KnaveCon 10 - Double Digits!

In a couple of weeks KnaveCon will reach double digits. They grow up so fast, so they do. I can recall when KnaveCon was called BastardCon, before we went all legit and respectable. It's grown from that motley collection of grognards into the shining beacon of gaming it is today.

If you've not been this would be the one to go to. Vic and the lads run a cracking con, and it's always a good time, so if you want a ticket you better get moving. For these tickets you can go to either the KnaveCon Facebook page or victorgannongames.com.

See yez there.

Wipsters, Oldhammer and KnaveCon 7

Piers Brand's superb greenskins

The internet is a funny old place. A lot of the internet is like a sneaky bowl of chocolate cereal. Briefly tasty, but then the guilt. The sugary guilt. Still more of it is like walking down an alley in Bangkok at 2am singing 'What shall I do with all this money' at the top of your lungs.

Now and again though it does yield gold.

The gold in this case is the way our hobby has connected the thousands of small metal and plastic man enthusiasts together. We all know how good the interwebs is for gaming, so I'll skip right on past that. What I mean is the friendships that can result from such shared obsessions over the net. The kind where a grown man you've never met before gives you a ten second bearhug, and you're totally reciprocating.

A deathworld never looked so beautiful.

That's what brought about the meet-up at KnaveCon 7.

There's already been some fine, fine reporting on the games of the day. You can catch the Rogue Trader report here, at Scale Creep, where some of the mightiest examples of the gaming elite hold court. Indeed, these, among some excellent others, are the very fellows that made the trip to Ireland to throw some dice and revel in the sumptuous miniatures there on the day. (Bar Captain Crooks, with his whole 'I live in Australia' excuse.)

The Frostgrave portion of the day was reported on here by Cheetor over at Sho3box and here by Asslessman at Leadplague.

The height of Rogue Trader fashion saunters through the jungle.

So my take on the day will be more about the participants than the gaming, as enjoyable as that was. Over the last couple of years the Wipster group has coalesced out of the Oldhammer scene. What started out as trades and comments on forums and posts turned into a gaggle of miniature nuts who constantly rant and ramble at each other about what excites them on any particular day in the hobby. From that Scale Creep was recently born, a pubic outlet for our mutual affliction. Online therapy.

Yes. That's a giant floating ballbag there at the back.

One of the most enjoyable things, hobby-wise has been the group projects. We've had several, and seeing everyone's work moving along has the positive effect of giving painting mojo a serious boost. Added to that the large amount of great work that comes out of the group keeps everyone pretty enthusiastic and churning out even more good stuff. See what I mean about gold in them thar internets?

Sneaking. It's what they do.

After a while, when you're speaking to folks on a daily basis you can't help but get to know them despite your best efforts. That eventually resulted in almost all of the Wipsters/Creeps showed up at KnaveCon 7. Getting nearly everyone together was tremendous in itself , and as expected, the games themselves were casual, friendly and full of laughs. It's always slightly weird meeting someone you know reasonably well for the first time, but a couple of the aforementioned bearhugs sorted that out.

More gorgeous Frostgrave minis.

The day went off super well, bar poor JB who was afflicted with something akin to the black death. The amount of fantastic terrain and models was such that I didn't get around to seeing all I wanted to see, but there's always next time. Again, it's one thing looking at a model on the web, quite another holding it in your hand and being able to turn it about for a good look.

Brewhouse Bash at full tilt.

So there you go. The internet. Not all weirdos and creepy bearded men. Sometimes it's weirdos and creepy bearded men with great paint skills who like to roll dice and have a laugh.

VGG Interview

Today, in a flurry of self-promotion, I point you over to an interview I did for VGG, run by the powerfully charming Victor Gannon. Vic is the man behind the mighty KnaveCon, a behemoth of the Irish games convention calendar, and a damn good time. Am I talking about KnaveCon now, or Vic? Both, in truth.

Anyway, here's the link. Victor is a boardgame nut, so anyone with even the mildest interest in boardgames should check out his sterling reviews. In particular, anyone from the Irish gaming scene should make it their business to get to KnaveCon for the BIG FUNS.

Also, if you are playing a game with Vic, never trust a word he says.

KnaveCon 5 - Countdown

Not long to go now until the next exciting installment of the mighty KnaveCon, which kicks off at 10am on April 11th, which also happens to be international tabletop day, donchaknow.

Lots going on for the 5th KnaveCon including the Nationals for Settlers of Catan and also DICEMASTERS run by Black Cat Games, who are joining us for the first time. The return of the legend that is KnaveCon werewolf and a new section - KnaveCon Ninjas, for younger gamers to learn some new games, and even a bleedin' raffle! Added to that all the usual fare, free coffee, heart-attack inducing donuts, trade stands, more games than you can shake several sticks at and the love and companionship of your fellow games.

For more information, take a stroll over to Victor Gannon Games, where you'll find the abode of the captain of the good ship KnaveCon. You'll also find us on Facebook.

So pop along and I'll see ye there, especially those brave souls who can stick it out into the wee hours of the KnaveCon night-shift.

KnaveCon 4

If you're going, see you there tomorrow!

KnaveCon 3 - Post Mortem & Oldhammer Funtimes

That's right. Catan cake.

KnaveCon 3 is done, the smoke has cleared and the games are all back in their boxes. We were extremely happy with the turnout and the vibe on the day, everyone seemed to have a fine old time. A big thanks to Vic and Deccie for keeping the wheels on all day, keeping the bank of coffee machines running and manning the bring and buy as well as taking registration. Nice one lads.

Possibly the ultimate gamer breakfast.

