From: Linden Moore Subject: Pacificon Report A report from the other Califonia convention in the high quality of life part of the state. I personally played in the Civ and Kingmaker tourney's walking away with the prize in Kingmaker. Boy I was lucky. Also got in some face to face Great War at Sea, Started a Lion of the North - Britenfield. And play a fantastic game of Lords of the Sierra Madre. Lot more board games being played this year. Magic crowd noticably smaller. Some great open gaming. Mini crowds were hopping. I personally enjoyed the Clarion over the Dumpy I mean the Dunphy. Hope all went well in La La Land. Linden Moore Blindump@ix.netcom.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 From: RayFreeman@AOL.COM Subject: Pacificon 97 Report From Pacificon 97 Pacificon 97, the largest gaming con in Northern California, was held over Labor Day weekend at the Clarion Hotel in Millbrae. This was a new site, neccesitated by the sale and renovation of the Dunfey Hotel in San Mateo earlier this year. Upon arriving at the convention site about 7 pm on Friday night it was obvious that there were going to be problems. There were no parking spaces left at the hotel, a very bad sign. At the Dunfey, parking was never a problem on Friday. I parked next door at the Westin. Walking through the courtyard I noted that the lawn was extremely wet in the low areas. I wondered how the flea market was going to fare under such conditions. (More on this later) Checking in to the hotel was ridiculously slow. It appeared throughout the con that the hotel management had no idea what demands the event would place on their facility. Service in the restaurant was snail like, and the hotel ran out of non-diet soft drinks entirely by noon on Sunday. I am unsure of the overall numbers, but my judgement is that attendance was down from 1996, probably due to advance publicity that was even worse than its usual abyssmal level. The miniatures events were held downstairs in the lounge area. A large open room. Boardgames, computer games, open gaming, the dealer room, and CCG gaming was upstairs from the lobby. I have no idea where the RPG gamers were sent. The boardgames room was a little tight, but adequate. Unfortunately, this room had terrible HVAC and it was hot and stuffy all weekend. I managed to make some quick counts on boardgame play, and these follow. This is by no means a complete list, and my counts may not be totally accurate. B-17 was the big draw, as usual, with 49 players. Next was Axis and Allies at 24, Settlers of Catan with 20, History of the World and Age of Rennaissance both with 18, Titan at 12, Kingmaker 10, Shogun 8, Victory in the Pacific and Diplomacy with 7, and Up Front and the Panzer Leader Macro with 6. The Up Front turnout was surprisingly low by usual Pacificon standards. The dealers room was fine, except that there was only one booth selling board wargames that was staffed by Terran Games. Ray and Coach apparently did some brisk business early, and completely sold out the the Spearhead Games they were carrying, (Overlord: Bodyguard & Bloodiest Day) including the opened copies used for viewing. They were offering very nice discounts. They were also selling their own BOB, and The Legend Begins, as well as a couple of games from Pacific Rim. There were much fewer Magic players in attendance this year than last, perhaps because the numbers last year overwhelmed the space available and many of them were so bummed they decided not to come back. Then again, maybe MTG is starting to wear thin. There were plenty of minatures players, quite a rowdy crowd as usual. That's not meant as a slur. They have a great time and are very enthusiastic, and it shows! The auction was run very smoothly with Mike O'Brien acting as chief auctioneer. The biggest expenditure I saw in my limited time visit was $50 for TAHGC Air Empire. The flea market was somewhat of a disaster. Well not really, but the grass and peoples shoes got destroyed because the lawn had been grossly overwatered. All the low lying areas turned into a quagmire under the churning of frantic feet seeking out the hottest deals. On Sunday, the organizers had to keep everyone on the concrete patios and walks as the hotel management flipped out over the damage to the lawn. It was really their fault. I understood that the organizers told the hotel people to turn off the sprinklers for a week ahead of the con, but instead they were running them every day. The ground was just sopping wet. It was very obvious to this Landscape Architect that they were overwatering their turf to a ludicrous extent. On a personal note, I ran a demo of my Tigers in the Mist on Friday night, and finally won the VITP tournament for the first time ever on Saturday, beating two time defending champ John Pack (of Gamaholics fame) in the finals. On Sunday, I demoed Tigers again along with my design on Vietnam 1965-1971, Hearts and Minds. HaM was making its public debut. I managed to sell a few copies of Tigers, always nice, as well as getting rid of a few unwanted and unloved games including "Slick Willie's Sacrifice", basically a slander job on our good ol' boy prez masquerading as a game. I also talked some folks into playing 6 Tage Rennen, a German bicycle racing game. 6TR is very simple and elegant and is great fun. I was amazed that no one at the table had ever heard of it. Basically it was a good con, and I see no reason not to return in 1998. The organizers really need to get their advance publicity act together. The facility this year was really not as adequate as the