The Great GenCon Review - 2014

Hello all,
Thanks for being so patient with me and my lack of posts, its been a very busy time again at Fez industries. To make it up to you, here is my long over due GenCon review!

As some of you will know, I've work for a games distribution company in the UK as a buyer, and Gencon is a chance to meet all our US suppliers as well as keep an eye out for the new hotness.

Its also the realisation of a life long dream!

We planned to fly out the Tuesday, giving us Wednesday to scope the Venue while people were setting up, and then on with meetings and covering the vendor hall for the other four days, flying back Sunday afternoon.

We had arranged to be upgraded on the way out to 'Premium economy' which I though would be a great way to experience long haul flying for the first time - we arrived to find that although our outbound Virgin flight to NY was ok, the connecting Delta flight to Indy had been cancelled - so we were then rebooked to fly Delta to Minneapolis, meaning we were dropped back to economy. Not to bother, we have booked premium economy on the way home.

Our sky chariot on the way out!

The flight was, well, great. I personally can't get over the 'normality' of being served a meal at 35,000 ft at just under the speed of sound - I suppose its all those hours of being stuck at around a 1,000ft struggling to eat a chocolate bar.

First, a couple of points on my first impressions of America - Over the course of the week, many people upon finding it was my first Gencon and my first time 'Stateside' would ask me this. I could sum it up in three words - Big, Choice and Service. The entire Country is big. Seeing roads with no bend for 20 miles really threw my brain out of kilter. I worked out that my entire first year University room would have fit in the en suite toilet of the hotel room

Indianapolis - Flat nothing with huge buildings in the middle!

Choice - Is everywhere. How would you like your burger cooked? What one of our 25 beers would you like? Choose from seven different refillable coffees - Its so easy to get analysis paralysis at first! (handy hint is to ask what the waiter would have!)

Can you get any more American than Baseball? No games this time of year though...

This is a starter. Three of us couldn't eat it.

Yup. Starter. Not to share. For one.

And Service - It is amazing. As soon as you are seated in a restaurant, you have jugs of ice water put on the table as a matter of course. These are not allowed to become more than 1/3 empty, before they are automatically refilled. The same goes for any soft drink you order. It's almost like its a law or something. With the low standing wages the serving staff are on, tips are how they earn their money, and boy do they earn it.

The gaming halls. So big you can't fit it in one Panarama

The second half. SO BIG

 After getting a day to acclimatise, we managed to get into the halls early with our retail passes. The gaming space was huge. Superlatives fail me. You had to see that much room to get a grasp of the size of them.

This is the cue BEFORE the main doors open! Doomtown was popular!

The doors opened to the 'early bird' gamers at 9, with general admission at 10. The rush of humanity when the doors opened was incredible - I lost track of the time one morning, and ended up trying to cross the flow to make a meeting - it was like a crazy game of human frogger as people raced to get in the cues for the show specials, or for the limited stock for the latest releases that was put out each day.

So many shininess!

Could this replace the need for 40k? Its only just released in stores!

 Fantasy Flight Games really pulls out all the stops - they have such a catalogue of products, that when they attend a show they really attend - huge demo areas, a well run shop, and they even had a free game for people to play in the cue - it involved swapping cards with other cue members. Once you had the correct collection, you could then get the second pack/level. If you completed this as well, you won one of the ultimate prizes - either a tour around the FFG HQ at Minneapolis, or a one use 'Cut to the front of the FFG line' card, redeemable at any FFG show!

I managed to meet the WWPD guys, which was cool, along with Scott Kurts who writes the rather good www.pvponline.com webcomic. I was also fortunate enough to meet all the D6 Generation guys, Raef, Russ and Craig. I also saw, but didn't have time to meet, Tom Vassil, Will Wheaton and Darth Vader (who's let himself go a bit) rounding off my Geek royalty list (Although having met the guys from Breakthrough Assault, I was somewhat underwhelmed-See Beyond the Foxholes ep 19).

The whole experience is totally overwhelming, although other than waiting for the doors to open, the crowds are no where near as bad as I've experienced in the UK, and the whole centre is air conditioned - before the trader hall opened up, the lack of gamer generated heat actually made it quite chilly! I guess the Americans are just used to having that much more space.

