Questions from a lifetime solo gamer

[mikeh]

Is there any unspoken or spoken rule on how long you can take to make your moves when playing face to face? I realise that different games due to counter count etc need to be taken into account. Whats the longest you have waited? 

At gaming conventions how many games actually get played to completion? Or is it like a tasting table at  a food or wine convention where you sample a little of this and a little of that?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Whiterook]

Jun 13, 2024 13:03:46 GMT -5 mikeh said:

Is there any unspoken or spoken rule on how long you can take to make your moves when playing face to face? I realise that different games due to counter count etc need to be taken into account. Whats the longest you have waited? 

At gaming conventions how many games actually get played to completion? Or is it like a tasting table at  a food or wine convention where you sample a little of this and a little of that?

Thanks for your thoughts.

This is such a fantastic thread of questions!!! I’ll take a stab at answering. This based on my going to at least two conventions/expos a year the past several years now, to include the Spring and Fall Compass Games Expos where you can play any game at all, not just theirs; a couple different Advanced Squad Leader/Starter Kit tournaments; and monthly game club events.

• There is no rule on time to complete play at conventions, fairs, and game clubs… most allow you to play during the allotted hours the floor(s) are open; typically, I see players starting after breakfast (so like 7 or 8am) and playing until supper (5 or 6pm)…after supper, players usually veer away from individual face-to-face (F2F) or team play games and get into- more relaxed fun multiplayer games. The hardcore F2F gamers will carry on late into the night, but after about 8-10 hours of wargaming, you get burned out, and slower…so most like me, choose t dig out a game of RISK or Lord of the Rings and just play casually. Tournaments are different, where there is a predefined time…like ASL/SK, it’s typically 3 hours a scenario.match, and if you don’t finish in that time, judges determine who would have likely won, based on what’s going on with the battle and victory conditions.

• …continuing on that line of thought however, how long you can take to make your moves is dependent on the two players in the F2F match and their individual gaming style. I am a slow player…just the way I am. For instance, I play one friend at a lot of these conventions, fairs, and tournaments, as well as game clubs… he’s a fast player. He’s also more dexterous than I am even though we’re a year apart or so in age, but he can pick up and move miniatures or chits at lightning speed…he drove me nuts at Memoir’ 44!   But his play is fast, too… and he got annoyed with me in our early on sessions, nudging me along verbally… I should have said something right up front, but was embarrassed, even though we are best buds. He’s just naturally picked up on the fact that I am a slow player, but I’ve determined that next time we play, of it comes to the fore that he want to go faster, I will indeed just tell him, I’m a slow player! Some players get into the competition aspect of playing, and that can be problematic… my buddy just wants to play a lot of games. Me, I just want to hav fun…I don’t care if I win, and I just want to enjoy the moment. So what I am saying is, outside of tournaments where you have judges/overseers, it’s a *mutual agreement* comfort thing.

• I’ve see snail paced games when they are the monster games with tons of counters… it’s just hard to move and track everything, so it’s gonna take forever to play. At Compass Games Expo, I will see one game, one scenario played over three or more days straight! It’s insane!

• Longest I’ve waited with an opponent? …maybe 20 minutes in a regular F2F game, in particular ASL Starter Kit. I don;t think I’ve seen any go over a half hour. I’m a bit of an asshole on the subject personally… if I take 5 hours to make a move, take it as a compliment that you’ve stumped me into bewilderment, haha..but I seriously would concede a game after I’ve hot the half hour mark if I have no clue what I’m going to do; if I have a clue, I’ll apologize and say I think I have a move coming… if they don’t want to wait, they are perfectly welcome to concede the game 

• Games to completion: the majority of F2F get finished with a clear win; some get called with a player conceding; I’ve never seen a game of this ilk walked away from with no consensual ruling between the players. On giant games, many don’t finish…usually because players or event time just plumb runs out.

• There are of course, the “tasting table” going on… those are called Pick-up Games. At those events, you typically line up players with specific games ahead of time, so you have most of your time at the event playing those games. An example will be Compass Games Expo this coming November: My main squeeze will be Tim Barnes, and we’ve been concentrating on Lock ‘N Load:Nations at War, which is what I am proposing to him. (In the past, it was World at War, another was Memoir ‘44). We like to concentrate on one specific game for sure, and add in filler between, so as to take a break in that action…so that could be anything from another prearranged wargame, to a Eurogame; and we also like to play multiplayers at night, so I’ll usually try and line up six players for one or more. Keep in mind that almost all these events are 24 hours so, theoretically, you could game all four or five days long! Most events have a signup board where you can post games you’d like to play and you wait to see if anyone bites! There are some events that someone will have a game set up and sit for someone to ask to play….typically, these venues have a little green flag to set on the corner off the table to literally flag opponents down. There are also designers that try to get volunteers to playtest new games in the works!

