Denver Comic Con 2012

I am finally getting to sit down and work on this blog entry. It has been a while since I have posted anything it seems, so I know I need to get back on the horse.  So here we go...

The Denver Comic Con (@DenverComicCon) was held in Denver from 15 Jun until 17 Jun.  We arrived on Friday after waiting for an exterminator to stop by the house.  Well he did not show up during the 2 hour window.  So we decided to say screw it, called up the company to cancel the appointment, and head on up to Denver.

Day 1 - We arrived at our hotel (Denver Hyatt Regency) and were very happy with what we saw.  The first thing I noticed was that the gaming activities were being held in our hotel.  This would have been made better if there was going to be some Warmachine/Hordes gaming going on, but I took care of that for next year (more on this later).  You could see the convention center from our room, and once we had settled in, we walked over to the convention center.  We decided not to get into costumes that night since we would not be over there very long.

Upon entering the convention center, we were greeted by a friendly faced volunteer who immediately asked up how they could help us.  We asked where the VIP registration was, and she gladly told us exactly where to go.  Now I know this seems mostly normal, but I think it is important to point out that all of the volunteers (except one I will discuss later) were extremely friendly and helpful.  The organizers did a great job of making sure people were in the right places and that they had all very friendly volunteers.  Helping people in this type of venue cannot be done by just anyone and I was happy to meet all of them.  Once we got into the main area, we were greeted by some people already in costume.  Members of the 501st Mountain Legion who wore some great Star Wars costumes.  We took a walk around the center and really liked how the organizers laid out the booths and areas.  My wife thought the full size TARDIS was great as she is a big Dr. Who fan.  When we got to celebrity row, we noticed it was almost empty, but were pleasantly surprised to find Colin Ferguson (@colinferg) star of the SyFy series Eureka.  Since Wil Wheaton (@wilw) dropped out of the convention (DAMN YOU WIL WHEATON!!!) Colin Ferguson was easily the person we wanted to see most there.  My wife and I are both big Eureka fans and so this was great for both of us.  He was really nice, and it was amazing to see how happy and kind he was.  Almost the same exact bubbly personality he has on the show.  This was a great experience for both of us.

After some more walking around, it was getting late and we had to get the kids some sleep.  So we headed back to hotel in great anticipation for the next day.

Day 2 - Well it was time to get dressed up.  After a wonderful breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we got dressed in our outfits.  We decided to go basic but fun for this comic con since it was really our first.  Our son dressed up as Captain America, our daughters were fairies, and my wife and I dressed as F-302 pilots from Stargate.  We were able to get the patches over Ebay and got the Velcro done thanks to a great company call Thomas Name Tags (http://www.thomastags.com/)  We had the flight suits from our time in the Air Force, so this was easy and fun.

We ventured off to the convention.  We had a great time while in the convention.  We saw lots of great costumes, met a bunch of people, and saw some of the most creative and spectacular artistic work I have ever seen.  We ran across a group of other people dressed in gear from Stargate and decided to get a photo of all of us together.

Following this, it was nap time for the kids.  So we walked out of the convention center for much needed rest.  After a couple of hours, we went back to the convention center, we ran into a familiar face.  It was some guy dressed in a very awesome Captain America costume.  My son thought it was the real Captain America.  It made it so happy to see him, my son ran up and gave him a big hug.  It caused me to tear up a bit because to my son, he was meeting one of his heroes.

Once we got back inside, we went and checked out who was in Celebrity Row.  First I feel really bad because we missed a chance to meet with Tom Kane.  Although I knew he had done voices for the Transformer series (one of my favorite) but he also did voices on Next Avengers which is one of my son's favorite movies.  If I would have put 2 and 2 together, I would have brought the DVD and asked him to sign it.  Regardless, the next person we met was someone we also both looked forward to meeting.  Aaron Douglas (@theaarondouglas), who we knew from Battlestar Galactica and Stargate.  The first thing I noticed was that Aaron had a picture of him and Wil Wheaton.  I had no idea of their past together, but I took it as a chance to pull out the #VandalEyes to take a picture (with permission of course from Mr. Douglas).  I have traded occasional #VandalEyes tweets with Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl) and Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) and I thought that this was the culmination of all the hard work trying to find the perfect place for #VandalEyes.  Here it is:

Meeting Mr. Douglas was great and here is the picture we got of my wife and him.

What happened next will be one of those events that I will always remember.  We walked around and I noticed a booth that identified Allen Bellman who was one of the original artists on Captain America.  Although he was selling some of his works, I walked over to the people with him and asked if it was possible for me to get him to sign my son's Captain America shield.  Although I know my son didn't realize the significance of this, I started tearing up seeing this very important person in the comic book world sign the shied and pose with my son for a couple of photos.  I will never forget this as it will always hold a special place in my heart.

It was a short time after this that we heard Stan Lee will be at next year's Denver Comic Con.  So we are planning to bring the shield back to get his signature on it as well.  Until then, it will hang on my son's wall.

After coloring some shields, and face painting, we got in line for our picture with James Marsters (who was really nice when we met him for both his autograph and the picture), we ran into Thor and Sif.  My son, a huge Avengers fan if you could not tell, thought this was great.