The range of the gaming hobby on display is incredible, first time publishers under the same roof as (geek) household names. Walking back from unwinding at a bar, the convention corridors were still rammed with people playing games, even at 2am - people really embrace the spirit of gaming.

Oh, and that premium flight back? Our Delta connecting flight was cancelled, meaning a four hour wait at the airport in Indi, and then economy Delta back to old blighty!

If you can make it, its everything it promises to be - even though I didn't make any events or talks, and spend the days walking the trade hall, it was amazing, although even with it being a business trip I still waxed through a lot of spending money - just so much awesome stuff on sale!

I'm off to Essen next week, so will do a similar write up.

Picture dump below, thanks for reading!

Fez

Darth Vader getting a Soda. 

Mars Attacks, another great game that's only just released

Boots anyone?

Its massive - look at the woman standing next to it!

Gen-con - a mecca for Magic single cards!

The long Overdue update post!

Hello Internet land,
Sorry once again for the delay in posting, in all honesty I've had a spike in back pain from the bike accident, which has affected me more than I had realised. Until the beginning of this week, when the physiotherapist gave me a new stretch which as taken all the pain away - this week I've really been feeling more like my old self again!

I've got half of the Gen-Con review finished, I hope to have the rest this weekend. I'm also off to Essen in two weeks, so will have more gaming goodness for you then.

Good news and bad news on the hobby front really, I've had to cancel my Warfare Reading ticket, as an important gliding exercise has been re-arranged to the Sunday - I'll have a chance to visit and report on the Saturday none the less.

However, I'm busy preparing for the Breakthrough Assault Mid-War Oner Dayer next Saturday!

Here's the list (Not looking forward to Easy Army going away, have been saving lists as PDF's like crazy!)

Its the Xmas Matilda list!

Remember this picture last Xmas?

Well, I've had to do something about the Pledge and the pile of un-built models (The pledge currently stands at -780 figures.... oops!).

Having read too many Commando comics about the desert war, I wanted to have a mid war Brit army, and fell in love with the stout Matilda.

Yup, they still print them. And they're still awesome/wizard!

I must admit that I'm rather rusty at FoW, so not holding much hope other than having a fun day playing - although the BTA one dayers seem to attract players of the same mindset. The lack of HE, and only one machine gun means I'm actually scared of Infantry companies! The 25 pounders might make up for this, however I really should take the Hurricane with bombs to deal with dug in infantry, but the Cannon equipped one is so much cooler! Still, those guns should give tigers something to worry about.
Some universal carriers to lift GtG, and an infantry platoon to sit on objectives and we're at 1650 rather quickly.

With some BF ones for CiC and the CS variants

The Zvesda Matilda is a great model for the price, you just need to be extra careful of the barrels - lucky the one I snapped I was able to replace with the CS barrel.

The rest of the list - although the Pegasus aren't included, as there is no bridge.... :-)

 The support platoons were all bought second hand from the Guildford Games Club (Cheers Rob!), but have been mostly painted in European colours, so a quick repaint is in order. I'm aiming to get these all done over the weekend, so no more last minute painting required. I'm torn with applying the (much debated) Canter pattern, or just sticking with a flat desert base colour, with airbrush weathering - which with the Doms Decals I have kicking around should actually pop ok by themselves.

I'll post updates on these soon.

The flying front is taking a little longer, as I've got some more exams to pass, I've already managed my first Solo on the Super Cub however:

While I prepare for the remaining exams, I was treated to a go at the controls of a £70 Million Golfstream biz-jet last weekend:

On approach...

Flying selfie!

Although I must admit, we didn't actually leave the ground!

It moves and everything!

We (my gliding squadron and I) were invited by an ex-squadron member to test out their latest kit, a £50 million flightsim - yes, its 'only' £20 million cheaper than the real aircraft, but you can do things that you can't in a real one, like control the weather, or spawn multiple conflicting aircraft at the push of a button, and the reduced running costs make these sims in high demand.

The instructors station - he's about to set the left engine on fire....