The big takeaway answer is, if you go to a tournament, there will be guidelines to play and timing of play. Any other event is between “gentlemen” to agree to be nice.

As an example, here’s a schedule I made up for my activities during a Compass Games Expo a couple years back…

[mikeh]

Wow! Lots of info in that post. Thanks for all the answers. It seems all the action for conventions is on the East Coast.

Now let's get down to brass tacks, as the old saying goes. Let's talk food! 😄 I assume it's every man/Lady for themselves? Do any of these get togethers have a banquet or anything like that?

How are accommodations for the most part? Holiday Inn or Motel 6?

Will you see any miniatures gaming going on? Where does a game like Memoir 44 fit in, I see that one as a little of each where you have miniature figures going at it on a board/map.

[Whiterook]

Jun 16, 2024 12:30:47 GMT -5 mikeh said:

Wow! Lots of info in that post. Thanks for all the answers. It seems all the action for conventions is on the East Coast.

Now let's get down to brass tacks, as the old saying goes. Let's talk food! 😄 I assume it's every man/Lady for themselves? Do any of these get togethers have a banquet or anything like that?

How are accommodations for the most part? Holiday Inn or Motel 6?

Will you see any miniatures gaming going on? Where does a game like Memoir 44 fit in, I see that one as a little of each where you have miniature figures going at it on a board/map.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: Thanks, and I can see where you’re coming from on wondering about convention concentration. Honestly, wargaming conventions and tournaments are harder to come by, as compared to the Euro-games ones (like GenCon and Origins); but the wargames ones are well represented all over the country for the most part…I would say it’s sparse in some areas, like the Dakotas I would imagine, but I am always finding a new convention I want to go to. Tournaments are among the smaller percentage really, as the big companies just don’t support tournament play anymore (like Wizards of the Coast, Battlefront, Fantasy Flight Games, and so on…MultiManPublishing doesn’t even hold major Advanced Squad Leader tournaments, but rather ASL chapters and clubs do. On my hitlist for ones I want to go to are:

• Origins, in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve been twice and loved it… lots of everything, wargames, Euro-games, miniatures, board, Live Action Roleplay, all in a huge convention center.
  
• COSIMWORLD Expo, both Albuquerque, NM, and Dallas, TX… massive monster wargames at the former, smaller setting in the latter.
• WBC (World Boardgaming Championships, in Pennsylvania.

…many others, but those are the big three.

FOOD: You’re pretty much on your own   The typical routine is going to a McDs or similar for breakfast (though most convention sites’ hotel have free breakfast’s, though the typical buffet eggs and bacon station); lunch is at a sub or pizza shop; dinner can often be a pizza shop… so definitely not luxury dining. I have noted the vast majority of convention goers are extremely cheap!!! …they are well suited to sub/pizza shops…their biggest bitch being you can’t bring food (and often, drinks) into the gaming rooms, so you see these idiots eating in the halls and lobbies!

Me? I’ll almost always take advantage of the free breakfasts, but those are typically sketch. Often, I just do oatmeal or a bagel. I always go to the sub/pizza shops for lunch, getting a sandwich or salad, which holds me over well. Dinner, I’ll either do a fast food joint, like for a burger and fries, or drive out if doable, to a restaurant for a good meal…I don’t care how long it takes…there’s usually good steak, Mexican, Italian, and Vegan restaurants within the city, or neighboring. Leftovers can be a boon, of you have a fridge in your room. I supplement with a fair share of brought-along snacks, and hydrate.

Compass Games Expo is the only venue that offers food… they have an all you can east Pizza Party on Saturday night! They take care of their customers!!! I’ve never seen a banquet at any event.

ACCOMODATIONS: The majority have very nice (Hilton, Crown, Marriott, etc.) to amazing (resorts) accommodation hotels, suites, and resorts. A lot of these are in huge metropolitan cities, so the hotel is going to be upscale, with expensiveness chipped down a bit by Block Room Rates, which you have to be quick to secure! …often better than AAA, Federal, etc., discount rates. 

Some conventions have shitty accommodations, but clean (-ish) and kinda maintained hotel and convention space. Compass Games Expo is my main squeeze — I try to make the Spring and Fall expos — but the hotel sucks (it’s livable) and the banquet halls for gaming have stained seats and carpet; both smell. It’s Connecticut, so it’s literally the only affordable choice for the company, so I get it. It’s on a Death’s Highway where you gotta be fleet of foot of you want to hit the Burger King across the street… and it’s LOUD outside with all day traffic. I think the lowest brand hotel I’ve stayed was indeed a Holiday inn… no Motels, thank God!

