KublaCon '09

Saturday was a long day of gaming at one of the major local game conventions, KublaCon. I arrived around noon to the Burlingame Hyatt and got situated with all of my gear. I can tell you that I was just about maxed out on what I can safely transport on my bike. Two organizers full of minis, and two messenger bags filled with all the other crap I might need. I got a free pass to the event for hosting the tournament and demo, a luxury usually reserved for the older more established players in my group, but a few couldn't make it so I volunteered.

Got a decent turnout for the demo, where I taught two youngsters how to play and my friend John showed up just in time to teach two more. There was a crazy guy (there are tons of kooks at the cons) dressed in a pseudo-nazi outfit and rocking the worst fake German accent and Axis shtick. "I must deliver this intel to mein fuhrer!" He lingered around but thankfully never got in a game.

As a side note these game conventions are a trip. Imagine every highly intelligent socially inept person you ever met and multiply that by a hundred (or maybe more). Add a lack of females (all under-age or over-weight) and silly costumes, think somewhere between a ren-faire and a trecky convention and you've just about got it. Now for the recusements.....

I should probably be more forthright about this whole thing, especially since I have been blogging about it quite a bit. I'm a nerd. Specifically (but not exclusively) a game nerd. More specifically a WWII game nerd. I have been playing, collecting, and competing in Axis & Allies Miniatures for about three years now. It's a turn based, hex map, card, and dice driven collectible WWII themed miniatures game by Avalon Hill (which is owned by Wizards of the Coast, which is owned by Hasbro). I'm a fixture on the forums and I own everything in the game with multiples of most stuff. I compete with the most advanced rules and play at the highest level. I'm good at it and I enjoy the play group that we have here in the Bay Area. They are great guys that I would not know otherwise, and I realize how disparate the many circles I run in can be and I appreciate that about myself.

Back to the con.....After we demoed the game for the young ones and got some lunch (crappy overpriced hotel/cafeteria food) we got set up for the tournament. No one that we don't know showed up to play so it was just the usual suspects, John, Scott, Dave and myself. I designed a progressive, by year, tournament in four rounds (1939,41,43,45) and it went well. I kicked major ass in the early war rounds and had the favor returned in the latter half of the tourny. Let's just say that my last two games were very forgettable at best. We played from 5pm until after midnight but got all the rounds in and had some prizes provided by Kubla so it was all around good fun even though it ended poorly for me. Above is a picture of my Commonwealth team from the last round just before it was demolished by some Germans..........I made a crucial mistake early and then my dice went cold cold cold..........