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 . . .



Comments

  1. Had a great time! Next year is the goblins year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That looks like a fun little tourney!
    Proud I could help with some sponsoring.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awww no love for Abyssal Dwarfs :( Looks like everyone had a blast though :)

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