Wargamescon 2011 Feedback Thread

[Wildeyedjester]

Overall it was a great 3 days of wargaming! Me and the guys cant wait to make a return trip next year!

Things done well:
Registration and list pick up was smooth and painless.
The schedules outlined in the packets were adhered to.
Lots of staff and judge presence on the floor.
The terrain at the tables was great.
Matches were up in timely manners.
Great missions Which were much more straight forward than years prior.
Badges were beyond awesome.
Signs made it clear when things were happening.

Areas for improvement:
Consistency - rules - in the forums a response from jwolf said prior to doubles you could not join ICs from one book to another army. It was allowed at tourney in some cases.
Consistency - length of games - dice down means dice down. Not only did it affect table one, but also other random tables. A buddy disembarked a unit on objectives with 5 minutes remaining. A judge came by and told them to play another round. Squad was killed off and he lost due to judge orders. He could have just stayed embarked if he had known the dice down rules were not being followed.
Time/points limit - one needs to change. Too many games were over or down to the line on finishing.
Swag Bags - what happened?
2 buddies had to play each other in round three after a 12 hour ride together. They asked the head table for a change and were told no.

Again - just some thoughts. You all did a fantastic job and this is one of the best events out there! I felt like it improved from last year and I cant wait to see whats in store for next time!

[RealGenius]

Thanks for your feedback; good info in there.

Consistency - rules - in the forums a response from jwolf said prior to doubles you could not join ICs from one book to another army. It was allowed at tourney in some cases.

Team tournament rules are tricky because of all the special cases. I think we need to better consolidate the forum answers into a FAQ that players can consult and judges can reference during the event.

Time/points limit - one needs to change. Too many games were over or down to the line on finishing.

I've heard talk that this will be changed (but I'm not involved with such things), because slow play can be used to make the last turn more predictable allowing some players to "game" the game length. After three years, some people just aren't used to playing in a reasonable amount of time.

If it does change, I do hope we keep one "Speed Round" because 2000 pts in 2 hours is an Austin institution.

2 buddies had to play each other in round three after a 12 hour ride together. They asked the head table for a change and were told no.

This is my fault and I apologize. I even made a husband and wife play each other that round.

This was the first year using a new computerized scoring system and, at the time, it only had the capability for one sort and one exclusion. In the first round players were excluded such that adjacent zip codes would not play against each other. In the second through fourth rounds players were paired by battle points and only previous opponents were excluded. There were enough people that it didn't happen very often (probably less than 10 problem pairings in over 500 for Sat and Sun alone), but it still did happen.

Sometimes it did happen, because people put in their correct zip codes, but because they know other players from much different zip codes. Next year there will be additional exclusion criteria. First will be a team, club or group name, so that people from different areas can exclude each other by giving the same club name.

There might also be an exclusion based on the army you are playing, so that you don't play against the same army (or perhaps some other match-up like GK vs. Daemons in the first round).

Previously the computerized scoring system hadn't been used to score a tournament before, so I'm happy that it worked well, for the most part. It will continue to improve each year and hopefully we can prevent situations like you describe in the future.

[UglyKat]

I've made every Bolscon/Wargamescon so far, and this one was the best. I missed the swag of course (especially after the first year, where I took home literally bags of stuff), but it's not like I need any more miniatures weighting down my shelves

My only complaint is that i've been depressed all week now that it's over

[Jwolf]

Swag is a very hit-or-miss proposition, since it is based on what comes in the mail from companies. This year we got mostly promotional materials and complete boxes of stuff, so we just gave away a lot of complete boxes (over 60 small boxes and a few larger ones) and made the promotionals available to grab. I have someone ready to start pushing for swag for next year, so I hope to give you giant bags of goodies again. This year larger numbers of raffles seemed like the best way to distrubute loot, and every player I spoke with agreed that a chance at a full box was better than half a sprue of something they might not need.

See you next time, UK.

[UglyKat]

Thanks JWolf. After a trip to Great Hall Games, Dragon's Lair AND Half-Price books my wife would have pooped a kitten if I had brought any more crap back to the hotel room anyway!

[silashand]

If it does change, I do hope we keep one "Speed Round" because 2000 pts in 2 hours is an Austin institution.

Perhaps, but I must confess that was the one thing I didn't like about the event.

Cheers, Gary

[KINGS]

I played in the 40k Team event and then the Narrative Anti-Tournament which was an absolute blast! Really nothing at all to complain about. Three Apoc games that went 3 turns and a fourth that went so long I had to leave before it was over! haha

The only thing I would say needs an adjustment is the Team Army Comp. As in, teams should be encouraged somehow to be constructed from two different codexes. Rounds one and two my teammate and I played against mirror armies (two identical 1000 point armies making up a 2000pt team). This meant maxed out 6 identical Heavy Choices or 6 maxed out identical Elite choices. Neither army was particularly devastating to fight against; it's just when you face off against 30 Long Fang missiles you roll your eyes or 36 Fiends your butt starts to hurt! ( I should note that my Team included SIX Daemonic Monstrous Creatures perhaps I should shut my hole).

Additionally, the year before I played against a duel Blood Angel’s army where one person took all Death Company while the other player took a mixture of other units (Scoring units lol). This was fine and a lot of fun to play against so maybe my above observation was atypical…

[AngelsofDeath]

I had heard and read reviews that this was a great event and have tried to attend for the last three years and this was the first year I was able to attend.

No matter where you go or what you do I think people can find good and bad in anything. Add in so many people and time limits to follow and problems can just multiply over and over. But one thing you cant fake or make up for is a person actually caring.

I introduced myself to Jwolf first thing Saturday morning and he handed me my printed copies of my army list. And from that point forward he called me by my name for the rest of the event. With at least 200+ people he remembered my name... I dont have purple hair.... I am only 6ft tall.... I didnt wear a any special clothes or hats.... And feel I am pretty average. But he remembered and that counted more in my book.

Thanks for caring to put on a great event and meaning it.

[Wildeyedjester]

Oh! I thought of another like to see!

Any chance we can get the rules quiz and answers posted?

Cheers!