Hotlead 2012 report

Hotlead 2012 Con Report.

I was able to attend for the Saturday afternoon session only.

I arrived just before noon, I figured 2 hours to walk around  and do some shopping would be sufficient. My game was to start at 2PM.

First stop was the "Bring and Buy". It had a lot of Warhammer 40K stuff, some of it was overpriced, one Eldar army (maybe 40 figs) for $650 (pretty sure the seller took those back home), old boardgames and some books and a bit of terrain.

My contribution to the "Bring and Buy" was 4 Wooden Dollar Store houses I tarted up and 18 Eldar I have had kicking around for years. I got $10 a piece for the buildings, but didn't sell the figs. I had an item from one of my friends who couldn't make it, a box of forty 15(ish)mm WW2 Armoured Fighting Vehicles (mainly tanks) mostly from Wizards of the Coast Axis and Allies line. Someone wanted them IF they were the right scale. One of the Bring and Buy minions pointed me out to the buyer, who spent the next 30+ minutes asking me (and several passers by) questions about them and looking at them trying to determine if they were the ones he wanted or not, eventualy he decided they were and bought them, unfortunately I couldn't lower the price, I think that's what he wanted me to do, as I have to give my buddy $54 regardless of what they sold for.

I eventually got to look around, and even do some buying, unfortuantely by then there was not much of what I was looking for remaining, WW2 1/72 Scale stuff, everyone had the same stuff as everyone else or were sold out of what I was looking for. I Did manage to find somethings; 2 boxes of Pegasus hobbies T34/85s, a box of Pegasus Hobbies German Mortar crews, a box of Armourfast STUGs, an Italeri German ambualnce and a box of Italeri Tank Hunters. That was it for purchases, except for a $5 sandwich, pop and chip combo. Guess I'll have to do some mail ordering

Then I did a walkthrough with my new camera, and botched a lot of the photos, what turned out OK I published in a previous post

Attendance wise it looked full (If being a bit hoarse when I got home is any indication of size). I didn't see any games with 4 or less players, most had 6 or more.

The game Greg and I ran was full (6 players) it was a hexless version of Squad Leader, with many small things removed (to speed up play) and seemed to go well, lot of burning vehicles and dead infantry. The problem with converting a well known boardgame, is with people who have played the boardgame and are looking for the things you have removed.

Overall I give it a solid B+ or even an A-. My biggest gripe is; it was a tad difficult to move around, the aisles between the tables need to be more than a metre wide (some weren't even that far apart), but if they are too wide that reduces the number of tables. That was probably a result of only being there for the Saturday afternoon shift, it probably was better in the morning and the evening shifts.