The motion is extremely realistic, and as you can see from the first post, the visuals are phenomenal, with great depth effect - you really don't feel like you're looking at a screen. Also, the sound is amazing - hearing hail hitting the roof of the cockpit really immerses you in the situation.
The sim runs at close to £5,000 an hour for the courses, and as a lot of commercial flying is about procedures, so they have special class rooms set up to teach you the systems:

Its not an inception machine, but a touchscreen computer for running checklists

One of the classrooms

A flightsim with no control stick - that stick on the left doesn't move, and is just a fancy mouse!

The air planes auto pilot is amazingly good, and the multiscreen displays can be set to display whatever information you request - the stick on the picture above is fixed, its just a fancy mouse that sits to the side of the cockpits. As nice as all the bells and whistles are, I still prefer my Piper Super Cub.

Back to the world of Hobby, and the Mars Attacks Boardgame has landed - It's a lot of fun, more on that soon!

Ack Ack Ack!

I also treated myself to a KR Case for my Wings of War/Glory airplanes, that thing swallowed models!

From this...

To this!

I'll review the carry bag I bought with it soon as well.

One last item, I've pledged on another kickstarter, but only because its something (in my eyes) truly special: SHARKTIPEDE

Hes. So. AWESOME

Really looking forward to this, going to proxy it into a 40k army, I've gone for the unpainted one of course.

Well, that's a super long blog for you, little and often from now on!

Glad to be back, thanks for reading!

Fez

Fez-man Needs you!

The new Fez!

Hello all,
one of the joys of planning and running events is overcoming the problems that are thrown at you - such as having your venue suddenly say they are refurbishing for two months, and can't guarantee that they will be finished before your event date. As such, I've put 'Flames of Fez' and 'Bolt Action Fez' back to December,

A full weekend of wargaming:

Saturday:
'Flames of Fez' - Kursk 1945

Event page here!

Is now on the 13th December 2014, and is a Flames of War mega tank battle - Have you ever wanted to field an entire T34 company? Or a full platoon of Jagdtigers? Then this is the event for you! With no points limit, and all the players on one board, it promises to be a great day, I hope to see you there - I'm looking forward to breaking out all the big cats (and some Maus as well!). With prizes for the longest range, highest number and underdog kills, its promising to be a great fun day.

Don't play Flames of War? Then come down and play on the spare Bolt Action boards, and make a weekend of it! The gaming hall will be open for all to come enjoy the atmosphere.

Only 5? I'll have the other two painted up for the event!

Sunday:
'Bolt Action Fez' - Kusk 1945

Event page here

Is now on the Sunday, 14th December 2014, and is a Bolt Action mega Tank Battle - With the release of the new 'Tank War' book, everyone has lots of tanks - why not bring them down for this mega battle? I'll have my entire company of Panthers, and Paul 'Tuffskull' Townsend will have a company of T34's, but this is just the start! Bring your tanks down and lets set a record for the largest number of 28m tanks in a single game. We've also got amazing prize support from Warlord Games, so it will be a great day!

Want to see these built and panted and blowing up T34's? I know I do!

Don't play Bolt Action? Come use the spare tables to play games of Flames of war!

Tickets are £10 for each main event, and £5 for open gaming - all proceeds are going to the Guildford Games Club.

What are you guys going to bring?

Fez

So much happening in so little time!

Hello again,
Looks like I owe you guys another apology, two months with no posts...

But what a two months! I've been taking physio to recover from the accident, although the repairs on the bike have taken forever.

I also attended the Breakthrough Assault one-dayer, and should have a AAR for that up shortly. Then I went to the craziest 4 days in gaming on the planet - Gen Con. I'm putting together the report for that as well.

Breakthrough Assaults one dayer-including levitating tables!

My 1780pt Bridge by Bridge list

Combine that with starting my pilots license proper, my dad turning 60 and I've not had a whole heap of time to blog.

My 'First Solo' Picture

Some where along the line I also became the owner of 23 Warlord Panthers, for my 'Bolt Action Fez' Game.

So... Many.... Tanks.....

That concludes the sneakpeeks of the posts to come, along with my 'road to Warfare 2014'!

Thanks for reading,

Fez

Road to BAOD - Pt.1

Hello again!

