The Jawaballs Report: Bolscon 2009 part 2

I know, it's old news, but I needed to get up more video and reviews of Bolscon! Sorry I've had a busy week with school starting up.

I got an interview with Jwolf, Bigred and Adam from Bols, and that will be posted here once it loads. Well, it was mostly Fritz and myself blabbing while the camera was on the guys, but whatever, its content! Here is my summary of Bolscon:

First of all, Jwolf emailed Fritz and Myself an invitation to go down to Bolscon, along with some other bloggers and internet idententies. We decided instantly to take him up on the offer! First of all, it would be good blog content, but also, we wanted a chance to get Jwolf on the table after a recent Bols article talking about how the Blood Angels suck. So we bought our tickets and put it in the books!

I would like to say that the guys were nothing but gracious and accomodating. Jwolf even bought us breakfast and gave us a ride to the airport! All of the Bols guys were nothing but friendly and helpful. They welcomed us into their ranks and that is extremely appreciated. There is nothing like traveling three thousand miles and being treated like friends by complete strangers. Thanks guys!

Friday Night:
The room was set up around 5pm, and open gaming began. Fritz got a game in against Jwolf, while I played another guy who was hanging around. Batrep to come. I would say about 25 to 30 guys were there taking advantage of the open gaming tables. But the highlight of the night was a massive appocalypse game! At about 9pm, Bigred called the game to start and we got it going. I had the chance to team up with Fritz and some other boys to take on some Chaos scum. I have been involved with a few appocalypse games, and they have been mostly bleh. Around here they tend to be 10 hour marathons of needless tactical bickering. But we played a game with 15 thousand points+ PER SIDE in about 2 hours. Yup, you read right! Those Bols boys know their shit! The secret was a strict 10 minute limit per turn. You will be surprised how fast guys get in all their shots when they are forced to. This eliminates all the piehole shooting and crap. Guys just roll dice and do damage! The game ended with a good guy victory with the Blood Angels and Saim Hann saving the game. Fritz manipulated the main battle so that at the end he was contesting multiple objectives, while I flank marched onto the table behind a reaver titan, and destroyed it with two dreadnoughts and 5 death company models! Then my troops went on to secure two objectives! Giving us the victory, 3-2. Well run boys.

Saturday:
4 two thousand point games, starting at 9ish, and ending at 5! In about 8 hours, we got in the entire first round of the tournament. I have never been to a 3 game 1750 tournament that took less time. I ended up 1-1-2 on the day. My first game was a blow out victory over one of the Bols boys, and game two was a draw. Game three had me up against 40 plague marines, and saw me only score 3 points though. Just wasnt my game! Then game four was a half hearted draw. I could have maybe gotten a win, but the difference in points was only 10 points and had no effect in my overall standings.

The day was efficient and well run. If you had a question, the guys were attentive and answered it instantly. They all knew what they were doing, and what was going on at all times. The best part, was that about every half an hour or so, some loot was being given out! Guys were winning random drawings, loot from Battlefoam.com for pulling off certain requirements in game, loot from Battleforge Games for doing nothing, and loot from Jwolf for just being cool dudes! If he saw pleasent guys who were always smiling and having a good time, he gave them prizes... and not just little blisters, one such prize was a top quality painted Forgeworld model that was graciously donated by Blue Table Painting! Nice job BTP. They donated a few prizes.

And speaking of Prize Support... I did manage to get some video of the loot haul. It was amazing! However,Jwolf learned a valuable lesson... he should have had the loot off limits to the public. Instead, gamers could enter the area freely and walk right up to the table, that was being unmonitored. In a perfect world, this would be ok, but of course, some of the loot walked away. Oh well.

Later on Saturday, after my headache went away... I made it back into the game room for Pod Racing. It was cool! You picked a fast moving vehicle, I chose a Blood Angels speeder, and played by some established GW rules and raced them around a track. I came in dead last of course... but it was still a fun time!

Sunday:

By 4pm, I was sitting in the hotel restaurant eating dinner and drinking a beer. The entire Bolscon was over! The boys managed to get in 3 more 2k point games, plus an awards ceremony in under 8 hours. Amazing. I pulled three draws on the day myself, but played some great players including another Bols boy named Chris. His Lamenters made off with some loot counters due to some whacky special mission rules and saved him the tie. I managed to take down Lysander... with bolter fire! :) At the end of the day, Jwolf quickly and efficiently handed out the prizes with little pomp and circumstance and unnecessary drama. It was a nice, refreshing change... especially to some of the other GTs based in Baltimore... hint hint... who keep you corraled for an hour waiting for them to get organized, then make you sit through some annoying product pushing before handing out meager prizes. Guys were literally walking away with armloads of loot! I myself scored a Land Raier Crusader for winning Best Painted 40k Vehicle with my blood angels Baal Pred. I also won a DoWII for being the farthest traveler to Bolscon, and a Daemonette box set because my team did well. They randomly assigned people to teams, mine was slanesh. During the games, they pulled names from those teams who were doing well, and gave them prizes... my name was drawn and Monty from Bols threw a box set on the table in front of me and I didnt even know it was happening!

In the end, it was an absolute fantastic success. The games ran fast and fun. There were a minimal of douchebags. Loot was flowing like beer, and beer was flowing like water since there was a cash bar right outside the game hall and we could have a few while we played. While it was a challenge to get in some of the games for some of the larger horde armies, for the most part, I think the 2 hour time limit was a great thing. So there you go! I cant wait for Bolscon 2010, and am psyched that Bols plans on doing sometig in the NYC area. Ok, enough, my fingers hurt. Watch the video!