Dunfey, although I certainly did not miss the disco music on Saturday night that used to shake the entire building at the Dunfey from 8 pm to 2 am. From: "James H. Jones" Subject: Pacificon A brief report on my experiences at Pacificon. I will second Ray Freeman's comments regarding the problems with the Clarion. My wife was wandering around (not being a gamer herself, and wanting to keep a close eye on the kids) and she overheard a lot of dissatisfaction. People staying at the hotel, like us, could take advantage of valet parking, but many others ended up parking at the airport, which adds considerably to the cost of attending the con for those who live in the Bay Area. The flea market was definitely a constricted, moist mess. Arrived Friday with family in tow. The kids were enthralled with the computer room, and certainly spent most of their time there. The oldest (14), did get into a couple of A&A games, as well as his first experience with some D&D (that kept his up until 5:00 Sunday night and made his very irritable for the drive home). Friday night I played/learned Tigers in the Mist from Ray Freeman. We play maybe 1 1/2 turns, I played the Germans and did pretty well, which always makes you feel good when you are playing the designer--a great sales technique, I would have purchased a copy if I didn't already own it. Saturday played Up Front most of the day. It was my first time--what a great game! I am now a convert. It didn't hurt that my opponents cut me a few breaks allowing me to do well--now I need to find the time to read the rules. Sunday again learned a new game--Advanced Civilization as Egypt--making a few mistakes as I went, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Followed that with some Settlers. Then later on pulled out The Gamers' Crusader for the first time, and played a thoroughly incompetent game as the British. With huge movement factors each side can make the other pay in a hurry for even one mistake, and I made several, probably the biggest being to leave my headquarters unguarded. With Tobruk taken--don't ask :( --and virtually no supply the game was pretty much over by the end of turn two. Monday played a little more Up Front, then home. Picked up several games at the soggy Flea Market, including 5 old Commands, Russian Front, and Banzai add-on for Up Front, as well as a computer game and joystick for the kids. Overall we all had a good time, but would love to see a bit more publicity, as well as prepublication of events (by mail)--as several events for the simpler games my kids wanted to play had to be cancelled for lack of participants. Hopefully another and somewhat better venue can be found as well for next year. James & Janet Jones jjones@elite.net From: Paul Calvi Subject: Re: Pacificon 97 Well this years Pacificon was my first ever large game convention. I have to say I was very disappointed. I was planning on attending Friday night and Saturday. It turned out I couldn't make it on Fri but did show up Sat. I was supposed to meet a few friends for a miniatures game. After driving around for 20 minutes trying to find a parking space and getting kicked out of a few parking lots, I found a space about a 15 minute walk away. I had all my gaming terrain with me for my game a lugged it to the hotel. I got there only to discover my friends were no where to be found so I lugged my terrain back to my car and went back to see what else was of interest. Know of the official games were of interest so I checked out the open gaming areas. Unfortunately, I must have had poor timing because most of the interesting games fellow consimmers have mentioned (Tigers, Up Front, Crusader, etc.) I didn't see being played. I ended up walking around the dealer area for bit, which I also thought lacked much in the way of historical game dealers, and then left. bummer Paul At 01:22 AM 9/2/97 -0400, you wrote: >Report From Pacificon 97 ----- Paul J. Calvi Jr. tanker@rahul.net Food, clothing, shelter, D.A.K. (not necessarily in that order) From: Linden Moore Subject: Re: Pacificon 97 WOW, from reading the Pacificon posts I guess my experience was different. First of all I got there at 5:00 PM on Friday and stayed until 2:00 Am on Sunday. No sleep involved - just straight through gaming or game talk. Parking lot was full but my carpool was one of the cars in the lot. Did not realize all the folks who parked offsite. Did not check into the hotel so I could not tell you about that either. I think the Clarion did not realize the crowd they were going to get. About three in the morning I was out back and the sprinklers were on which did not bode well for the flea market. Yes one sock got very muddy on Saturday afternoon. Hmmm, wonder how Napoleon felt at Waterloo on the morning of the battle. I think total attendence was down because the Magic players were not in such abundance. The space seemed more open and bigger then the Dunfey. Organization was a total zero. But I just gamed and tried to ignore it. I wish the SOcal Conventions did not run the same weeekend as the Northern Conventions. Is not foxcon in the winter, but it is the sametime as my strato basketball get together in Vegas. Bummer. Linden Moore Blindump@ix.netcom.