Time for some more Flames of War goodness - August 9th is the Breatkthrough Assault One Dayer or BOAD as I will now call it. I believe all the spaces are now gone, however more info can be found here:

http://www.breakthroughassault.co.uk/p/breakthrough-assault-one-day-tournament.html

It started off as an East Front late war 1650pt comp, using only Grey Wolf/Red Bear, and any approved 1944 east front PDFs. Great I thought, a chance to break out the Estonian SS again, with all their Fearless Trained Goodness. Or I could get the Armoured Train finished, or the Tigers/Hetzer list I wanted, or the Sturmtigers - there is a lot of good hobby waiting in the wings.

Then the event changed to 1780 Late War. Now I really was screwed! Too many great things to choose from. Then it hit me. I can use Remagen! Finally my Jagdtigers can get to Jag!

Bovingtons Jag. She's not small!

 Now, I already have 4 Jagtigers. Add the new Carius model, that makes five, so I started from there. Then I knew I would need some infantry to hold the flanks and such, and the Volkssturm 'Bloodbags' filled the spot nicely. Not counting towards reserves, and always having prepared positions, these guys will really help hold objectives and securing the flanks for the Jagds. Having a way of stopping them getting to the side armour easily, I need to stop aircraft - two Wirbelwinds would come in handy. That left enough points to add some template goodness of my own, in the form of 3 15cm Nebs.

Will take a better camera next time, but good reference for the mud guard mounts

512 Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie
		R.T
1 Jagdtiger			270
2 Jagdtger			535
	Plus carius		85
2 Jagdtiger			535
Volkssturm	4 sqd		105
Volkssturm	4 sqd		105
Wirbelwind	x2		75
3 15cm Nw41			70
				1780	total

Originally I had two 3-  squad strong Volkssturm, with no nebs and a sporadic Arado bomber. The issue here is that it drops me down to three platoons when working out reserves, which is painful. This way I can choose what platoon will help best when starting - the AA if they have AoP/Aircraft or tons of infantry, or the nebs to pin and smoke.

If I wanted to get the Arado back in, I can by moving the Jagdtigers into one platoon, and adding a 2ic:

512 Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie
		R.T
2 hq Jagdtiger			535
3 Jagdtger			805
	Plus carius		85
Volkssturm	3 Sqd		85
Volkssturm	3 Sqd		85
Wirbelwind	x2		75
Arado			110
				1780	total

5 Jagdtigers, one of which is Carius. Its either going to win big, or loose big. I'm betting its the latter, but at least it will be fun!

All I'm worried about is Battlefront getting the new release stock to stores in time for me to paint it before the tournament!

A crazy piece of engineering. The Jagdtiger is mad too.

Thanks for reading,

Fez

Three steps forward, and one step back!

Hello all, sorry again for the lack of Bloggage, although this time it really isn't my fault!

My poor Tiger!

Having been accident free for over three years on the bike, I guess I was due to suffer the poor training and lack of skill of other road users - Long story short, I stopped for traffic, and the woman behind me didn't quite manage the same. I'm ok, with nothing serious broken, and my back should be all right after some physio.

1250cc. All of it wasted in the UK!

While the Tiger is off getting fixed, I've been loaned a Bandit 1250, a nice bike but lacking the comfort and shielding of the Tiger, and makes riding fast all to easy - its not license friendly!

On the wargames front I've hit a bit of an impasse, as although the guys at the Guildford Games Club are enjoying the Infantry Aces, I've become stuck in a rut with regards to settling on a new project. I'm looking forward to the next Breakthrough Assault one day-er in Aug, along with the Art of War too, so I'll have more FoW goodness for you soon I'm sure. Keep swapping between US Paras, Jagdtigers, Normal Tigers and a load of other lists for Breakthrough.....

The day before my accident, I managed to convince the bank people to help me re-finance, along with a little extra to kickstart me towards acheiveing another life long goal of mine - My Private Pilots license! I've booked up my first trial flight with Cub Air out of Redhill, so I'll keep a track of my progress here as well. Don't worry, its still a hobby blog, but having a little extra content couldn't hurt.

Cub Air have few different aircraft to choose from, however the main one I'm interested is their namesake - the Piper SuperCub, G-BMKB, which is in a rather familiar paint scheme:

AoP Time! Will make sure I've read the new 'lessons from the front' for the latest AoP rules before flying....

Anywho, thanks for reading, more soon!

Fez