ScrapYard Armory

News and pictures are flooding in from GenCon and there is a lot to talk about.  GenCon is living up to it’s reputation as the best four days in gaming.  As always the companion podcast to the ScrapYardArmory GenCon experience is being provided by Arbitration Studios.

Canon Event: The Wars of Reaving

This year’s canon event is centered around the Wars of Reaving, further promoting the recently released sourcebook courtesy of Ben Rome.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Clan Steel Viper is on the defense protecting their genetic repository from an onslaught of Clan Blood Spirit.

Blood Spirit gains victory points by destroying buildings that make up the Steel Viper repository and lose points whenver they call in reinforcements.

The Steel Vipers gain victory points by destroying attacking units.  The regular bounty is actually quite small but Star Commanders are worth much much more.  Star Commanders on the Blood Spirit side are assigned in secret before each gaming slot.

The early game had the Vipers bottled up inside the canyon holding the repository.  The Blood Spirit players split their way through the defenders or climbed over the canyon walls to get at the repository.  With few options to repulse the attackers, the buildings kept falling resulting in a sizable lead for Clan Blood Spirit.

The final score as of last night was about 70VP to 35VP with Clan Blood Spirit in control.

***END SPOILER***

Late Night Quick Strike

The CamoSpecs crew are at it again with several off the schedule battles of epic proportion.  When you absolutely positively have to destroy a regiment/galaxy of units in a single evening, only the Quick Strike rules from Strategic Operations will do.

The game featured the Word of Blake versus Coalition forces in a massive game hosted by Demo Agent Incridibl. As in previous years most of the players ended up being either Demo Agents or CSO artists but there was always a slot or two available for the adventurous convention goer ready to command a few lances/level II.

Coalition forces were a mixed crew featuring several Clans alongside Inner Sphere regulars as well as off-board artillery.  The Word of Blake also brought artillery but also included several aerospace fighter wings.

The first two turns were fairly standard with some long range shots but little damage as a result. The third turn is when it all hit the fan.  An initial flight of Word of Blake artillery (8 Arrow IVs) slammed into the Coalition front line. Weapons fire, now at medium range was dropping ‘Mechs.  The Word of Blake aerospace assets came out in force and dive bombed the coalition armor assets.  Anti-aircraft fire brought down a third of the fighters but the bombs did their work, damaging almost half of the Coalition force to some degree.

The Coalition forces took a beating but pushed forward bravely to claim the forward objectives.  At the end of the evening the consensus from the field was that despite higher losses, the Coalition forces won the event due to the early objective grab.  Thanks to the CamoSpecs Online crew and Incidibl for hosting the event!

The Painting Competition

The Machines of War category is again well represented by BattleTech minis.  Is another sweep in store for the fans of the Inner Sphere this year?  There are some stunning minis in the field and I wish the very best for any BattleTech mini!

Eye Candy for All

Ben Rome, assistant line developer and photography enthusiast was gracious enough to post a link to his flicker album.  There are some great shots in the collection and are definitely worth a click.

Ghost Bear’s GenCon Flicker Album

Keeping it Interesting

Here are a few more pictures from around the convention!

ScrapYard Armory Photography provided by JPArbiter and nckestrel.