M.A.R.S. at Mechanicon Multi-Day NHSD Event: Updated

[spidysox]

M.A.R.S. (Mid-Atlantic Region Scapers) will be hosting events at this years Mechanicon!

When:
November 4-6

Where:
Days Hotel, West Chester PA

Hotel info for those thinking of spending the night:

Spoiler Alert!

Here is the information for the Days Hotel:
Rooms are available with a group discount rate of $89 plus tax. To receive the group rate for hotel rooms, call the Days Hotel at 610-692-1900 and mention the code “MechaniCon Conference”. Any cancellations of reservations within 24 hours from the date of arrival will be billed for one (1) night’s room and tax

Update 9/2/2011

Event Schedule and Specifics:

Friday, Nov 4, 5pm - 9pm - Assassin's Guild: Players bring a pre-drafted 450 point Heroscape army containing at least one unique/uncommon hero, no Marvel. Army cannot exceed 24 hexes. Each player must also bring one Brandar's Chest glyph that will be given to a hero in that player's army at the start of the game. A player wins the game immediately if he or she controls both Brandar's Chest glyphs at the end of any turn; eliminating an opposing army will still result in a victory as normal. Four matches of 50 minutes.

Saturday, Nov 5, 10am - 2pm - General Wars: Players bring a pre-drafted 400 point Heroscape army, no Marvel. Army cannot exceed 24 hexes. All Army Cards MUST be from the same Valkyrie General. Valkrill units will be classified as Utgar for this event. Four matches of 50 minutes.

Saturday, Nov 5, 4pm - 9pm - MARS Throwdown: This will be our Mechanicon Championship Event. Players bring a pre-drafted 520 point Heroscape army, no Marvel. Army cannot exceed 24 hexes. Five matches of 50 minutes.

Sunday, Nov 6, 10am - 3 pm - Heroes Only: Players bring a pre-drafted 550 point Heroscape army that does not include squad units. Marvel allowed. Army cannot exceed 12 hexes. Five matches of 50 minutes.

List of Attendee's as of 10/1/2011

Spoiler Alert!

Friday:
mad_wookiee
Jay
tom
Northgate
Justine
Mason
Johngee
Arcus
grunttactics
Jakall
Civil War Dude
Filthy the Clown

Saturday:
mad_wookiee
Jay
Dad_scaper
Kidscaper
tom
Northgate
Justine
Mason
clancampbell
xanth
spidysox
Johngee
Arcus
TheEpicLlama
TheEpicAlpaca
grunttactics
barry
ed
eric
Jakall
Civil War Dude
Filthy the Clown
Scooter 72
Romanus
Romanus Little Brother

Sunday:
mad_wookiee
Jay
tom
Northgate
Justine
Mason
clancampbell
xanth
spidysox
Johngee
Arcus
grunttactics
Jakall
Civil War Dude
Filthy the Clown

Maps:
The map list is done!

Spoiler Alert!

Hellsgate


Sidewinder


Jungle Wall


Badru Valley


Umbra


Sirocco


Blackroot


Overgrown


Katsuno Land (Swamp)


Boiling Point

Glyph Info:
Treasure glyphs will be played power side up, no traps. Glyphs will only be used on maps with designated glyph locations.

Glyphs Being Used:

Spoiler Alert!

Heroic Rune: This figure adds 1 additional attack die when making a normal attack.
Talisman of Defense: This figure adds 1 additional defense die when defending.
Potion of Healing: This figure may drink this potion after revealing an order marker on its Army Card. Remove up to 3 wound markers from that figure’s Army Card.
Elixir of Speed: This figure may drink this elixir before moving. This figure adds 4 to its Move value this turn.
Ring of Protection: This figure may use this ring after an opponent has rolled attack dice for a normal or special attack against it, and before rolling defense dice. When rolling defense dice against that attack, this figure adds 3 additional dice.
Whetstone of Venom: This figure may use this whetstone before rolling attack dice for a normal attack against an adjacent figure. If that attack inflicts at least 1 wound, you may add 2 additional wound markers to the defending figure's army card.
Bracers of Teleportation: This figure may use these bracers before moving. Instead of moving normally, you may place this figure on any same-level space(s) within 10 spaces of its current location. If this figure is engaged when it starts to teleport, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.
Cloak of Invisibility: This figure may use this cloak at any point during its turn. This figure has no visible Hit Zones until the end of the current round or until it attacks with a normal or special attack, whichever comes first. This figure will never take any leaving engagement attacks while invisible.
Belt of Giant Strength: This figure may use this belt before rolling attack dice for a normal attack against an adjacent figure. This figure adds 2 additional dice when attacking with a normal attack this turn.
Brooch of Shielding: This figure is never attacked when leaving an engagement.
Scarab of Invulnerability: This figure may use this scarab whenever it receives one or more wounds. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-15, ignore one of the wounds just received. If you roll a 16 or higher, ignore all wounds just received.
Giant Hunter Stone: This figure rolls an additional die when attacking or defending against large or huge figures.
Revenant’s Tome: This figure may use this tome after revealing an order marker on its Army Card. Before taking that turn with this figure, Place one previously destroyed Unique figure from your Army onto any empty space(s) within 5 clear sight spaces of this figure. Immediately make a normal attack with the placed figure, then immediately destroy the placed figure. While the placed figure is on the board consider all of its special powers to be negated. The placed figure is considered to have a life of 1, and is not affected by any special powers on any Army Card or Glyph while on the board.

