it and so this will be a lot of theory. It's also a lot more complex when compared to Seize the Antenna above. It has 6 objectives, four tech coffins and two consoles. There is a lot of button pushing. With only one classified objective it can be something worth your time or used to lock out an opponent if you get a shit card.
Each of the tech coffins are worth a point. The consoles are the bigger problem. Connecting to a console which gets counted at the end of the match is action. Controlling a console is touching it with a specialist without an enemy doing the same thing. It's also worth 1 point if you tie and 3 points if you have more. If you're able to connect to 3 of 4 consoles even if you loose the unit connected the console you can get a 2 point lead even if you tie for controlling the consoles.
My plan is harder here. There is an inner area which hampers Airborne Deployment levels 3, 4, and 5. Infiltration is still very good but picking when you reveal your infiltrator will be key and getting control and connecting those consoles and tech coffins. I'm not so worried about going first or second since the objective card can be used to even the match at the end.
Due to the number of targets I'm looking at a list of cheap specialists that are supported by combat units. Specialists that can hold their own in a fight will be key. I can also see that with the number of objectives cover will be an issue. I'm thinking of a guided missile system to help take out dug in units. Normally displacing an embedded force is not worth the effort but location will determine points. If I can keep two units touching and I can drop him to one, I'm looking at a two point boost.
Capture and Protect -
Another new scenario for me. This one has a pair of consoles that are worth 1 point. Once you connect to them you lock out the other opponent. Also you cannot connect to more than once console. So pick one of the consoles, jack in, and try to keep your opponent from that free point.
Beacons are mobile. Keeping your beacon out of enemy hands is worth 3 points while getting hold of the enemy beacon is worth 7 points. I can see players locking down their beacon going for that 3 point and going for a last minute snag of the enemy beacon to double their points. Getting the beacon to your deployment area is an extra point and maybe not worth it.
This one looks interesting. It has a minimal need for specialists. With some of the Nomad options I can see myself dropping in last round to steal the enemy beacon while holding off enemy forces with the rest of my force. Going first is not a bad go, grabbing the static objective and setting up for an assault to snag the opponents Beacon. Taking second will be better for a last play to change the game.
This mission looks complex but it's very simple. I find myself going down a rabbit hole while building a list to include this mission. I need to constantly remind myself to calm down and focus on one thing at a time at this planning stage of the game.
"Selection and Maintenance of the Aim." - Military Adage
Rescue -
I know a lot of people that hate this mission because it's so difficult to get done without even adding the effect of an opponent. You have 8 extra minis, 4 per side sitting in the open (kinda - sorta, see below). You need to synch with them and then drag them back to your side of the board.
Players should focus on the effects of the Exclusion Zone. "consider the Exclusion Zone to be a Saturation Zone and a Difficult Terrain Zone." Which means limited movement and -1B to each weapon going in, going out, or going through the zone. Having a Terrain (any type) or Multiterrain special skill solves the movement issue but the burst reduction is pretty hard. Shotguns love being Burst 2, now down to one shot. Basic Burst 3 weapons are now a little less effective. Weapons with a Burst of 4 or 5 don't feel the effect. It also kills the basic advantage of Fireteams. Folks hate the zone, when building a force build against the zone as well as the objective.
Nomads have quite a few units with Multiterrain. Picking the right specialist means I can ignore the Zone and get my hands on the HVTs. I also need to be able to lock down the enemy trying to take his HVTs from me. I feel that being able to react to multiple target zones should be helpfull.
Going second would be a good go, allowing me to hopefully knock out a few problems and focus on my advance and retreat. If I do end up going first I need to quick and decisive. I need to be able to commit and complete my action and set up my HVT collectors in a place that will limit the enemy ability to counter.
By: Dozer
