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Andrew Rae
New Zealand
Wellington
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Well despite the artic conditions assaulting Wellington this weekend more than 40 gamers got into town to the Elim Centre just off Courtney Place for the warmup event to this years Wellycon board gaming convention. The warmup featured a session for local designers to talk about their designing and publishing experience and plenty of new games to play and demo. More on this later.
39 games were logged spanning from traditional classics such as Catan: Seafarers to pre published prototypes like Zmans Endeavor. As it was at Wellycon last year, Pandemic was the most popular game clocking up four plays, all of four players. Ca$h 'n Gun$ also proved a favourite, as did Agricola and Dominion. Several times Indonesia nearly made it to the table, but the heavier games generally stayed in their boxes as people sought to maximise the number of games they could play in the short time available.
The venue was good and just right for the crowd we got. At its peak in the afternoon there were about 30 players involved (see picture below)and plenty stayed on for the evening. In fact the evening session was one of the highlights for me, because by this time people had relaxed a little more and I got to know some new people. Of special note were a returned New Zealand couple Andrew and Anna, and the french backbacking couple that are backpacking their way across the country Sami and Pauline.
The designers session was also a highlight of the day. It allowed a number of professionals and those with a hobby interest to make some connections with others in Wellington and talk through issues of growing the market and how to get things done in Wellington. We suspect that in NZ there has been considerable reinventing of the wheel and we are keen to use this new network for the development and publicity of new and old games alike. Without mentioning everyone there were reps there for Linwood, BreakScore, Endeavor and Thrones and Powers. If I missed anyones game let me know and I will edit you in. There has also been contact with a similar group in Auckland and there is a hope for a national association lead out of Auckland in the future.
This isn't BGG con but we ran a library system similar to BGG and were pleased to see the range of games that people brought alone aswell to augment the Wellycon library.
All in all I was wrapped with the day and with the freindships that have begun to develop. It seems like another step to developing an identity in the Wellington and NZ gaming community. I cemented a couple of freindships that I began developing last year and started a bunhc of new ones. I am really looking forward to Wellycon in a couple of months and seeing my Christchurch friends again who ran a similar event in Christchurch over the weekend. We hope to have 60-80 at Wellycon as the word spreads from last year and we put on a big push to let everyone know. Please geekmail or email me at wellycon@gamil if you want to know more.
Anyway thanks to everyone who attended and to those that were able to make a contribution to the Koha, I was happy with what we were able to pass back to the church that hosted us. See you at Wellycon.
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Wellycon Administrator
New Zealand
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Check out the games played in the last week for the Wellycon administrator to see everything that was played on Saturday.
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Eric Dodd
New Zealand
Martinborough
Wairarapa
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Thanks Andrew,
It's a good venue to have parking in central Wellington. Plus it was warm and with cool half-hexagonal tables! Met some new interesting people and had a great time. Looking forward to Wellycon.
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David Rauscher
New Zealand
Mount Victoria
Wellington
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Definite thumbs-up for the Wellycon warm-up. Had a blast!
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Andrew Hubbard
New Zealand
Wellington
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Thanks to Andrew for organising the day, and being such a friendly and welcoming host. It was great to have the opportunity to meet some Wellington gamers.
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David
New Zealand
Wellington
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Thanks for organising this, Andrew. People obviously had a lot of fun and I got to play Brass which was the highlight for me.
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Matt
New Zealand
Wellington
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Great stuff, Andy. Thanks for organising. Top venue too, free inner-city parking is hard to beat!
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Andrew Rae
New Zealand
Wellington
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Brass is fabulous isn't it. I played Toledo which is a simple Martin Wallace game, so at least Wallace made it to the table. I'm glad you enjoyed.
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Shem Phillips
New Zealand
Waikanae
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Steve and I are still raving about what an awesome day it was! Thanks again Andrew. When I got home around 8:30, all I wanted to do was teach my wife and flat mates some of the games I played earlier that day...which sucked, since I obviously didn't own any of them.
Playing my first ever game of Dominion was a highlight for me. Also, the designers forum was a huge help and encouragement.
Can't wait for Wellycon in August!
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James Honeyfield
New Zealand
Auckland
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Great to know there's a gaming scene in NZ to look forward to when i return home.
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Nathan Clark
New Zealand
PORIRUA
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The Wellycon Warmup was brilliant! Friendly atmosphere and great venue. I really enjoyed it - thanks Andrew.
A highlight for me was playing Jarratt Gray's proto-type game, A Letter of Marque. It took a while for me to fully understand what was going on in the game, but it was a fascinating game with interesting mechanics - and good player interaction.
Yep, Wellycon 09 can't come soon enough for me!
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Jarratt Gray
New Zealand
Upper Hutt
Wellington
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Natdog wrote: A highlight for me was playing Jarratt Gray's proto-type game, A Letter of Marque. It took a while for me to fully understand what was going on in the game, but it was a fascinating game with interesting mechanics - and good player interaction.
Thanks for that. I really enjoyed watching the game. I think it is playing pretty well now and I liked how each player built their way through the game differently but all could have had opportunity going into the endgame.I'll have to bring it along to Wellycon.I do think I need to figure out a better way to explain the rules though.
I really enjoyed the day, including the aforementioned game of Brass which was excellent.
And the part of the forum I got to was cool. I'm definitely keen on playtest sessions if we can organize any.
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