Prize Support:
Mad_Wookiee has already made contact with Rÿchean concerning support for this event. He has confirmed that all events with at least 12 registered will recieve support.

It looks like the awesome dice that Mad_wookiee was looking into are a no go. Unfortunately the price was not coming out right and they were just getting too expensive.

[Dad_Scaper]

Great idea, Spidy.

For now this is what's written very faintly, in pencil, for me:

10/1 NHSD event in Savage

Then Dragonslayer2 was proposing something in mid October.

Then mad_wookiee was looking into doing something at Mechanicon in West Chester in early November as a multi-day event.

That works fine for me, as I said I'd try to bring the kid up for one long day at Mechanicon.

I can't speak for what the Savage crew might think of a multi-day event. Many of those guys are driven by their parents & they may just not be available for more than one day, and others are coming from Northern Virginia (crichton) or the Naval Academy (wxkevin) and I don't know what they'd do.

The big question marks for me would be shaugville, gurei-ornery, and aliasqtip. Maybe Lamaclown would be able to come out of hibernation for this event? The kids & friend I normally travel with would probably not be available for a full weekend. Except maybe one of the kids. The others I don't think could be separated from their families that long.

I don't know how much any of that thinking-out-loud changes, whether the multi-day event is in northern Maryland or West Chester.

What I'd love to see, like I said in the other thread, is one long day on a Saturday. Start in the morning, go until early evening. Not just 'Scape tournament, of course. That might pull some in some more of the southern Maryland crew, too.

[Johngee]

Yes indeed... "Great idea, Spidy"

Dad_Scaper's NHSD event in Savage, MD on 10/01 ...

Dragonslayer2's NHSD event in Vineland, NJ or Pitman, NJ mid-October ...

Mad_Wookiee's post-NHSD event at MechaniCon in West Chester, PA (or could that possibly be in Mechanicsburg, PA) early-November ...

I doubt that I would be able to make it to all three, BUT all three are certainly do-able for me as one-day OR overnight events, with priority going to support DS2's, only because it's closer to my new home in Cape May (45 min. vs. 2-3 hours). Besides, I should have some of my HS unpacked by late September, if my situation continues to improve during the summer.

I like the idea of a multi-day event. I wish that I could convince one of the casinoes in Atlantic City to sponsor a NHSD tournament by providing a conference room with tables to game on and room-service for the over-nighters. I wouldn't mind having the entire action televised so that serious gamblers could watch the combative competitions taking place, see the stats unfold after each round, cheer for their favorites, and bet real money on the potential outcome. I'm thinking maybe 1,000 point armies playing ten games with a nice prize going to the first person to achieve a 10,000 point total score... LOL sorry I couldn't resist expressing my secret desires for an NHSD tourney, it's just my wildest dream.

[DragonSlayer2]

ALRIGHT!! my event gets priority from Johngee ...lol. I must say having an event in AC like that would be fun/interesting. You should look into that Johngee....who knows, maybe itll turn into some crazy knew event for the casion....LOL

As for me, I am looking at holding the event in Vineland, NJ at Game Time Hobbies. I think an unofficial date right now would be Oct 15...that would be the 3rd weekend in Oct. A possible format I am thinking of is team matches, general specific. (each team member can have a different general) something like 350-400points. You can either choose your teammate before the event...or be randomly matched with someone day of. Thoughts on a format like that???

[tom]

Originally Posted by DragonSlayer2

As for me, I am looking at holding the event in Vineland, NJ at Game Time Hobbies. I think an unofficial date right now would be Oct 15...that would be the 3rd weekend in Oct. A possible format I am thinking of is team matches, general specific. (each team member can have a different general) something like 350-400points. You can either choose your teammate before the event...or be randomly matched with someone day of. Thoughts on a format like that???

