Kublacon May 25-28 in Burlingame, California

[Hannibal]

I'll be running a 4-round tournament at Kublacon this year.  Pending approval, It has been approved and will be on Saturday starting at 10:00am till 6:00pm.  That's 8 full hours of Battleground goodness!

We will be using the West Coast House Rules for this event.

Each round will be a 2,000 pt game, with the scenario, terrain map, and specially designed sub-plots chosen before armies are constructed.  Mercenaries could be used depending on the sub-plot for each scenario. The Monsters & Mercenaries deck will be the mercenary faction for this event and may not be chosen as a faction. Players are strongly encouraged to bring a Monsters & Mercenaries deck and any other factions they may own.

Each round is scheduled to last no more than 2 hours, broken down as follows:

20 minutes: Set-up & Army Building
1 hr, 20 minutes: Battle & Record Keeping phase

If a player has not completed building his or her army at the end of 20 minutes, then that player will fight the battle with the army selected, even if this means playing the game with fewer points than his/her opponent. If the army selected is not legal, then the player will automatically suffer a 1-5 VP loss. This may seem harsh, but the goal is to get in four games in a timely manner. It’s recommended that players come with a few pre-made 1,000 pt armies with the intent to add on to that list.

[gull2112]

At the last tournament I was at, I brought 2 pre-made armies of 2000 points and one of 1500 points and then just modified from there as the situation demanded, mostly I modified after each game to 'perfect' my build.

[Hannibal]

Just had the event confirmed (not that it was really in doubt).  If you're on the fence about coming to Kublacon, here's one more reason to go:  BGFW Kublacon Tournament 

[elgin_j]

Do you not find that 1hr 20mins is a little tricky to fit a 2,000pt game into?

[Hannibal]

Not at all, actually.  My experience is that people seldom need 20 minutes to build an army and so its rare people don't have 90+ minutes to play a game.  And if you know what you're doing, 90 minutes is plenty of time to get in a game.  Over the last three years where we've used this exact same format, we've finished the event either on time or ~60 minutes early.

I cut my teeth on 40K, where you had to set up and move around 70-120 miniatures in two hours.  Folks who knew the game and knew their armies could do it no problem.

[Hannibal]

Just a quick bump:  the Battleground tournament has been approved!

[Hannibal]

Kublacon is done and I've (mostly) recovered.  My post-con report:

The tournament went well.  We had fewer people than I expected (a pair of pre-regs didn't make the con), but the event was enjoyed by all.  I turned a lot of the Kingdoms advancements and our 'Empires' advancements from last year's event into sub-plots.  That aspect was really well received.  Maybe I'll get a chance to post them up on the YMG website for one-off games if people wish.


The big success was the Sunday demos.  I blocked off 6 hours and fully expected to be sitting around for 5 of those hours, harassing people to play.  Boy was I wrong!  I had at any given time 2 tables running, most often three.  And at one time I had 4 tables going.  I had people who'd played before and bought a single deck show up, which was great because I had Kingdoms decks and terrain packs to hand out for them.

I also had an entire gaming group get into BGFW.  Literally all five of them at the con played at least one game and walked away with a deck.  They called up their local game store to make sure that there were BGFW in stock (there was, it had been boxed up).  They're not too far from me, so I promised to set up events for them to caravan down.

Perhaps most important was that of the twenty-some-odd people who showed up, only 2 walked away less than excited about the game.  (And frankly, those two guys brought their negativity to the table:  for example, not wanting me to explain how the turn-order worked and then getting mad when it didn't do what they wanted)  That's well over a 90% approval rating, which is better than almost any game I've every seen.  In fact, people were having so much fun that they were playing games out well past the usual "40 minute demo."  In the end, I had to turn people away at the end of 6 hours because I was starving and more than a little brain-fried.

The running joke among our gaming group was that the attendance for our 40K and Bloodbowl events "subsidize" the BGFW events.  This year the BGFW demos brought in more people than the 40K and Bloodbowl event combined.

