Back to Gencon!

After missing a year, and some doubt that it would actually happen, the reschedule Gencon 2021 is now in the books.

Yes, it was smaller, and had fewer people.  Of course that does not mean I was any less busy - in fact it felt like my busiest one EVER!  So busy in fact that I wasn't able to get pictures like I usually do. :-(

This is the first time I can remember going to Gencon alone - a hotel room all to myself, and also no one else in the car with me, so I could spread the stuff out!

I got there right around three on Wednesday to start setting up, and quickly noticed that I no longer had my slaves kids to help me haul everything from my car.  (Though parking was not an issue at all, and I had a great space every day (of course that was partially because I got there every morning by 7 to set up for my 8 am game).

While not as big, they were also giving more space.  So in previous years, there would always be two 8' tables end to end, this year they were all spread out.  As such I had fewer tables than I have sometimes had, which meant I had to change the setup between events - something I hadn't done as much of before.

But I got everything set up in a couple of hours on Wednesday, ready for the morning onslaught.

This year I ran four events, all but the tournament multiple times:

- Learn To Play: Kings of War - 12 seats, 3 times

- Learn To Play: Vanguard - 12 seats, 3 times

- Learn To Play: Armada - 4 seats, 4 times

- Kings of War : How You Use It! Tournament - 16 seats

Looking on line, everything but the tournament had been sold out for weeks.  A couple of seats had come open, but I looked to be very full.  However, the fact is that just because tickets have been presold DOES NOT mean people actually show up for their events.  With everything going on, so people may have decided (willingly or not) that they couldn't come at all, others just that they didn't want to go do that event.

So my ACTUAL attendance:

LTP: KoW - 23 out of 36 seats

LTP: Vanguard - 30 out of 36 seats (Saturdays session at noon was actually FULL)

LTP: Armada -  10 out of 16 (and 2 extra seats that I didn't get tickets for - don't tell anyone).

HYUI - 10 out of 16

I like to say that Families that Play together, Stay together.  (It isn't really Gencon anymore unless the Grubaughs come by for their yearly game of Kings of War Sunday morning).  Unfortunately it also means they miss events together, and my Thursday Armada session was sold out to a single family - and they didn't show at all.

As I said, I didn't have any minions helpers this year, and wouldn't you know it, I had an odd number of players for EVERY one of my Vanguard and Kings of War Learn to Play sessions.  Luckily Kara Brown showed up on Saturday just in time to sit in on that PACKED session, which was the busiest session I had all weekend - if I had to play as well it would have been awful, both for me and the poor person who would be sitting across from me as I was constantly going to all the tables answering questions.

I did get a picture of this full session:

Learn to Play: Vanguard, Saturday noon

Of course the Armada sessions with only four seats, where it would be no problem if I had to sit in, we all even numbers.

One of the people for the tournament on Saturday said he wasn't feeling well, so didn't play, which left us at 10 for that (and while I don't want to come across as wanting him to feel bad, had I had to play in that one we may not have finished it before they threw us out of the hall at midnight.

One picture I did snap was as I was walking back to our area, and there was a film crew (apparently making a documentary?) filming Blake Shrode's BIG Game (20,000 points PER SIDE this).  They are famous!

I did get pictures of the tournament at least though.  It was great in that half of the players were people that were NOT tournament regulars (at least here for me), including a family that came in from Missouri!

I had 18 armies set up (I brought 19, but the Empire of Dust took a break as they had a hard fall in my basement loading up and had major repairs (and I still have only found one of the cursed high priest's arms!).  So I had 9 tables - 8 actual tables, and those on 9 used table 3 (since 3 and 9 never came up at the same time, with me just switching out the armies).

Round 1

Table 1: Tristan Vitti (Orcs) v Kara Brown (Kingdoms of Men)

Table 2: Blake Shorde (Salamanders) v Robin Vitti (Ogres)

Table 3: Kyle Ritchie (Dwarfs) v Derrick Byrd (Twilight Kin)

Table 4: Paul Lang (Elves) v Rob Quillen (Abyssal Dwarfs)

Table 5: Mathin Vitti (Force of the Abyss) v Scott Johnson (Basileans)

I have to admit, I didn't give quite enough time for each round, so I had to increase it a bit, which is why we had troubles finishing.  You think by now I would know better!

