Tacticon 2016, Sept 1-4 Colo Spgs

[Dakkar]

If you're leaning towards dropping the Halo event due to your desire to play Malifaux, then 1) shame on you  , and 2) I could run a Halo game on Saturday afternoon.

Yes I'm a terrible Vanguard; but what can I say, my enthusiasms are Legion.
That'd be a great time for Sat afternoon, and a few tables should be available.
To tell the truth, if I knew I was getting more HALO than Firestorm interest, I'd easily swap.

However, I've not yet been approached by the folks at the Haven to run anything. Should I reach out to them?

It's all early organizing, so definitely reach out.
We'll need to talk HALO event kit on the side.

Also, I could support the Friday evening Dystopian Wars event. I can provide more support for the sea table than the land table, but I do have the starter set for both the RoF and FSA land forces (plus enough aerial units for both to build up the force size).

Very cool! I'll want it all to be something for newbs and vets to both enjoy.

[Stephan]

Greg, I for one would like to see the RoF skimmer ships on the land table.

[Landlubber]

I'll try to reach out to the Haven staff this week to discuss running a Halo event.

@Stephan--I hadn't considered that, actually, since I never play the land game. I have skimmer frigates, cruisers, and a battleship. Now that I think about it, the Chinese dreadnought is a skimmer, along with the medium-class floating bastions, and then of course there's The Dragon. The French and Chinese are both Imperial Bond nations, I think, so I could run the French as the core force with the Chinese vessels in the 40% non-core. That would be a pretty interesting mix.

With all of the above, plus the standard RoF land forces thrown in, I think I could get to somewhere between 1750-2000 points. And that's without bringing the French skimmer dreadnought (the Vauban), which I still haven't assembled.

[Dakkar]

@Stephan--I hadn't considered that, actually, since I never play the land game. I have skimmer frigates, cruisers, and a battleship. Now that I think about it, the Chinese dreadnought is a skimmer, along with the medium-class floating bastions, and then of course there's The Dragon. The French and Chinese are both Imperial Bond nations, I think, so I could run the French as the core force with the Chinese vessels in the 40% non-core. That would be a pretty interesting mix.

With all of the above, plus the standard RoF land forces thrown in, I think I could get to somewhere between 1750-2000 points. And that's without bringing the French skimmer dreadnought (the Vauban), which I still haven't assembled.

French vs Martians!

[Stephan]

Nah, I think this time we want to go human on human.  I for one would like to see Madame Liberte on the table with the RoF.

[Landlubber]

Well, someone else will have to field it. I'm not a fan of the model, so I won't be purchasing it--not when there are so many other models out there I need (yes, need).

[Landlubber]

I just talked to Ed at the Haven. Based on his recommendations, I'm going to submit the Halo event for Sunday, probably something like 11-3 or 12-4. Saturday will apparently be a big tournament day, so there may not be players available or even much table space available for non-tournament games.

I've learned my lesson from Genghis Con, however--this time, I'm going to write up a formal scenario and get it into the Tacticon schedule so people know it's an option, instead of just hanging out in the corner and hoping somebody notices the table (like I did at Genghis). My goal will be to write a scenario that can accommodate up to 4 players and will be simple enough that I can teach as we play.

I told Ed that I might also be able to run demos of Halo: Ground Command, but that depends on how soon I get my copy before the con.

Ed did say that they would like to see as many non-tournament games as possible at the con. So I think our idea to run the big DW game is also good.

I guess people are of different opinions when it comes to tournaments at gaming conventions, especially small conventions like this. On the one hand, I'm sure the event organizers like having tournaments, because it almost guarantees people will show up. But on the other hand, having a bunch of tournaments can kind of "edge out" the non-tournament, one-off scenario types of games that can sometimes be really interesting and can expose gamers to other game systems. 

[Dakkar]

The most memorable Con events in my mind are exactly the large scenarios and mega-battles that one can only do effectively at a Con. Tournaments, I largely forget those except the negative experiences.
Big past things I remember:

-- DW Martian Invasions (1 and 2)
-- Babylon 5 Battle of the Line
-- Babylon 5 Battle of Corianna VI
-- Rorke's Drift
-- Rorke's Drift with Imperial Guard and Orcs
-- BFG: Assault on the Blackstone Fortress

So yeah, we'll take advantage of that... And just because its a scenario doesn't mean there aren't prizes

[Landlubber]

The most memorable Con events in my mind are exactly the large scenarios and mega-battles that one can only do effectively at a Con. Tournaments, I largely forget those except the negative experiences.

Well said, and I agree. I have much fonder memories of the big Space Hulk game I played at Genghis Con in 2014, but not so much the X-Wing tournament I played in at the same con.

I recommend for the DW games (both land and sea) that we come up with some sort of objective, even if it is simple (i.e. "hold the middle"). Clash of the Dreadnoughts could be fun, but can we do that with an objective-based game? For example--every fleet deploys a dreadnought, but you're still trying to accomplish/achieve X. Same thing on the land side--I've got several of the generic military and industrial scenery pieces...maybe a base assault where one faction gets 2500 points to defend against a combined assault from several other factions?

[Dakkar]

I wish we all had the giant robots to do Kaiju Clash! I'd get the FSA one, Stephan has the Hochmeister, you have the Dragon...

[Landlubber]

I wish we all had the giant robots to do Kaiju Clash! I'd get the FSA one, Stephan has the Hochmeister, you have the Dragon...

The Chinese dragon robot isn't in the same class as the Hochmeister and the other big robots released recently. The Chinese robot is a large-class, whereas the others are basically robot dreadnoughts. You guys would make mincemeat out of The Dragon in short order. I've discovered that it really only does well against medium and small ship (when it survives long enough to engage--it's quite a fire magnet).

[Stephan]

The Chinese dragon robot isn't in the same class as the Hochmeister and the other big robots released recently. The Chinese robot is a large-class, whereas the others are basically robot dreadnoughts. You guys would make mincemeat out of The Dragon in short order. I've discovered that it really only does well against medium and small ship (when it survives long enough to engage--it's quite a fire magnet).

Damned right it's not in the same class as the Hochmeister!

[Landlubber]

The Chinese dragon robot isn't in the same class as the Hochmeister and the other big robots released recently. The Chinese robot is a large-class, whereas the others are basically robot dreadnoughts. You guys would make mincemeat out of The Dragon in short order. I've discovered that it really only does well against medium and small ship (when it survives long enough to engage--it's quite a fire magnet).

Damned right it's not in the same class as the Hochmeister!

Typical Prussian hubris...

[Dakkar]

I still like the idea that we each pick a giant robot to have painted for Adepticon...

[Stephan]

Back to Tacticon,

I'll volunteer to run the land battle and help with the themes for both DW events. 

For the land battle, what would you think of a scenario set in Giza, Egypt.  The Nile runs relatively close by and I could take some liberties with the actual distance between the river and the pyramid complex.  In scale, the great pyramid would be approx. 5" tall and 7.5" to a side on the base.  The pyramid of Khafre would be about half an inch smaller in each dimension and the pyramid of Menkaure would only be about 2" tall by 3" at the base.  At the scale the sphinx is pretty small, only about an inch high and wide by 2 inches long.  The haven already has a couple tan mats though I'd probably look for a nicer sand mat of some kind (maybe make one with a roll vinyl, spray glue, and a lot of sand).