PPCON 2023

A local convention was hosted in Omaha, NE over the last weekend.  From Thursday to Sunday, the Punchboard Paradise Con (PPCON) was hosted and we had a great 4 days (4.25 if you count some pre-con gaming on Wednesday) of gaming! Punchboard Paradise is a board gaming podcast hosted by 3 of my friends in Omaha, NE. I highly recommend the podcast who has any interest in games (skewed slightly heavier).

My Con Stats:
17 plays, 10 unique games. 1 new to me game. 25 unique players.

Guards of Atlantis II was the game of the con for me.  Not just because I played it 6 times, but because I got to teach 13 new people Guards of Atlantis II!  Despite the ribbing I got for playing nothing else, I had an absolute blast playing it over and over.  We played 2v2, 2v3 (learned how the odd player rules work; surprisingly well!) 3v3, 4v4, and an epic 5v5 game.  

Thanks to all who learned and joined us to get to the 5v5 match.  It was truly an epic con experience that I will be sure to try and set it up for the next year as well.  

We even had a 45 minute speed game that took only as long as the Ready, Set, Bet tournament! Every game was different with the people at the table, the heroes chosen, and how they played out! If you want to play before the gamefound campaign ends I am happy to teach it online as well.

Another big highlight of the con was that I got to break in my newly stained Dune board with 2 games!  We had an epic rematch with the same group as last year's con, but a new set of "Dune Kings" was crowned for this year.  Somehow the game even resulted in the same alliances as last year!  

After the rematch, I got to teach 4 new people and it resulted in an epic (and long!) late night game that went to the literal final victory condition to determine the winner. Both of the games were fantastic experiences and really highlighted all the mechanics in the game.  I thought myself and my ally were out early in the second game but we had nearly clawed our way back to victory before victory was stolen away from us with a perfectly played traitor card.

I also had a great learning game of Beer and Bread, a precon game of Hegemony, and a very close game of Container.

I closed out my con with 8 player TI4 which sadly ended up being the worst game of the con I played (which should speak more to the quality of everything else I played due to the fact it is my current #1 game!).  It was a great time, but unfortunately had to be cut short due to us needing to leave the building!  And with the early end it was a bit of a soured experience unfortunately.  But I am eagerly looking forward to trying again next year, just hopefully not on Sunday so we can just pick it back up the next day if necessary!

I was also amazed I never got in a game of Pax Renaissance somehow since we have many avid fans of it amongst the Punchboard Paradise crowd.  I will also have to try and schedule to get taught Pax Porifiana and Pax Transhumanity as those are 2 I am interested in but haven't gotten to yet.

In addition, the con was the first math trade I got to run and as mentioned in this slack before it was far more successful than I could have ever hoped.  We had 18/19 people trade games and 54 total trades.  We also had some of the attendees bring homemade dark chocolate which was some of the best chocolate I had ever had and my favorite food of the con!

PPCON is always a great time where I get to see people who I haven't seen in about a year, meet new people who I only have previously spoken to online, and play a bunch of games for a full weekend.  I eagerly look forward to the next one!