And Round 2 is on

Table 1: Kyle Ritchie (Kingdoms of Men) v Mathin Vitti (Orcs)

Table 9: Robin Vitti (Undead) v Kara Brown (Forces of Nature)

Table 6: Rob Quillen (Trident Realms) v Tristan Vitti (Ratkin)

Table 7: Paul Lang (Goblins) v Blake Shorde (Northern Alliance)

Table 8: Scott Johnson (Brotherhood: Order of the Green Lady) v Derrick Byrd (Nightstalkers)

We had a quick dinner break.  With the masks and precautions, they didn't want people bringing food to the tables, so people HAD to leave to eat.

Round 3

Table 2: Mathin Vitti (Ogres) v Rob Quillen (Ogres)

Table 3: Tristin Vitti (Dwarfs) v Robin Vitti (Twilight Kin)  (I jokingly teased that Tristin had to let his mom win as she was his ride back home to Missouri!)

Table 4: Scott Johnson (Abyssal Dwarfs) v Kyle Ritchie (Elves)

Table 5: Paul Lang (Forces of the Abyss) v Derrick Byrd (Basileans)

Table 6: Kara Broan (Ratkin) v Blake Shrode (Trident Realms)

Round 4 is underway, and I didn't get pictures of all the tables:
Table 7: Blake Shrode (Goblins) v Rob Quillen (Northern Alliance)
Table 8: Kara Brown (Nightstalkers) v Derrick Byrd (Order of the Green Lady)
Table 9: Scott Johnson (Undead) v Paul Lang (Forces of Nature)
Table 1: Robin Vitti (Kingdoms of Men) v Kyle Ritchie (Orce)
Table 2: Mathin Vitti (Ogres) v Tristin Vitti (Salamanders)

Mantic was very generous with their prize support - giving us over $300 worth of prizes for the three top finishers.

And a closeup of this years trophies that I made (with a 3d printer and laser engraver).

A great set of players:
Back row: Mathin Vitti, Ribin Vitti, Blake Shorde, Paul Lang, Kara Brown, Rob Quillen, Scott Johnson, Kyle Ritchie.
Kneeling - Tristan Vitti, Derrick Byrd

After all was said and done, and with less than five minutes left before they closed the hall, the final winners were:

   1st Place: Kara Brown
2nd Place: Derrick Byrd

3rd Place: Blake Shrode

Honorable Mention - Scott Johnson who tied with Blake for battle points, so it came down to Blake having 65 more points in attrition.

Gencon How You Use It 2021

Final Results

Place	Name	Opponents	Total	Attrition	Awards
1	Kara Brown	Tristan Vitti, Robin Vitti, Blake Shrode, Derrick Byrd	65	1970	1st
2	Derrick Byrd	Kyle Ritchie, Scott Johnson, Paul Lang, Kara Brown	59	1845	2nd
3	Blake Shrode	Robin Vitti, Paul Lang, Kara Brown, Rob Quillen	57	1850	3rd
4	Scott Johnson	Mathin Vitti, Derrick Byrd, Kyle Ritchie, Paul Lang	57	1785
5	Tristan Vitti	Kara Brown, Rob Quillen, Robin Vitti, Mathin Vitti	49	1604
6	Kyle Ritchie	Derrick Byrd, Mathin Vitti, Scott Johnson, Robin Vitti	47	1870
7	Paul Lang	Rob Quillen, Blake Shrode, Derrick Byrd, Scott Johnson	47	1575
8	Robin Vitti	Blake Shrode, Kara Brown, Tristan Vitti, Kyle Ritchie	41	1588
9	Rob Quillen	Paul Lang, Tristan Vitti, Mathin Vitti, Blake Shrode	37	1225
10	Mathin Vitti	Scott Johnson, Kyle Ritchie, Rob Quillen, Tristan Vitti	32	1785

So overall it was a great time and very busy time.  I am definitely already planning for next year.

Because it is all fun and games . . .