a personal account

MidCon '98 was held in Birmingham (UK) on the weekend of 7/8 November 1998.

This was my first ever games convention, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. But there were a few people from the games club going so I thought I should at least see some friendly faces.

For various reasons, I got started a bit late on Saturday morning and didn't get there until about 11am. As per the instructions I had been sent, I went to the hotel desk to check in, but they told me to come back after 2pm when the rooms would be ready. So I went up to the games rooms to see what was going on. (Actually, I only found one of the two rooms - it was a while later before I figured out where the second room was).

I wandered around for a little, seeing what games were going on at the tables. In that first room, half of the tables were given over to Diplomacy - something to do with the National Diplomacy championships. There was also one of those games beginning with 18. Something to do with trains, I think. I didn't want my brain to explode, so I didn't stay watching any of those for too long. I saw some people playing Ursuppe and reminded myself that I would like to get to play that at some stage over the weekend. I recognised the stall of games against the wall as belonging to The Games Store, but Karl and Audrey weren't around.

After a while, I saw my first familiar face who wasn't already playing something - Jake. He was about to start a game of Tycoon with two others. Tycoon was one of the games on my list of 'to try'/'possible buy', so I was quite keen to join in. The game itself was very good and nicely balanced. I believe some people have been playing it with an incorrect translation, or some such, meaning they have their home base as one of the cities on the board. I can see how that would take something away from the game. It is now on the 'will buy at some stage' list. I came second, by the way.

At that point Jake and I decided to head off to sample the culinary delights of Birmingham. There seemed to be little sign of shops and people near the centre of England's second largest city. We passed a sign pointing back to the hotel, saying 'Gun Quarter' and we worried about heading into the 'Stabbing' or 'Mugging' quarters... Eventually we found the main shopping area and found that we had been walking parallel to it. After Jake had prised me out of a bookshop that I got stuck in, we went to the Pizza Hut and found Geoff from the games club with his daughter. After a suitable repast, we headed back to the hotel.

Filled with confidence and pizza, I set about drumming up six people to play Chill: Black Morn Manor, a boardgame based on the Chill RPG. I had been wanting to try it out with six to see how well it worked. Luckily, we came across a game just ending and coralled some of the players from that, sending them out to fill the last one or two places from their friends while I read through most of the rules. The game starts with one player as evil and the rest as good characters, but events can force anyone to switch allegiance. Despite what seemed as though it was going to be a walkover, the game was narrowly won by three of the remaining four good players ganging together to destroy the evil 'Master', while being closed in on by the evil players. Everyone seemed to feel it was OK, but no-one thought it great - my forgetting to apply a small part of the rules until late in the game didn't help that.

Having a captive audience, we decided to reward them by introducing them to Guillotine, a game they were sure to like. That first game was rather untypical, though, with all three days ending prematurely and the winner only having collected about three 'heads'. They decided to have another go, but Steve from the club turned up at that point suggesting I try and check in as he had been moved to a hotel half a mile or so away. I went off to do so, letting Steve take my place at the game.

He was right, when I got to the hotel desk, they told me I had to go to the other hotel. I debated this point with them for a while, but gave in eventually. I wondered how it was that they couldn't count the number of rooms they had booked out? I figure they had people looking for rooms and decided to drop the discounted block-bookings of the gamers for full price bookings of 'important' customers. I trust that there was no mistake on the part of the convention organisers, and I hope they will not use the Royal Angus hotel again. Anyway, I went back to confirm the news to Jake, and we trudged off to book into the other hotel.

I also discovered the second games room at about this time. This had more tables with the main theme being 18xx games. There were many furrowed brows but no signs of malnutrition, so I guessed they hadn't been at it too long. I also saw anothr game of Ursuppe and reminded myself that I really must get to play it. SFC Press had a stall selling games, including a bunch of discounted Goldsieber stuff and I spent some time looking through that. There was also a 'bring and buy' table where you could try to sell games you no longer wanted.

On our return from the other hotel, we met up with Steve again, who collared us for a game of Svea Rike. This was the least enjoyable part of the weekend. The game itself was fine, about power, trading and wars in historical Sweden, with a blend of co-operation and double-crossing necessary to succeed. Everything is in Swedish with three pages of translations, all the cards having been cross-referenced with numbers by the game's owner to help find the correct translation for that card. As a lot of these cards were 'interrupts', held in the hand until needed, it meant a lot of checking and re-checking to see what cards you were holding. This, and the strategic and tactical variations that seemed possible, meant it was a game that didn't exactly favour the first time player. Most people would be fairly easy-going in such a situation, but the pedantry and refusal to give any leeway of the game's owner really spoilt any enjoyment for me. Jake wasn't happy either and he had played it before. Although most of us play games for fun, there are some for whom it is a kind of substitute for life, where winning somehow improves your chances of survival. Kind of like an amoeba in Ursuppe, I guess - did I mention that I wanted to play that?

