ScrapYard Armory

Deep within the snow banks of the North East, Total Con 2015 stumbles forward to provide good games and good times for all.

TotalCon 2015 was held in Mansfield Massachusetts and marks a return to the convention scene for myself after a bit of a hiatus.  There was a lot of BattleTech on the agenda with lots of different people running events.  Lets take a look at all that TotalCon had to offer.

BattleTech Games Galore

I was impressed with the volume of games offered.  As I remember I think there were at least four different people running games ranging from scenario driven big battles to lighter grinders.  All of the events were well attended.  It was not uncommon to see upwards of twelve players surrounding a table throwing dice and marking record sheets all convention long.

Battle of the Clans

The Inner Sphere makes a stand against the technologically superior Clan invaders.  Can they stop the tide of war sweeping the Inner Sphere or will they be swept away by the might of the Clans?

This battle put on by James Kirtley saw an Inner Sphere company fighting against a Heavy-Assault Clan Nova against the back drop of a hydro electric dam.  I will feature a full after action report on this battle in the near future.

More Snow More Problems

One of the more annoying and disturbing elements of this convention was the abysmal condition of the parking lots at the venue.  The snow that had piled up over the last several weeks was obviously still quite present and made a mess of all attempts to find legal parking.  It was bad.  Really bad.  For Saturday I had to find parking at an adjacent building (worrying the entire time if I would be the target of the tow trucks searching the area) and hoofed it over in the wind and cold.

The venue just seemed to strain from the volume of humanity it tried to contain.  Even inside and aside from the BattleTech events I overheard frequent complaints about scheduling errors, wrong tables, incorrect time slots and more.  Lots of frustration all around.  Just the full gamut of errors and calamities was on display.  It felt from the outside-in that this convention was at a tipping point.  From my perspective a venue change may be warranted to properly service the convention goers in the years to come.

Sometimes conventions can be the victim of their own success.

All the Rest

While I spent one really good game recording the action for the blog I tended to stray from my usual fare of BattleTech games.  I ventured out and tried a variety of board games and wandered the halls taking in the convention as a whole.  Not quite the same as my normal schedule of dedicated Heavy Metal Mayhem but enjoyable none the less.  Gaming is a diverse hobby and it is nice to try out new things from time to time.

One thing I noticed right off the bat was the volume of podcast celebrities that were in attendance.  With them they brought demo copies of several games that were not yet available for retail purchase.  I had a chance to see Trickerion (which is still finishing up its Kickstarter campaign) as well as a quick chat with the designer of Specter Ops (a very nice guy) which is available for preorder from Plaid Hat Games as it makes its way across the Pacific.

All together a nice selection of games to be had for the enterprising gamer.

The dealer room had absolutely nothing related to BattleTech.  A bit disappointing.  Board game were the deal of the day as well as the odd vendor hawking copies of Dead of Winter for $20 over retail.  I decided to save my money for another time.  I think my past trips to conventions like Historicon and Cold Wars run by the HMGS and attended by Iron Wind Metals have spoiled me rotten.

I took in a brief demo of a Mech inspired game with 3D printed components called Mech Deck.  It seemed like an interesting concept not entirely different from a game like BattleTech.  I’ll keep an eye on it for the future.  Details can be found at MechDeck.com.

I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and get some gaming in during 2015.  Here’s hoping to a great year!