Well, went to two marquees Sataurday. The first one only me an my friend showed up. He was wearing a costume of a bootlegger. I won the game and he got the costume.

The second event only got 3 people the other was another person I meet before. He was in a pilot costume, but he went to another event Friday and had already got both LE prizes. He let me use Norm as I was only out for fun and went with four Bloodhawks. My bootlegger friend ended up winning it and the pilot dude got the costume but gave it to me so all three of us got both LE planes.

Overall I am a little dissappointed by the turn out, especailly here. Well I got one more today and the sign up already looks very promising.

-ape2020

Seems like SC is a bust in my area... I went to one Marquee yesterday to play, and there were only 3 players, one who came late. I managed fellowship there playing the Knights with Charlie and both Bloodhawks. Both of my opponents were playing Loyle and his Bombers.

I was scheduled to run a Marquee today, but the venue recieved their prize support kit missing the Champion prize. I told anyone who asked me about it that this was the case, and if they won, they'd have to wait until WizKids sent a replacement prize. However, another venue was holding their Marquee at the same time. So my Marquee drew a whopping zero players, even though the venue did have the Fellowship plane and the other Champion paraphernalia (photograph/stocking). Looks like the other venue only got a couple of players.

Went to 1 more marquee today. Waited for a half hour, i was the only one who showed up. Really wierd since the envoy said he was selling plenty of product to people.

By default i got first prize, but i chose to take the costume prize as i already won first prize, although i was given the photo and stocking...i still feel wierd taking it a second time:rolleyes: .

4 players, 2nd place, got the BM's prize because he handed it out as a runner-up piece.

Matches in summary:

MATCH 1 (aka "learning to fly")

I sit down to play the only BB player at the marquee. We play the "two heavies and a quickie" army: mine both HK Firebirds and the Flores Bloodhawk, his both Brigands and Vanderbilt's Avenger. We get some hits and spend the rest of the game colliding into each other and missing. Since our point totals are equal, we roll off. He gets a 6, I get a 1. However, since he had to leave at that point, it counted as a bye for me. Yay.
PLANES DEAD: 0/0

MATCH 2 (aka "I told you to never trust a monkey!")

Match 2 proves that airspeed is nothing before the brutal unadulterated slaughter of the Firebrands. This time, my opponent uses both HK Bloodhawks and one of the Firebrands. On the first turn, he sends both Bloodhawks forward 7 hexes, putting my Firebrands just out of the Bloodhawk's 5-hex ranges. While his Firebrand crawls accross the field, all 3 of my planes go in for the kill. "Glamour Boy" Gardner is riding a fireball down to the ground at the end of the second turn, and his Firebrand comrade falls soon after. A few brutal melees later, the opponent's Flores is shot down 2 hexes short of escaping the field.
PLANES DEAD: 3/0

MATCH 3 (Let's play bumper planes!)

Now it gets ugly. My opponent has brought all 3 Bloodhawks to the field, including the blonde master of disaster herself, Charlie Steele. I inwardly pray that like the first match he played, he screws up and sends one of the Bloodhawks off the field. No luck.
Noonan quickly falls, and the rest of the game proceeds slowly until both Flores collide with each other, and I roll a critical miss. Both planes are destroyed, and the world groans. Now it's one on two, and my Firebrand looks outclassed. However, all is not lost. The remaining Firebrand sends Gardner to that big airfield in the sky (again), and the traversity of a game continues as Steele continues to dance around the Firebrand, stung from an earlier hit but unable to get an arc on the Firebrand. 20 minutes after not bothering to roll initiative anymore, the Firebrand falls, ending the suffering.
PLANES KILLED: 5/3

Overall, not bad. Everybody had a good time and laughs were had by all. Even the guy that was forced to leave to argue with his wife got the "best costume" award.

Deep in the heart of the Protectorate of Ontario is a City Called Berlin (During WW2 they renamed it Kitchener, but WW2 didn't happen in Crimson Skies). I was the only person who had showed up who had played before and one of the 4 players was the owner of the store using Charlie and Loyle. The other two players were each using the Bombers with Ivy and the two Heavy planes. I was using Loyle his wingmen. We played 2 rounds after the Mastermind explained all the rules to the players. My experience shone through as I managed to go 2-0, but I am still getting used to the maneuvers as my first game ended up with me knocking out a pair of Heavy Bombers with me crashing into them and their player failing the piloting check on their last click.

