Thread: More Privateer Presence

Yeah, I don't think the 35 vs 50 point thing is a big deal, but finding out the day before the con started that it was a qualifier is. Not sure how that got negotiated, but a post on the main PP forums several weeks in advance that it was a WMW qualifier probably would have brought in more pre-reg.

Just to make it clear my intention is to be helpful, not complain, if there's anything I can do to help out next year, either on the website or at the con, I'd be happy to.

Originally Posted by RealGenius

There was a great showing from the Warmachine group this year-- too bad they were in a side room where it was hard to see if you were just walking by.

That is true. I felt like a red-headed stepchild when I first saw the room. However, I got over it. While it would have been nice to be in the same area as the Warhammer players, I kind of liked having a room all to ourselves. Perhaps some larger signage to indicate where the Warmachine/Hordes players are would be helpful for next year.

If next year's Steamroller is a qualifier as well, I think you'll see more people pre-register.

I agree about larger signage. Also there are those of us who are judging during the day that would totally love to do stuff in the early evening.

Everyone is talking about how Warmachine was off in it's own room and how weird that was... But at Adepticon, which is what this thread was comparing WGC to, the Warmachine room was halfway across the hotel from the 40k room. We were off in a totally different part of the building and you had to come hunt down the Warmachine room.

Having done that experience, I honestly prefer it. Ask anyone who went this year, the vibe in the Warmachine room was mellow and fun. The 40k room was full of tension and frustration that you could cut with a knife. Even during the Hardcore on Friday (7 minute turns at 50 points) the room still felt chill compared to everything going on in 40k. On top of that, on Saturday at WGC our turn out matched the Friday at Adepticon. Our Team Tournament wasn't as large, but that will grow as the game continues to grow. It helped that there was a championship round on Sunday that any tournament you played in qualified you for. Gave the smaller tournies (Hardcore/Mangled Metal/Tier/Team) an extra incentive and drove people to play in them.

Oh, and the 24-hour gaming was AWESOME. They had press gangers running the whole weekend and tournaments over night Friday and Saturday. You got tickets for playing pick up games, driving towards swag you could buy at the end. This was stuff like the PP dice, template packs, and a few art prints that were sweet looking. Frank played enough games to get a beautiful Centurion print. Again, just another incentive to keep playing. It also meant that anyone who was mainly there for another game could come and get some Warmachine/Hordes games in. We were also heavily rewarded ticket wise for getting new players into the game.

The biggest thing they did as far as presence (swag aside) was have demo stands right outside the 40k room. That is something we should change about next year. Take up a table or three and do demos of alternative games (Mantic/PP/Spartan/etc). That was where the post-game foot traffic was and it helped the visibility.

I think we could setup a similar atmosphere to Adepticon next year, but we need bodies. The problem we would have is that everyone who was local was playing. Ben alone couldn't run all the events I talked about... at Adepticon there were at least 6 press gangers running the show in shifts and a few more doing demos the whole weekend. Because we needed bodies to fill out the tournament numbers this year, we weren't going to be able to pull that off. The more WM/H grows, the more likely it will be we can generate the atmosphere, but we have to make an effort and plan well in advance.

Now... who has time to do that given, ya know, lives and stuff?

Originally Posted by Mustakrakish

There was an alternate game table in front of the 40K area, but lets be honest. How much time do people have to mill about at WGC? most people arent used to the 7 game sechdule and are in super 40K mode. That sort of stuff works at a huge event like Adepticon because you will have a much larger segment of open gamers just wandering around looking for a pick up.

Im not saying its a bad idea, I dont think it will fly at our scale. We need to focus on making WGC a destination con first to get enough people to max out and then you will see the ammount of wanderers increase with that.

My idea for next year is:

More/Better terrain
All rules and expectations posted on the website
Primer scenarios on the website
Have Ben work on making it a qualifier for Warhammer Weekend again (that will make it a destination)
Getting the word out early

THe more people know, they more they can plan. If they know that we have had increasing numbers, then they would be more apt to come down here. If we have more early registration, its easier to negatiate with JWolf for money to go towards prize support (lets be realistic, 40K pays the bills and its up to US to make WM/H more attractive to get a larger slice of the pie) And if the people at Privateer Press see that we are indeed a legit tournament, then more interesting swag will flow our way.

I agree here Angel. Wolf and I talked about this last week and we want Warmachine to grow and we are going to start put terrain builders dedicated to Warmachine problem is even though we play the game we are not adept in running it by ourselves. We need people's help and people from the community who can help champion Warmachine. We are willing to support it and make i grow but we need the help of the community to make Warmachine bigger and better.More people willing to help with the small things the better the event can be.