New Mini Con

So this weekend came and I was somewhat excited to see what DFW's newest mini con would have in store for me gaming wise.
G3 was held at at the Plano Centre and started early at 8am.
First off, I had never been to the Plano Centre and was amazed at how many events were going on. Basically, a municipal convention center their was everything from church organizations, a flea market, a chess tournament, a beauty contest and of course a gaming event.

The games that struck my interest from the list of scheduled events were Classic Battletech, Mechwarrior and AT-43 . Classic Battletech (CBT) because I played the heck out of that game in the late eighties and nineties. Mechwarrior (MW) because it ties into to the Battletech universe of which I am still a huge fan. And lastly, AT-43 because I had read a bit on BGG and was drawn to the notion of pre painted figs for a mini game.

Unfortunately CBT and MW were scheduled for 8 am.That's what time I leave for work on the weekdays and was not ready to sacrifice my late Friday night for them. So I arrived about 10 and hooked up with Baker and watched CBT for awhile and found out the players meet 2-3 times a month and they play in the time frame I favor, I was so stoked and went to the game booth and bought the base set and big rulebook. (Any of you familiar with Dork Tower will understand I was having an Igor moment- "Huzzah! It must be MINE!")
I also found some potential additions to our Bloodbowl league- things were looking good.

Baker taught me Caylus Magna Carta and I was underwhelmed (I won 65-60). Like Caylus I felt it too long for what it is or as Allen says "30 minutes of fun rolled into a 90 minute game", but at least I can say I've played it now. Baker then signed up for the Age of Empires III tournament and I went looking for AT-43.

AT-43 is a minis game with pre-painted plastic figs. It looks awesome and plays fairly quickly. Instead of being just a umove-imove game, you actually have to plan your moves at the beginning of the turn, so you have to anticipate your opponent. There are some mechanics that allow you to reorder things in case you screw your planning which give it a nice twist. I'd play it again, but I doubt I'll be rushing out to buy figures anytime soon (a little expensive for me and I'm running out of room). Going up against an experienced, player, needless to say I got reamed, as I underestimated the range of the weapons and how quickly the carnage would start.

Afterwards, I got in a seven player game of good old Citadels (which took longer than I imagined). After an embarrassing loss, I decided to call it quits for dinner (it was 7:30ish). All in all, it was a good event and I hope they keep it up (I think they plan on 3-4 events a year). I got to see more war games and mini games than I do at BGG.con or the DGM, which provides a refreshing change of pace. As well, I got to meet a lot of new faces and cross pollinate the groups.

Meanwhile, back at the manor, Robely spent the day alternating between napping and Battlefront II. Ahhh, what a rough life we lead.