Here are the problems that I have with team events:
1) The amount of players must be in multiples of four. For example, if 16 players show up, then that is great because you have 8 teams of 2. What happens when you get 19 people who want to play, though? Do those 3 extra people get excluded? What happens if you get 16 players to commit ahead of time and just one person can't make it on the actual day of the tournament?
2) The other problem is that team games take longer to play than 1v1. There would most likely be less rounds in a 2v2 event as opposed to a 1v1.

As for the multi-day HS event, I am all for it. I would love to see it paired up with an already established convention (Mechanicon sounds great to me) to give people the opportunity to spend the night(s) if they wished. Gaming until the wee hours of the morning is awesome. I also think that there should be several events that are independent from one another. That way the people who choose not to attend the entire convention can still participate.

[DragonSlayer2]

Hmm.....those are some good points Tom. So, I wont use that format for NHSD. However, I would still enjoy perhaps a casual game day where we could do something like that. I rarely get to play 2v2. or every man for himself. (that might make a fun tournament format...last man standing)

[Johngee]

YES, TOM made some excellent points about pairing players at our tournaments. Everyone comes to PLAY and no one wants to be the one left out of a round ("drawing the bye") even if it advances their standing with a WIN, but we all accept it as necessary when there's an ODD number of participants (unless of course CC has set up a 3-Way Map to cover that contingency).

YEAH, ... I'd be up for a Casual [LOCAL] Game Day ("Play Date") for 4, 6, or 8 players. In conversations with fellow League of Extraordinary Heroscapers Master Fallow, I got the impression that he has a similar format in mind for team play ...AS SOON AS... he remodels his basement into the quintessential game room extraodinaire. I also have multiple copies of two Richard Borg games that I've been wanting to try out as a Team Event with at least four, preferably 6 players. They are the medieval-fantasy themed "BattleLore" and the American Civil War themed "Battle Cry." They're *NOT* HeroScape, but at least they both have miniature soldiers, hexes, a dynamic modular terrain system.

One final point about multiplayer games: Personnally I hate the usually clock-wise routine of "I go, you go, he goes, she goes, then [FINALLY] me again...," because it is painfully SLOOOOOOOWWW. With three players it's NOT so bad, but four... OMG! Therefore I suggest and encourage Team Turns, as if two, three, (or maybe even four if the table was big enough) Captains for the same General were launching simutaneous attacks along a broad front, such as the entire length of an 8' table. And IF an ODD number of players show up, just divide the TOTAL ARMY's point value by the number of players on the team; i.e. a 3 vs. 2 game might be Jandar: 500 pts., Einar: 500 pts., and Ullar: 500 pts. VS. Utgar: 750 pts. and Vydar: 750 pts. - both sides have 1,500 pts. divided evenly between the players. Just the humble opinion (two cents) of an old grognard, MI specialist, and amateur historian who's accustomed to traditional War Games and army maneuvers.

[Dad_Scaper]

I've cleared the 10/1 date with the shop and it looks like it works on the 'Scaper family calendar, so that date is a little closer to real.

Also we should be able to come for a super long day at a "major" event...

[mad_wookiee]

I've gotten confirmation from the Mechanicon folks that they're interested in having us. We need to work out the details but as of right now it's looking promising. I also checked in with Rÿchean and we should be ok to get NHSD prize support for the event.

More info as I get it.

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by mad_wookiee

<~snip~>
. . . More info as I get it . . .
<~snip~>

For starters... why don't you shed a little light on us uninformed plebians and explain WHAT IS a "Mechanicon" and WHERE / WHEN is it going to be held. Can you provide a <hot-link> to the actual event or re-direct me to the appropriate previous post, if I missed something in the translation. Tanks for your support!

[mad_wookiee]

Tom posted the link earlier:
Mechanicon

It's held in West Chester; this is the third year running. They're a big Games Workshop group but there are other events as well, including Privateer Press (and if there's MonPoc on the agenda, then I'll suddenly have a bit of a tough decision on my hands ).

My main reason for wanting to look into something like this is that we've been saying for such a long time that we'd love to have the opportunity to do something bigger than we've done before. This would give us the space to do it. I think we could easily run multiple events, maybe one on Friday, a couple on Saturday, and something on Sunday as well, if there's interest in doing so. And it could be structured in such a way that whoever wants to play in all of the events can, and whoever wants to come for one day or one event can do that too. I'm supposed to get on the phone with them this week and talk logistics.

[spidysox]

In case anyone is wondering, I do intend to update the op with whatever info I can when I get the chance. Life has gotten in the way of a lot of things lately and scape is most definately one of them.