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 From: David Wessman Subject: Re: Pacificon Report All I could manage this year was a half day attendance Sunday afternoon, so I planned on just having a look-see then going to the flea market. (Thanks to everyone on the list who posted information about it.) Dealt with the oft mentioned lousy parking situation by taking a spot in a mostly empty lot nearby and hoping I wouldn't get towed, I didn't. I got a visitor's badge and, accompanied by five of my bros, took a long walk around. First impression is given by a large group of miniatures players with a variety of historical and fantasy/sci-fi games going. I have next to zero experience with minis, but it sure looks like those guys are having fun. Upstairs there were a number of gaming rooms dedicated to cards, computers, RPGs and boardgames, even a stand up video arcade! The boardgames ran the gamut of typical con fare. It was interesting to see Tigers in the Mist and Krieg being played so I could get a visual on what a lot of you have been posting about. The dealer room was disappointing with only one wargame publisher, (Terran with some excellent bargain prices on The Legend Begins and Chester's BOB.) One of the miniatures vendors had some very cool early 20th century vehicles (Lenin's Armored Car, Russian and Spanish Civil War stuff.) Nothing else of interest to me. With a couple of hours to kill we retired to the Clarion's bar for an extremely disappointing round of martinis and some of the worst service I've ever seen. 1/2 star to the Clarion. We settled on beer for the second round so the bartender wouldn't be able to screw up, then headed out for the flea market. A first pass failed to turn up anything in the "must have now" category so we walked over to the Westin to try their bar. Much nicer, 2-1/2 stars. After a final round we returned to the flea market to see if there might be some "can't pass it up" bargains. The other guys found a few, but I didn't. Oh well. David Wessman Woden@TotallyGames.com From: Mike White Subject: Pacificon/Island War I went to Pacificon this last weekend. I only had one day to go -- Saturday. Learned Shogun, and thought it was fun. Got on top early, got cocky, started to kill other shoguns randomly, earned a lot of enemies, and became the first player kicked out of the game. But we all seemed to have fun. Didn't see much in the way of wargames being played, but I left in the early evening. Also was disappointed at the lack of wargames in the dealer's showroom. This is very different from the LA con, which makes a wargamer feel like he's having an early Christmas. All kinds of goodies down there. Parking was also a problem at Pacificon, but this needs to be put into perspective. In LA, you pay about $10 a day. I was happy with parking 15 minutes away (walking distance) and not having to pay. The flea market is the con's big advantage over the LA cons. All kinds of people selling games that have gathered dust in their garages. I picked up a copy of the SPI game Island War from 1975. Flat box. Paid $10, don't know if this is good or bad. The same guy also sold Russian Civil War to someone else for $20, which seems to me to be a good deal. I have a few problems with Island War. It comes with four games -- Bloody Ridge, Saipan, Leyte and Okinawa, and rules for each game. I am missing the rules for Bloody Ridge. Also, in Saipan, the US player gets to pick his units from all available units for the game. However, the counters for this game are mixed with the others. Does anyone have a list of which units goes to which game? Or does someone have an unpunched copy of the counters who can make a copy for me? I will pay postage and offer heartfelt thanks to anyone who can help with these two problems. Thanks, Mike mgwhite@rahul.net From: RayFreeman@AOL.COM Subject: Tigers at Pacificon Jim Jones said: <<>> Jim certainly did play well in our limited time (I had to go to bed). I seem to recall that his first 8 attacks wiped out my front line defenders on the entire southern half of the board on the first impulse. (This was hitherto unheard of) Not the way the US wants to start a Bulge battle. Jim was going to drive into Bastogne against dreadfully weak opposition on 17/3 because I was almost out of defenders down south. Thus the 10th armored division was not going to be able to intervene as usual. About the only bright spot was that he hadn't yet taken Monschau, however he had threats against Malmedy, Vielsalm, and Luxembourg. It looked to be a very long (or maybe very abrupt) night for the US. From: "C. HENDRIX" Organization: Manzanita Internet Our family practically RAN the registration booth, so I got to hear a bit of the 'inside skinny' which I will pass along. First, our regular venue, the Dunfey, was sold and is being completely renovated, involving an 8 month shutdown(!). The Con organizers scoped out the Clarion and sent them an extremely detailed list of things to do (for example, turn off all sprinklers for at least three days prior to the convention- they didn't and after Saturday's flea market threatened to sue Pacificon for x thousands of landscaping replacement- that flew about as far as the hotel manager choking and gasping at reading the list of things to do...). As far as we could tell, the Clarion managed to screw up ON EVERY SINGLE ITEM ON THE LIST! Incredible! Not only that, but one of the attendees had to have their room changed because the air conditioning didn't work (after the hotel staff promised it would be going in no time) just happens to be the logistical representative for a MAJOR bay area company that represents $thousands of dollars per year of hotel money- the Clarion chain will be missing out on all of that in the coming years. The Con was crammed into about half of the space it usually gets at the Dunfey, and all things considered, the Con went just fine. But the Clarion SUCKED! Your Buddy, Chester