My 2018 Gen Con ExperienceGen ConWords cannot describe what an incredible experience it is, year after year. Every year it's different, but every year it's amazing. If you haven't been before - you owe it to yourself as a gamer to go at least once in your life. People all over the world travel to Gen Con. Even within our small community we have people flying halfway across the world to go to Gen Con (shout out to Paul, Richard and Zak - our Kiwi SWM players that have done it!) For 12 years, I have made the commitment each year to make it, come hell or high water. I typically work weekends, I call in favors to get the time off. I don't get vacation pay (and I lose money by not working), I save my pennies to make up for the unpaid week off work. Best friend getting married, still made it down for 1 day. Getting divorced, all the more reason to go. Lost my job, didn't stop me. Yes it is the Mecca of gaming. Literally the biggest table top gaming convention in the world. But it is so much more than that. Over the years it has been a "boys trip" with my local group of gamer friends. We've had the same 3-4 guys bunk together most of those years (Deri "fingersandteeth" Morgan that you all know), as well as 3-4 others that have joined us some years, and even sometimes brought brothers and or friends from outside the Chicago area as well. Beyond our inner clan, the SWM community has become a family. There are many members who I have become friends with over the years, and Gen Con is the only time I see some of them in person. Not only do we have a great time gaming, but also simply catching up, hanging out, and reveling together in our mutual nerdom. I'm sure there will be a combination of circumstances that keeps me from Gen Con at some point, but I do not look forward to that day. To those dragging your feet and counting your excuses - stop. Just make it happen. There's always people looking to bunk together to cut costs. There's always people willing to host in nearby places before and after Gen Con (I have hosted people from out of the country the last 2 years in Chicago so they could have more fun experiences on their trip in addition to Gen Con.)
Listen - I know Darth Real-life can hit hard sometimes. There are circumstances that can happen that could keep anyone away on any particular year. However, if you've NEVER been - and you consider yourself a gamer, or a Star Wars fan, or a cosplayer, or a collector, or an enthusiast of really any part of "nerd culture" - you really owe it to yourself to make it out at least once. Bottom line - plan ahead, make it happen. (Here's a video about Gen Con I had absolutely nothing to do with what I thought was a nice little summary) --->
https://www.facebook.com/boardgamecloset/videos/540248816434339/This year I had a few extra hurdles to overcome, and my head was spinning before I even got to Gen Con. All in all I had to take about 2 1/2 weeks off work (unpaid as always). I had surgery for a deviated septum the Friday before we left. I was juggling dealing with changing insurance just days before, and it was a nightmare (for those reading this who don't live in America - we are "the richest country in the world" yet don't have universal healthcare for our citizens. It is a profit driven system that is immensely complex and exhausting). Then on Saturday our very own community's Richard (Darth Rattlehead) and his son Zak arrived to Chicago to stay with me until we all went to Gen Con together. I greeted them half dazed from the surgery with a bloody and bandaged nose. I tried to balance host duties and take care of my own recovery, as I had one roommate move out on Sunday, and another move in on Monday and Tuesday. The Kiwis did some Chicago tourist stuff on their own, and I joined for a few things as well. Richard, Zak and I did get some gaming, including a night with dinner and Hero Quest
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22192/heroquest-advanced-quest (gateway drug game from my preteen/teenage years) with Laura and Jason K (Urban Jedi and Urban Shmi). I also introduced them to Epic Duels
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3284/star-wars-epic-duels (the gateway drug to SWM), and they loved it. We also got some PTing in with SWM, Richard sort of accidentally showing me how devastating of an opening move can happen on Outlaw City, and on vassal with Paul and David Moore (which lead to a helpful tip secondhand from Graham (TheHutts), informing me that my main trick I built the squad around doesn't work - and it helped me change my squad last minute - thank goodness!) Additionally, Richard and Zak bought a case of Star Wars Destiny and introduced the game to me (it can be fun, but not my cup of tea. Most people know how I'm not a fan of too much luck making massive swings - this game doubles down on the luck factor with drawing from a deck, and lots of dice to roll.) I was also scrambling to put my squads together, pack, etc. I did have seven tournaments to prepare for after all. Then we get everything together Wednesday morning and we head out. To Gen Con!
