Saturday, October 30, 2010

Charcon 2010 - General Pics

Charcon 2010 was a blast.  Here are some general pics from the show.

This year Charcon welcomes Hack3rCon to the fold.

Gettysburg Soldiers Civil War game.

One of the many boardgames played at Charcon.

Some of the many items in the Charcon raffle.

See big hammer, I did not win big hammer :(

Folks playing games, Tumbling Dice game in the foreground.

Matt K. running his amazing game where all of the figures are handmade.

Another view of Matt K.'s figures.

Another view of the hammer. . . that I did not win.

Charcon Crokinole board.

Charcon 40k Tourney - Terrain

While I did not participate in the 40k tournament, a lot of folks did.  There were some really nice terrain pieces used in the tournament as shown below.






Charcon 2010 - 5th Anniversary Cakes

Given that this was the fifth anniversary of Charcon, we had cake.  The organizers provided five cakes, each one showing one of the five program covers.  The cake was very good and went about as quickly as you might imagine with 500+ gamers hearing the words "free" and "cake".


2008 Cover

2009 Cover

2010 Cover

2006 Cover

2007 Cover

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Charcon General Review

Let me start right out by saying that Charcon was simply AMAZING!  We had an absolute blast playing a ton of different games and spending time hanging with some great people.  The action started on Thursday with a dinner out that included the special guests from the show.  Unfortunately author Eric Flint was unable to attend due to an illness in the family but it was wonderful to have dinner with everyone.

The folks at Charcon have great industry connections and as always make preregistering worth the time and effort.  Not only did you get to select your choice of Charcon T-shirt color but the pre-reg bags came with a copy of the PC version of the game Puerto Rico and a small deck of magic cards.

The first order of business for Jeff and I was to go to the boardgames area and sign up for the Charcon Premier Board Game Tournament.  Each year the organizers arrange for a number of new games to be available for the tournament.  This year the games were Founding Fathers (with the designers attending), Egizia, the Adventurers, Charon, Inc., and Road Kill Rally.  There are two rounds of games and those who win during the first round are asked to play in the finals.  I was able to play four of the five games during the first round winning three of them.  My record in the finals was good but not nearly as great as I placed second in each of the three finals I was eligible to play in.  I came in second overall with a point total of 27.  The first place winner scored 29 and the third place winner 15.  The tournament was fantastic fun and I came away with a bunch of great games as prizes including one of my favorite games of the tournament, Road Kill Rally!

Figure 1 - My Loot from the Tournament
On Friday night we hosted our first convention western game, A Busy Night in Distraction, New Mexico.  We had a full group of six players for the game and everyone seemed to have a good time.  Look for a full report with pictures this weekend.

On Sunday I hosted and played in the annual Charcon DBA tournament.  Again this year we had generous prizes provided by Scale Creep Miniatures.   And, again, we had a poor turnout.  This year we had only myself and Nick competing so we played a quick game pitting his nicely painted Macedonians against my Early Imperial Romans.

Figure 2 - Your humble narrator in purple and Nick in green

Figure 3 - The Roman line makes contact with the Macedonian pikes.

Figure 4 - Alexander and his cavalry wreck havoc on the Roman left, building a 3-0 lead in stands lost.

Figure 5 - The view towards the Roman left.

Figure 6 - Nick contemplates hitting me with the ruler :)

Figure 7 - Once the Roman blades made contact with the pikes I began to make up ground.  Eventually my general element was able to contact his artillery and a quick close combat phase later the game was one for the Romans.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Charcon Photos Coming Soon!

CharCon Game Convention is over for us. Our western game was full and everyone had fun, the DBA tourney was just Nick Gillespie and I but it was a close game (and I won) and we both left with a new army courtesy of Scale Creep, and then I placed second in the overall Premier Boardgame Tournament and came home with a HUGE stack of free games!

Thanks to Nick Gillespie, Travis Reynolds, Charles Davis, Dave Gilligan, and all of the other folks who worked so hard to make this a great con!!!

Give us a couple of days and we will put up some great photos and some recaps of the con!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Charcon

The blog has been quiet for a bit as I attended a library conference last week and am getting ready to attend Charcon this weekend.  Charcon should be exciting.  I will be running a DBA tournament with fantastic prizes from Mark Severin at Scale Creep Miniatures and my first convention western gaming using the Gutshot rules.  I also hope to play a bunch of new boardgames and to compete in the Charcon Blood Bowl and Settlers of Catan tournaments.

In the meantime I have lost a couple of games in the Fun League and my Heimdall's Hornies lost their first game in our local tabletop league.  I hope to post more in the near future and after Charcon I will be starting up a new project involving the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings!  Vikings, Normans, and Saxons/Anglo-Danes here I come!

Decisive Battles of the Ancient World DVD Review

Decisive Battles of the Ancient World.  DVD.  A&E Television Networks, 2006.  $34.95

The episodes found on this three disc set chronicle thirteen important battles of the ancient world.  The battles covered include Marathon, Khadesh, Thermopylae, Chalons, Cannae, and Gaugamela among others.  The background of each conflict is given by leading historians such as Adrian Goldsworthy and Victor Davis Hanson and novelists such as Steven Pressfield and the battle itself is portrayed using computer graphics from the computer game, Rome: Total War.  The computer graphics illustrate the fighting styles and deployments of the various armies in a way that small groups of actors cannot.

                Two bonus episodes are also included.  The first is an episode of the Ancient Mysteries series; The Secret Life of King Ramses II, narrorated by Leonard Nemoy.  The second bonus episode contains the episode, The Greeks from the Foot Soldier series.  All told, this set will provide you with over six hours of enjoyment.  I highly recommend the series as a source of inspiration and an agreeable companion whilst painting.   

Friday, October 1, 2010

Charcon 2010 Coming to Charleston, WV October 22-24


Our local gaming convention, Charcon, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month.  In five short years my friends in the Charcon staff have built an amazing convention. Last year I believe there were over 500 attendees and I would expect there to be many more this year with special guests including one of my favorite authors, Eric Flint, artists such as Kelly Brightbill and Tammy Pryce, additional authors, game designers and more.  Each year there is a Premier Board Game Event where various new games are featured and for at least the second year running there will be a Settlers of Catan NACC qualifier tournament where the winner goes to GenCon to compete for the North American title.  Moreover, the organizers have worked great deals with a number of game manufacturers and you even get a bag of great swag for preregistering.  Go here to preregister and lock in your swag and your snazzy Charcon fifth anniversary t-shirt in the color of your choice.

Lissa and I will again be running the Charcon DBA tournament and we will be premiering our western game using the Gutshot rules there as well.  If you are going to the con please leave a comment below and let me know what events you are planning on participating in.

Charcon Flyer
Preliminary Event Listing