Earlier in the day Karl had set up a Zopp board in the main room, and it had been attracting a lot of attention. This is a Carrom like football game, where you have flick your 'players' (wooden pucks) onto the 'ball' (smaller wooden puck) in an effort to get it into the opposing 'goal' (goal). It was popular enough that Karl had set up a knockout championship and I had been drawn against Jake (strangely enough) in the first round. We fitted in the game during a shortish break in Svea Rike and soon attracted a crowd who marvelled at the way we could knock the ball about for long periods without getting it into either goal. Eventually, the laws of probability kicked in and the ball started going into the goal - usually my goal. The game was 'first to three' and despite being 2-0 down at one stage, I managed to lose - but at a more respectable 3-2.

Anyway, by now it was midnight and Steve's kids had declared World War 3, won and lost it, and were in various stages of collapse. So we all headed down the dark streets of the 'Disembowelling Quarter' to the far spires of our distant hotel. Sorry, getting a bit too poetic there...

What a night! Birmingham city centre on a Saturday night is not the quietest of places and our new hotel had thoughtfully provided single glazed windows and various noises of its own, ensuring I didn't get to sleep for a good while. In the morning, I came downstairs and stuffed myself with masses of nourishing (and already paid for) breakfast before paying for the room and heading back to the 'gaming but not sleeping' hotel with Jake again. Steve had gone back earlier, probably having been woken quite early by the kids. Isn't it strange that the time kids wake up seems to have little to do with the time they go to bed?

I had promised Steve's boy, Jonathan, a game as he had been asking all Saturday. So we set up Escape from Atlantis with a couple of others. A bit of a search for spare players meant we could follow up with a couple of races of Ave Caesar, a game of nasty Roman chariot racing that I have recently fallen in love with. The popularity of the game with those in the know was shown by the fact that someone offered to buy it as I was returning it to Audrey at the Games Store stall, and the resounding 'No' from Karl on hearing this.

Looking around at the games tables, I had noticed that the buzz of the convention was Samarkand, there seemed to be progressively more and more games of this going on. I would guess that all stocks available there got sold. It was strange because it hadn't severely impressed me when I had played. I must try again.

Time was pressing on now and I decided to make my stand about Ursuppe. I borrowed a copy from Martin Wallace of Warfrog and got together three other players, including someone who actually knew how to play it (Karl) and we began on the understanding that we probably wouldn't be able to finish. As it turned out we got even less played than we expected as we were interrupted by the long and tedious announcements of the Diplomacy results and one of players, who turned out to have been involved in the championship, disappeared to listen in. Nonetheless, I got as far as getting the 'Struggle for Survival' gene, allowing my amoebae to eat the others. Karl pointed out that the acquisition of this gene is the point that the game turns nasty, but we never got to see. I am still determined to try it again.

Numbers were dwindling fast now, so I bought up some of the cheap Goldsieber games, a copy of Galopp Royal from the bring and buy stall, and, without the excuse of it being cheap, a copy of Mississippi Queen (Rio Grande version).

As I was preparing to leave, Mick from the club asked if I was looking to play anything else, so I ended up introducing a bunch of them to Hornochsen, a new card game from this year's Essen crop. We played two games and all agreed it was a worthy development of 6 Nimmt.

As for the Zopp tournament, Jake got knocked out in the next round by the eventual runner-up (I believe). The winner, and official UK Zopp champion, was the aforementioned Martin Wallace. Shouldn't there be a rule against being a games designer and a champion - surely too much kudos for one.

Oh, and Mick from the club won prizes in both the general quiz and the pop quiz - a bit of a 'quiz wiz', I'm told.

I headed home at last as it was nearing 8pm and there were very few people left at all. I'd like to mention all the new people I met and had some good games with. In particular (in order of playing, and hoping I haven't remembered any of their names incorrectly): John Bennett, Dave Smith, Juliet Merritt, Karen Lowe, Gwyn Jones, Kevin Rolph, Dave and Lisa Cooper, Mark Young, Doug Massie, Ryk Downes and Pete Stanton. Thanks guys, here's to the next time.

So, would I go again? Well, I'll have to answer that by saying I'm already looking at going to StabCon at Manchester in January. Perhaps see you there...

Bye for now.

Trev.