Warpcon is
Ireland’s largest games convention and since the Shack is its main sponsor for
Wargames this year I reckon it deserves at least one post from us, particular
when you consider the influence that this jewel of the South has had on
Ireland’s gaming scene.
This post
might be all new to some people, or a friendly trip down memory lane for
others. Ireland’s
tournament scene wasn’t always like it is now, we forget so easily how blessed
we are with the myriad of tournaments that there are now. From Q Con in the
North, To Retcon in Dublin, Itzacon in Galway, Conspiracy (Towncon) in Kilkenny
to our very own Shack Attack Tournaments a 40k player need never look too far
from his own doorstep to get 5 quality games of 40k with new people in new
surrounds. A decade ago this wasn’t at all the case sadly
Way back in
the mists of time there were three tournaments that occurred with any sort of
regularity. We had Gaelcon, my first tournament (in 2001…I shudder to think how
badly I did). This was a great event for me mostly because of the novelty of
not playing the same 4 people all the time and the fact that it was on my
doorstep, the problem with Gaelcon was that until 2009 the quality how the
tournament was run varied massively! Some years it was great, other years it
was simply terrible! The second tournament was the Games Workshop run Grand
Tournament. This was always a highlight for me and I still remember my first
one in the Clarion Liffey Valley as one of the best weekends I’ve ever had in
gaming. The problem with the GT was firstly despite the herculean efforts of
organisers like Ronan Murphy (now owner operator of the most excellent Dungeons
and Doughnuts) there was never any consistency of location and the poor old GT
was bandied from pillar to post in the 3 years I went to it. We moved from the
Clarion in Dublin, to the now dearly departed Valhalla Games in Athlone with a
pit stop at the Red Cow Hotel in between…As you can imagine the venues varied
in quality but the games were always pretty solid.
The one
consistent event, the one guiding light in it all was Warpcon. A trip down to
Cork was always worth it. They always had good terrain, the format was always
interesting and there were always loads of new gamers to play. Things have
changed over the years, points have gone up, there are cool class trophies now,
the top tables are even more hotly contested than they’ve ever been, armies are
as pretty if not more so. But the point is that Warpcon has always been the
daddy of them all, pre ETC driven tournament explosion, before rankings or big
time prizes and players Warpcon was still awesome and it’ll continue to be,
that as much as anything is why we as a company are truly chuffed to have our
name associated with it….See you in Cork in 3 days!!!
PQ
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