Manticon 2016 pt 1

And with a final "Hip Hip . . . You Suck!!!" the first ever Manticon was a smashing success.  Dice were rolled.  Enemies were crushed.  The lamentations of the women were heard.  Cigars were smoked.  And much fun was had by all.

Manticon round 2 on Saturday morning - a really nice facility

Patrick Justice deploys his NightStalkers agains Jesse Cornwall's Goblins

It still kind of amazes me that coming down and running what ended up being a rather small tournament last year at Nashcon so impressed Gavin Gossett that he wanted me to come down and run Manticon.  The brain trust did a lot of work, and they got a nice facility at Henry Horton State Partk. Being in a park it was quiet and wooded - not the place you would expect 76 games of Kings of War among 28 players to happen.  The lodge was basically a big, open building, but it had a kitchen (with an ice machine - having cold drinks all weekend was wonderful), and a stage where lots of product was available for purchase, plenty of electricity (yes, I've run tournaments with no power outlets available) and even WIFI (if unsecured and slow).

Justin Rigdon stands by his League of Rhordia and watches Timothy Bowie move his Brotherhood 

Amy Stamper's Dwarfs face off against Ken Lewis' Varangur

We had 2 rows of 7 tables, with a 15th off to the side, as well as four or five round tables for side gaming (can you say Dungeon Saga?  I knew you could!)  and case/display board storage.  We should have room for 20 tables if we can fill it next year without anyone having to be "butt-to-butt".

Seth Cook's Ogres try to pound Todd Perkins's Brotherhood

Chris Gibney's Ratkin attempt to swarm over Mathew Mobley Abyssls

Manticon ran a different structure than I had run before, but it went very smoothly.  The concept was to have a weekend of Kings of War, with six full games, yet be accessible to those who, whether it be that they couldn't get off of work on Friday evening, had church on Sunday morning, or just had a life beyond gaming (does that even exist?), could not be available all weekend.

Andrew Shadel's Dwarfs attack Bryan Tucker's Varangur 

Rob Phaneuf 's Ogres smash apart Seth Deaton's Dwarfs

So the main Manticon tournament was 4 rounds on Saturday.  That was all that was required. However if you could make it in on Friday or stay for Sunday, then there was an extra 'Mulligan' round on each of them.  These did not count AGAINST your score, but after all the games were played the best of your two mulligan scores replaced the worst of your scores on Saturday.  This made for a little bit of unusual play, as the top two players both went 4-0 on Saturday, and thus met Sunday morning for the final (mulligan) game, where Jon Carter tabled Rob Phaneuf.  However as this was a mulligan round, Rob's loss did not affect his scores on Saturday (he wasn't able to make it there early enough on Friday night to play in that round).  It did allow Jon to replace one of his 'minor' victories with that score.  Which is why the Best General beat the Overall Champion, but came in second.

Robert Brandon's Abyssals take on Billy Smith's Dwarfs in a battle of beautiful armies

Dan Payne's orcs go up against Tyler Brown's Varangur

We had 18 players for the Mulligan round on Friday, then an almost full 28 players for the four rounds Saturday.  22 were then able to stay and play again on Sunday.

David Lundy's Dwarfs try to hold firm against Kara Brown's Basileans

Nathan Clevenger's Dwarfs hold grudges against David Reid's Brotherhood

One of the other fun things we did was the Manticon Moolah.  These were $2 bills that everyone could earn (and got 1 just for showing up).  The worse the games went for you, the more moolah you earned.  So every time you rolled snake eyes for a nerve test (thus making the target unit steady, even against overwhelming odds) you would shout "2", and then a hearty "Hip Hip . . . You Suck!" cheer would go out and you would get $2 in Manticon Moolah.  You also got one for losing a game, and two if you were tabled,  If you tied you both got one.