Gen Con's official motto is "The Best four days in gaming", but forget that - we make it 5.
WednesdayWe head down Wednesday afternoon, check in to the hotel as early as possible. We always do whatever we can to get a hotel connected to the convention center, although the Gen Con hotel block lottery of the last few years has made it tougher. We did score 1 out of 2 of our rooms at the Marriot Downtown, which is directly across the street from the convention center and has a skybridge connection the two. We didn't ever have to go outside if we didn't want to! After check-in, we scrambled to get some gaming tables set up in the lobby/conference rooms so that we can have a night of friendly casual gaming with our core clan, other SWM gamers, and other friends in general, new and old. We catch up, order some food, have some drinks, and game, game, game. I frequently go virtually all in on SWM the whole weekend (and this year was certainly no exception), so it's nice to do other stuff. Many games were played, fun was had. Sleep happened eventually, in the small hours of Thursday morning.
ThursdayTo SWM players - Thursday is the big event. The World Championship is on that day. Once upon a time it was on Saturday, then briefly Friday, but it has been on Thursday the last several years. It affords players to play in our big event, and also other games big events (which often fall on Fri and Sat). The Championship started at 2pm, so that left the morning for the dealers hall. To those who haven't been - MASSIVE is an understatement of the size the the dealers hall. The convention has outgrown the convention center in general (around 70,000 unique attendees), and now utilizes Lucas Oil Field next door as well (where the Indianapolis Colts play). The dealer's hall DWARFS Lucas Oil Field. If you want to do anything more than a quick pass through, 1/2 day minimum is required, but a full day would be better. My girlfriend (who wasn't there this year, but will be next year) was excited about the release of the new RPG based on the video game series The Witcher. (Yeah, I got a gamer girlfriend. Don't be jelly. Yeah, she's super hot too. OK maybe you should be a little jelly. Life it good.) I'm video game ignorant, but she insisted that the game has a die-hard following. She loves video games and table top RPGs, so it was an obvious fit for her. She was correct about the die hard following. I went directly to their booth immediately as the dealer hall opened, and there was about 50+ people in line already, only about 2 minutes in. I did the dutiful thing and stood in line to get the book. That left only about an hour to quickly whisk through to some specific booths, saying hi to Chris West (mapmaker), getting a thing or 2 my girlfriend would like (a beautifully carved wooden dice case, cool art magnet, etc) getting some stuff for myself (a Mandalorian pint glass), some swag promos, picking up Red Dragon Inn (a casual game I had been meaning to buy for awhile, and it was on sale). Then just enough time to grab some lunch from one of the food trucks outside and truck on over to Lucas Oil Field (SWM headquarters, where all our events were held) for the world championship. Yes, we actually played a championship at Lucas Oil Field, down on the field itself (any colts fan would swoon)! Report of the championship will be separate - I'll post it later.
FridaySleep deprived and not even halfway through, I rolled up my sleeves and dove in for more. Friday was jam packed - all SWM, all day. Most SWM events (except the championship) run 3-4 hours, and I had 3 lined up this day. Woke up and put my slippers on (did I already mention that I wore slippers the entire Con? ) and shuffled on down to Lucas Oil stadium (connected to the convention center by tunnel - still no going outside necessary).
