Battle Report: Teslaville @ PAX East 2018

As is the tradition for the past four years or so, I arranged a full game of Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack for one of the days of PAX East.  This one was kind of a last minute affair, so the only other players besides me were my long time PAX East friends Vlad and Ryan.  Read on to see what happened.

Vlad (4 Frames & 15 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.

   Tank (recon by fire) -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Blue Scrambler -- 2Rd/1G/2Y/2W.
   Yellow Scrambler (light soldier) -- 2Rd/1G/1Y/2W.
   Chub -- 2Rh/2B/1G+d8/2W.

Me (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 35 points. (Argonauts)
   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Green Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Smoke Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

Ryan (6 Frames & 24 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 24 points.  (Solidboxes)

   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Green Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Blue Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Light Blue Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W.
   Red Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): Vlad's Blue Scrambler jumps over and captures Ryan's Purple Station.  Ryan's Orange frame hits Vlad's Blue Scrambler for 1.  My Green frame shoots from the top of the train tracks and hits Vlad's Blue Scrambler for 3.  Vlad's Yellow Scrambler hits Ryan's Orange frame for 1.  Vlad's Chub hits Ryan's Yellow frame for 2.  My Smoke frame, also on the train tracks, hits Vlad's Tank for 1.

Vlad: 49 points.

Me: 35 points.

Ryan: 21 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 7): Ryan claims his Station back.  Ryan's Orange frame hits Vlad's Yellow Scrambler for 2.  Ryan's Light Blue frame jumps out from behind a wall and slashes my Red frame for 4.  Vlad's Chub hits Ryan's Yellow Scrambler for 1.  Ryan's Blue frame hits Vlad's Yellow Scrambler for 1, it does the Station Dance in response.  I seize Vlad's Yellow Station.  My Smoke frame destroys Vlad's Yellow Scrambler with a 1 damage hit.  My Green frame hits the windmill for 3 damage and Ryan's Light Blue frame for 2.

Me: 30 points.

Vlad: 28 points.

Ryan: 24 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 3):    My Red frame seizes Vlad's Blue Station.  I then give up Vlad's Yellow station.  My Green frame hits the windmill for 1.  My Orange frame hits Ryan's Light Blue frame for 2.  Ryan's Green frame destroys my Red frame with 1 damage.  My Yellow frame hits Ryan's Yellow frame for 2 but he seizes my Station.  Ryan's Red frame hits my Yellow frame for 2.  My Smoke frame hits Ryan's Red frame for 1.  Vlad's Chub Destroys Ryan's Yellow frame with 3 damage and seizes the Station it was holding.  Vlad seizes Ryan's Purple station.

Vlad: 35 points.

Me: 30 points.

Ryan: 21 points.

Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 1): Ryan and I swap Stations.  Ryan's Red frame hits my Orange frame for 1.  My Smoke frame destroys Vlad's Blue Scrambler with 3 damage.  Ryan's Green frame hits Vlad's Tank for 2 and seizes his Purple Station back.  My Green frame hits Ryan's Blue frame for 3.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 25 points.

Ryan: 24 points.
Vlad: 21 points.

Here's a couple aftermath pictures.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We didn't use Single Shot Rockets because Vlad didn't make any for his squad and I didn't have any to lend.
• Ryan used my Solidbox squad..
• I debuted a new Lego/Kre-O brickblend squad.
• I added a few pieces of terrain from my demo set up to the table as I remember Tom saying it was a little lacking the last time we used this table setting.
• Some onlookers were a little confused with all the terrain on the table.
• This was a really fun game.
• As I mentioned before, I have a new phone with a crappy camera.

PAX East 2018 Pictures 2

Even more pictures from PAX East 2018.  The majority of these I took on Sunday morning before the con opened while I had a little time to kill.

Wyrmwood.  I know the sister of the two guys that founded
this company.  It's always good to see them at cons.

This was taken from the top of the escalators near the Tabletop section..

Another booth.

Indie Bazaar!

More booths.

Another.

A shot from the skybridge.

You can see the Free

Play area in this photo.

A view of the Electronics
side of the show.

About halfway up this photo

is the Chessex booth.

A view of the line to get in close to
an hour before the show opened.

Another view.

Back to ground level.

The only cosplayer I took a photo of.  I'm still kicking myself

about that as there were at least three other costumes that were

amazing that I saw and haven't found in any image searches.

Pax East 2018 Pictures 1

The part everyone is waiting for, unfortunately I now have a crappy smartphone camera.

