by Armchair Dragoons PAO, 23 October 2024
The second annual Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly was held in early October 2024 in Cary, NC1 and was again hosted by Gamer’s Armory. They are fantastic store who go above & beyond for their wargaming audience and were most gracious hosts.
The Stats
Last year we had 28 register and 23 attend. This year we had 27 register, and 25 attend. Of the registered attendees, we had approximately a 30% turnover from last year, including several locals who were unaware of the First Sunday wargame days each month.
What was more noticeable this year though, was that the attendees tended to stick around the tables much more, and not wander off for dinner and never come back, or just hang out with no games being played. We kept games-on-tables and in action for a greater percentage of the time this year than last year, and the players stayed more engaged.
As per SOP here at Armchair Dragoons, we always ask our audience to weigh in on their experience
- Did you have a good time? 62.5% “Hell Yes” and remaining 37.5% “Yes”
- What did you think of the event selections? 75% “Great variety – I had a hard time deciding what to do” and remaining 25% “There was at least 1 game I was really wanting to play”
- $25 to attend…? 62.5% “About Right” and remaining 37.5% “Too Little”
- Early October for future events? 100% “Perfect time to hold it”
- Coming back next year? 50/50 split between “Definitely” and “Probably”
We also asked about “Future Locations”
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- I’d prefer a conference space attached to a hotel, even if it’s closer to $80-$90 or so
- I’d prefer a nice event space that could bump things up for $55-65 or so, but don’t need an attached hotel
- Find the cheapest thing you can because I can’t really go over about $40
- Keep it under $100 and let us have an adult beverage at the table, and I don’t care where you hold it
and 100% of respondents chose option #2, so that gives us some parameters to look at.
So what got played this year?
One session, including pick-up games
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Two sessions each
Originally on the schedule, but didn’t run (either lost the GM, or players)
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Let’s Check Out The Games
BBMike was our GM for 2 sessions of GMT’s Rebel Fury, each with 2 tables
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Bruce joined us for 2 sessions of the new Air & Armor: Würzburg game
Bruce also brought his NATO: Cold War Goes Hot along, but only for a single session this year.
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Designer Keith Tracton was back as well, with his new Raider Drop Zone from Blue Panther Games
Keith also brought back his playtest kit for his unnamed2 squadron-level air game in the World at War ’85 ‘universe’
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Battles of The American Revolution took up a double table, with one group continuing their game well past the scheduled event window.
Our first big Star Wars Armada game got some fun fleet actions with back-to-back sessions
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Take That Street is a NATO training game that was developed by the Fight Club folks, and builds off the bare-bones mechanics of Dr Phil Sabin’s Take That Hill. Peter brought a copy of the game with him and we got a solid session of shootin’, movin’, and (occasional) communicatin’. Apologies for the glare off the plexiglass, though.
And finally here’s a gallery of all the other stuff that went on while we were there, including Mike zealously guarding the last sandwich.
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We will have a few more videos coming up on our Youtube channel, so stay tuned for some more gameplay from the convention.
Participant Comments
These are direct quotes from our players
Things to Improve
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Things to Sustain
And both of these comments were under “things to improve” but kind of belong in this column:
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We did keep the swap table, which folks seemed to like. That might end up evolving a little more as time goes on and the convention gets a little bigger, but for now it’s a nice add-on.
Lessons Learned / Things To Work On
We need to find a good external venue. We approached some hotels and the costs were nuts. We looked into a few other options but they had trouble supporting the hours we were wanting for our games. We’re probably going to contact the Town of Cary offices to see what they might have available, as well as the folks in Raleigh to see what could be made available on that side of town.
Pickup games / convention library. Several folks mentioned the ability to support some pickup games, and while we have a small library of games for convention use, we didn’t bring it along for space considerations. That said, once we’re in another venue, sticking the milk crates with the convention library near the admin table will be an easy thing to do.
Event variety. We tried to spread the types of events around with a variety of game eras and topics, as well as difficulty levels and genres. Mixing minis, classic H&C, card-driven games, and blocks, as well as varying game lengths, seems to have given everyone something to sink their teeth into. Sustaining that mix of “new hotness” with “widely-known” and “old-school classics” will be a continual juggling act, but encouraging GMs to submit a wide variety of events seems to pay off with appealing to many different gamer tastes.
BIG games. With a focused block of time like a convention, setting up and leaving up a big game is much easier than with a weekly game group or one-off session. It should be possible to break 12-14 hours into 3-4 sessions across the 2-1/2 days for people who want a good ‘monster game’ event, and still have some time to dabble in other games.
Looking Ahead to 2025
The dates for 2025 will be 10-12 October. Obviously we haven’t nailed down a location, but it will still be in the Raleigh/Cary area as we’d like to make it easy for folks to still make their required pilgrimage to The Gamer’s Armory.
Expect details to hit our site after Origins next year, with event submission opening in August and registration opening up shortly after Labor Day.
We hope to see you there!
Photos from Brant Guillory, Mike Colello, Keith Tracton, and Rocky
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