Event 1 - Epic Fantastic FourI was mildly bummed out about the specifics of the format requiring an 85pt piece. I really wanted to use original 83pt Exar Kun and Rathtars, but it was not allowed. So I went with this:
--Epic Fantastic Four - Maul Madness!!! (Gen Con 2018)--
153 Exar Kun, Dark Lord of the Sith
57 Darth Maul, Sith Infiltrator
20 Malakili, Rancor Keeper
11 Watto
(241pts. 4 activations)--Epic Fantastic Four - Maul Madness!!! (Gen Con 2018)--
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190602/epic-fantastic-four---maul-madness-----gen-con-2018-Idea is that I make Maul go savage (Watto makes him a slave), then he gets overwhelming power to slice through any defenses (which are common in Epic format.) Double twin w/ ambush, loner, rage +20 and (undisruptable) momentum = 200 unpreventable damage on the move with a +20 attack = death to a big nasty right quick. The plan was Maul becomes the mad missile to take out the epic and/or 85pt piece, then Epic Exar (triple twin +19 attack with force transfer, sith sorcery and Niman Style ain't nothin to be trifled with) cleans up the rest.
It more or less worked as planned - but to what should be the surprise of nobody - many games came down to a massively important init. Characters on both sides could inflict such devastating damage that it easily swung games. I honestly don't remember the specifics of all my games, but I ended up on the good side of luck vs Bob (Alex's dad for those who know him), and on the bad side of it vs TJ. TJ beat me with a massive init win and a few key activation saves/fails on both sides (he was accurate jolting, I was Sith sorcerying.) Ended second, and had fun regardless.
Event 2 - TILE WARSTILE WARS has always been near and dear to my heart. A friend of mine had the goofy idea to battle on 2 tiles, sorta like a Star Wars cage match. I took that idea and ran with it, developing the concept and promoting it as an alternate play style. This year I decided I had to check out the 8th Cortex shaper in action.
I ran: --Power Jakan (2018 Gen Con TILE WARS champion)--
30 Shedao Shai
28 Tsavong Lah, Warrior Elite
27 Jakan, Most High Priest
27 Minos, Yuuzhan Vong Warrior
22 Khalee Lah, Warrior Progeny
22 Mezhan Kwaad
19 Eighth Cortex Shaper
18 Yuuzhan Vong Consul
15 Yammosk War Coordinator
(198pts. 9 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/175309/power-jakanIt becomes exponentially stronger in tight quarters. Then adding the Consul and Jakan makes for nastiness unforeseen by most. Consul gives the uniques wallclimber, so they can scurry into convenient (or inconvenient depending on your view) positions to conflict maximum damage. The Consul also gives movement to unique commanders when a unique ally kills an adjacent opponent. This helps get others in attack position, or in the case of Dooje Broolo (often brought in by the 8th cortex shaper's CE) puts him in the way and easily killed - thus setting off retaliatory attacks all around. Jakan is a key that was inspired by Laura Kiernan's Indiana regional 2nd place squad. He allows movement when an allied YV is killed. This is a simultaneous with retaliatory attack from the 8th cortex - so you choose order. You opponent kills a unique? Well, shimmy over with wallclimber 6 squares to base an enemy, and then whack them (often with twin shaper scarification jedi hunter for 80 damage - ouch!) Most games ended when I had most of my attackers based to most of theirs', then they kill one of mine. Retaliation madness and death all around.
Seriously it was so overwhelming I felt bad. We are discussing banning the 8th Cortex in this format next year. But as for this year - I took home the TILE WARS championship in dominant fashion.
Somewhere in the midst of the busy day - I was able to grab some food, but before too long I was back at Lucas Oil Field.