Richard Reiter's Undead shamble against Ray Cogar's Orcs

Jon Carter's undead refuse to lay down like proper dead people against Chris Edmondson's Kingdoms of Men

One interesting coincidence happened that I noticed - table 11 was ALWAYS the last table to finish and turn in their score sheets.  Round 2 didn't even get theirs turned in until we tracked one of the players down after lunch (he put the score sheet in his bag and thought he turned it in). (We didn't have enough to use it for round 1).  But then every round it was always the last to finish, no matter who was on it.  I tried to break the 'curse' with round 6 on Sunday and move them to table 12 instead -- but it saw through my tricks and they were still the last to hand in their scores.

Chris Clark's Herd attempt to stampede through Devlin Smith's Empire of Dust

We also believe in sharing the wealth, so rather than give the winners product with their medals, we instead did a door prize drawing after the last game on Saturday night.  We ended up with 34 different prizes, so everyone walked away with something, and a handful of people even got to pick twice!  There is full list (with links) of all our wonderful prize support vendors on the Manticon.us site.  If anyone ever wants to get me F.A.T mats to replace my sad looking felt sheets I use for demos and tournaments, I would never say no!  Of course my wife would love for me to have one of the Impudent Mortal Paint Racks just so my work area would take up a bit less room on what used to be our dining room table.

A rather motley crew - all 28 players at Manticon 2016

In addition to the tournament, we had a big swap meet Saturday night - some people got some crazy good deals (an acrylic Dreadball pitch for $10!) and people had a good time, managed to share some of the games, models, magazines (and junk) they no longer needed.

Everyone is having fun as Gavin Gossett takes a video of the action during the last round on Sunday

The staff (or Brain Trust as we were all called (though I'm not so sure if my brain is all that trustworthy)) also had a lot of fun.  There were a couple of demos of Kings of War on the extra table, and both evenings we had a group of silly heroes attempt to defeat the evil Mortibris in Dungeon Saga (I say attempt because the heroes managed to lose all three games (I was the Overlord :-) (granted, the Banshee is one of the most difficult scenarios, and an unlucky die roll crushed the elf in the final game as the roof collapsed on her)).

Final standings were 

Place	Name	Army	Total	Awards
1	Rob Phaneuf	Ogres	131	Champion, 2nd General
2	Jon Carter	Undead	127	1st General
3	Robert Brandon	Abyssals	126
4	Nathan Clevenger	Dwarfs	125	3rd General
5	Tyler Brown	Varangur	120
6	Bryan Tucker	Varangur	120
7	Justin Rigdon	Rhordia	119	Best Sportsman
8	Amy Stamper	Dwarfs	118
9	Patrick Justice	Nightstalkers	116
10	Devlin Smith	Empire of Dust	115
11	Jesse Cornwell	Goblins	115
12	David Reid	Brotherhood	114
13	Kara Brown	Basileans	112
14	Richard Reiter	Undead	110
15	David Lundy	Dwarfs	108
16	Billy Smith	Dwarfs	108	Best Appearance
17	Todd Perkins	Brotherhood	107
18	Chris Gibney	Ratkin	105
19	Mathew Mobley	Abyssals	101
20	Daniel Payne	Orcs	100
21	Seth Deaton	Dwarfs	97
22	Seth Cook	Ogres	88
23	Timothy Bowie	Brotherhood	81
24	Ken Lewis	Varangur	72
25	Chris Edmondson	Kingdoms of Men	65
26	Chris Clark	Herd	62
27	Andrew Shadel	Dwarfs	60
28	Ray Cogar	Orcs	30	Manticup of Shame
29	Jeremy Gossett (Ringer)		26

For full tournament details - go to Warscore

And the winners (L to R) - Ray Cogar (Manticup of Shame),  Justin Rigdon (Best Sportsman), Nathan Cleventer (3rd General), Billy Smith (Best Appearance), Jon Carter (Best General) and Rob Phaneuf (Overall Champion and 2nd General)

It was a great weekend and I had a fantastic time running it.  I really look forward to doing it again next year.  The players were great, the venue worked perfectly, and the armies were fantastic to look at.  There was some truly incredible artistry displayed.  But you'll have to wait for the next post to see those pictures.

Because it is all fun and games . . .