Pyrkon 2024 - my view

It's after Pyrkon and I'm full of positive energy!

Initially, I was unsure if I should even go (as always) but am I glad that I actually did!

It all started sometime at the beginning of the year when the official Pyrkon Facebook profile posted that Joseph McCullough, the author of Frostgrave/Stargrave was going to appear in person!

If you're reading the updates I post monthly-ish this year, you know I've prepared a war band to play with him.

I own both Frostgrave and Stargrave and quite a few expansions (also Frostgrave1ed and Rangers which I did not take to not come out as a rude/needy person, my bad?)

So my first ever Frostgrave game was with the author of Frostgrave! And boy was it a hit!  Let's just say that it went waaaay better than expected here is an official post on the Facebook Frostgrave group, and I also got a custom dedication in my Frostgrave rulebook!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Frostgrave/posts/2653389374840829/

As for my events, I prepared for the two epic events for months upfront but still had some outside issues - which thanks to good preparations were just that, issues, not problems or blockers. It was not as smooth as it could be but also not as bad as I remember some other attempts in the past. 

Day one:

First, we had some demo games for a few hours. There was quite some movement and since we had two tables the load was way smaller than last year. I think there was a bit less interest but there were also fewer people in the general wargaming section.

Sometimes imperials killed the Orks.

Other times Orks killed imperials.

The MVP of the entire learning session on my table was one stand of Grotz killing off an Imperial Commander with a Commisar and living through the assault (and the rest of the game) to tell the tale!

After that, I took a half-hour break and went on with some Full Spectrum Dominance:

One new player and one returning, both enjoyed the game and suggested I start up a Full Spectrum Dominance Poland community - sounds interesting but I'm not sure I'm up to that?

Early in the game the Tech Socrates lost both of it's weapon systems and was left with "just" it's machinegun!

Contesting the newly painted archive!

Putting that Syro runner just behind the archive was a very clever move! getting rid of it was almost impossible!

Some classic Zeno jump and fist ... and miss! 

It was a nail-biter to the very end. The enlisted despite heavy losses were able to grab victory!

Day two, the big battle!

Setup took ages (mostly because of me jumping in and out to drop units for a painting contest) in total with setup the game lasted around 3-3,5 hours. Superb game! 

When all was set and done we started a 2 v 2 team game of the MegaMinigeddon format. Orks vs Imperial Guard and Sisters of Battle. The initial plan was for a 3 vs 3 game but only one out of the people we showed the game the day before showed up as promised (kudos to you for that!)

We played the MegaMinigeddon rules two work armies (vanguard of the armageddon invasion forces) vs Imperial defenders (Guard in the outskirts of the city and Sisters in the city)

There was a lot of shooting!

And scorching!

And bombing!

A lot of assaults that were supposed to fail: 4 penitent engines vs big warband

but did not fail!

A lot of assaults that had to succeed (16 Warbikes vs 1 broken penitent engine)!

It was very dynamic, round one was imperial-dominated, and round two saw Imperials throw so badly that they lost almost all the advantages they gained. We decided on a draw at the end of round three with a very probable Ork victory in round four.

A few tables away there was an apocalypse battle with quite the setup (Tyranids with Orks and Guard vehicles) vs Marines. Nice to see but definitely not my scale :)

As mentioned before I met Joseph McCullough!

Played some Frostgrave with him which ended up me almost entirely slaughtering his warband!

Tried out Silver Bayonet

My Russian werebear found the big bad monster.

Ran away! Monster killed the priest and was burned down by the medic!

While the rest of the Warband was fighting those damn French!

In the end, I was able to finish the game with a tie, which was the best result for the Russians of all the demo games!

While taking a stroll through the halls I saw a 1:1 Leman Russ chassis!

And finally played some Rangers of Shadow Deep!

Last but not least I posted three pieces of my 6mm work (and one 15mm) to the "Złota Pyra" painting competition

And was awarded two nominations for two of them (Landa and Imperial Eagle Infantry Company) which is super nice and motivational!!

This is the first Pyrkon in a long time where I really had loads of fun! Hope next year will be as good as this one, if not better! I have a lot of things ready so maybe next year will be the year when I don't need to paint anything and can just grab my things and go (who am I kidding :D )?

A big thank you to all the friends, new and old that made this Pyrkon as good as it was!!
Hope to see you next year!