After dropping off the kids at daycare and hitting the gas station/ATM, I was only a half hour behind schedule. Plenty of time to get down there, renew my HMGS membership so I got in free due to GMing, and possibly get a spot in a 10am Trench Wars game.
The traffic and weather gods decided that a relaxing scenic drive was not in my plans. First was the snow squalls from hell, slowly coating I-81 from Wilkes-Barre to almost Lebanon. Once that abated I got stuck behind a dump truck for 25 minutes down the back roads, and once I got past him, I got stuck behind an agricultural building truck towing a brand new grain silo. Noooo, it couldn't just be Mennonites on bicycles or some Amish!
Finally I arrived at the Host, got a moderate parking spot and went to GM registration to see what I needed to do.
Except they didn't have me, because I walked right up to Pre-Reg instead. Good Lord, it's going to be a long con if I'm acting like the people I hate at a con. GM Registration didn't have me either, but they did have me on the "naughty" list and directed me over to to the end of the registration tables. Now I don't now what the woman behind the computer did to deserve such a post, I'm assuming murdering Tibetan monks or giving Michael Vick pointers about raising dogs when he just got into the league, but I believe she had the worst job out of everyone involved, Host cleaning crew included.
The "naughty" line included multiple active memberships, credit card chargebacks, and GMs with expired memberships, like me. I spent 45 minutes in line waiting for the three fellows before me to resolve their disasters to get their chance. Lucky for her, I knew it wasn't her fault and there were no known names (i.e. board members) for me to complain to. Five minutes later, I had badge in hand and was looking for a game since I was 50 minutes late for the Trench Wars game. Again, not putting any blame on the con staff. I had been more organized and left earlier I would missed all the issues, save the snow.
Two more minor peeves and I'll try to stay 100% positive the rest of the way. Twice I went to get t-shirts over the course of Friday. For the "Women in Warfare" theme, they had made pink con shirts in women's sizes. I had picked the first one up in the afternoon for my 4-year old Maja while the computers were down. It was a simple slip write-up and cash exchange, two minutes tops. When the women folk found out back home, I had a list of shirts to get on my second wave. With the computer system up, the transaction was still much faster as my morning snafu, but equally as painful. Plus, by Friday at 4pm, they were out of the pink t-shirts! Just like a number of people poo-pooing the theme online, apparently the con staff had underestimated the appeal.
With nothing to do, I wandered around the smaller rooms, looking for games and friends. As I got into the Distelfink ballroom, I discovered... a set-up table for Gnome Wars?
With the impending secondary snow storm hitting the Northeast, Jim "The Gnome Guy" Stanton had announced the cancellation of the 11am Friday game, via his blog and a handfull of emails. Apparently, his wife convinced him to leave early and narrowly avoid some bad driving conditions. I appreciate Mrs Stanton kicking her husband out the door, as it was a great game combining aspects of the Battle of Tanga's Battle of the Bees and the first assault on the town. I have, however, lost all faith in the internet. I swear someone told me everything I read on the internet was true. Now where is that French model I met online...
Please note, I'm reserving all the Gnome Wars notes and battle reports for it's own special post.
By the end of the game, we did get about a number of semi-disgruntled Gnome Wars who had not realized the game was still on, but within seconds all the talk was the joust that evening, the mega-game on Saturday, and showing off whatever we painted since last con. In particular, my good friend Mike Lung, showed off his new unofficial sculpts, including not only gnomes, but Reaper Space Mice for his "Awful Cheese Hulk in Outer Space" game, plus a few Star Wars Space Mice conversions. A 15mm Darth Vader with mouse ears is way too fitting nowadays. Please feel free to check out the first wave of his phots here.
After the game, I hit the tail end of the flea market, and did a large chunk of my shopping in the dealer hall. The flea market had a few empty tables and I didn't experience any claustrophobic moments or backpack-on-backpack combat between shoppers. Perhaps it was the fact that I could stop at each table and scan the items without participating in a rugby scrum, but I found a decenet selection of items that interested, and even the prices were reasonable. Unfortunately, nothing shot out and screamed "BUY ME NOW!", so I escaped the hall without losing a nickel.
The dealer hall was another story. My oversized buget (thanks to my two kids and the IRS) was cut short with unforseen vehicle expenses last week, but I still made headway with my Second Samoan Civil War project for next Cold Wars.
I finally got to see and hold the Melanesians that Pulp Figures make while checking out the RLBPS booth. They could not match the bulk discount that Pulp offers online (I asked but did not expect it), but I still managed to snag a couple packs of rifles and spearmen to work on paint schemes and shading before I place the big order direct next month.
The second most important purchase was my quart of bases through GF9/BattleFront. Now I won't have to panic over bases, for a change, once the figs arrive. I also remembered to snag up hex bases for my gladiator and fantasy hockey figures as well. I've found the GF9 glue to be less than stellar, but until
I spent the rest of my time grabbing dice for the kids at Harmony House, a barn and a quick hello to Ken at ATKM, and spent way too much time harassing the poor people at Old Glory trying to find the "perfect" figures for the game. They didn't bring the majority of the figures I was interested in, but that didn't surprise me. I know with OG that you're better off ordering ahead of time, but worried about the scale difference between the Pulp Melanesians and their figures, I wasn't going to risk it. With that in mind, I didn't even inquire about the figures I need for the Winkies for my Wizard of Oz project.
Before I continue, the pics 99% of you want to see...
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| Some 54mm ACW. They were great Friday, but some of them got very petty on Saturday morning. I wanted to yell over and tell they playing with actual toy soldiers. Please get over the specifics and have some fun. |
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| Playing 40k in the corner of Distelfink |
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| The Friday morning Trench Wars game I missed |
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| 25mm WW2. Ooooh vehicles... |
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| Dungeon Hack by the HAWKS. I heard some gripes on the mechanics, but every person had fun. |
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| Not sure what game (Colonial?). I just snapped this for the massing of the palm trees. |
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| Commandoes and Nazis and Cultists, Oh My! Lots of compliments on the beautiful board. I never heard anything about gameplay. |
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| Raisin River War of 1812 ATKM game. Another elegant 54mm game by the Lehmans |
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| The Big Pirate-y Game in the Distelfink Foyer |
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| Wooden Warriors, Sore Knees |
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| The Wooden Wars figures |
We finished with a drunken game of Awful Cheese Hulk (oh those poor mice) and required post-game bitching about "back in the day."
All in all, Friday seemed very low-key, right up unitl the 7pm slot when things went gangbusters. I did not see a number of "old reliable" games that seemed to be there every con, and I consider that a good thing. It was also nice to see a few minor changes in the dealer hall. I don't think anyone got transported to the other end of the hall, but it did make me stop and take a look at couple of things I wouldn't normally.
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