Event 3 - Royal Rumble!Another format that is dear to my heart. Jake K (Sthlrd2) came up with the concept when we were trying to figure out a fun way for 3 players to play minis. It's basically a free-for-all style played on the Rattatak Arena. You have three 2-character squads (faction restrictions thrown out the window) of 100pts or less each. You start with one of the duos in the arena, and when hey die your next duo comes in on the next initiative. You score the characters cost in points when you kill a character (regardless of how much damage you personally inflicted), and if you are the only player left with surviving characters before time is up (90 minutes), you score points for each unkilled character of yours. You can never put too much stock in the outcome, there's just too many factors to juggle. But fun craziness is always on the docket. Here's what I ran:
--Royal Rumble - Durge Jedi Hunter and General Whorm Loathsom (2018 Gen Con)--
51 Durge, Jedi Hunter
20 General Whorm Loathsom
(71pts. 2 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190803/royal-rumble---durge-jedi-hunter-and-general-whorm-loathsom--2018-gen-con---Royal Rumble - Lord Scourge and Darth Baras (2018 Gen Con)--
41 Lord Scourge
40 Darth Baras
(81pts. 2 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190801/royal-rumble---lord-scourge-and-darth-baras--2018-gen-con---Royal Rumble - IG-88A and IG-88 Assassin Droid (2018 Gen Con)--
48 IG-88A
43 IG-88, Assassin Droid
(91pts. 2 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190804/royal-rumble---ig-88a-and-ig-88-assassin-droid--2018-gen-con-Durge JH and Whorm has been a staple of Royal Rumble for me since day 1. 180 possible damage on an opening salvo is massive. The main issue is that it can't be ignored, and in a 3 player Royal Rumble (which is what we did) both other players tend to immediately gang up on you.
The IGs have been a staple for me in this format for many years as well. They are just a sick amount of reliable damage, with a stoutness to stick around and deliver it. Downside is lack of mobility while delivering the devastating 120.
Finally I thought I'd try something new. Lord Scourge has been around and can get crazy as he bounces around switching teams. His offensive output can get nutty, and him switching is always a huge risk. However the other risk is him dying before he even gets a chance to do his thing. In comes Darth Baras, giving him aggressive negotiations. Now Lord Scourge will almost for sure do his big nastiness at least once. Baras has great survivability, and a few tricks up his sleeve, but he's mainly there to keep Lord Scourge safe until he goes berserk on someone.
This tournament was solo (as opposed to team variants we've done in the past). I was faced against young Zak from NZ and Stephen Hole of IN in round 1. Zak and I went right after each other, with me leaving Bane with 20hp, and him leaving Durge with 10 hp. Stephen swoops in and snipes both kills, leaving Zak and I empty handed. Stephen went on to dominate that game, and I ended up with enough points to still make the final table as the second place finisher with the most points.
On the championship board Zak was replaced by Bryan Hole, making it the Hole brothers and me. Again they converged on Durge (can't blame them), and things didn't go how I would have liked overall, but I ended up second place in that battle too, putting me (I guess) at 2nd place overall? (It could be argued that the consolation game winner is 2nd place, but really the consolation game is only played to let those players keep playing. That said - Richard from NZ won that game, and his total points were more than mine.) Regardless - this is all just nerd quibbling - still had fun, and congrats to Bryan for winning it (no argument there).
I think if memory serves I might have played a game or 2 of something else with the core clan back in the hotel lobby after that (perhaps Custom Heros?
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223049/custom-heroes Check it out if you haven't). Then stumbled into bed at some point.
SaturdayEvent 1 - Terraforming Mars championship qualifierhttps://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars. Bright and early I woke up to participate in one small part of a massive (non-SWM) event one of the guys in our core clan was running all weekend. It's a great game which debuted in 2016, and I've played it half a dozen or so times (maybe 10?). It was one of the more popular games around since it came out, and there was much interest at Gen Con. It was one of several qualifiers for the championship. If I won the game, I would go to the semi-finals, and the winners of those 4 matches played in one final game for the championship. Well it was a good lesson on what it's like to enter a competitive tournament in a game you play casually. I don't think I made a total fool of myself, but I was clearly playing with experts. I got beat handily, even after feeling like I was putting together some nifty combos. That's ok - I still had fun, and didn't have to make the tough decision of playing in the next round and skipping my next minis event - or more minis. More minis was clearly meant to be! Since I was right next to the dealer's hall - I poked my head in for a little before I had to grab food and scoot to the next event.
