Tabletop wargaming at PAX?

D_Roxxors

Can anyone speak to the presence of tabletop wargames at PAX conferences? It's listed as something the "con is about" but I've yet to see anyone talking about them, or see any reports of activity.

I'm looking at the 2010 conference in Boston, for context.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

- D

D_Roxxors

Bumping this to keep it on the first page in hopes it gets seen. Otherwise I have a feeling this is going to get buried and the lack of responses might not be indicative of the state of TTW at PAX.

Arco

Wargaming such as Warhammer, 40k, Warmachine, etc?

D_Roxxors

Yes - I think I've found my answer through research here on the forums, but I was wondering about organized tabletop wargaming play a la 40K tournaments and such.

Valander

Well, there was no Warhamster events, but there was quite a bit of Warmachine/Hordes stuff (which had schedules posted earlier in this thread). I bounced in for the Working Man's tourney Friday and got trounced as expected, then did some Tour of Duty Sunday. It was pretty packed in the Warmachine room most of the time.

I did see a bunch of folks playing various other boargames (Munchkin, Settlers, etc.).

Arco

Yeah. WarMachine has really emerged as the "wargaming" game of preference at PAX. There is some GW stuff in a limited capacity, but as they have continually decided to skip PAX and deny us a GW booth, they really don't get much play. Privateer Press, on the other hand, has a presence that's gotten bigger and better every year, and I will most likely pick up WarMachine sometime in the future because of the awesome staff and demos at their booth.

D_Roxxors

So, the Warmachine events don't take place on the main floor, but in a side hall or annex?

My impression is that the main floor is mostly video gaming, and that TT gaming takes place off somewhere else, away from the hustle and bustle of the main booths/showcases/activities, that tabletop traffic is a bit more focused rather than "wander-by" attention.

Please feel free to correct any and all incorrect impressions.

Valander

D_Roxxors wrote: »

So, the Warmachine events don't take place on the main floor, but in a side hall or annex?

My impression is that the main floor is mostly video gaming, and that TT gaming takes place off somewhere else, away from the hustle and bustle of the main booths/showcases/activities, that tabletop traffic is a bit more focused rather than "wander-by" attention.

Please feel free to correct any and all incorrect impressions.

The "main floor" is used for the Expo Hall. Basically, think of a crap load of advertisements, some game demos, some few vendors selling crap. That's hardly all there is to PAX, though--it was the entire 6 floors of the Washington State Convention Center, after all. I wouldn't say the TT area was "away from the hustle and bustle" at all, but it may have been slightly less noticeable if you didn't peek in the rooms. The boardgame library was pretty busy all weekend, and people were playing stuff of all kinds right in the main drag on the 2nd floor and 3rd floor near the escalators.

Can't say exactly what the layout would be next year or at the East version, but I'd expect that there will be plenty of TT games in either case.

mostlyharmless

There were plans to have a large Warhammer 40k Apocalypse battle on Saturday, featuring the Void Knights Space Marine Chapter. Unfortunately, the support from the local GW hobby centers pulled out, and without their support, it was impossible to make it happen this year. I've been speaking with the enforcer in question who was planning this thing, and yeah, the GW folks dropped the ball and decided to be jerks. On the note of why GW doesn't go to PAX. I honestly am not certain why. I've spoken to employees and managers, and apparently GW Corporate does not see it as a worthy endeavor. Of course, you and I know that it is bullshit, and Warhammer shouldn't be playing second fiddle to Warmachine. GW needs to get up off their asses and prove that they're the juggernaut of the industry. Of course, it may be that since they host Gamesday, they may just not feel like it.

-Mostlyharmless
Captain of the Void Knights 11th Company

D_Roxxors

I can't speak to other cities, but in Boston it's entirely possible to have some Warhammer 40,000 take place without any help from Games Workshop. We've done it before on a rather large scale...it's just a matter of whether there'd be a place for us at the con, whether the crowd at PAX would be interested, and whether we can get a hold of someone who is planning PAX EAST to discuss logistics.

We've had doubles tourneys with like 80 players before without any help from Games Workshop...if PAX East wants the 40K, we can bring it.

Moe Fwacky

PAX is all about the people, if you want wargames at PAX East, then make it happen.

Gundabad

I do have a Warhammer fantasy army that would be nice to roll out if there were other players there. I have not had much luck convincing my friends to jump into tabletop wargaming so I don't get a chance to use it very often.

Everyone in the group I'm bringing To PAX East is into strategy boardgaming though, so I look forward to some 8-player Robo Rally matches, or some Last Night on Earth (just finished painting the pieces, the game looks awesome now)

D_Roxxors

Hi Moe, thanks for responding in the thread.

I'm thinking that I need to speak to someone in authority per planning...my Cambridge-based gaming club has run Warhammer 40,000 doubles tournaments that had 16+ tables, 32 teams, 64 players. That was filling the space we had rented, it might have been larger with more space and if we'd publicized more (we didn't really need to on that occasion as the tourney registration filled up extremely quickly).

With a national audience like PAX has and early publicity I can't imagine that we couldn't do bigger and better than the aforementioned doubles tourney - but there are serious logistics involved per getting tables and terrain to the event.

We've been discussing the possibility of holding a 40K tournament at PAX East since I broke the news to the club that PAX was coming to Boston, but we need to find out stuff like reserving space (which would lead to discussions of how much space we'd get, which tells us how many tables and how much terrain we need so we can start getting ready now) and whether we would get any publicity on the website (which tells us how much we need to do on our own - again, we're not strangers to this but need to know what being at PAX would add to the mix) at the very least.

This isn't the sort of thing we would just roll in convention-time and throw down on some tables...when we run tourneys they're very organized. We have Golden Daemon winners we could get for painting and modeling judges, but we need to let them know the plan. We have connections with all the local hobby and gaming shops, but aren't going to approach them until we have something solid. We have relationships with several other established and sizeable gaming clubs but we're not going to approach them either until a plan gets laid.

Suffice it to say that if PAX East wants a serious and large 40K event you'll get it - but we'd need to start laying the groundwork now. At this point it would be mostly about terrain production as we can crank out a lot of stuff fairly rapidly, and quality stuff.

I PM'ed someone I found on here who had a title of "Wargaming Lieutenant" or something but never heard back...that was a day or two after PAX 2009 ended so I assumed he/she was busy...but if there's an appropriate person to speak to I'd love an introduction.

D_Roxxors

So...with all due respect and kindness intended, shall I take it from the lack of official response that either the powers that be are busy right now (understandable), that there is no one in charge of tabletop wargaming for PAX East yet (also understandable), or that the forums are not where I want to be to get some answers/response and I need to look elsewhere within the Penny Arcade hierarchy?

ElderCat

I assume that the powers that be are just busy. This is as good a place as any to get their attention, I would just give it a bit more time.

D_Roxxors

Contact has been made - thanks all, for letting me bump this over the last week.