Olá Leitor!
Este artigo é a versão em inglês do “Papocon Imaginária – Uma Fenda no Espaço-tempo”. Clique o link para conferir o artigo em português!
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Hello Reader!
Playing miniature games is always our escuse to meet, so, as usual, with Marcos coming to visit Brazil it was high time we organized something to get together with our friends in Sao Paulo and play a couple games.
Last time we had Marcos around we held the 1st PAPOCON, the first meeting from the do Papo de Mesa Podcast (the podcast me and Marcos host) held at the “Clube Paulista de Wargames” (the Sao Paulo wargaming club), so it was natural to think about holding the 2nd PAPOCON this time… but the hard truth is that the podcast isn’t being published as often as we’d like as we’re struggling to find the time to record and edit new episodes, so calling this meeting a PAPOCON was almost like salting our own wounds .
So in stepped André “Streem” proposing we played an event called “A Breach in Spacetime”, a narrative gaming day with simultaneous tables for Infinity and Mordheim. “A narrative event with MORDHEIM and INFINITY?” Yes, I know. I asked the same question and even said it was going to be weird. I was wrong.
JM’s Haqqislam army. Those little robots proved to be the bane of my Morat in our game untill I blew them.
A very bad photo showcasing my Morat Expeditionary force. If you follow the blog’s account both on Facebook and on Instagram you’ll have already seen their WIPs and some shots of their finalized paintjobs.
Ken’s Mordheim Warband. Made of goblins it doesn’t win that often but it’s always guaranteed fun to play with and against. Exquisitely painted and converted the army is a veritable eye-candy.
A Tohaa army painted by Marcos for the event. With symbiote armour and plenty of linked teams giving his sniper a bonus shot in ARO this army proved a tough nut to crack. The contrast between orange and grey also made it a very beautiful army.
CPW’s Pan-O army. The club has armies of different gaming systems available for club members to play with. This one was masterfully painted by Lucas Massa (from the “The Lord of Miniatures” blog – there’s a link to it on the column on the left here on the blog).
The idea behind the “A Breach in Spacetime” event was, as the name implies, that the two gaming worlds were connected by a brief time through a tear in their realities, connecting the two gaming universes and bringing consequences to the gameplay during each round of the event. I must admit having a lot of fun during the day, a lot more than originally expected and I also came back home with renewed interest in the Infinity game.
The event was played in two huge tables, each divided into 3 sectors in which members of the two “teams” created for event would fight. This was my first time playing Infinity in a competitive environment and I found the learning curve pretty steep, not because Infinity is a difficult game, but mainly because the game offers such a broad spectrum of tactical choices, and thus I was a bit lost to begin with.
While the rest of the guys played Mordheim in the next table (a firm favorite in the CPW club) I had to face JM, Zinho and Marcos in my last game. There was no easy match and in the end I was under the firm impression Infinity is indeed a very good game.
Without further ado, here are some shots from the weekend.
A hot from the game that marked the beginning of the weekend. Normal’s Space Marines fighting Tocha’s Deathwing with allied Knight. If you think you’ve seen Normal’s marines before you’re probably right as they were features in the “A Tale of X Gamers” series of articles here on the blog.
Tocha’s Knight. Yep, it’s not finished yet and it already looks ace.
Some Assault Marines and a Dreadnought.
More Space Marines and a Contemptor Dreadnought.
Gaming tables being assembled.
The Mordheim table belonging to the CPW club. A work of art in miniature form by the accmplished hands of AJ and Sócrates.
The “Damsel of the Docks”.
The sheer amount of detail on the table and scenery is haunting.
An eerie building dominates the forest.
Part of the Infinity table. Fell in love with Micro Art’s gaming mat.
More of the Infinity table.
A shot from my first game. The MDF buildings are produced by a good friend of mine in his small company called “Future Sight”.
While the Raicho and the Daturazi hid on one side, on the other the linked team prepared to cover the central objective.
Two Haqquislamites decide to chat behind barrels in the stree. Who leaves barrels in the street?
The Haqquislamite gang hides behind a central building.
The Daturazi and Raicho are ready to advance.
The Daturazi’s advance is cut short by well placed ARO shots. Aro is fundamental to Infinity’s unique gameplay making every turn significant for both players.
