From: "Fogel, Christopher" <CFogel@OMM.com> 
Subject: [consim-l] ConQuest 2001 AAR 


ConQuest 2001 - Aug. 31--Sept. 3, 2001 - Hyatt Rickey's, Palo Alto,
California


I arrived on Friday at around 4:30 pm in order to get in on the 5:00 Titan
game.  Got in on a 5-person game that wrapped up at 2:30 am(!) when I
eventually conceded to the only remaining player.  I opted for an early
Titan stack comprised mainly of Warlocks, so I wasn't able to recruit
anything into it, and thus with each passing round my Titan stack became
comparably weaker to the other stacks.  I actively hunted the third
remaining player and managed to knock him out with my Titan stack, but in
doing so I was reduced to only my Titan.  Not good.  I could have held on
for another 30 mins in the hope of doing some tower-hoping and regaining
some Warlocks, but it was 2:30 already and in all likelihood I would have
been pounced on and crushed in the end.


On Saturday I got in on a couple of games of Medieval Merchant which Dave
Kohr ran.  This was a pretty neat game--a beer n pretzels game of opening
trade routes and developing cities for revenue.  Dave mentioned that it had
originally been designed as an airplane/airport game and I can see why.  A
fun game... we played w/six players each time.  Winner was the person with
the most victory points and I'm still not quite sure which is the best way
to go about getting them.  It's a real delicate balance and of course what
you plan on doing is always affected by the other players' actions.  With 5
other players your plans get tossed out the window quite often!  I highly
recommend this game if you desire light fare that runs about 1hr, 15mins.


I grabbed a late lunch and went to the Miniatures Room which was housed in
the adjacent Elks Lodge.  Talk about a sweet setup!  Full bar w/big screen
tv and huge miniatures tables!  Awesome.  I played a Stalingrad scenario
using the Screaming GI's II 25mm rules and run by The South Bay Gamers.  The
setup was N-I-C-E!!!  The level of detail was incredible.  Blocks and blocks
of burned-out houses and a nice mock-up of the Red October Factory at one
end.  About 36 players (yikes!) and we each got our own squad.  I started
agressively with a mad dash as Axis across the main street and was prompty
cut down/forced to retreat.  The Game Master took pity on me and gave me
some sort or armored vehicle which I started rolling down the main street to
attack the hordes of Russians (supported with a tank) charging our
positions.  Like bees to honey, my vehicle was swarmed by Ruskies, but a
nearby German machine-gunner and flame-thrower made quick work of the first
assult.  A second assault ultimately knocked out my crew with a grenade
tossed inside.


It was fun game, but I had some problems with the Screaming GI's "spotting"
and "damage" rules.  You needed to roll to spot the enemy before you could
even roll a "to hit" die, and spotting was just too hard.  Somewhere in the
neighborhood of 30% most of the time.  I never got a chance to shoot at
anyone as I never managed to spot anyone.  And when you DID manage to shoot
someone, you rolled on a kooky damage table and got results like "earlobe
shot off", "right arm shattered" etc.  But, we all had fun which is priority
#1.  Thanks to the South Bay Gamers for the awesome, time-consuming setup on
this one!


There was another Mechwar miniature table that looked incredibly detailed
too--city blocks complete with detailed buildings and parks.  Flintlocks and
Tomahawks looked pretty nice.  The previous day there was a nice African set
up.  The ever-present Warhammer tables were relegated to the back room this
year.


Saturday also featured the flea market which was a zoo as always.  Very
popular and VERY crowded.  I didn't see anything that caught my eye (I
wasn't looking for anything in particular), but there was one older
gentleman who had a bunch a very old (and odd) looking SPI stuff.  Tactics I
and I believe Stalingrad in large, flat, plain white boxes with a thin red
line across them.  I believe I overheard him saying he was a playtester.  He
had a lot of these games (I don't remember the other titles offhand) and
they looked pretty old and unique.  I've never games in boxes like that
before--about 1 1/2' X 2' and about 1 1/2" thick.  I don't know how much he
was asking.  You also had the odd assortment of miniatures/sf books and a
lot of computer games.  Not much really interesting except for that one
vendor.


Sunday was the auction.  It started off pretty lame with a lot of Pokeman
merchandise, Dragon Magazines and various RPG systems.  Nobody was
interested and there were no bids.  Most of this stuff had reserve prices
that were pretty ridiculous.  Eventually we hit games... I bid on and won a
copy of Tank Commander's Player Guide w/a deck, Guderian's Blitzkrieg (OCS
by The Gamers-first ed), a copy of Tomorrow the World by 3W for novelty's
sake, and AH's Air Assault on Crete.  I think I paid $4, 5, 6 and 11
respectively.  I left right after that because I didn't want to get tempted.
I didn't see anything of rarity or of special interest on the setup tables
anyway, but maybe somebody who stuck around could correct me.


Played a few other pickup games, like Formula De and Settlers of Catan.  The
new location of the convention was pretty nice.  Lots of room for
boardgames.  You had your typicall "all-weekend" monster games set up.
Chris Farrell had Guderian's Blitzkrieg II (OCS) setup and running all
weekend.  I noticed This Hallowed Ground.  Someone else brought his own
giant map of Western Europe--I would guess it was his own game design.  A
couple scenarios of Totaler Krieg! were running as well.  A impressivle
LARGE showing for the Victory in the Pacific tournament!  It seemed like
there were always several games going on at any one time.  Fairly large and
nice-looking B-17 group.  Quite a few Up Front players too.


I met some nice people and actually got in contact with some gamers in my
immediate area.  Always nice to find new FTF opponents.  A great weekend of
gaming that was well-organized and in a very nice setting.  Thank you very
much to all involved in organizing this event!