It was so successful that we're going to move demos next year to Friday night, to get people interested in possibly playing full games on Saturday, and to Sunday night (after most the scheduled con events are over) as part of a multi-year plan to get the Saturday tournament into a major event.

[lazyj]

That is awesome! Well done.

...and this also explains why I haven't seen you post in a few days. 

[RushAss]

Great work Corey!

[Hannibal]

...and this also explains why I haven't seen you post in a few days. 

That...and closing escrow on a house.  There were a few phone calls over that...

And then moving into said house.  In 2 days.

And then having half a dozen (no joke) contractors, plumbers, and handymen out to fix/repair various things.

And having to shuttle my wife back and forth to work every day because although she's been cleared to return to work, she hadn't been cleared to drive (knee injury on the right leg).

And having to argue with my wife's HR over her worker's comp[1]. 

I've been a little busy.   
















[1]Commence Rant:  Seriously, is there some Orwellian interview process for HR?  Are you required to think that .3 and 1/3 are the same thing to get the job?  Do they hand you a 3rd grade math quiz and disqualify you if you score more than half right? 

I literally had to spent 35 minutes (I clocked it) explaining to them that if $3,200 / 400 = 8 sick days that we could discuss her sick time off as either $3,200 in 'sick time income' or '8 days', and that the two terms were mathematically interchangeable for discussion purposes.  That in this case, whether we said 3200 or 8 days, we meant the exact same thing.  I literally had to write this out on a piece of paper and show that because of the two little straight lines on either side of the numbers (i.e the " = "), that the two sets of numbers are completely interchangeable and to stop F'ning interrupting me when I used the 'wrong' numbers.

When I worked at Hope Services, they had a on-the-job training program for the clients in our HR and accounting.  I came inches from screaming at my wife's HR that there are people whose actual medical diagnosis is retarded and they could still handle this math.

[gull2112]

Awesome sauce Corey! You have shamed me with your success. Since I am back in school and don't have money to fly out east anymore I will have to get involved with "Con of the North" here in Minnesota which happens in February. I'm sure that lazyj and jhenke will help me out.


I so know what you mean about HR! Don't get me started, when you have a brain injury they don't understand how you can have a limitation that can't be seen and that none of the standard forms address. AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Just sayin'

[Kevin]

Good show running the event!

And then having half a dozen (no joke) contractors, plumbers, and handymen out to fix/repair various things.

Been there, done that.  It's like being a cow in a stream with a dozen pirahnas:  not enough to devour you, but each one is taking a bite, and all you can do is stand there and moo pathetically.

[Hannibal]

Oh and one last thing:

Gull made me a pair of mapboards (An examplehere) and shipped them to me for the cost of parts, shipping, and a minor labor cost.

These things are gorgeous.  They're really cool to play on and got several compliments throughout the weekend.  I heartily suggest that if he's willing to take orders, you get some from him.  They are very durable, fairly light, and very nice.


 

[gull2112]

Glad they worked as intended! I will make a set (two halves make a set) for anyone who is interested. Since I have lost my job and am going back to school I have to charge at least materials and shipping plus, any "tip" to help the cause will surely be appreciated. I'd say $30 plus shipping. I wrap them in thick cardstock and they weigh about 5 pounds, I think, so shipping runs under $20...unless your over seas.
If the Jersey boys want another 3 wide that'll be a little more, and I'm sorry but I can't make'em fer free anymore.

They are two halves that fold in half again so they are 15" X 18" by less than an inch (they are mounted on 1/8" hardboard plus the felt, so you can fold and compress them to under 3/4").

On my blog I show you how to make one all by yourself. I warn you that this is trickier than it looks unless you've got a knack for this sort of thing. I made several before I got one that I would not be embarassed to show an opponent. I also have a shop that is set up to do it. I'm just saying this so you don't beat yourself up if you don't get it right first time.

http://gullsbattleground.blogspot.com/2011/04/felted-mapboard-en-cuarto.html