[GameStorm 12 Report] Part Five - Wrap Up

Gaming spaces are divided by partition walls by game type. Miniatures and board games were in the main hall with RPG and dealer spaces in another main hall. Panels were in various speaking rooms upstairs.

Being mainly a board game convention, GameStorm features all manner of games being played. I snapped some pics of some of the games being played as I strolled about. Some really popular titles this year were Dominion, Stronghold, Dungeon Lords to name a few.

Stronghold (pictured to the right) is an awesome game and plays just as well with two players or four. The whole time management element and the fact that the goal isn't just to break in are great parts of this game and make it very challenging. Take too long as the attacker, and you will have a hard time winning. Break in too fast and you lose too.

Dungeon Lord (above) is another wacky game that combines resource management with construction elements and then ties them together with a mechanic by which invading adventurers test your dungeon. You have to manage food, gold and imps to make sure you have enough traps, monsters, supplies and a big enough dungeon to give those adventurers a challenge. Get too evil and you will attract the incredibly over-powered paladin who can make or break your dungeon single-handedly.

Battletech (above left) was another favorite with several games running including an all-day event where folks were encouraged to drop in and drop out of the game as needed. There was a gigantic game of Flames of War (above right) fighting out a portion of the Battle of Kursk. The tanks in the above picture were all provided by owner of Game Matrix. Not only are there a ton of them, but they are all painted beautifully. Another historical game was run by the same gents who ran the Escape from the Lost City game I played in. They ran a Stallingrad scenario in 1/72 (below). The terrain they used was really cool as four ruined buildings could be packed into an interlocked cube for transport and storage.

On Saturday I played in a game of Space Hulk (below) that used two game sets playing simultaneous scenarious with victory conditions on each effecting the other. Oddly enough, both scenarios ended close enough to have no effect on the other. One of the games was being played exclusively by my gaming group. Nothing planned, just how it ended up. BTW, Genestealers won on both tables. There was also DBA and HOTT (below right) being played  on a few tables and several times in both instructional and actual game play. There was a pretty cool game of Starmada (below left) being played as well but I wasn't able to get in on it. Last I saw, the left of the Imperial fleet was folding which likely explains buddy Roy's pained expression in the foreground there.

And last, but not least and sadly so, there was a Sunday fairwell game of Junta that I missed AGAIN. The first year I went to GameStorm, Iken introduced me to a couple of guys he had played with the year prior. It's sort of a tradition now to get a pickup game of Junta (below) going on Sunday after everyone's checked out and packed for the trip home. I missed it last year and this year because I went to breakfast with my mother and grandmother who live in the area. I cannot deny them the chance to see me when I am down there, but next year they get to see me on Saturday. Junta Guy (we can never remember his name) is a riot to play with and everyone has an awesome time hamming it up and playing the roles of Banana Republic corrupt politicians. I did get to sit in on the last bit of the game this year at least and so was able to enjoy some of the fun as spectator.

Well, that is GameStorm for this year. There was a lot of fun that didn't get covered either because it escapes my memory or I don't have pics. There were panels as well, but they are not as fun to post about. Topics such as GMing 101, Theology in RPGs, and Role-Playing vs Acting Out were some of those that were covered as well as one title, "What is Old School Gaming?".

Take care,

-Eli