Kublacon Wrap Up

Having finally caught up on sleep, I'm looking around at my house with army transports and bags of clothing strewn everywhere and going "What can I do to procrastinate...?"

Traditionally the goal is 14 games over the weekend, however with 13 scheduled games, I decided to up the ante and go for 18 games. Didn't make it, but am okay with that. I got in 9 games of Cardhammer (6 in an event, 3 pick-up), 3 Bloodbowl games, and 3 games of 40K.

Thursday morning, Scott arrived. We hung out for a bit, ran some errands, and then I dropped him off to do some paperwork at Santa Clara University. Just as I was doing that, Manny called and I picked him up. Over to Neto's we went for some food and then back to the house. I watched a game of Tzeentch Bowl between Manny and Scott, then cooked a steak (if you average the two it comes out to medium-well), packed up the car, and beat up on Manny at some Cardhammer.

Friday morning, Nana picked up the kids and took them to her house for the whole weekend. With that, we finished packing and got to Kubla at 1:00. Waited around till the room was ready, got everything situated, then had 2 hours before our event. That was the theme almost all weekend: lots of time. We were so efficient Friday that after perusing the dealer hall, Trent and I had time to grab a beer and nachos at the bar. The nachos turned out to be a very bad idea.

Played three games. Game one Scott gave me a gift by allowing a points-intensive army to shorten its line with a river. Then he promptly failed 6 rout checks in a row. I win. Game two, Manny gave me my only draw of the weekend. I made the correct choice to take out his flying unit but it left me with a long hike to get around his flank and my poor Wood Elves weren't up to the task of holding out long enough. I thought I was going to lose but managed to pull it out to a draw (almost a win). Game three Trent took 16 Crazed Goblins. The only thing that saved me was a) I knew he'd take that army and, having played it myself, knew the trick to beat it and b) I made a couple of key rout checks that were 50/50 odds.

Saturday morning was a bit rough of a wake-up (like 3 good hours of sleep). Then down for more cardhammer. Against Manny, I got a big win that was not reflective of what happened. He had an ancient dragon that flubbed a key roll that meant he had to stay and fight instead of fly away, which allowed me to gang tackle the dragon with like four units. Game was 'play till 1200 pts are dead' and the dragon was worth 900 pts. Against Scott, I had to work hard with lots of shifting sideways of my entire line, but I managed to one-round his Hydra (I was the giant-killer this weekend) and rolled his line. Against Trent, we had a good fight brewing but it wasn't to be. I had more units but he was scoring some good hits with his Bomb Chucka that could've evened the odds. Then he blew like the first 2-3 rout checks at which point I rolled his line.

We finished with like 2 hours to spare, so there was some walking around in the dealer's hall and general hanging out. Then we had Bloodbowl and Just Cokes.

I was a bit disappointed in the turn-out to be honest. We basically had like 3 people show up because we talked them into the event and only 1 guy from nowhere. Round 1 was Trent on Tzeentch Bowl. Yeah, when your opponent can't throw the ball for 3 turns and then loses a turn, and then my bashier team gets an extra blitz for the most the game, that's a rough one for the frogs. Round 2 was Tom & his Orcs. Oy, it was a curb stomp game. He played well, but literally the gods were against him: he had two guys with squigs (the football in this game) in scoring position and well protected by other guys. Then the foot of Mork comes down right on them, killing like 3 and KO'ing the other 3. Round 3, by the parings was Scott. Ugh. Nothing against Scott, obviously, but he and I have played each other with our team like 15-20 times for playtesting. The feeling was mutual, we were both sick of Goblins vs Vampires. I'd asked to be switched but was told no, so we played to the half because we were so bored. It really was a downer ending to an already so-so experience.

Crashed out late, got up wishing I only felt as tired as I'd felt the day before. Went downstairs and set up for 40K. The event was a little creaky as we simply hadn't done a rigorous playtesting job as we'd done on the other two events. We maxed out on tables, and had to turn someone away.

Round 1 was Scott, and I fumbled through beating him up. But it was still fun. I'm beginning to think my Ork army (which he was playing) just isn't very good for this edition. Round 2 was against Manny. Was a weird game with no combat against his models (I attacked the heretic in melee). I managed to roll lots of 2s for armor saves but killed his heretic for the win. Round 3 was against Trent. I almost pulled out the win despite getting tabled, but my desperation required Trent to roll lots of 1s and 2s. Always a bad plan.

Because of how things worked out, round 4 would've been me against Scott and we were both happy to just bow out. Frankly, I was done after round 2 and was actively not wanting to play after round 3. With the time crunch, we had to shorten the event (we didn't anticipate the post-game stuff taking so long) which was frustrating to me. Also I was a bit frustrated that some of the scenarios had some holes in them (because again we didn't playtest as well as we should). Also, Manny, Scott, & Trent decided to not keep score for the experience and since those were to be my principle opponents I decided not to as well. I kinda wish we had done the experience thing because I think it could've been fun. Part of the charm of the event is to see a Wazdakka with BS 5 or Infiltrate.

Afterwards, we packed up in a frenzy and put stuff back in the room. Went to Knuckles for some food, and then Manny & I played another game of cardhammer. We'd planned to play cardhammer and Bloodbowl but we took so long to finish (lots of chat breaks because we were fried) that we didn't get to Bloodbowl. More chatting, then put the Manny and the Scott to bed and Trent & I hung out with drunk Kubla staff.

Woke up Monday, had the traditional buffet breakfast, packed, and went home. The kids arrived not long after, and they were happy but tired. We grabbed some food and came back home to put some very tired rugrats down. Scott, Manny, & I chatted outside and paring down the absurd to just the hilarious, next year we will have the Bell of Lost Dignity at the 40K event.

From there the goal was a game of cardhammer and bloodbowl. We didn't get there. We played a big 4,000 pt game of cardhammer with lots of monsters. Really it was a 2,000 pt game with 2,000 pts of monsters. Manny had 2 Hydras and an ancient dragon. I had a Hydra, a regular dragon, and two great war elephants. Because of the mission I pretty well rolled Manny (he had to land his dragon right in front of an elephant and a Hydra).

It was too late for Bloodbowl so Scott played Manny in Cardhammer, showing him the Terracotta Faction I'm designing for Your Move Games. In the end, Manny & I didn't get to play Bloodbowl which really bummed me out.

Next morning, we wake up and right before we leave Manny gets an annoying phone call. Then he has to get on a plane. Really frustrating for the guy and left a bit of a stain on the weekend. I come back, spend some time with the kids, drop Scott off and Kubla weekend is officially over.

On the whole, I split Kubla into two categories: gaming and logistics. Logistics-wise, this was an awesome Kubla. We had so much time and were so organized that we could visit the dealer's hall, hang out and chat, and generally do what we want between rounds. It was a very mellow and relaxed weekend. Not having the kids helped.

Gaming-wise, I'm going to go with a 'down side of the line' rating. Cardhammer was fun, and I really enjoyed the campaign. Its the only event where I didn't have any reservations. Bloodbowl went off okay, but the games on the whole...could have been better. With 40K, between the time crunch and the scenarios, the games would have had to have me rolling on the floor with laughter to make up for it (and they did not). One fun event, one okay event, and one "sigh" event.

On the whole, the weekend was fun and it was good to see everyone. Next year we'll improve on the things that need improving and hope the gaming is better.