A Little Piece of Me Died Yesterday

Or,

My Visit to Strategicon 2005

Denis and I headed over to the ole con to check it out, and it is not well. We were there on sunday around 1pm, when it should be somewhat hoppin', and it was not. Not to say it was empty, but the pulse was dangerously low.

The flea-bag market was void of ANYONE selling anything, the dealer room was moved to the second floor (along with registration) in what used to be the open gaming room, and the old dealer room is now the miniatures room, and the old miniatures room is now what looks like open gaming. I didn't think to pick up a con book to see what was being offered, I was to depressed. That con has gon downhill ever since we stopped going.

My conclusion is that while other cons have been evolving, and offering something, ANYTHING, different and new, Strategicon is the same old thing year in, year out. You always know what to expect. Maybe it's also that LA is sort of apathetic in nature, and maybe that is spilling over the cons as well. There is that other con that happens the same weekend as Strategicon in LAX as well, so that might be sucking some life too, I need to check that out sometime, see what it's all about.

So, from the small dealer room, I picked up a very fun game, Waterloo, which is a tactical over-sized chit and card driven game about focusing on the battle of Waterloo. Fun mechanics, nice pieces, and even though the game is set-up the same every time, I can see how playing different tactics based on your cards that round could change the game considerably from game to game. I'm sure Enron and I shall play it at GenCon. Denis was quite the sport and humored me by wasting some of his Anime watching time last night playing it. Hooray!

Also, the room at GenCon is all reserved and ready to go, I look forward to attending a REAL con with all you lads.

Watching Firefly with Leslie as we speak. She likes it! Strange, no?