DragonCon was a blast this year, despite a madly hectic time getting to Atlanta and back. I thought flying down would be less trouble than driving. Silly me. As it turns out, working a full day, then rushing to the airport, then a hop to Charlotte, a layover, then another hop to Atlanta is actually a lot more stressful than just driving for seven hours. I'd never realized how much I relied on the drive to Atlanta to decompress and recuperate until now. Next year, I am taking a full day on either end for travel, whether I fly or drive.
After arrival, things went much smoother. I don't generally go for the media guests, so the fact that however many Firefly cast members were there was of interest only to the extent that it would create traffic problems. Don't get me wrong, love the show, I'm sure the actors are wonderful people, but I don't get a big enough thrill from seeing cast members to fight my way through the inevitable mob scene. I'm told by Beloved Wife that they did a much better job managing the crowds for the high turnout guests this year than, say, the year James Marsters was there. I can say unlike some previous cons, there were no massive traffic jams in the main areas. Heavy crowds, yes, but they kept moving.
Most of Saturday was spent playing Schwere Kompanie, a set of World War II microarmor rules . The scenario was the battle for St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge. Short version: lots of German tanks and supporting infantry attack a small Belgian town defended by American infantry and a few supporting tanks. The game was an absolute blast. The terrain table was excellent, the miniatures well painted and and the organizers (from http://www.middleagegeeks.org) were on the ball and kept things moving. I played the US side and acquitted myself reasonably well. This was my first time playing WWII outside of Axis and Allies and I was quite captivated. I've got a couple of rule sets on order, because, obviously, I don't own enough wargames. We'll see how this works out.
Costume contest was pretty good, and the stormtroopers only had to clear the stage a few times. Went to a couple of interesting panels on the science track, including a skepticism panel and a bad movie science panel, as well as a very interesting panel on the CIA Kryptos sculpture by Elonka Dunin (http://elonka.com/kryptos/), one of the people co-ordinating the efforts to decode the sculpture. If I'd been thinking, I would have made better notes, but I was too busy attending the con. I'll try to do better next go round.
In other unrelated news I picked up Iron Man: Extremis Part 4 right before DragonCon. It was...interesting. Not quite what I was expecting. Technically it was well executed, but I'm not sure if I like where it's going. I'll try to have a review up soon. Then again, hell, it's not like I don't have time until Part 5 comes out.
Any progress on that Iron Man review?