Autumn Conclave 2013 - WHW 28th September

[precinctomega]

A great day, with some fantastic events!

Search for #autumnconclave on Twitter four my pics from the day.

R.

[Koval]

Absolutely. Brilliant day out, hope everyone enjoyed it.

[greenstuff_gav]

thanks to all for partaking in the day; a proper write-up will appear in the In THe Field section with PDFs and downloads.
apart from me mixing up Scenario Points and Information Points, i'd be really interested in thoughts regarding the story (and how it unfolded) and the scenarios themselves; being the first time alot of these scenarios have been played i'malways looking to improve!

thanks to Shannow for the car-share (and putting up with me talking crap), TheNephew for so graciously accepting his necron-designed-bbionically-enhanced-squig, the two Daves for the loan of the inspiring vehicles and all of you for coming along!

[Cortez]

It all went splendidly. Thanks Gav for running it.

[MarcoSkoll]

A few niggles:

1) Apparently the increasing fame of my directorial namesake does not make him a reliable reference for my surname over the phone. More phonetic alphabet needed, I think.
2) Getting a train 45 minutes earlier did pretty little to help me, as the connection I should then have been able to catch was cancelled.
3) More sleep needed.

Still, I think we did pretty well - although turnout wasn't phenomenal, we met that opportunity objective we had for trying to catch people's attention. I can't actually recall having had quite that many other people taking pictures of what we're doing previously.

Three separate 54mm vehicles do seem to be a not ineffective method of drawing the eye.

[Koval]

That, surely, is an incentive to work on the Titan

I'll put up my own account of the day at some point, but suffice it to say that the finale will look a bit strange -- as Gav, Marco and Holiad are aware, I had to change the parameters a bit (from "Cultists" to "Inquisition operatives affiliated with Lyra's associates"), so that we didn't end up with an awkward blue on blue incident. Instead, we had a couple of fun exchanges (paraphrased below).


Corporal is too thick to know when to listen to an Inquisitor. Suspicious PDF Trooper gets Lyra's attention. Lyra leaves the Corporal and walks over.
Lyra: I take it you have a reason for attracting my attention.
Suspicious PDF Trooper produces an autogun and shoots past Lyra, hitting the Corporal in the stomach and fatally wounding him.
Lyra: (alarmed, to Suspicious PDF Trooper) My patience is wearing thin. Tell me what the hell you're doing. Now.
Suspicious PDF Trooper takes off her cap.
Alice: (channelling the Ninth Doctor) Tagging contraband, loading it into the Valkyrie, hijacking it to lead us back to Eramus. Thanks for blowing it.
Lyra: (exasperated) Well, if Fabian won't tell me what he's doing...

Vox Specialist sees Commissar Leith approaching, looks up, and makes a point of not saluting.
Vox Specialist: (nonchalantly) Good evening, Commissar.
Commissar Leith: (perhaps slightly affronted) You there. Soldier. I trust you'll be more cooperative than your corporal over there?
Vox Specialist: Oh. Him. He's not my corporal.
Suspicious PDF Trooper shoots the Corporal in the stomach. The Corporal falls to the floor.
Vox Specialist: (shrugging) And now he's not much of anything.
Another Trooper moves over to investigate the commotion.
Commissar Leith: (annoyed) I find your manner incredibly disrespectful, soldier. Identify yourself now. Name, rank and serial number.
Vox Specialist takes off her headset and cap, producing an oversized bolt pistol.
Tyra: Vargas, Tyra. Former Commodore, Battlefleet Pacificus, currently assigned to the Inquisition.
Tyra turns and shoots the overly inquisitive Trooper at point blank range, killing him.
Tyra: (to Leith) Good to see you again.

[greenstuff_gav]

EDIT: scoring!
(in no particular order. Note the Finales didn't modify peoples scores and instead affected the outcome.

26points: p8 / Rob / Shannow
22points: p2 / Dave / Kaled
22points: p4 / Alex (bloodpacts mate)
22points: p10/ Robey / PrecinctOmega
22points: p12/ Steve / Cortex
18points: p6 / Tom / Shard0808
18points: p7 / Joe / Koval
16points: p11/ Alex (young one)
14points: p9 / Nick / Holiad
14points: p3 / Jim / Bloodpact
14points: p1 / Dave / Marcoskoll
10points: p5 / Joe / TheNephew

ill get the files updated with a few things i spotted then will work on the story

in the meantime the thumbnails don't work but i'm too tired to work out why:
http://buildyourimagination.co.uk/minis/conclaveautumn13.php

and i was rather pleased with these guys:

despite the obvious press-moulding!