Event 2 - Battle through the agesI gotta give the organizers credit on this - they put a lot of work and thought into how this tournament plays out and balance. You work through one of 4 different eras of the SWM universe: KotOR (in general Sith v OR), Clone Wars (generally Sep vs Rep), Original Trilogy (Imp vs Reb), and Expanded Universe {post RotJ era} New Republic vs Imp/Vong/Sith) advancing in chronology each round of the tournament. There were 16 epic Star Wars battles recreated. It took a minute to change thinking on how good or bad a squad was. Through the lens of the current competitive meta, many squads were crap. But they were THEMATIC crap! And the opponent's squad was more or less equally crap. As hard as it is to balance something like this - by in large it was pretty decently balanced. It was great playing some pieces that never see play.
Round 1 matchup I played Jedi Exile, Atton Rand, Mira of Nar Shadda etc VS Revanchist, Carth Onasi ORS, Zaalbar, etc. My opponent was new, and we played on wide-open Taris. Between game education and nowhere to hide (therefore slow advancement bMy my opponent) the game didn't finish. Mira's bag of tricks outclassed everything on the field, while doubling old school Atton was a cannon blowing away the enemy. 2pt win.
In my Clone Wars era battle (which ended up being the battle for 1st and second place) - TJ had RotS Anakin Sith Apprentice, Palpatine SL, and 6 royal guard. I just has the quartet of Jedi that confronted him - Mace Windu JM (RotS version, with shockwave and whirlwind attack) Spacesuit Saesee Tiin JM, and Agen Kolar JM, original Kit Fisto. The big move came when Mace went into the thick of it basing 4 enemies, ready to whirlwind them all. Whacks were traded until it came down to the last big init, which TJ won, and won him the game. Drat! 3-1 loss.
In my OT battle I ran Inquisitour, Kallus, Fifth Brother, Second Sister, etc vs the Ghost Crew. My opponent was much less experienced, and insult to injury I rolled the immediate DRK Droid reserves in the first 2 rounds in a row. I always hear the arguement that reserves squads are "fun". Not for me, even when it goes my way. Zero skill, just luck of a roll. I felt so bad for the guy, I don't think he'll ever play in a minis tournament again. 3pt win
Last round I ended up playing Cade Skywalker LotF, Jariah Sun, Delilah Blue, Shadow Van JM and Wolf Sazen JM vs (original) Krayt, Darth Nihl HoK, Darth Talon SA, Darth Maladi and a Krayt Sith Trooper. Man those Sith are scarey! Talon becomes a BEAST, and that Trooper is no joke! However Jariah and Delilah are CANNONS! I was able to spread the damage around just enough between the jedi to keep the glass cannons alive to finish him off and win the match. 3pt win
I ended up tied at 3-1 9pts with TJ, but got second due to head to head. Had I not gotten the matchup that was impossible to finish round 1, I would have ended 1st place - but that's really not how tournaments should function anyway - TJ beat me, he deserved 1st, regardless of tournament score. It was still fun to literally Battle through the Ages. Recommended event for those who haven't tried it!
Event 3 - Team TournamentI was thankful to know I wasn't going to lose to TJ on the basis of a single giant initiative roll this time, since he was my teammate! He ran: --Long-Range Kanan Cannon (2018 GenCon Team Tourney)--
51 Kanan Jarrus
43 Ahsoka Tano, Champion of the Rebellion
27 Luke Skywalker, Rebel Commando
25 Sabine Wren
20 Princess Leia
12 See-Threepio (C-3PO)
11 Jedi Holocron
9 General Dodonna
5 Killik Drone
3 Mouse Droid
(206pts. 10 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/190901/long-range-kanan-cannon--2018-gencon-team-tourney- and I ran:
--Carr Bombs 2018 (2018 Team Tournament Champion)--
34 Nom Anor
30 Supreme Overlord Quorreal
27 Lobot
19 Yomin Carr
17 Peace Brigade Soldier
15 Yammosk War Coordinator
14 Yuuzhan Vong Seer
44 Yuuzhan Vong Worker x11
(200pts. 18 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/124126/carr-bombs-2018--2018-team-tournament-champion-First we faced the Indiana boys Mike Giles and Randy. Mike had a horrendous mismatch against me since he was running ObiKin. There's nothing I like better than punishing someone for running that abomination. Mike was a good sport as always as he rolled 1 million spit poison saves, eventually failing enough to die. TJ dispatched of Randy thanks to See-threepio turning the gang cloaked all the time whenever one of Daala's troopers missed a shot.
