ScrapYard Armory

GenCon 2011 is in the rear-view mirror.  I was not able to go myself this year but the tales of games and news from my roving reporters fired me up.  The excitement of GenCon is infectious even if you are not personally there.  As news, pictures and rumors made their way through the assortment of blogs and message boards, you could feel the excitement build.  This final GenCon post will cover all of the areas I missed earlier to wrap up coverage for 2011.

Catalyst always does a great job with the major conventions.  I hope to be there again next year.  Time will tell though if that wish will make it to reality.

Boot Camp and Grinders

The boot camp games ran all the way to the end of the convention.  Even with a slow start on Sunday (proof that you have to sleep sometime at GenCon) business picked right up.  Both the Grinder and the Boot Camps had full tables most of the convention as eager gamers had a blast tearing ‘Mechs apart.

Lance Tactics

The lance tactics games were held on a beautiful assortment of terrain from Wild Child Gaming.  Those who managed to get to GenCon last year will remember their terrain being used for the QuickStrike games.  This year’s setup was brilliant as well.  Rumor has it that there will be new items going live on their website soon.

Not Covered…

Unfortunately there is no way to be everywhere at once and so reporting is sketchy when it comes to the following events:

• Flight School
• A Time of War, held in a different building, boo urns GenCon…
• Daily Canon Events
• Grand Melee, a damn near full event…

This is a testament to the epic scale that is GenCon.  Catalyst puts on a great show and has just about every kind of BattleTech available to be played and enjoyed!

Battle the Masters

The capstone event of Saturday featured the Masters of the BattleTech brand going up against the fanatic fans that make this community possible.  The Masters divided into teams of two to take on opposing teams of fans.  Each player brought two ‘Mechs to the party and a lance on lance battle beatdown ensued.  Here is one battle of many…

The Masters

• Hellstar
• MAD-2R Marauder
• YMN-10-OR Yeoman
• NGS-6S Nightsky

The Fans

• Hellstar
• Marauder IIC
• MAD-6L Marauder
• BLR-1G BattleMaster

The Masters jumped to an early lead by putting crippling damage on the fan’s Marauder leaving it with a single Plasma Rifle.  The rally was on shortly thereafter though.  At first the fan’s Clan units tried to stay at range to bait the Masters into the open.  High to-hit numbers forced an advance.

The Nightsky fell first over three rounds from the BattleMaster and 7 CLan ERPPCs.  The fans then split fire using the Clan units against the opposing Hellstar while the BattleMaster and 6L Marauder took on the 2R Marauder.  The Yeoman tried to support his lancemates but just could not output enough damage to make a difference before the Master’s Marauder fell.

The Marauder IIC was destroyed after shutting down from overheating but the rout was already in progress.  The BattleMaster tore through the Yeoman while the fan Hellstar dealt a deathblow to the Master’s Hellstar.

In another heated battle the Masters (which included the line developer Herb) had two Celestials, a Pariah and one other ‘Mech against the fans who brought a Thunderhawk and others (sorry for the sketchy details, the evening ran very late!).  By the time the end of the game came around the Thunderhawk had devoured the Celestials leaving the lone Pariah on the field.  Unfortunately the fans lost initiative over and over again which allowed the Pariah to jump for back shots with impunity.

That game was the ONLY game that the Masters ended up winning that evening.

Thanks to the Fans

From the perspective of gamers and demo agents I have reports that spoke highly of the conduct of all fans who partook of the BattleTech festivities at GenCon.  The level of trust between players was notable.  Events seemed to run themselves which made the job of hosting events a pleasure.  Demo agents are a great bunch and work their tails off to make these games available.  Great fans just make the entire package better.

Also bravo to Catalyst for moving to a staggered Demo agent schedule which gave every game a sense of continuity.  There was never a cold shift from one team to another. A decided improvement from previous GenCons.

Thanks to My Reporters

A great many thanks go to JPArbiter and nckestrel who have provided the reports and pictures for this year’s GenCon.  I could not have been able to have any coverage this year if not for their love of the game and willingness to help out.

Till next year!