Some other stuff happened that I won't go into great detail.  Meeting Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan, and getting them to autograph the same picture, was another highlight of the day.  No pictures from this, but we had a nice conversation with both of them.  After some more walking around, we decided to go get some dinner.  While at dinner we saw the folks from IBOTKS http://www.facebook.com/IBOTKS which put together awesome Iron Man looking cosplay outfits.  They had a Iron Man, War Machine, Captain America (more like Iron Patriot but we won't get into that) and actually now that I am thinking about it, they would pass for the robot Avengers from the Next Avengers movie I talked about earlier.  Either way, my son was really excited so I got at few pictures.

Day 3 - We went back on Sunday, not in costume, and walked around some more.  We purchased each of the kids a stuffed "squishy" toy, and took some more pictures with stuff we had missed earlier.  It was much quieter than Saturday, but a really nice time to just chill and relax.  We went and said goodbye to Colin Ferguson, which was nice.  We picked up some pictures we had taken, and proceeded to head back to the hotel and head home.

Final Thoughts - The Denver Comic Con was a great experience.  The VIP tickets we purchased were well worth the cost, and the people we met there were great.  I won't go into the details about the one bad apple that we met there because it could just have been the case of poor planning.  The basics of it was bad planning for the lines to take pictures Saturday with James Marsters, and how they split the lines.  When I explained the error in the logic the volunteer was using in how she had people get in line, I was met with a blank face.  Once one of the organizers came over and asked me what was going on (presumably she had said something to have them come over)  he listen to what I had to say, and proceeded to fix the problem.  

This was one of the best experiences of this sort I have ever had, and I really appreciate all of the hard work the organizers put into getting the event going.  Over 20,000 people attended which was pretty amazing considering there was not a huge amount of advertising.  I think with the involvement I have seen in the Twitter and Blogging community, and the additional help they will get next year, it should be able to be twice as big.  I have already volunteered to help organize and run a gaming event for them, so I hope to be involved more hands on next year.  See you all there next year!!

3 Things I Wish I Had Known

3 things you wish you had known when you first started playing Warmachine / Hordes

1. Which armies were the best to learn the game - Having played WHF and WH40k for a few years, I never really looked into any other tabletop games.  I knew of the existence of Warmachine, but never thought of checking it out.  The first army I picked was Retribution.  I picked them because I had played the Tau in WH40k and really like the futuristic look of the warjacks.  I did not realize that Retribution was one of the latest army to be release and would be very difficult to learn.  It also did not help that the main army I would face for a long time in my meta was Legion.  I won very few games while losing many to an overpowering army.  It was this reason I switched to Circle.  Although Circle is not near as easy to win with as Legion, it has epic casters and a better set of tools to learn from.  It was interesting to switch from Focus to Fury, but I found that the Fury mechanic fit better to my play style.  I was also able to blame myself for loses much more readily than I would with Retribution.

2. The existence of the deathclock and scenarios - When I started playing, my meta only played open time games and caster kills.  Since I had started with Retribution, this caused me a lo of frustration trying to figure out how to get a enemy army's caster with the tools in the Retribution army.  Part of this also included my need to better understand the overall game.  I have found that with scenarios, kill zone, and scenarios, the game allowed for me to use more thank one strategy and left my opponent guessing as to whether I was going to the scenario win or a kill.  It was before this that I switched over to Circle, and I found really enjoyed the game since.  I still have Retribution and plan to play it again eventually, but I have been having too much fun with Circle to worry about trying again yet.

3. The types of gameplay available - Only in the last few months my meta has been enjoying playing mini tournaments on our own.  Lately it has been grow league play starting with 15 point and then 25 and 35.  This way of playing has helped me to get a better understanding of each of the Circle warcasters.  By playing multiple people with the same list while that list grows to include more and more models, really helps you gain a better understanding of each of their strengths and weaknesses.  It also lets you test out caster with different jacks and beast to see which combinations have the best synergy.  This would be much more difficult with Warhammer given the game and list mechanics.  I have had a lot of fun while learning this game, it just took a few months to really see how much fun it is, and how much I would enjoy it more than those "other" games.

Modeling: Gorax Complete

Well, it is great to be back from  a long break.  I have a  lot of blog posts to work on, so I thought I would throw this one out there since it has been a bane in my life recently.  This model is the Circle of Orboros Gorax model.  My first impression of this model is that is looks like a feral Donkey Kong.  I was seriously looking for a toy barrel to in his hands.  I did not get any pre-painting pictures of this model so I will just use the post-painting pictures throughout this blog.  

The model arrived pretty clean, without taking much cleanup of model.  The first thing you might notice is that the model is leaning way forward.  Now while this might seem like a great design based on the Gorax's story line and abilities, it made it a pain to put together.  The rock, rope, and main model are three separate pieces and they do not line up very well.  It took multiple attempts to get everything to work together.  While I am happy that I got it all together, that was when I noticed the model was very top heavy.  This causes the model to fall forward quite often, which makes playing with the model difficult.  I plan on gluing some metal pieces under the back of the base to help make it stay upright better.

