Gencon 2008 Picture Report

Earlier this week Truth asked me if I could put together a picture report on Gencon. How do you say no to the guy who does so much for the Heroscape community? Well, you don't, so here goes.

First a little background. Last year (2007) was the first year I went to Gencon. You would think living 15 miles from downtown Indianapolis, I would have gone before. But I thought it was just a bunch of "game geeks" and I wouldn't really fit in. Hahn talked me into going last year. I only bought a one day ticket (for Thursday). I took a lot of pictures of the previews of wave 8, AA, and TJ (see: Retlaw's 2007 Gencon Picts ), met some of the scapers from the site, stood in line to got a Woo, and overall enjoyed the day. I didn't play any games, but did watch several.

This year, I bought the 4 day ticket and when Grungebob asked for volunteers, I signed up to work Thu, Fri, and Sat mornings. Can you think of a better way to get to meet a lot of fellow scapers and have some fun? It also allowed me to take a lot of pictures. Of course, I'm not a professional photographer, so there were only a handful of "good" ones. Well enough of the "chit chat" -- on to some pictures.

All of the pictures have been posted on the forum before. A lot are mine, but some were taken by GaryLASQ and I even used one of Cleon's pictures. Also, since there was nothing new at the WotC boot, the pictures were mainly of scapers having fun in the tournaments.

Thursday: I took pictures of Dragon Wars, General Wars, and Damnation Alley, but the best that day was my "exclusive" pictures of the elusive "Agent Bunjee"


Here are a couple Dragon War picture -- these games were really interesting. You would see several different strategies (one I didn't expect was bringing Shades), and several games came down to dragon vs dragon fighting it out.




The General Wars is one my son really wanted to be in, but schools in central Indiana started up the same week as Gencon. Here are a couple of pictures from General Wars:




And just for good measure, here is one Damnation Alley picture from Thursday -- is the Rev trying to save some of his fellow scapers from damnation? Nah... just having some fun.


Friday morning started off with Onacara entertaining us with what he would do if he won the lottery among other things. By the way, Onacara really loves the "rimshot" smiley. For those who don't know him, Onacara is the one on the right make the flamboyant hand gestures.


Friday also was the start of the 2-day Heroscape Championship. This was for the "good" players (ruled me out), for players who "think they are good" (might be me), and those who just say "what the heck and give it a try" (that would be me). There were a lot of great games in these rounds (at least according to the war stories I was hearing about them). Here are just a few pictures from Day 1 games:







Of course Friday was also the day Grundgebob put me in charge of Damnation Alley (Thursday I helped with Dragon Wars), so here is another Damnation Alley picture:



One more from Friday -- since several people had asked for pictures of the WotC Heroscape display -- here it is.



Not much -- oh, the did have SotM and Marvel masterset boxes on a shelf behind the counter also.

On to Saturday. Apparently, I did so good at running Damnation Alley on Friday, that they put me on it again Saturday. Saturday was day 2 of the Heroscape Championship. Here are a few pictures of the games and also the prizes:





And the Championship Game



(Is that a Risk Black Ops I see?)

Saturday also had the "Power of One" Marvel hero games. Your army had to have one marvel hero. Here is a picture from those games and the trophy/prizes





Saturday seemed to be the busiest day at the game tables. Here are some more pictures of various games in action. You never know who you might see playing a game.







Of course, what would a day be without at least one Damnation Alley Picture:



Sunday -- the last day. The lack of sleep was starting to show on some people, but they still were having fun (when they could stay awake). Sunday had the Unique Hero and Mindshackle tournaments (and of course more Damnation Alley, but hey I wasn't running it Sunday -- I had left that day open).

First a couple of Unique Hero pictures.




(someone doesn't want it known they were at gencon)

And the prizes:


Here is on from the Mind Shackle tournament. Object was to destroy or take control of your opponents "mind shackler" figure.



The prizes:


A special thanks go out to these two guys.


After the last games were done, the trophies and prizes claimed, and the last tired gamers drug their bodies out of the hall to catch that late flight or start that long drive home, there was one more job left -- clean up the tables. It was a great 4 days and I am already looking forward to next year. I still plan to sign up to help out for several sessions of the games, but I will also get in more games. Hopefully next year there will be a big display of new HS figures or a new masterset, but even if there isn't, it will still be great to meet a bunch of new friends and see some old ones again. Here is one last parting picture that Cleon took after everything was packed. A bunch of tables waiting patiently for us to return next year.



Retlaw -- "Ruler of the Damned"