Luckily the Raicho was in position to avenge the Daturazi burning both Haqqislamites in glorious flames. I was going to say promethium but that’s a different game.
My deploy on my second game against Zinho’s Pan-O.
For the second game, our objective was to hack the three communication towers on the game board.
The Raicho deployed in the open, covering a good part of the battlefield with its machine gun.
On the other side the Sogarat, armed with another machine gun, prepared to cover the Daturazi’s advance.
The first Daturazi closes in on the enemy…
… ready to dish out some punishment…
… it hits and kills the Guarda de Assalto, which doesn’t go down because of some special skill …
… in the meantime a Naga Sniper that had been camouflaged thus far opens fire agains the poor Daturazi …
… the first Daturazi is downed but the second one closes in to finish up their job and kill the Guarda de Assalto for good.
The Guardas de Assalto and their pesky robots were everywhere, so the Morat had to employ their hidden ace to kill them.
A couple of well placed shotgun shots solved the problem.
Under cover from the Raicho’s suppressive fire the Morat linked team advances.
More Pan-O soldiers advance in the distance under the fusillade from the Raicho. The game would end a tie as each of us had hacked a single antenna.
My last game was against Marcos and his Tohaa. We had to loot some capsules, so I put my linked team as far as I could into the game.
Daturazi and Raicho advance together once again. From the other side a sniper takes a heavy toll on the Morat’s advance.
The central building becomes a Tohaa nest. With their symbiote armor they’re a tough nut to crack.
The Sogarat cover the battlefield with his machine gun. He would be the one to end the sniper’s reign of terror in the game, trading shots with him untill he killed the pesky shooter.
On the last day of the event there were open tables so people could play with whomever they wanted. Infinity and Mordheim were once again the stars of the day and the following images show a little bit of what was going on.
At the Infinity table we had Pan-O vs Tohaa.
Tohaa soldiers take position. The dreaded sniper takes a crow’s nest – I hate you Tohaa sniper!
The club’s Pan-O are played by Streem.
Pan-O’s TAG, a Cutter, tries to advance incognito…
… unaware of the rockets waiting for it in the corner.
Carried by waves the “Damsel of the Docks” found itself atop a small guard tower. This time the rats were the first INTO the wrecked ship.
Amidst the destruction of the comet, AJ’s Skaven fought Silvio’s Carnival of Chaos.
Skaven ready to advance.
Rats, RATS! Rats everywhere.
The players gather for a photo at the end of the event.
As I said in the beginning, playing miniature games is only the excuse for us to get together, as what’s behind it is the desire to spend time with like minded friends which we don’t get to see as often as we’d like, so yet again I’d like to thank André “Streem” that organized everything for us and Fabão who created the Infinity missions while also taking time from his vacation to game with us, Cristiano “Normal” that travelled from a different state to spend a few hours with us, João “JM” Marcelo that flew all the way from Argentina to play, AJ that left his family to spend his birthday with us playing “toy games”, the CPW guys that once again hosted our games in Sao Paulo, in special André “Tocha”, André “Zinho”, Silvio, Sócrates , Paulo and Renato Caumo that were there the entire weekend playing with us, Enéas, Juber and everyone else that stopped by to say hello and finally my brother from another mother, Marcos who left his little girls to spend time with us. Come more often brother, as you’re always welcome around here.
Here’s the register of the real reason we get together after all:
We did get one photo together.
Waiting for the club to open. That chicken looks tasty.
Pizza time! No catchup makes me an unhappy man.
There were board games as well…
… “Picture time!”…
… and yet again. I think that’s enough Blood Rage for a while now.
father and son. Generations meet at the gaming table.
Japanese lunch, ogre style.
Light dinner for a change.
Of courser there was more food to be eaten…
… gaming selfies…
… snacks at the food fair…
… absent friends getting jealous…
… bromance…
…and nap time.
Thanks guys!
To wrap it up I’d like to share ReLOAD’s video from the event (it’s Portuguese only, mind you):
And that’s it for today guys. I apologize in advance if the article is a little long, but if you want to see more pictures of the event and to be kept up to date with what is going on between articles, please consider liking our Facebook page and following our Instagram.
Over and out!
The Painting Frog 