Sunday, February 24, 2013

Demo Day - Winter 2013

Demo Day was a success!  The Virginia contingent had a strong showing, and with a couple of game-hosts from Maryland, we represented 6 different game systems, pretty much our average for these events.

Here is an overview of our venue, Dropzone Games.  Tom, one of the co-owners, was a gracious and welcoming host for us.  Dropzone is located where the Glen Burnie GW Battle Bunker used to be, so it has a respected history in the area, and it is probably the largest wargaming store in the MidAtlantic region.  The views you'll see here are only the front of the store.  There was an entire Warmachine tournament going on in another two sections of the store!


Our man, Erik, drove all the way up from Richmond to demo MERCS.





Erik is a teacher by trade.  He is always well-prepared, and he gives excellent instruction.



And he's a superb painter!

MERCS minis have great poses.









Next to Erik, I gave my Alkemy demo.


Here I am offering my first demo at a Demo Day.


A simple grab-and-go scenario.  There's a treasure chest of alchemical stones in the center of the ruins.  Aurlok Nation versus the Kingdom of Avalon.


These guys were great dudes.  We had a very fun game.


The Aurlok Nation commands the ruins.  To the left, Tecumseh, Crow Warrior Hero, puts the beat down on Garlan de Brall, evil leader of the Avalonians.


Here we have a demo of Kings of War.  I finally had a chance to play Kings of War myself.  What a breath of fresh air, next to Warhammer!  The rules are so clean, simple, and fast.  I love the Warhammer setting and models, so it would be ideal to combine those aspects of Warhammer with this rule system.  Of course, my game, Mini Mayhem, would be even more preferred.....


Orc Axers and Boar Riders


Baby orcs, mimicking their papas on the big, bad battlefield.


Versus the undead ghouls and/or zombies.  Brains!...



Aaron drove all the way up from Culpeper to demo Uncharted Seas.


Oko demoed a sister game of Dystopian Wars.


Back to Aaron, Aaron has demoed several times, and he brings quite the setup.




Next to Aaron, Patrick from Baltimore demoed Deep Wars.  This was a great surprise.  We didn't know Patrick planned to attend, and I was shocked to see Deep Wars, a game that is definitely on the far edge of the radar screen, but certainly deserves a lot of attention, given the incredible models you'll see below.






The game-hosts play a demo game of their own.  I played, too, later on.  Oko and I rushed out that night to buy starter sets!


"Can I blow that up?"


And finally, to wrap things up, here are some shots of painted minis in Dropzone Games' display cases.


Warpath minis look a lot better in person (although the blurry picture doesn't do them justice).


I can't wait to paint up my own crocodile unit.


Some interesting ideas for weathering.




Some neat ideas and conversions for 40K.


Tom, the store owner's, very own Axis faction for Dust Warfare.  I am totally inspired to base my own Panzer Gorilla unit like he did.  I bought a new box of Gorillas, just from seeing these guys in the display case!


Had a fantastic day.  Now it's time to focus on the NCMSS presentation this coming week....