Day 1 Demo Table.

Day 2 Demo Table.

Day 2 Stuff!

Day 3 Booth.

Day 3 Demo Table.

Day 4 Demo Table with Vincent.

Day 4 Joshua and Vincent after the Con.

PAX East 2018 Report

So it's the Tuesday after PAX East and I'm finally typing up my notes.  Yes, I finally took notes about my experiences.  Unfortunately I spent yesterday either in bed or on the couch with a migraine.

I arrived Thursday -- after taking the train and the Silver line in to the convention center -- toget in line just as the doors we're opening.  After a not too bad wait, I met up with Joshua and headed down to the booth.  Said "hi" to everybody who was there and grabbed some table space for demos.  After setting up I ran demos 'til about 4pm when I stopped to grab food at one of the food trucks.  After a quick bite and a meet-up with another member of the Indie Bazaar to drop off a badge, I got back to demoing.  After a couple more hours we broke for dinner.  After dinner I headed home.  I met Ben Platypus and Brantuan for the first time, and saw my friend Stevenik and his nephew again.  All told, I think I ran 10 demos.  That number may be a little high looking at my totals for the following days.  I also started giving away participation packets this year, thirteen on the first day.

Friday's entrance was a little easier as I didn't have any bags.  I also got in a little earlier and got to walk through the electronic games hall before the show started.  The aisles seem wider this year, and the booths more spread out.  I set up in a prime spot on the first table on the aisle and waited for the con to open.  I ran a bunch of demos.  Tom and GrafVonBarnes showed up and I corralled them in to helping out for a few.  Kept going 'til about 2pm or so then went out to the food trucks again.  Waited in line in the snow for half an hour and spent 45 minutes or so eating and chilling out.  Back to the table for more demos, we knocked off around 7pm.  I ended up giving out only seven participation packets this time.

Saturday I got in early again, went through the Exhibitor line, but still made it in quickly even with a bag check.  I set up on the second row of tables and ran a demo for an exhibitor from another booth who was running demos of his own game on an adjacent table.  Had a bit of down time before the maddening crowd made its way back to us so I set off for the Chessex booth on the other side of "the wall".  After that I started running demos.  Like the day before I ran until 2pm or so.  This day featured my longtime con-friends Vlad and Ryan showing up and sitting in for a four player demo.  Then I took a break and went into Chinatown for some food.  After that I came back and ran a few more demos before knocking off around 7pm again.  I gave out fourteen participation packets this time.  I also sold out of Rulers sometime in the afternoon on Saturday.

Sunday was another early morning.  I set up on the first table again then walked around and took a bunch of pictures before the con opened.  I managed to get Vincent to sit in on one of the four demos I ran that morning.  I also gave away the remaining six participation packets.  One o'clock rolled round really quickly and I started setting up for a full scale game.  Only Vlad and Ryan showed up for this so we got right to work.  Three and a half hours later the smoke cleared -- hopefully I'll have the battle report done by Friday -- and I was completely spent.  Vincent ran a few quick demos for a few people then we cleaned off the table and called it a day.  I grabbed a quick bite, finally, and then hung out in the booth and wandered around for a little bit until the con closed.  Then I helped to take down the booth and pack things into people's cars.  A short wait at the train station, an hour train ride, a fifteen minute walk home, and PAX East was done for another year.

Some random thoughts:

• I saw a lot more cosplayers this time around.  I'm not sure if it was because I was there for the entire con this year but it seemed like the cosplay presence was greater.
• It seemed like there were less smaller booths this time.  Especially on the Tabletop side.
• The same standard question, "How do I get the pieces to play?"
• I will make more Rulers for the next con, maybe twelve this time instead of nine.
• I will also make more participation packets, 50 instead of 40.
• As usual, I had a great time and look forward to the next PAX.

The Road to PAX East 2018

Two weeks from today PAX East 2018 opens with an extra day.  Tickets are still available for Thursday and Sunday.  I will be attending as in years past and running demos.  We will be selling MFZ Rulers this year in faction specific colors!  There's a discussion topic on the Hangar if you're planning on attending.  I hope to see you there!

PAX East 2018

I know I just got done talking about PAX Unplugged, but tickets are on sale for PAX East 2018 already.  The con is now four days -- Thursday to Sunday -- and the dates are April 5th to April 8th.  Saturday is already sold out so if you want to go you better get hopping!