Norcon XII Part 8- The Table is Dead, Long Live the Table

Some sad news this week as I continue to prepare the tables for Norcon. I was gambling on a fairly large bonus from work to pay for most of the Norcon Terrain, but it turns out that I'll be getting less than expected. Sadly, this means that I will need to scrap the Torqua city table and the "Bank Heist" scenario. This was the table that I was most looking forward too, since it would be so completely unlike any other terrain used in any other game played locally. The terrain that I was planning on using for this table is made by Demos Laser Cut Designs, some fantastic laser cut MDF buildings. Although their buildings aren't as sophisticated as the buildings made by Micro Arts Studio, they are taller and have more variety. The down side is that I would need between 8-12 of them for a full city table, and they cost about $30-$50 each. That's not including the prices for the fire escapes, billboards, sign posts, trash bins, furniture, and decorations that I was planning on using to dress up the table. All together this table was going to cost almost half as much as the rest of the tables combined. So, I'll have to put this one on the back burner for next year's event.

This has brought about a bit of happy news. In an effort to come up with a replacement table for the event I started going through my old Infinity terrain. The pieces in this photo are all scratch-built buildings made from evergreen sheet styrene and PVC pipe. I was pretty proud of these when I made them, but I stopped using them because they were very plain, and some of the pieces were not very well made.

Since I put them away I have gained many new bits, mainly from Imperial Bastions and some railroad terrain I picked up on clearance. By adding these bits to give the terrain more character and detail, as well as correcting some of the original construction mistakes I've breathed some new life into this terrain.

 As I mentioned in an earlier post I had started building a couple of papercraft aerial vehicles that would be perfect for a spaceport table. My plan now is to make a couple of landing pads, either from foam core or more sheet styrene, and combine them with this terrain and the papercraft vehicles to make a spaceport table. The scenario for the table will be "Search and Destroy", but  I haven't made up my mind if this is going to be a race to destroy a single objective, or if each side will have an objective they need to defend against destruction by the enemy. I'll have to do some playtesting with the Sunday night crew to figure out which objective will be best.

This terrain is still pretty rough looking, but as I apply more paint things are starting to look better. The addition of lots of bits, such as search lights, antennas, and air conditioning units, has done a lot to spruce things up. Once I get some more painting done I will start to add signs and stenciling to the sides of the buildings to add some much needed color.