Unfortunately, those spectacular hotel/game venues are generally the reserve of the real big conventions, especially if a convention center is involved, but for me, if their aren’t bed bugs, roaches, critters in the walls, or festering g mattresses, I can deal with loud ac units, crappy breakfasts, and smell accommodations. 

MINIATURES: There are indeed, miniatures only gaming conventions. In Pennsylvania, it’s the Mecca of Historical Miniatures conventions in my book. Hazza! in Maine is the best one in my area… it’s hotel is at a DoubleTree. Big conventions like Origins have space set aside for miniatures gaming… that’s where I was inspired for my Stargate SG-1 miniatures game…lots of Flames of War, BOLT ACTION, and the such. HAVOC, in Massachusetts, and Fall In! in Pennsylvania are a couple others I’ve wanted to get to, as well as Historicon. So, there are conventions for miniatures, but not as much as board games.

MEMOIR ‘44 and BOARD MINIATURES GAMES: There are some spectacular Memoir’ 44 conventions out there, but they are mostly in Europe. Here in the US, there’s one that’s been in Chattanooga, TN, the past three or so years (they’re new on the scene), but will be in Washington, DC, next year, to which I plan to go. The odd thing is, I don’t think any convention would necessarily throw you out of you broke out a miniatires boardgame, as long as there’s no diorama talking up valuable real estate. I’ve played age of sails and Axis & Allies Miniatures games at conventions designed just for one boardgame system (notably Advanced Squad Leader)! Compass games Expo regularly has miniatures board games. Origins has plenty of them.

It really depends on the venue and convention hosts, but my experience is, these fold just want gamers there to have fun!

[luckyluke]

Speaking of late-night games, I remember two matches from a convention held in Verona back when I was still in high school. On Friday night, we played *Pax Britannica*, a game about colonial empires vying for supremacy, full of interesting and detailed interactions… perhaps too detailed to handle at 1 a.m., after a long day of train travel and daytime matches. By the end, every player was offering up territories to anyone willing to take them just to avoid getting tangled in wars, despite having perfectly legitimate casus belli.

The following night, though, was a different story: we had a game of *Car Wars* with about a dozen players split into two teams. The figure-eight track allowed us, after a few laps, to set up an ambush at the intersection, reducing the first cars to "empty shells." Our fire tore through both front and rear armor, destroying everything in between… it was impressive! Both we and our victims were stunned, as they sped by at breakneck speeds, unable to maneuver in time.

Those were the days. Now, evening games are much simpler or even just relaxed chats over the day’s map still full of game pieces from the match we’ve just wrapped up—a sort of debrief.

[Whiterook]

Oct 26, 2024 11:43:09 GMT -5 luckyluke said:

Speaking of late-night games, I remember two matches from a convention held in Verona back when I was still in high school. On Friday night, we played *Pax Britannica*, a game about colonial empires vying for supremacy, full of interesting and detailed interactions… perhaps too detailed to handle at 1 a.m., after a long day of train travel and daytime matches. By the end, every player was offering up territories to anyone willing to take them just to avoid getting tangled in wars, despite having perfectly legitimate casus belli.

The following night, though, was a different story: we had a game of *Car Wars* with about a dozen players split into two teams. The figure-eight track allowed us, after a few laps, to set up an ambush at the intersection, reducing the first cars to "empty shells." Our fire tore through both front and rear armor, destroying everything in between… it was impressive! Both we and our victims were stunned, as they sped by at breakneck speeds, unable to maneuver in time.

Those were the days. Now, evening games are much simpler or even just relaxed chats over the day’s map still full of game pieces from the match we’ve just wrapped up—a sort of debrief.

The late night gaming I used to do is still elusive for me, especially at conventions, tournaments, and expos… not especially because I’m too tired or need bedtime, but more because the types of games I play these past couple decades have increased in complexity so as having me mentally exhausted by 7-8pm to handle a lot of detail.

I played a multiplayer Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea game a couple years back, that started about 7:30pm and my mind was just not having any of it! …I muddled through, but badly, and I am not all together sure I had fun   

On the flip side of that, I played some Euro-style games late into the night another year after, late into the night to about midnight and I was fine.

….I would say, if I can keep the complexity low, I will typically do better. Yet, I did handle a last scenario of the day at an Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit tournament that went until almost midnight and I didn’t go too loopy until the last turn and conceded, as I knew I was in a hopeless no-win situation.

Still, the idea of gaming waaaaay deeper into the wee hours is attractive to me, so you never know. I wanted to try and do this at this Expo next week.