Stabcon Report

Come last Friday afternoon four of the GNN regulars (should we think up a Tuesday night group moniker, as well as/to double as the website one?) were in Joe's Fiat Multipla headed to Stockport for Stabcon, a celebration of strategy gaming, role-play-gaming, and various degrees of facial hair. No-one knew what to expect, but if the wildest imaginings of Joe, Adam, Andrew and Sam included being dipped headfirst into a pit of complete obsessives then they would have been reasonably accurate. In fact, having attended and enjoyed it immensely, we must begin to wonder if, as we have reassured ourselves, we are the 'acceptable face' of strategy gaming after all, or if the acceptable face of strategy gaming is actually a face with no discernable friends, acquaintances, or indeed features attached at all.

We agreed to play a mini-tournament between ourselves, which was impossible to score with definitive accuracy as we occasionally splintered into different groups and games, but decided that 1st, 2nd, 3rd and anything lower than 3rd would score 4,3,2 and 1 respectively. Unable to realistically break open any of the games Joe and Sam had brought in the car, we contented ourselves with doing multiple crosswords on the way up as the tension mounted, and Joe's knuckles slowly drained of blood on the steering wheel. For some it was all too much, and Sam actually passed out and snored his way through the last hour, although maybe his anticipation was dissipated by the appalling hotel reviews of our destination Adam had sourced online. Vomit-stained carpets and inch-thick dust?

In the end that turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration. While no honeymoon destination, the hotel was perfectly adequate for our gaming needs, housing as it did a room to sleep in, a room to play games in, and a pool so hot that Andrew had to fend off sleep after every allegedly refreshing dip.

Stabcon itself - a large hall laid out with tables, in turn bedecked with enthusiasts, most of them with a generous supply of games. There were also three smaller rooms nearby housing most of the role-players. The ambience was very laid-back and friendly, and it was a joy to wallow in our oft-mocked pleasure unselfconsciously, without my wife there to snort derisively to herself in the background, and afterwards insist that she was clearing her throat while it's patently clear that she believes my hobby is somehow justifiably scoffable-at, as though I spent every spare evening cutting the heads off matchsticks... er, where was I? After a brief sortie to a local carvery on the Friday night, we began gaming, and didn't really surface again for pure air until Sunday lunchtime. Many, many games were played, so many that to dwell on any one here would be a little incongruous, but in terms of new games played we were impressed with Goa and Glory of Rome; generally amenable to Citadels, Traders of Genoa and Tikal (which Adam insists on pronouncing as Tickle); a little mixed about Heck Meck; and unimpressed with Dominant Species (long and over-complicated, according to Andrew) and De Volgari Eloquentia - Joe's high hopes for were dashed on the rocks of rambling and unfocussed gameplay.

We none of us probably met as many other gamers as we might have, but through Joe's boundless enthusiasm we did establish contact with the Area 51 crowd and a couple of others, as well as sitting down for a game of 7 Wonders with event organiser Hammy. He hated it.

Come Sunday we were all a little reluctant to call it a day, and by that time the final mini-leaderboard was wrapped up comprehensively by Adam who scored a huge 37 points. Joe and Sam were joint second with 27 and Andrew slightly behind on 24. A weekend completely removed from the most tenuous link with the zeitgeist, populated by freaks and weirdos? Absolutely. And we'll be going again next time too.