I was at two Marquees this weekend. 4 were at the first, 3 were at the 2nd (with one very late player). I dropped out of the second so that they could face each other and afterwards we could play some fun games to play with the Ace rules.

The most memorable moment was in the first Marquee. At the other table Player 1's plane ended it's movement on two of the opponent's movement markers. He rolled a critical miss on the piloting check. This caused all three planes to crash (one plane died early, but the last two died at the same time).

Fortunately, the player who lost the single plane later killed the other plane. It would have been really strange to have successfully won a match merely because you critical missed a piloting check :)

David A. Blizzard

As for keeping all the items seperate - I but red adhesive dots on all my octagons, I put those same red dots on my planes, and I put my Navigation cards in CCG sleeves.

My stuff did not get mixed up once (and I think a few opponents appreciated that).

Both my Friday and Sunday events got several people walk up and say "What is this?" -- unfortunately, the players were too engrossed in the battle at hand (and the clicking clock) and the other store emplyees and the Envoy were not nearly as passionate about it as we players were.

But, it is winning some converts - things like "This might be the only WizKids game I'd be interested in playing". In the venue today, we had Warhammer, L5R, and Blood Bowl players watching the game (and a couple asked to be taught the game after we finished with the marquee).

CS will probably grow a little slower - heck, I'm not even sure some of the original board game / RPG players know it is out. The game will start slow - but should grow steadily and be able to sustain a decent "involved" player base.

:grin: Three marquees in two days!

Ape2020 told you about the first two yesterday. The third one today had 9 people turn out, I was the only one in costume (bootlagger). I ended up winning the tournament 3-0, downing 3 planes in the three battle and one opponent loseing a plane due to redling the engine after taking some serious damage. Before anyone tries to ask for the second prize package, I traded it at the venue. All in all a great weekend of fighting in the Crimson Skies.

___________________

Yes, Officer, I know bootlagging is illegal. But this is real old stuff. Must be at least 7 days, er years old.

For once, my better judgement was wrong.

I stopped by one of the places I play MW at to talk with the BM that was doing the demo and ended up playing since there were only 2 other players.

The game is actually fun, at least the air part. The biggest problem was with the manuvers, and the resulting collision rolls. It was a little dificult to figure how the manuvers on the cards translate into the position you end up in. I personally rolled more dice for collisions than for shooting!

The other thing was the limited amout of manuvers. Many times you were hard pressed to find one that would do even close to what you wanted.

I have one question though. Are the pilot and plane packs worth it since I'm not interested in the ground game?

oh yeah they are, added manuevers, the ability to do daring feats, fate... the new planes

I went 1-1, facing Showstopper with an Avenger and Brigand in the first game, and Charlie with a Brigand and a Firebrand in the second. I was using both Brigands and Ivy for my group. I won the first game on points after shooting down his Brigand, and losing one of my Brigands to redlining. I couldn't buy piloting rolls in the first game...I lost the second game, having Ivy shot down, one Brigand being involved in a serious collision, and my last Brigand being shaken right before taking out Charlie. All three of my opponents planes were within two clicks of being shot down.:(

did you play 50 min rounds or 1 hour?

I am starting to think we need a whole new time unit for this game, an hour and a quarter

many games i saw came to a draw but would not have been had there been just a little more time

any thoughts?

I think we were at 1 hour rounds, but my second game didn't matter, 'cause the only plane I still had was shaken. However, I did have a Brigand dogfighting Charlie, and nearly took her out. That was pretty exciting.

First Marquee had 50 minute round - out of 4 people, 3 of the games in the Round Robin ended with no one blasted out of the air and no one Shaken.

Second Marquee - Envoy I played in First Marquee was running this one, so he opted for 1 hour. Even here, with 7 planes in the air - only one was shot down.

The problem I've faced in my area is that venues are unwilling to give up so much precious table space for 3 or more hours (and it is especially bad when MW, MK, HC, CS are fighting for the same space that Warhammer, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, Blood Bowl, etc are fighting for - and this venue has 7 7x4 tables).

The first round of the first tournament we played was a little tight. I am an agressive player and I managed to shoot down 1 of my opponents planes. Alot of the other games ended with no one taken out. By the third round though we were all in tune with the time. :)

The second tournament was alot of the same people from the first so we had very few time concerns. in my final match I managed to wipe out my opponents entire army most of it from collisions which is why he started calling me "Brickwall". LOL

I think 50 mins can be fine. An Hour would be better but 75 mins would be a bit long. :classic: