WFB: The Social Side – Gottacon 2015

I love Warhammer. Warhammer is fun, it is strategic, it makes me think, it challenges my mind and skills, it gives me something to think about. What’s more than all of that, is that it is social.

Think of your favourite tournament or convention: is it the 3-8 games of Warhammer you played that you remember? Sure you remember that dice roll that caused your Slann to jump down a hole in turn 1 and you remember standing on your chair screaming at the top of your lungs because something epic happened or running the length of the gaming hall yelling “Wurzzag!” because he turned someone into a squig during game 5. Mostly you remember the conversations, the drinking (if you’re of legal age) and the rest of the social aspects of the day or weekend.

At least that’s what I remember.

Photos

First a thank you to the GottaCon team for permission to use their photos in this article. GottaCon had several photographers floating around all weekend who took better photos than I had time for and appreciate them allowing me to use them here. Photos not provided by GottaCon are provided by the boys of CHOP or myself.

GottaCon 2015

All of the tournaments are a blast but I have to tell you about GottaCon 2015: it is the most recent one that I attended and let me tell you all the wonderful fun things you missed out on by not being there.

2015 was the 7th year GottaCon has been around; last year they took a big step and moved facilities from a Community Centre called Pearkes Arena in Victoria, BC to right downtown in the heart of Victoria at the Victoria Convention Centre–attached to the historic Empress Hotel. Those of us who had attended at Pearkes loved the location: cheap-ish hotels, cheap-ish food nearby, everything was all in one room and you could feel the energy and the excitement from everyone and after hours we’d meet up (at least our circle of friends) and go to the bar at the Howard Johnson hotel where there was karaoke and of course drinking for those of age. It was 3 days of partying. Downtown Victoria is expensive so I admit that I had my doubts about going and with the date change it landed the convention on the same weekend as one of my kids’ birthdays so I hesitated, but we decided to go anyway.

I am glad that we did.

A week in advance we called up to a local pub and booked their loft for Saturday night, we booked for 25 but I think about 40 showed up between all the coming and going.

Friday

Todd and I drove up on Friday so that we could get checked in before the mass crowds of people made the line up more than 20 minutes long. We were able to shop the vendor tables (bought souvenirs for all of our kids) and connect with several of those who sponsor the Kippers’ event that I run in October. Met up with friends from the Mainland and the Island, had dinner in our hotel room (I had never stayed at a hotel with room service before, it was a novelty that cost us more than I am happy to admit), and then re-connected with friends to go to the burlesque show before going back to the room and crashing for the night.

“Star Wars: A Nude Hope” showed Friday night on the main stage. Having never attended a burlesque show I did not have any idea what to expect. It was hilarious: the performers involved the audience, the audience (especially the more vocal ones) made it so that the performers had to ad-lib a little, and we laughed a lot. C-3PO was my favourite, though I am sure most of the guys would say the Storm Troopers or Darth Vader (or is it Vadress when played by a female) or Chewbacca might be theirs.

I work at a college now and have to admit I was slightly uncomfortable to run into one of the students of the college at the show (I’m a bit of a prude about such things for those who don’t know me well), but turns out that now I am going to be teaching her and her husband to play Warhammer, they were enthralled (I’ll talk about that more when I get to Saturday).

Saturday morning we found a little shop for breakfast–they made awesome bagels–and arrived on site for the games.

The Hall

The hall was really quite neat. The Crystal Gardens, it is called, used to be a swimming pool. The area that used to be the pool itself was where the vendor hall was set up and some of the cos-play booths were and above that in the mezzanine-like area were all of the miniature games. LAN and magic were in a separate area. There was enough room that if they grow further they could easily fit more tables in that space, but gave us lots of elbow room and room for spectators to mill around without affecting the games. It was an awesome layout. I wish I’d thought to snap a picture of it to post.

Saturday’s Warhammer

Have I mentioned that I love Warhammer? I do. I travelled down Vancouver Island roughly 4 hours to play in the tournament and laughed when I learned that my first game would be against a fellow that I had played just a few days earlier as he lives about 30 minutes from me. Most tournaments attempt to mix up at least the first day so that you’re not playing against people you play against on a regular basis but GottaCon doesn’t do that. Some people think that’s bad, but while I don’t really relish the idea of playing people I play on a regular basis I’m not one to complain about something so inconsequential and focus on seeing if I might be able to possibly squeak out a lucky win against them this time—if you’ve been reading my posts over the last year and a bit you’ll know I don’t win a huge amount of my games.

My List

It was a pretty typical Bretonnian list for me and I like how it plays together. Lots of people thought I was nuts to take a 4 pack of Grail Knights and no Pegasus at all and the Grail Releque got a few inquisitive looks but it seemed to fit well with the way I was playing it.

Game 1: The Strangler Strikes Again

Ian typically trounces me with his Empire list and I am proud to say that not only did I Heroic Killing Blow a Steam tank in turn one but I managed to go 6 turns with him and had a very close game. So much so that we actually counted the points to see who won. Ian only beat me by a couple hundred victory points this time.

