"West Coast (US) cons?" Topic

Hey all!

As an East Coast (United States) guy, I am afraid I am not totally familiar with the west coast cons… but we'd like to be able to get out there… maybe to California, and maybe out around the Seattle area? Can anyone from out that way possibly fill me in… what are the big cons out that way?

Thanks all!

The internet is your friend.

facebook.com/HMGSPSW

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Enfilade 2018 this coming weekend is at Olympia Washington, south of Seattle.

nhmgscitadel.com/enfilade

I'll be there.

For miniature gaming plus board gaming in CA:

KublaCon in the Bay area is the biggest I think in May (Memorial Day weekend). During February there is DunDraCon.

StrategiCon runs three during the year (OrcCon (President Day weekend), Gamex (Memorial Day weekend), and Gateway (Labor Day weekend) near LAX in Los Angeles.

San Diego Historical Gaming and KingdomCon down in San Diego… April I think

HMGS-PSW has their convention in Fullerton CA this October 13th/14th weekend

ConQuest SAC up in Sacramento CA during March

There are others…… One in Fresno CA I think but not sure of month.

Plus the HMGS-PSW group has staged smaller miniatures event in ComicCom (San Diego) and I just ran several FOW games at the recent WhedonCon in Woodland Hills CA this past weekend. These are not standard gaming conventions but the viewers enjoy seeing and possible recruits.

The conventions I attend I typically do a short photo and commentary write up on my Wargamerabbit blog: link

Thanks guys, I appreciate it… when you google "wargames conventions west coast" you get a ton of random stuff that isn't really what WE think of as wargames:)

Thanks!

Pacificon in San Jose/San Francisco area is probably the biggest by numbers. Labor day weekend 8/31-9/3 this year.
By far the biggest for amounts of Historical Miniatures games.

Kublacon is bigger with the Fantasy and Sci-Fi crowd.

The "big" conventions in the SF Bay area are Kublacon over Memorial Day weekend and Pacificon over Labor Day weekend.

Pacificon has never been huge, but has been going steadily for 40 years. The games are mostly RPGs, miniatures (about half historical), and board games. The board gaming area has a lot of wargames; the pick-up gaming room is usually pretty busy and has a lot of more casual board games and Eurogames in progress.

Kublacon has been growing steadily and has lots of miniatures gaming, but has lost a lot of the historical miniatures gamers (including me). There has always been a lot of card gaming, RPGs (including LARPs) and fantasy/sci-fi miniatures, and a fairly sprawling and active board gaming crowd (focused mostly on Eurogames, though it's never been hard to get a wargame going, and I've even seen ASL in progress). The SF airport Hyatt is a beautiful venue, a lovely hotel with nice rooms and several restaurants, but some of the worst parking anywhere. It makes for a very pleasant all-weekend gaming experience if you show up Friday afternoon, but a crappy one-day visit. It has also been one of the most expensive cons I've attended, with rooms around $140 USD-160/night, expensive food, and this year the weekend passes jumped to $80. USD

Dundracon over President's Day weekend is "the other con" for miniatures gamers. It's traditionally been a fantasy/sci-fi con with few miniatures games, though the miniatures coordinator has been trying to change that. I've never been to it, but the hotel is a nice enough venue.

There is also a small but dedicated miniatures gaming scene in Sacramento. The guy who owns Pacificon also puts on ConQuest SAC and ConQuest Avalon.

- Ix

Another vote for Enfilade that starts this Friday.

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Like wrgm1 & Micman,

I will also be at Enfilade along with my oldest daughter.

The crew that runs Pacificon and Conquest Sacramento also run Conquest Avalon (veterans day weekend) and is starting a new one this year Conquest Midsummer, July 20-22.

Btw, in spite of what the Pacificon website says, has it really been going non-stop for 40 years? I remember there was a number of year break between it being at the Dunphy in San Mateo, and the current group taking it over.