The Wee gamers posted an interview about the doings of the day with the incomparable Victor Gannon, you can catch it here.

For my own part, I met up with some of the Irish Oldhammer personalities to run our participation game. Paul, Sean and John (Cheetor, theOttovonbismark and Just John respectively from the Oldhammer forums) had taken various responsibilities for building terrain, painting figures and assembling cards and playing sheets. Once we had reconciled our online preconceptions with the real life versions of each other we pulled ourselves together and set up.

The fimir move off the beaches in search of booty.

We had intended running a few games over the day with some breaks in between, but with a list of people interested in playing the whole break thing flew out the window. Despite a hideous lack of preparation and zero playtesting, somehow the whole thing held together and provided us with a copious amount of entertainment. We gave the players four turns of mayhem before the slann rescue party arrived, giving the fimir another four turns to make it back to the beach. The slann hero on cold one wearing a power fist was particularly feared as he punched the raiders back to the waterline.

And the screaming begins in halflington.

Burninating the village.

Some favourite moments: three eagle-eyed halfling milita managing to shoot a fianna fimm square in the eyeball, the players realising they could use the larger fianna to throw sheep and halflings, and the scrum over halfling princess as one warband struggled to murder their way through the halfling guards only to have a rival fian sprint in, grab her and run headlong back to the beach. Good stuff.

It's graviton gun time.

There are a few things we would tweak if we ever ran it again, remembering to bring stats for the fimir being high on the list. There was enough accumulated knowledge to get us by on the day though. Sean's sheep (sculpted, cast and painted in a very short amount of time, I might add) were easily my favourite thing on the day, and I fully intend to convert a fimm carrying one under each arm as a tribute to the day. All in all a great success and we're certainly giving thought to running something else in the future. Finally, a little group shot of all the oldhammer gents there on the day.

On a side note, Sean's Skeletork was one of two Skeletor conversions there on the day, the other being Skeletogre.

With that, I'll leave you with some more images from the day.

Fimir - Fianna Fimm

I've been busy this week painting four fianna fimm for our Oldhammer event this weekend at KnaveCon. I got them finished last night.

I've had these fellows primed and ready to paint for some time, and as I whipped through them, ideas came to mind. I'm loathe to convert such old minis, but I couldn't help thinking a hood and cloak held by a broch would look good on one, maybe a Scibor Celtic shield on another. I didn't have time for this though, so I ploughed on.

Now that they are done, I'm beginning to regret my rashness. For a start, I'm not happy AT ALL with the skin. Way too patchy. Added to that one of them has a little mis-cast on his chest which I missed when cleaning them up. Some folks would leave this and move on, but my OCD forbids such a move. So, with that in mind, once KnaveCon is over, these lads are destined for the Dettol, some conversion work, and a do-over. Hence the lack of grasses and moss on the bases, they'd just be wasted.

It's not all flowers and sunshine here at the Mumblings, some days it's a fail.

Oldhammer at KnaveCon 3

The Oldhammer group will be running a participation skirmish game at KnaveCon 3, a four player competitive/cooperative/whatever ye like yerself raid in which rival fimir warbands have come across a sleepy halfling village ripe for the plucking. Each warband is desperate to take more than it's share of plunder and captives back to it's mist-shrouded home, and they must make sure to grab as much loot as they can before the halflings mysterious protectors arrive to spoil the party...

"Dirach Grunsgul stepped out from the cloying mists surrounded the wyrdstone and regarded the halfling settlement with a mixture of joy and disbelief. How had such an apparently defenceless village survived this long? He could see pens of sheep, stacks of corn and fat pigs amongst the small houses. There wasn't even a defensive wall surrounding the place. He shook his head in wonder. Close by, another fimir group emerged from the morning fog. It must be Murdach and his raiders thought Grunsgul. He turned to Goll and his warriors and gave them the signal to attack. Presently the screaming began. The huge fianna fimm Odhran's face wrinkled into a toothy grin, and he hefted his mace and plodded after the others.

The clan would eat well tonight."

KnaveCon 3 - Even More Free Coffee

On March 1st, the third KnaveCon will be held at the Kilmurray Lodge hotel in Limerick. The last KnaveCon was a huge wodge of fun dipped in the sauce of gooey gaming goodness. Served with coffee. Free coffee.

We expect bigger and better things this time, so prepare for gaming deliciousness. You can see all the hubbub at the KnaveCon facebook page.

I and some of my oldhammer confederates will be running an oldhammer participation game concerning some innocent halflings, competing foul-intentioned fimir raiding parties and a possibly heroic slann rescue party. We're not certain of the intentions of the frogs just yet. Do call over if you're about!

BastardCon Lite - KnaveCon 1

 

BastardCon Lite, now christened KnaveCon, was held over Saturday 27th April last weekend in Limerick. €10 in on the day, it was a day of board game, coffee and casual gaming was the plan and we had an immense library of games for the day's fun. As with all new ventures, we had low expectations on turnout, but with twenty one gamers showing up we filled the room pretty rapidly.

Over the course of the day some of the games played were The Walking Dead, Axis & Allies, Smallworld, Blood Royale (I promise to read the rules first next time) Seasons, Spartacus (loved that), X-Wing, Death Angel, Mansions of Madness, Dracula and a pile of others. There was a large game of Werewolf and a now semi-traditional game of chocolate roulette.

Always hilarious.

The day was intended for playing those games maybe you don't get a chance to play often or at all. With the feedback from the day we'll certainly be having a KnaveCon 2, probably near the end of the Summer, and all are welcome! You can see more info over at The Drax Report.