Then we faced the (1/2 former) Michigan duo of Lou and Jason K. I had Lou, and he was running Sith. Another easy win - not so fast. He had Plageous and Vader of Scarif. I risk killing myself and blowing up everytime I damage Vader, and I was only able to spit on Plageous at all due to my +2 range extension from the seer. It took FOREVER to finally wear Plageous down (damage reduction 10!), not to mention the healing and Queen Amanoa nerfing my one attacker every round. Finally hit 200 when he was down to just Vader by trapping him in a corner with Diplomats and spinning in gambit. TJ lost in a near mirror match - but no problem, we took home the win!
Stumbled back to the hotel where the core clan where we drearily played slapshot
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1705/slapshot. It is a simple enough game, but of course we played a whole season, including trading, drafting, and the playoffs. Sleep deprivation had definitely caught up with us, we crashed hard after that.
SundayIt's typically the "wind-down" day of the con. Things finish up early afternoon and most people head home. We however, were determined to squeeze everything out of Gen Con that we could. I estimate I got around 12 hours of sleep over the 4 nights we were at Gen Con. Sleep when you're dead - there's gaming to be done! We packed up our stuff, brought it to a temporary holding room at the hotel and checked out. Then, back to Lucas Oil Field for the last time.
SWM Sealed tournamentThis is frequently one of the most anticipated events of the weekend, and with good reason. Many community volunteers carve, glue, mold and paint custom miniatures to represent all the figures in the new set (multiples of each no less). Then they are put into "booster" boxes, and each player is randomly given 2. Players open their boosters, and make the best 150pt (faction restrictions ignored) squad they can out of what's inside. I got good pulls. Here was my squad:
--2018 Gen Con Sealed - Old Folks Home--
45 Old Master, Maul
44 Old Ben Kenobi, Desert Hermit
32 Jaina Solo Fel, Jedi Master
8 Keshiri Temple Guard
8 RA–7 First Order Protocol Droid
7 Falleen Spy
6 Sith Ordnance Specialist
(150pts. 7 activations)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/192299/2018-gen-con-sealed---old-folks-homeI did pretty well until I faced Alex (Darth Newt). I was ahead, and he made a slick move I didn't know he could do at the end (it goes with the territory in sealed - you don't know your own characters, much less theirs.) He repulsed my figures with Kal Cen Darach, thus exposing my injured Obi-Wan to be taken out for the go-ahead right before the buzzer. Bah, another 2nd place finish! As always - still had fun. Alex and I drafted from another full set to get more pieces (he got 2 picks for every one of mine). I'll post pictures of the customs later. Thanks again to all the community customizers, as well as Jason, James, Laura and everyone else involved putting the event together. This is probably easily overall the most labor intensive event to put on, so they all deserve thanks. (Check out my post in the customs forum for pics!)
http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&m=234110That was it for official events, went back to the hotel to gather with the core clan and a few other friends to get some final gaming in. One group played Everdell (great reviews by all who played), but I was part of the Kung-Fu game.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13172/kung-fu-fighting. It's a light game that is a lot of fun, emulating Hong Kong Cinema style battles. Young Zak from NZ proved himself the Kung-Fu master after slowly wearing us all down to nothing.
That was it for Gen Con 2018. I dropped the Kiwis off at their hotel (they were flying back the next morning straight out of Indy), and hit the road back to Chicago. Another year, another fantastic time.