Skibbcon

Having just completed Skibbcon 2.0, I thought it might be a good idea to give a run down of our first foray into holding a tournament.


It all began at Warpcon 2010 with Caolán "Slim" Gibbons. Caolán had been thinking about holding an event in Skibbereen for a while and used Warpcon as somewhere he could guage interest. Somewhere between the drinking on the Friday and the drinking on the Saturday, or as some would call it, the "tournament" he had spread the word about our con.

This picture makes my liver hurt

The tournament had the following format:
All-inclusive weekend.
Bed and Breakfast for 2 nights in the venue.
Quiz organised for the saturday.
5 games to be played over the weekend. 3 on the Saturday, 2 on the Sunday.
1750 pt armies. All standard rulebook missions with standard deployments.
We were also implementing the, new at the time, +/- 5 bonus/malus table which was a big success.


So in the end we had 18 people playing and Caolán doing the judging/admin. There was a pretty ranged breakdown of armies.


Space Marines: 6
Eldar: 3
Chaos Space Marines: 3
Orks: 2
Tyranids: 1
Tau: 1
Necrons: 1
Imperial Guard: 1


So..... turns out lots of people have Space Marines. Genuine shock and awe.


Things kicked off on the Friday night with everyone arriving and meeting each other and having a couple of beers. The evening continued with lots of chat and some more beer. Poker was played (big well done to Eoin McManus) and more beer consumed. Everyone was in bed reasonably early, like 2 or 3am.

Beer: It was consumed

Cut to the next morning and 19 people shambling towards the breakfast rolls, ready outside. There was many a sore head and the direct sunlight was not helping matters. Due to the relaxed nature of the event and the fact we had all the time in the world, the first game started at around 10 or 11ish. I ended up playing Ivan "Nudie MacTubbs" Sheehan. I didn't really know Ivan before SkibbCon but I can say now that we're very good friends. He was playing an all bike list with double command squads. I was playing my Deciever, destroyers, lord with a veil of darkness list. The game ended with a win to me and Ivan to forever label Necrons as "broken". What can I say, they glance on 6's.


The event seemed to be going better for some as Chris found out when his Nurgle Chaos Marines met Tristram's leafblower Guard. Game 1 was over and onto game 2. I was against Burkhardt's fantastically painted Eldar army. I mean those harlequins were painted so well that I didn't even mind when I misinterpreted the "Rending" rule and the Deciever died a horrible death. Highlight for me was when all of my Destroyers joined into one huge Super Blob of 8 and murdered the Avatar. This game, I think(it was over a year ago), ended in a draw.


For me, the end of game 2 meant a run into town to buy supplies. As the sun was shining, we had decided to have a barbecue. I must thank Eoin McManus for being so understanding and for waiting. His Vulkan Marines wiped my entire army in turn 7 but it was a fantastic game.


Now came my shining moment of the weekend. I was trying to open a bag of sausages to get ready for barbecue and had myself an accident. 3 stitches worth of an accident. I wasn't worried though because we had a medical student in the hostel and he could probably help. You know, if we could find him. Cue a phonecall to my mother, my sister driving me to SouthDoc and a nice big bandage on my finger. Thanks Tristram, thanks very much.

Enter Alan: Hero among men

All was not lost! Thanks to the effort of Alan "who needs a pancreas?" Kenneally. Alan stepped up to the plate and bashed out enough food to feed 20 hungry nerds. Thanks Alan. That's not sarcastic thanks like Tristram got, actual thanks.


After all the food was consumed and it started to get dark out we decided to get cracking on the Quiz. There were 6 teams in total and you can tell the amount of organisation these teams had, as we had Team Caolán Sucks Balls 2, 3, and 4 but no Caolán Sucks Balls 1. Good job guys. Good job. After the quiz it was more drinking and to bed.


Sunday dawned in pretty much the same way as Saturday. Full of bleary eyes and headaches. Breakfast rolls consumed in silence and then the search for you partner for game 4. Turns out I was up against resident hero Alan. What followed was as close as I have come to a perfect draw. Two tired, hungover individuals squinting across a 6 x 4 at each other. Both making mistakes. Both failing entirely to capitalise on those mistakes. Game ended in a 10 - 10 draw with a difference of 11 points, I think, in vps. Drawing, like a boss.


Game 5 had me playing my club-mate Andrew Kirwan. Kirwan wasn't drinking at the weekend, wasn't staying in the hostel and missed game 3 because he had to work. What can I say? He obviously just hates fun. This game went very badly for me and I got a loss. With my win, my 2 draws and 2 losses I ended up around half way at 11th. Here are the end results for those interested.


1 Tristram Hills -  Imperial Guard (The Warheads)
2 Burkhardt Flemer - Eldar (WAC)
3 Richard Flood - Tyranids (WAC)
4 Sylvan Lynn - Chaos Space Marines (SWG)
5 Cian O'Mahony Space Marines (SWG)
6 Colin Cullinane Orks (WAC)
7 Eoin McManus - Space Marines (WAC)
8 Andrew Kirwan - Space Marines (SWG)
9 Dave Chambers - Space Marines (WAC)
10 Donal Carroll - Eldar (WAC)
11 Eoin O'Mahony - Necrons (SWG)
12 Ivan Sheehan - Space Marines (WAC)
13 Derek Barry - Space Marines (WAC)
14 Alan Kineally - Eldar (WAC)
15 Fergus O'Shea - Chaos Space Marines (WAC)
16 Tadhg Murphy - Orks (SWG)
17 Chris Icke - Chaos Space Marines (SWG)
18 Pa O'Donovan - Tau (SWG)


 SWG = SkibbWargamers, WAC = Wargaming Association Cork

Skibbcon 1, a success

So I must say that the weekend was a success. Tristram's Guard won out and he accuired himself a Horus Heresy board game. I have to say all of the Skibb Wargamers worked hard to get the inaugural Con off the ground and with the feedback we received we held an equally as successful Con in 2011 but there'll be a separate report on that.