Gencon 2013 Afterglow Pt. 2: The Loot

Before too much time passes after Gencon and as my hobby time is largely eaten by organization rather than painting or modeling, I thought I’d ruminate a bit on the after-the-con experience of gathering all my loot and looking at just what I picked up and which projects have grown, moved aside or been added wholesale.

First up is the obligatory ‘Gencon Loot’ picture. This year, I had a hard time fitting everything into one picture, so there are a couple instead. Even after all these pictures, I still managed to leave some stuff out, but this is a complete enough picture. I think there is a pretty good mix here, particularly for a gamer who has spent most of his time exclusively on Games Workshop products, there is a great deal of variety here that, I think, is reflective of the gaming world in general these days.

As I’d expected, the majority of my expenditures went to Wyrd and Malifaux. I spent the last year steadily losing interest in Malifaux after the whole Puppet Wars thing and the troubles they had at Gencon 2012. Combine that with the waxing and waning Malifaux scene locally and I just wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be into the game.  With the M2E beta however, I had some renewed interest and, when I played, that interest was completely rekindled. The game is more fun than it ever has been and I am looking forward to getting back into the scene much more often.

To that end, I picked up three faction decks I was most likely to play with, along with three starter boxes. I’ll take a closer look at these in the coming month or so, but I think it’s worth mention that I had originally intended only to pick up the Nightmare and limited models. However, once I had a chance to see the assembled minis or Wyrd’s demo tables, I decided I wanted them. Even more than the plastics from last year’s Ten Thunders release, the new plastics are fantastic.

Outside of the Wyrd booth, I also managed some nice finds including a crazy good deal on Puppet Wars Unstitched and several small additions to a variety of crews…models that I like and wanted to have before a new version came around the bend. As I have now begun working with the plastic models, I am starting to find this pile of metal daunting and horrifying though, so I think it is safe to say that once I get past the old Malifaux stuff, I will look forward to my only remaining metal being old Necromunda models. The Puppet Wars box was kind of a surprise for me. I had originally decided I was not going to move on to the new version, but the deal was hard to pass up and, after speaking to several of the henchmen at the Wyrd booth, it seems my thoughts on the game are not all that uncommon. I decided to give it a try.
Second only to Wyrd was the time I spent in the CMON area. For Super Dungeon Explore, I managed to pick up a couple goodies, namely an extra set of dice and the new limited edition hero Nyan Nyan (though looking at ebay last week, it looks like I should have picked up a few of them). I staved off the temptation to pick up one of the expansions, as I already have too much to paint and SDE is a game I am really looking forward to completing….I don’t want to make it too massive an undertaking. The game is just too good not to play with a fully painted set.

Over at the Secret Weapon side of the booth, I managed to pick up some of Secret Weapon washes, I think originally designed by Les over at AwesomePaintJob. I could have spent an entire day and all of everyone’s money at the secret weapon display, between bases and basing kits and washes and pigments.

Among my favorite ‘gets’ of Gencon, however, was also hidden away in the CMON booth, two Kingdom Death resin models. I picked up the ‘Pinup Survivor’ and the “Illuminated Lady.’ For those of who not familiar, Kingdom Death bills itself as a boutique miniature and game company. Their game, Kingdom Death: Monster, was riotously successful on Kickstarter last year and I was regrettably unable to participate due to those pesky holiday finances. I am very much looking forward to working with these models and I’m eager to see what the Kingdom Death release looks like as it seems to be quite an intriguing concept.

So now that it’s over, I’ve obviously decided that I intend to make Gencon as regular an even on my calendar as possible, though next time I am looking forward to bringing my wife along to see all the craziness in person.

Anyway, now that it's over, and my gaming closet considerably more full, its time to get back to work. In the end, I think that's one of the best things about Gencon. Sure, it is something like a gamer's Christmas and yes, it can be very expensive, but when I leave Gencon, look over my purchases and start to open everything up, It's the renewed excitement for the hobby that is the convention's biggest loot.  (is that too cheesy? Maybe just a bit)

More to Come.

-Nick