[Kaled]

Thanks to Gav for organising the event, and to everyone else who helped make it a lot of fun.

I really liked the way that success, or otherwise, in the scenario affected how much of the unfolding plot was revealed. I think it's an idea that could be taken further in future.  The same with the plot cards which gave people side objectives - unfortunately it seems most people forgot about them in the heat of battle, but I think the idea has merit and I'd be tempted to try giving them greater prominence in a future campaign. So each player could have his own objective that runs throughout the day which he has to accomplish alongside the main plot.

The scenarios were a nice mix of different types - some combat, some sneaking around, some relying on talking and persuasion. I also liked that they had all been designed so they didn't need a GM - having three opposing players almost always leads to far better games than just two players facing off against one another.

[Koval]

I also liked that they had all been designed so they didn't need a GM - having three opposing players almost always leads to far better games than just two players facing off against one another.

Absolutely, and let's not forget how we more or less shared GM duties between ourselves in game 3, which I think is a pretty valid alternative to Single Overall GM if it's appropriate for the scenario.

[Shannow]

I had a fantastic time and will probably have an attempt at writing the finale game I played with Kaled and Cortez because it was so much fun with excellent non violent persuasive actions in it as well as a bloodbath melee!

Thanks to Gav for everything including the lift (I still owe you petrol money my good man) and to everyone who came making it a great time!

I was thoroughly surprised to get a model and hopefully will have something done with the scout and up on here in not too long!

R

[Shard0808]

Thank you to everyone who made my feel very welcome at the event, it was great to meet the faces behind the names and feel a part of something bigger. Lessons learnt from my beginners POV:

1. Single player parties really don't work all that well, once your turn is done it seems an age until you get to roll again, and against anything remotely high powered you suddenly become very vulnerable).

2. Close combat is incredibly sluggish, easily the weakest part of the game (dodge is...dodgy) and for a close combat specialist as your main character it kind of takes the fun out of fighting.

3. Fear of making a character too powerful occasionally left me at a big disadvantage (teleporting power weapon armed initiative 80 inquisitor with a heavy bolter/grenade launcher toting Servitor and a nasty tech magos, for one) I won't be making Helena into a space marine, but she's getting an upgrade!

4. Don't grenade your own Servitor

That just about sums it up! Thanks again for a fun day guys, I hope to see you all at the next conclave whenever it may be.

[MarcoSkoll]

2. Close combat is incredibly sluggish, easily the weakest part of the game.

That's pretty much the main reason why it was one of the things I pushed to the top of the list for tackling with Inquisi2r testing (woo, punny names).

On which note, our playtesting yesterday, while rough around the edges (particularly as Robey had joined us, so I had to try and brief him on the crude concepts at very short notice*), seemed to be generally positive.
I think what I'd like to do with an update is feasible, even the how needs more work and the question of what the consensus on what to do is up in the air.

*However, a net positive, as he did say some very useful things!

[TheNephew]

As everyone has said, A++, would nerd again.

Thanks to all for teaching, tolerating and advising throughout the games, and Gav for setting it all up.

I'd pretty much echo Shard's comments - two pretty slow and flimsy characters led to a fair bit of waiting and not a huge impact on the games, but that's as much down to my inexperience and hesitant play as the game. I suppose if we'd all had our parties up on the boards beforehand we could've balanced across the board, but it does take a little of the surprise and fun out of it.

It's a bit of a shame that the plot cards and such were underused, though no bad thing that the games were intense enough that so many people forgot them. I think that they make a great layer of detail/motivation to the games, and a nice extra thing to think about strategically.

I think I'll chuck up a write-up of my finale scenario with Alex (I believe, terrible memory) - should take all of two paragraphs, with two cripplings (crippleings? Nah.) in the opening stages and Alex's Stein and Liwet ambling off unscathed and victorious at a comfortable pace.

Many thanks to Gav for my Nec-Mech-Squig - in the event the 28mm happens and I can make it, I think I'll bring him as my beasting great bodyguard to try and reduce the party-wipes I barely avoided in so many games.

Would definitely make the trek up again, though not necessarily for the very next event.
Mutterings of a slightly more southern meet were encouraging on that front.

Edit: Oh! And next time, bases. I will bring bases for all my models, to which they will be attached, my own dice, and a tape measure. Possibly also glue and a more sensible way of transporting my doods than rolled up in a sock in a glasses case.

[Heroka Vendile]

On the whole it's a good sign that I don't think I can identify 50% of the players in the photos, new blood is always a good thing (I say "new", I've not made since IGT 2012)

[greenstuff_gav]

so, i dun a write-up with downloads for those interested

now where are all the pictures?!