It’s Monday now, which means that Singapore’s only gaming convention (and probably one of the only geek game conventions in the South East Asian region) has come and gone. And with it, a plethora of tournaments and games, including Warhammer 40k and Fantasy, Settlers of Catan, Legend of the 5 Rings, and Warmachine and Hordes, just to name a few.
Perhaps the biggest draw was the Warhammer 40k tournament, with 32 participants coming in to duke it out in a 2-day event. There were your expected Space Wolves, Blood Angels and IG, but there were also the few that went against the grain, including some beautifully painted Orks, Slaaneshi Warriors of Chaos and a very pink and pretty tyranid army.
The final was a hard fought battle between the Orks and the Space Wolves, but ultimately the forces of the Imperium won out. I smell a rematch in the future…
The tournament for Warmachine and Hordes was also exciting and hard fought, with a never-before seen turnout of 16 players this year; double that of the previous year. We even had player contingents from Thailand, Indonesia and the US making their way down. With Privateer Press Bandanas given to all participants, and a signed copy of Prime Mk2 up for grabs, all players were able to get a taste of that con-goodness, so rare outside of Europe and the US.
The Armies were also beautifully painted and battle hard fought, with the Dragonfather emerging as the ultimate victor, with the 1st and 2nd spots going to Cyrx.
But Sporecon wasn’t just about the tournaments. We had a surge in great painting entries for this year’s competition, with some really pretty minis getting top honours.
We also had a lot of demo games for people who were interested in learning the games. This included boardgames like Dive! Diver! Die!, as well as wargames like Warmachine, Infinity, Firestorm Armada and Warhammer 40k. Casual games of just about any game under the sun was also available, with favourites such as Battlestar Galactica and the nostalgic Nuclear War being among the game played.
The 501st even got into all the fun!
All in all, Sporecon 2011 was a great success, and hopefully the seeds of gaming have been planted into all those who walked in and saw that board games need not only be Monopoly. 😉 And hopefully Sporecon 2012 will be even bigger and better than this year!
