NagoyaHammer 2024 Retrospective

[Primarch]

The first NagoyaHammer of the post-pandemic era is all wrapped up and done, time for a look back at the event.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who came. NagoyaHammer is first and foremost an event to promote communication between all of the gamers in our area.

The Good
As the main social event/get together, I think that the event went really well. We had a lot more people than I was expecting and even a few new players came along and joined in. There was a fairly good mix of NH Veterans and Rookies and one of our lapsed brethren put in an appearance. Likewise, I was very happy with how the painting contest worked out. There were lots of entries and a good spread of votes, there are some truly great painters in our little corner of the hobby. The 40K event went smoothly and there was a good mix of games on the second day. ToD's Underworld's Tournament seemed to go very well too.

The Bad
Sadly there was one fly in the ointment on the first day. There was one irritating little git who kept whinging about 40K. I'd like to apologise to everyone in attendance for my bad behaviour during the games. I should try to be more positive, or at least keep my opinions to myself in future.

The Ugly
Overall, I think that everyone had a good time and enjoyed rolling dice together. A lot of people said that they are looking forward to doing it again next year. And it is on that note that I have to say that I don't think that I can run the event again in the future. That isn't to say that there won't be a NagoyaHammer 2025, just that I won't be at the helm. From booking the room, arranging terrain, transport, and the Izakaya, packing everything, carrying it, setting up the room, keeping things on schedule, cleaning and packing up, there is a LOT of work involved in the whole process. That's not to mention the extra stress and anxiety that comes during the run up to the event. I can certainly help someone else to organise things next year, but I ache from head to foot and I am absolutely shattered even 24 hours after the last dice was rolled. Things were so much easier when I was just down the street from the venue (and a decade or so younger). So, if anyone would like to take a turn at the wheel, you have some time to ponder it. Hopefully someone will step up and we can have an even bigger and better event next year.

Regards,
Prim.

[job]

Thanks for reviving and running the event, Prim. (And also refereeing the Bolt action game.) it was great to participate after so many years.

As for future, I hope the group can as a whole can divvy the effort. It seems you broke it down above very well. Maybe one person serves as “organizer” and delegates out tasks? Maybe various roles such as “accountant” “room booker” “table-terrain organizer” “transport manager” “40k tournament organizer/rules ref” etc.?

Anyway, it was a great success IMO and I hope you’ve recovered from the effort soon.

[The Underdweller]

Thanks for organizing the event this year, Primarch. I really enjoyed catching up with everyone and playing a few games of Malifaux as well as Jus's Who Goes There?

I could see you'd put a lot of effort into everything, and made sure everything was going well for the whole event. The train terrain you brought for Malifaux was very thematic. Thanks also to Kojibear for driving stuff around.

I don't blame you for wanting to take a break after all of that. Hopefully someone else will give it a go next year. Not me, but I'd be happy to help anyone who decides to do it!

[YellowStreak]

Thanks Prim for the all the hard work - it was a great event. I think we should have an organizing committee as suggested above to 'spread the load' for future events.

[Jye Nicolson]

Thank you again for the hard work! Event organising is no joke, I did a gaming con back in my uni days where I had all the energy and time in the world and it was too much, can't imagine what it's like when you have a job, family, responsibilities etc.

I do idly wonder if there's a service or something that would handle the non gaming specific red tape for us. That still leaves a lot of terrain wrangling of course...

[Primarch]

I would imagine that any event organizing service would increase the costs a lot.

[kojibear]

A very very big thank you to the event organizer and my excellent traveling companion. @Primarch - a job very well done soldier! Time to hang up that bolter and rest a while.

It is absolutely a LOT of effort to put this event together. I agree that delegating tasks among the community is a good idea.

It was great to catch up with everyone in one place, and that alone is a wonderful thing about Nagoya Hammer.

As Primarch said, it was also awesome to welcome a few new members and I hope to see you all again soon.

The second day is always a cool opportunity to play games that we don’t get an opportunity to play often and to try out new things. Thank you Jus and Yellowstreak for introducing me to some new games. I apologies to Jus for infecting him (I was the alien ) and apologies to Justin for trying to and almost gunning down all his cute Nazi werewolves (but it was only fair after my rocketeers were slaughtered lol )

As we are a reasonably small gaming community, and are one that is filled with a lot of narrative-play lovers, perhaps future events can focus on that. It WOULD require attendees to sign up beforehand and let everyone know what and how they plan to add to the narrative of the event, but it could be a very fun experience for all. Making and telling a story is a great way to immerse ourselves in the lore of the games we play, too. This WOULD also require everyone to be active in the planning and preparation of the story. Just my two cents and I respect 🫡 any whose love of the game centers around the challenge of list building and working the rules to the fullest. I just feel that there could be a lot of fun to be had in narrative play.

[Jye Nicolson]

I agree narrative would be best for our group, but it is more difficult to pull off successfully and involves some careful game design if if you want mechanics that reflect that narrative. But could be a good goal for next year in 40k now that we've pulled off a more straightforward matched play situation

[Konrad]

Thanks Prim. You are a legend. And yes, let's try again next year. I don't know how much help I can be organizing anything. I can barely organize my own crap, much less anyone else's.
It was great to hang out and chat and generally geek-out. Izakaya hammer was a lot of fun. I had a robot serve me drinks, so now I can say my Japan experience is complete. And guys, that hipster Mexican joint makes competent nachos and burritos. It has been years! Joe! Thanks for coming out to commiserate on all things American and cry in our ungodly expensive imported craft beer. And sorry it took so long to figure out the Hiding rules. It has been a while!

[ashdevon]

Sounds like a great day and only wish I could have been there. Having events like NH are really important for the foreign community and the gaming community. I guess if you all took on a role to organise it next year that would be the best way forward. Prim shouldn't have to do everything. Well done for hosting it again mate, brilliant achievement over the years which many people appreciate. Drivers are probably key so the more people who can help with transport of terrain and set up etc the better. As you know I used to host games days in Japan and although it was awesome it was high stress at times as well, particularly when everyone wanted to play something different. I wouldn't change a thing though, great times on the whole. Gaming indoors while that intense heat was going on outside was quite surreal. Thank goodness for air con. Great idea to have one day for 40k and one day for other games, that should keep going. Long may NH continue. Great to see it back.