Conquest in Review

Back in January a group of 6 midlands players including myself took a trip to Oslo Norway for a Warmachine convention called Conquest. It was a three day event hosted in the Anker Hotel near Oslo City Centre, by a team of dedicated Warmachine players. It was a really good event to play in, and I thought I'd give a brief review of the event from my point of view.

The first thing to note is that the event was held in a hotel, this is amazing for players that are staying in the same hotel. it meant that carrying models to and from our room to the event was very easy, and it was only a short trip if you needed to charge devices and such.

We arrived on the Thursday evening before the event and found the guys setting up the room for the event in the morning, this was very nice as they graciously let us play a few games using their terrain before they went to bed. Infact the room was already fully set up for the event when we came down for breakfast in the morning.

The next thing I really liked was the Conquest booklet (sadly I have misplaced mine now so can't share here). This was a short A4 document which contained everything you needed when taking part in the tournament, including blank list sheets and a very clever terrain set-up guide. The booklet was broken down in to 6 scenarios and 4 "maps", a map was a display of the table with terrain pieces laid out in an interesting and game play relevant manner. At the start of every round the scenario and map we declared and shown on the projected screen, making it nice and clear to all players what the board should look like.

Also contained in the booklet was a timeline of which events were on when. Another smart setup was that the tournaments were staggered by a round, So a 5 round masters was started at 9am, with a 4 round steamroller arrange to start just after 11am allowing anyone who lost in the first round to drop and get into the steamroller starting just after. This is good for very competitive players who want their best chances to get to finals.

The tournament itself was handled through Tiebreak, which allowed for quick and easy table display again on the projected screens, and very clear rankings which can be returned to after the event which is nice for those who wish to keep their own records. Two tables each day were also setup with a camera to stream to anyone who might want to watch the games online (This was done by Warroom.pl ) this is a nice addition to any tournament I think, provided the venue can accommodate such a thing.

It's difficult to think of things I disliked about the con, in fact I've asked others who went with me and they also can't think of any bad things either, except some tables might have been a bit too close together. Overall it is a very good weekend, and I would recommend it to all who consider going in future.