Ian had a list with 6 demi-gryff that he’d done wolf conversions for, a large block of spearmen, a unit of knights, two steam tanks, two characters on pegasus that he could fit into the demi-gryff unit and I think I’m missing something but I can’t think of it offhand.

Other than the Strangler (my Lord is the Repansse de Lioness model and after her success at Ego-hammer she was given the nickname “the Strangler” very confidently taking out that steam tank there wasn’t really much of consequence, but I was pretty impressed that I managed 6 turns when we normally manage 3. Though I think “The Strangler” deserves a new paint job and a more epic base considering her successes over the last year.

Game 2: Don’t Fail your Strength Test

After the Empire I fought Ian’s brother Alex with his beautifully painted Orcs and Goblins. Alex is a player like me: he loves to play with all the toys not just t

he best toys. Alex ran savage orcs, big ‘uns, a couple of rock lobbas and doom divers, a unit of night goblins, a couple of manglers and some characters. It was a tough match.

Alex told me right off that he was leery, that my list was a tough match up for his. He was right. We fought down to the wire, 6 turns and had to count points to see who actually won. He beat me by a couple hundred points as well, though it easily could have gone either way. I got a lucky Dwellers’ Below off on Wurrzag in the bottom of turn 6 and had I managed to kill just a little bit more with that Dwellers’ that would have swung it in my favour. Neither of us broke the other either, which was weird because someone usually breaks when playing Blood or Glory.

During my game with Alex the student from my school came by and watched for a while and asked questions. She and her hubby found the game awesome. I was grateful to be playing Alex who was okay with the interruptions so I could get them hooked on the game while also losing the battle to him hahaha

It was a tough battle, I had to really think but again, I was pleased to hold up for 6 turns.

Game 3: Winter is Coming

My third game of the day was against Matt using Orges that were themed around the Game of Thrones. It was quite the game. We had Watchtower and he very nicely deployed a small unit of trappers into the tower. It was another 6 turn battle where there weren’t any major upsets but six solid turns of gaming. Again, it came down to points at the end and Matt pulled a win.

Saturday: The Stickey Wicket 

Though I seriously missed karaoke it was a blast to be able to just hang out with all…25 that turned into 40…friends all evening long. We hashed out rules for upcoming tournaments, relived past games and conventions. I watched the guys drink to excess (I don’t drink if you didn’t know) and got to hang out with Paul from Dice Bag Games, some of the GottaCon team. Friends from the Island and Mainland came together. It was awesome to see everyone included, hugs and handshakes all around and the waitress’s eye widen as she realized that yes we were actually going to cram more than 25 people in the Loft. We missed out on Karaoke though. Someone really needs to bring Karaoke to a pub near Gottacon next year.

Game 4: The Other Todd

My fourth game I played against a fellow named Todd. “The other Todd” or “Little Todd” I heard him called a few times as my hubby’s name is also Todd. Todd played Todd in the first game. It was good and confusing for a while, but in the end of their game Todd won…During our game Todd was playing Dark Elves and had never played Bretonnians before. Me being who I am (I’ve been told several times I need to play meaner) I spent the time to explain what all the units were and did. Unfortunately it did not help Todd and I did beat him in the end. It was a great game though.

Game 5: Empire by Gordon

My very first time I went to Gottacon I played Game 5 versus Gordon’s empire so it was neat to come back a few years later and play him in Game 5 again. It was a very tough match. I voted his army for Best Painted. If you didn’t see it in person it was gorgeous and this picture does not do it justice. I had a chance to talk to him about it and each tile was had cast using molds by Hirst Arts. He spent an incredible amount of time putting this display together and it shows! Our battle was tough. My 4 Grail knights toughed it out against the war alter for many rounds of combat and my grail pilgrims stuck around well after the were expected to die. His light council was tough to deal with but we were a pretty even match and had a great bunch of conversations while we played.

What I Remember

I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of my games, a few key things, what I do remember is

• Friday night CHOP shouting at me and my hubby from across the theatre at the burlesque show to come sit with them and be closer to the stage
• late night pizza runs
• early morning breakfast at Sam’s Deli (they made amazing BLT Bagels) and chatting with some of the friends there
• Alex promising to run the length of the hall yelling “WARZZZAAAGH” if that character accomplished his task, and following through and the rest of us knowing exactly what it meant
• shirtless wrestling (This year the shirts stayed on)
• meeting new friends, wives and girl friends of friends
• Lunch at Milestone’s
• running into old friends we hadn’t seen for years and catching up

I still catch myself smiling when I think about that weekend.

I love Warhammer and I love attending big tournaments and conventions. I don’t play to win, I don’t play expecting to win any games. I play and attend to have fun, to be social, to enjoy the atmosphere of being in a space with hundreds of people like me who want to get their geek on.

I can’t wait for Victory or Death the first weekend of May….and Wet Coast GT the first weekend of July….and Incon in August….and Kippers’ Melee in October….there’s others but those are the ones I am attending either as a participant or as an organizer.

What’s your favorite memories from the events you attend?

Author: Jen A

Jen is a tabletop wargamer with over 10 years of experience. Her specialty is Warhammer Fantasy. She began writing for BoLS in 2013.