I am not particularly happy with my painting of this model.  I believe that this model will finally push me to start into the adventure of air brushing my models.  I have found that my mixing of colors did not really give me the coloring affects that I was looking for. One of the changes I made to my coloring scheme was the graying of the hair bundles.  I had been using a darker brown (brown/black mix) and wanted to try something different.  Although I am not sold on the look yet, I think it is closer to what I am looking for in the warbeast's look.

At the time I took these pictures there were some painting issues that I have since fixed.  I got some of the white used to grey there hair on the base and the model's leg.  This helped me work on my technique so that I could make sure it did not happen again.  I did a lot of paint mixing on this model to achieve slight differences in the colors used on the body.  Although it did not have the affect I wanted, I see the benefits of expanding my paint collection and changing some of my techniques.  It is not showcase ready, but I am happy with it for now for table top.  With the amount of models I still have to paint, this one will have to sit for a while and wait for clean up.

  

 So I am on the the next model, which should be Megalith.  I am really looking forward to working on that model since it has some nice designs.  I am also going to start working on video blogs and model reviews to help fill the void now that I am re motivated to get this blog going.  I make no claims that I am professional at painting these models.  I believe that my technique and creativity have been increasing as I go and hope one day to be able to really produce high quality models.  More to come....

2012 Journeyman Tournament Results

There are in reverse order with the newest matches on top.  These are just summaries and not fully detailed battle reports.

Round 2 - Game 1 (Circle vs Cygnar)

The addition to make my round 2 army was a Gorax.  My opponent added a Sentinal.  Cygnar is the army that scares me the most in this tournament, and this battle proved to me that it was not by chance.  The layout had two forests with an open area in the center.  This made it tough trying to corner my opponent while still providing some protection by the forests.  I was able to get an angle and the distance to get close to his group with a charge by an Argus on his Lancer and then Spirit Door'd in.  But having done very little damage to the Lancer, the turn just got me in close but not close enough.  My opponent proceeded to Earthquake my group at the beginning of his turn, stood his guys up, and proceeded to woop up on me.  I was able to get my other argus next to his caster as well as my caster, but I left too much room and he was able to kill me with his heavy that he squeezed in behind her.  Overall my opponent played very well and left me with a huge need to strategize better to face him next round.


Round 1 - Game 4 (Circle vs Cygnar)

This was a really tough game.  The ending was a little goofy as my opponent forgot for the third turn in a row to use his feat.  I offered to let him do it each time, and he turned it down each time.  After killing my Feral and one of my Argus, I was able to directly attack pStryker with pKaya (got there with Spirit Door again before that Argus died) and was able to get him to about 6 damage boxes left.  Knowing I would die next turn, I took my last Argus and had him move from combat with one of the Impalers to attack pStryker with a boosted Combo Strike, and was able to finish pStryker off.  It also helped that pKaya rolled a crit on one of her attack allowing me to not have to boost the attack roll for the combo strike.  Another challenging game.


Round 1 - Game 3 (Circle vs Trolls)

Another really close game.  I was able to do a couple of new things against this army since it was the first Hordes army that I have faced.  I was able to use Baying of Chaos once with the Feral and twice with pKaya to cause my opponent to only have 1 fury for his second turn.  This allowed me to get my beasts into a decent position.  Everything went to hell two turns later as he killed one of my Argus and my Feral. With one Argus left, I stepped out to in view of pMadrak and casted Spirit Fang a couple of times to kill him. Next turn, he was sure to kill my last Argus or just kill pKaya, so I felt this was just the luck of the dice again.

Round 1 - Game 2 (Circle vs Khador)

I was really afraid of this battle.  Although the Khador battlebox does not really have much synergy, the pSorscha is an assassin and the with 2 heavy jacks, easily out-powers my army.  I definitely won by the luck of the dice.  I was able to get one of my Argus behind his jacks and near the warcaster.  I brought pKaya and the Feral over to him with Spirit Door.  Knowing that Kaya would have a hard time killing pSorscha, he came in and tried to kill the Feral with her.  He was 1 dmg away from killing him.  I believe he had also killed both of my Argus, or very close that turn.  The Feral survived and I rolled really well and killed her.  Although it took all of my possible attacks as boosting to do it.  It was a fun and exciting game and was the first real time I was able to execute the Spirit Door assassination somewhat correctly.

Round 1 - Game 1 (Circle vs Menoth)

This was my first battle of the tournament and it was a very good learning experience for me.  Although I have played a few battle box matches, this one felt different since it was part of the journeyman tournament.  It has been a little bit of a while since this match, just over a week, but I remember I was trying to get into position to Spirit Door.  One the turn before, I was able to get off a few casts of Spirit Fang.  I then used pKaya's feat to reload.  I learned from this that I have to make sure I leave enough fury on my beasts to be sure I can get them next turn.  I only left myself with three fury for the next turn.  After  casting I then Spirit Door'd to the caster.  I then was able to spirit door the Feral over and kill the caster the next turn.  The Feral had almost died as well as one of the Argus.  I got lucky with being able to get rid of the fire damage before it did too much to my force.  A well played game by my opponent and I got lucky with dice rolls to win.