Bot War - the war wages on (clearing the backlog)

The Wargames Association of Reading annual convention – Warfare – was held at the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre in Hampshire UK on the weekend of November 12/13th and was an amazing event.

I took a large proportion of my Bot War collection, and my demo setup that I’ve used a few times now, and managed to work with Lvlupgaming to get run a demo table in the main vendor hall directly opposite them. As one fo the main UK stockists for the game this was perfect as I could demo the game and show off my collection of Bots, and if people showed interest I could talk them through the product range there and then which is very handy (please remember I am not paid by TG or Lvl-Up).

Over the 2 days I managed 14 demos (of some form or another) and managed to chat to quite a few people that caught the eye of the 80s nostalgia on show.

Some demos were simply kids rolling some dice, others were full length games. I tried to keep things moving as best I could but it’s hard to cover everything off when people have different time to spend with you.

I settled on standard starter set forces, COILS from the Turbo Edition, and a mix of Valiants from the 2nd edition starter and Turbo Edition.

It was clear that some people wanted to be extremely competitive, however I tried to imply that this was not an ultra competitive game (yet). In my opinion, it should be a light hearted game where players drive the narrative, sacrificing units if it makes for a great cinematic event or action sequence. But I think there will always be some players who want that alpha-strike move to win the game in as few a moves as possible, and that’s fine, that’s their enjoyment.

Game-wise the COILS were the most successful, however General Duc did steamroller through a number of Bots in one game one after the other, taking out 2 in one round at one point. I do think the COILS are more powerful and so I may look to switch things up a bit in future demo games. I also give both factions objectives to capture which increase the energy available to help them get off some of the super activations or power boosts. The energy management sub-game is one of the main things I enjoy about bot war, so it’s nice to give some extra energy for players to utilise during the starting phase of a demo.

Question?

What makes a good convention demo game in your opinion?

Perhaps a topic for an XLBS?

There was one person I spoke to for about 15 minutes about Bot War; the universe, the models, the game, and at the end of it I showed them some of the products Lvlupgaming had that they had shown interest in, and (unfortunately) they then went and purchased some Battle tech boxes. This created a bit of a meme for Karl and Lvlupgaming and I, and there were occasions when I found Battletech boxes on my table, which provided some light entertainment for the weekend. It was great working with Karl and the Lvlupgaming team as they made me feel part of a group and not just a lone person on a convention stand for 2 days.