Game Time: SPOCON Results

Every community has its little convention of gamers getting together once a year. The Inland Northwest is no different and this weekend gamers from around western Washington, northern Idaho and eastern Montana gathered in Spokane for shenanigans and general merriment. Card flippers, role players, board gamers, historical and sci-fi miniature players and LARPers (the most dreaded of all geeks) all gathered to stare at each other’s silliness while other people who had the misfortune of stumbling by got to be surprised by it all.

Ummmm - where was the sign up sheet for that again?

The annual 40k tournament served as a deadline for me, a mark on the wall to finally clear off the table and get bunches of projects done. I rebased all my infantry on Jeff's bases, I rebuilt my autocannons (more on that later), finished over 30 infantry, rebuilt my command squad (again), finished veteran squads, completed another valkyrie, demolisher and even built a display board. Tons of work I had been putting off for years – not just months…

Now on to the gaming! Game one against Salamanders with Vulkan, combat squads for everything, lots of heavy weapon shots and a squad of terminators from hell. My fault I left the demolishers that close, but when he shot the gap and assaulted both of those squads the next turn I threw in the towel. I put the flame thrower squad there to block movement through the gap and die in place so that I would get one full turn of flashlights into the termies. However, he 'deftly maneuvered his troops through the confined space' *cough* *hack* *wheeze* and managed to assault both in one turn, thus ending all hope on that side. Ill make sure they are at least nine inches away next time... in other words: Loss!

Second game, Space Wolf Razorback spam with thunder wolves tossed in. This guy ended up winning the event in wins/ losses department. No real complaints with game, actually quite instructive on how not to try and defend against Razorback fury. However, the dreadnought killed both valkyrie's in hand to hand, despite moving flat out each time he caught up to them, and it whacked a demolisher. Thankfully I only had to listen to him regale everyone in the room with the story of the awesome valkyrie killing dreadnought for the next eight hours. PROTIP: when you make it to the end zone; try and act like you have been there before. In other words: Loss numero two!

Game three, space marines with bikes and drop pods, seriously my heart went out to this guy. He played like a champ and kept is chin up the entire time, I offered to buy him new dice. The command squad here trundled up onto the objective after the veterans had gone off to secure the other one, after laying waste to a dreadnought, two drop pods full of very angry marines and a razor back full of an equally angry marine and a librarian. I kinda enjoy the, 'I ain't paying to clean up this mess' feel of the photo. Biggest killer of the game was the deathwind launcher in one of those drop pods, it just wouldn't die. Whew, first win!

The fourth game I pulled the eventual winner of the sportsmanship award and it was a great game. By turn 7 we had Hydra's and Rhino's ramming each other to try and score some kill points, because we quite literally destroyed all the infantry. Epic game, great player, minor loss, major fun.

So not very good in the winning department, but that's ok. I worked very hard on getting the army ready for this event and I wanted everything to be done as well as possible. During lunch everyone put their army on display and voted for the 'player's choice' of best army at the tournament. To my great surprise won the player's choice for my humble Desert Raider army, it was a truly humbling experience to have the other players actually pic my army and I greatly appreciate their recognition.

I had two great games and two games where I wanted to ram a hot poker into my skull. But at the end of the day its not the wins or the losses that matter, I got to meet two great gamers who I will play against in the future and I got to see other guys I already knew. Which also explains why I didn't do, and won't in the future do, 'ard boyz. I am not a competitive gamer, I really don't enjoy the whole wins and losses thing. I really do it for the creative outlet and the social aspects of the game.

So for everyone there at the tournament, well done and I can't wait to play again!

Winterman, the tournament organizer, my hats off to you my friend, great missions, great organization, great event, great job keeping the LARP people away from our tables and great job avoiding security while they tried to get you for not having a badge!

still practicing_

Tallarn