Popping into Strategicon in Los Angeles

Popping into Strategicon in Los Angeles

I was packing for my Labor Day weekend trip to LA to visit my parents last Thursday night when I noticed on Twitter that people were getting ready for Strategicon. Whaaa …?? I have a gaming friend who had gone to Strategicon in February, so I naturally assumed that the convention had gone and past. I quickly looked up the convention online and, lo and behold, Strategicon happens three times a year! They all happen during long weekends — Presidents Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend — at the LAX Hilton. Well, well, I totally couldn’t pass up on that!

The Strategicon event on Labor Day weekend is called Gateway.
The Strategicon event on Labor Day weekend is called Gateway.

Each of the conventions has a different name. The one in September is called Gateway. The others are called Orcon (in February) and Gamex (in May). I had already made plans to pick up my sister and brother-in-law from LAX on Sunday  night after their vacation, so I decided to pop into Strategicon that Sunday afternoon to check it out. I arrived at the convention around 3:30 p.m. after being shut out of 3 parking structures. Three structures, folks! I do not miss this part of LA. After living in LA for over 20 years and then moving to Phoenix for more than a decade, you get spoiled by things like cheap gas, no traffic and plenty of parking spots! Some of the neighboring lots didn’t tell me they were sold out until I had driven down a few floors down. So then I had to drive back out and find another spot. Anywho, I ended up parking a few blocks down and walked on over to the Hilton.

I purchased a day pass for $30, which is the price for Saturday and Sunday. It’s $15 for Friday or Monday, and $50 for the entire convention. And for $100, you can get a pass for the entire season; that’s 3 conventions! So with pass in hand, I quickly looked through the program and checked out the various floors at the hotel. The lobby floor had the scheduled gaming and vendor hall. The lower lobby level had open gaming, RPGs and an area for demos and the Flea Market. The second floor had various themed rooms for RPGs, video games and collectibles, as well as other scheduled programming. A friend of mine told me that I should schedule games at this convention, so I hit the main board game room. I saw that there was a 5 p.m. game of Caverna, a favorite of mine, and signed up for it. When you write your name, you have to put your badge number next to it on the signup sheet.

One of the vendors in the Dealer Room was Broken Token, which makes awesome game-box inserts such as this one for Caverna.
One of the vendors in the Dealer Room was Broken Token, which makes awesome inserts such as this one for Caverna. It nicely organizes and packs all your game pieces inside its game box.

Next up I hit up the vendors in the Dealer Room. Games and game items galore! I spoke with one of the groups selling board games, The Board of Games. I initially noticed they had copies of Codenames high up on one of their shelves and hoped to buy one, but alas, the stack was for those who had pre-ordered it. Anyway, John was really friendly and explained the group’s mission statement. The group believes in making games accessible to everybody and hosts daily meetups at restaurants across Southern California. At those meetups, they teach folks how to play games in a fun, nurturing environment, and they sell games as well!

I’m not too familiar with the board-gaming scene in LA other than briefly visiting Game Haus  in Glendale, Calif., last summer, so I was really happy to see that there are groups such as The Board of Games that do this. I’ve been really fortunate to happen upon some cool folks and groups out here in Phoenix through meetup.com, but I can see how it might be difficult to wander into a room full of strangers and learn how to board game in a city such as Los Angeles, where people might not be so friendly. (And I can totally say that as I’m a Los Angeleno at heart.)

I then took a quick walk around the various floors and saw people milling in and about the various rooms. I also noticed an area for “family gaming.”  There was also a board-game library at the convention where you can check out games to learn and play. The last convention I went to, Maricopa Con, didn’t have a library so you had to bring your own games to the event. Maricopa Con was also much, much smaller than Strategicon. I do love having access to games where you and your friends can play. Plus, people who weren’t so organized about scheduling games to play would be able to game on their own time. There was plenty of space in the lower level to take over an empty table and bust out the cardboard.

Here I am farming and mining away in Caverna.
Here I am farming and mining away in Caverna, one of my most favorite board games.

By then it was nearing 5 p.m. so it was time for Caverna! Ten people had signed up so we had 2 tables of five people gaming. I didn’t realize that gaming was tournament style and the top two from each table would advance into a final game. It’s been a long time that I had played such a tight game of Caverna, with all other players experienced in the game, so it made it challenging and super duper fun. I unfortunately finished in third place. The winner ran away with the game early on buy building the “Guest Room.” (There’s actually an interesting discussion on BGG here about that room possibly being overpowered.)

The game took a little less than 3 hours and by then I had an hour left before leaving for the airport. I wondered around some halls and saw a vendor selling used games. I saw a pristine used copy of Domaine and purchased it for $15. Score! Domaine — made by Klaus Teuber, who created the classic gateway game Catan — is a short territory-building game with a Medieval theme. It plays about 60 minutes. My friends also have a copy of this game, but I decided to buy it anyway because it was a great deal.

Virgin Queen is one of the games scheduled for the convention. Unfortunately, I wasn't there on Saturday nor did I have 11 hours to spend on one game.
Virgin Queen is one of the games scheduled for the convention. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there on Saturday nor did I have 11 hours to spend on one game.

The half day went so quickly at Stategicon. I wish I could’ve stayed longer, and I will totally plan better for the next one. In the program, I noticed Virgin Queen was scheduled … for an 11-hour block. This is one of those impossible games my friends and I have always wanted to play, but game play on the box says 420 minutes, and we have yet to schedule an entire weekend for this. Also, I’ll remember to come to Strategicon earlier in the day so I don’t get shut out of so many parking structures. I excitedly wore my new Cardboard Clothing kickstarter shirt of Uwe Rosenberg to the con and geeked out whenever somebody commented on it. I do so love being with my board-game peeps!

Anyway, I’m hoping to make it out to Strategicon in February. Who else is coming with me?

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