Wednesday 14 November 2018

Uncon 4.0



Hi all

This weekend, my friends and I hosted the 4th incarnation of Uncon - an Unconventional Convention.  Initially started up as an expansion of a local board gaming club  "All Around the Board", the founders, Jayde and Darius have taken this small gathering of  gamers and transformed it into a weekend gaming convention that caters for damn near everyone!

Darius and Jayde = LEGENDS!



The event, which the dastardly duo have decided will be biannual, opened at 08:00 on Saturday morning until 23:30 on the Saturday and opened again at 08:00 until 19:00 on the Sunday.  I was there for both days hosting my homebrew games and teaching other modern board games to the punters and so I thought I would share my musings about the weekend. 

Before I do however I do have to thank all of the hosts and volunteers and of course Darius and Jayde for their unending enthusiasm for this event as it goes from strength to strength.  Without them the event would be no more than a small group of geeks in a backroom somewhere... nothing wrong with that of course.

So I guess firstly I have to adequately describe what Uncon is?  Uncon is primarily a gaming convention, principally it was bought about for board gamers but later incarnations included tabletop wargaming and even limited digital gaming in the shape of classic console games at 3.0 and a full on Virtual Reality suite for 3.0 and 4.0. But first and foremost it is an analogue event, where people can congregate and interact with others over bits of cardboard, plastic and dice! 

The planning for Uncon 4.0 goes way back to April 23rd, literally the day after the 3rd Uncon event (my first as an exhibitor and host).  Uncon 3.0 was hugely successful with a couple of hundred people attending the event and enjoying the decent board game library that is one of the central features of the "con".  Despite our exhaustion following the weekend, we were determined to put on an even bigger event that put Uncon on the gaming map!

One thing that could not be compromised though was the location. Darius was determined that Uncon would be a convention for the local community as well as for the wider area of the South East.  Yes we could have moved the 'Con closer to London and therefore gain a (potentially) wider appeal, but that would betray the central tenet of the founders.  However we have been very lucky in sourcing a local school that has amazing facilities that perfectly fitted the vision. 

the open play area

the library


As well as providing a huge open play area, where people can just grab a game from the library and start playing, the venue allowed us to offer space to game designers to come along and demonstrate their latest projects as well as some established and much loved games.  



To that end we had the fabulous guys from Yay! Games playing with fans of their excellent Ominoes as well as a game that is still in prototype format.  Glenn Ford, one of the driving forces behind the very successful Gaslands was there with his new game SSO, recently published off the back of a Kick Starter.  On a side note, I backed SSO and had specifically not even opened it as I wanted to be taught the game by Glenn himself and it was soooooo worth the wait.  Glenn is a really decent guy and the game was much more atmospheric with his input.  The game itself, a co-op game set on a deteriorating space station/ship is tense and thrilling and well worth the punt imho.


SSO, great game
As well as the main hall, we booked several side rooms for various events including a Social Games room, over 18s, RPGs, bring and buy, quiet play and VR suite.  The RPG room had three different D&D campaigns running at the same time and was extremely well attended all weekend.  The VR suite had a queue most times and the over 18s... well probably best not to talk about those games...

For my own part I put on a couple of my home brew games the first being a zombie apocalypse game, I called the Rising Dead...  











Using terrain from my vast collection, including my scratch built hospital and my copious amounts of survivor/zeds miniatures I knocked up some rules and tokens and let the zombpoc loose.  It seemed to go down well and we played, in total over 6 hours of zombie goodness.

The other game I put on was my chariot racing game - Blood, Sweat & Horses.  I really loved teaching this game and to see the enjoyment of the players.  In total I played over 9 hours of chariot racing and had players returning to play the game more than once, one of the best compliments I could receive.






You may have noticed my garish lime green T-shirt.  This was the official T-Shirt of the Uncon hosts, a brilliant bunch of volunteers who have a ridiculous amount of gaming knowledge between them and the enthusiasm to teach people how to play them.  The ethos of the 'Con team is that no one need even open a rule book and try to learn a new game by reading one. The hosts were in and around the attendees, encouraging them to try new games, join in social games and bringing a sense of fun to the event - I love them all!








Oh and yes we had a mobile escape room and it was bloody brilliant!





oh and Orcs!




On the Sunday we paused the gaming to show our respect for the fallen and reflect on the ultimate sacrifice that those who have and are currently serving have made for this country and across the world. It was eerie to be in a room for of enthusiastic gamers of all ages become very still and quiet for just a few minutes but I was very proud of the community at that moment, that we had come together at that moment to think about others.  Talking of that sense of community, we invited The Carers Support Charity to the 'Con and they became our charity of choice for the weekend.

The numbers are still being crunched but they already exceed Uncon 3.0 and I can only see this event growing and growing although I do feel for D&J a bit as literally the week after booking Uncon 5.0, Salute announced their date for 2019 and we do clash.  However I hope the diversity of our 'Con will ensure we continue to draw people in.

dGG





Wednesday 7 November 2018

Tail Feathers - part 3

Hi all

I sadly missed Zombtober this year due to, yes you guessed it, my real life work pressures plus a much needed two week break in the sun.  However this weekend I will be hosting a huge zombie participation game at Uncon 4.0, the Unconventional Convention - a weekend filled to the rafters with board games, war games, VR, RPGs and many more.  I'll post pics next week!

Onto my continued adoration of the game - Tail Feathers. So far I've shown you the flying units for this fantastic little game.  Now to move onto the ground troops. 

While not individually as powerful as their avian allies, ground troops are definitely game winners and get to perform "missions".  This mechanic of the game makes the "infantry" an integral part of your force.

Firstly for the Downwood Militia.  In the Tail Feathers box you get, for the "good guys", the Oakguard. This unit of mouse rangers are excellent archers and nimble as you like if a little fragile in melee.





I painted their armour in reds and yellows to match that of the rest of the militia and finished them with a fairly standard green cloak.

Next up is the Vermin Raiders.  From the core box set you get Snag's Commandos, a bunch of tough Rat Warriors armed with crossbows.  These crack troops were painted up in the green and grey/blues that I used in the flying troops to give a sense of cohesion.  I was tempted to go with blacks and greys but I think these look really nice.




You also get a Rat Hero - Staborah.  Staborah is the daughter of Snag, the Rat General and is very much an assassin/saboteur type model.  Heroes are more powerful archtypes and can operate on their own.  Staborah is in the obligatory dark colours to represent her shady abilities.




Another nice quality of Tail Feathers is that it is fully compatible with the RPG Mice & Mystics and the box comes with cards so that the miniatures from M&M can supplement Tail Feathers.  For the Downwood Militia it means being able to recruit Prince Colin and friends.



And for the Vemin Raiders, you can use the creatures such as the spider, centipede and other critters.





My only gripe about this game so far is the distinct lack of expansions!  I would love to see bats, sparrows, robins and other avian creatures as well as more types of ground troops.  Other factions would also be awesome!

Lastly the obligatory group shots

Prince Colin, Zure and the Downwood Militia

General Snag and the Vermin Raiders

next time I will review the game as I've now managed to get a couple of games.
hope you enjoy
dGG