Awards Announced for Dust Tactics Tournament at Vul-Con Arena I

Details of the Vul-Con Arena I Dust Tactics Tournament on April 2nd at Gamers' Inn in Mesa, AZ are now available.  This will be an Operation First Strike Tournament that will be run Swiss Tournament Style with tie breaks based on strength of schedule, points, and if necessary, achievements.  Each player will receive an Achievement Book (seen in the picture below) to keep track of their achievements during the tournament.  The first six players to sign up for the tournament will receive a Dust Tactics fabric patch sporting the symbol of the Allied faction (also seen below).  The first, second, and third place players will receive Vul-Con medals.  The top Allied and top Axis players will receive a cloisonne pin with the symbol of their faction and a premium figure (with card as seen below). This special cloisonne pin acts as an invitation to participate in special pin-wearer-only tournaments at the Fantasy Flight Event Center in Roseville, Minnesota. This is going to be a very cool event, with some amazing prizes. Seats are limited, so preregister now for Vul-Con Arena I to lock in your Operation First Strike Tournament seat.  We look forward to seeing you on April 2nd.

Gladiatorial Arena Sneak Peek

The first of the Ludi Vulcani games for Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 is now complete.  Those attending Vul-Con Arena I on April 2nd at Gamer's Inn in Mesa, AZ will be the first to see it in person.  It is definitely impressive and the picture below just doesn't give you the true sense of the magnitude of this 5' diameter arena.  Playing a game of Gladiator in this arena with 90mm scale gladiators will be a real treat and the top players at Vul-Con Arena I will receive medals at the award ceremony that closes the event.  If you haven't pre-registered yet for Arena I, now is your chance.  Rush over to http://www.vul-con.com to sign up and lock in seats for your favorite games.

Vul-Con Arena I Less Than Two Weeks Away

Vul-Con Arena I is now less than two weeks away and things are really heating up.  We've had a late addition to our schedule - The Settlers of Catan, and a few of the games are nearing capacity.  If you've already registered and want to add The Settlers of Catan or any other games to your schedule, please email your schedule change requests to register at vul-con.com.  If you haven't pre-registered for Vul-Con Arena I yet, we highly recommend doing so to lock in seats for the games you want to play.

Also of interest, construction on the two Ludi Vulcani games to be unveiled at Arena I is nearing completion. Final painting is under way on the Coliseum for Gladiator (knowing that this model Coliseum is 5' in diameter, just doesn't prepare you for how large and cool it is) and assembly on the Circus Maximus Hippodrome is nearly done. At 22 ft in length and 7 ft wide, the Hippodrome is monstrous and all involved are excited to see the reaction of attendees when they behold the world's largest game of Circus Maximus on April 2nd.

That's all we have for now.  We'll trickle out a bit more as we round the bend into the home stretch for Vul-Con Arena I.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Vul-Con Arena I Draft Schedule Posted and Registration Live

The Vul-Con Arena I Interactive Draft Schedule has been posted on the Arena Page of the Vul-Con Website and registration is live.  We're very excited both about the mix of events and the people running them.  The Table Top Gaming Society will be running three different historical miniatures gaming events, including Rome vs. Gauls, Alexander the Great vs. Hannibal, and a Wild West Skirmish game.  The Arizona Men in Black will be running a variety of Steve Jackson Games, including Munchkin, Revolution, Car Wars: The Card Game, The Stars are Right, and Greed Quest.  Local Author and Game Designer Todd VanHooser will be running the Adventures Under the Laughing Moon Roleplaying Game twice during the day, in dual Gamemaster format with a twist.  Fantasy Flight Games is sponsoring three tournaments - a Wings of War WWI mini-campaign Tournament, the first "official" Dust Tactics Tournament in the Southwest, and a Tribune Board Game Tournament.  We'll also be unveiling two of the Ludi Vulcani games that will appear at Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 - Gladiator played in a 5ft diameter Gladiatorial Arena with 90mm miniatures, and Circus Maximus played on a model Hippodrome nearly 22' in length and 7' wide with 50mm miniature chariots.

We're highly recommending pre-registration, so you can lock in a seat at your preferred events.  Slots are limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.  Interest is high and we've had several registrations prior to announcing that the schedule and registration are live.  Those who pre-register for Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 can attend all Vul-Con Arenas for free and for those who haven't entry is only $10 and garners you a coupon for $10 off your Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 registration in addition to access to Arena I.

We look forward to seeing you at Vul-Con Arena I on April 2nd at Gamer's Inn!

Vul-Con Arena I Announced

The date and location for Vul-Con Arena I are set - April 2nd, 2011 at Gamer's Inn in Mesa, Arizona.

For those of you not familiar with the Vul-Con Arena events, they are basically Strategy Gaming Mini-Conventions. The term "Arena" denotes the smaller scale of these events compared to Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 (the Southwest's Coliseum of Strategy Gaming held in nearly 30,000 sq feet at the Phoenix Convention Center on February 25th and 26th). We'll be hosting several Vul-Con Arenas throughout the year and hope to announce the venue and date for Vul-Con Arena II at Vul-Con Arena I.
We were fortunate to be able to partner with Gamer's Inn for Arena I.  They have an amazing amount of game space for a retail establishment, so we will be able to run a broad range of events - Miniatures games, card games, board games, RPGs, hybrids, etc.  Basically a taste of each of the "game flavors" that will be at the large event in greater scale, variety, and numbers.  We'll be giving a sneak peek of some Roman-themed games we've been developing for Phoenix Vul-Con 2012.  One is a Circus Maximus game with a table nearly 20' long that contains a model Hippodrome for eight players to Chariot Race against each other in a notated turn format.  Another is an approximately 5' diameter model of a Roman Coliseum in which players will battle 90mm scale gladiators against each other (also in notated turn format).

As for the exact Miniature games, card games, RPGs, etc, being played, we're in talks with potential guests to run some of these events and with game manufacturers on some of the other events (we're hoping to offer the first tournament in the Southwestern United States for one of the games, but are still in negotiations, so nothing is final yet).  We're even planning to include some learn-how-to play events early in the day.

Participation is free for those who have already purchased their Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 Citizenships. For those who haven't there is a $10 entry fee for the day that includes access to Vul-Con Arena I and a coupon for $10 off the purchase of a Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 Citizenship. The registration page will be up and linked this weekend and the Vul-Con Arena page of the web-site will receive an overhaul (including a list of confirmed events). We're working with Gamer's Inn to offer registration through their site as well. Keep an eye out for updates, and be sure to register because this is bound to be the don't miss, sneak-peek event of the season. We'll see you there!

Trophy Pictures Posted / FOW Official Qualifiers and More

It has been a very busy week for Team Vul-Con.  We've completed several updates to the web site, including posting Trophies for Phoenix Vul-Con 2012. They can be seen on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/...553?v=wall or on the web site on the Awards page under Lusi. Custom Gold, Silver, and Bronze Anvils will be awarded for each Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 Tournament, and special trophies will be awarded for Vul-Con Special Events, Open Gaming, as well as several Top Gamer and Best of Show Awards! Also, the Flames of War Tournaments at Phoenix Vul-Con 2012have recently been approved as Official Regional Qualifiers to qualify players for the three National Tournaments.

Other updates include Guest registration going live and the posting of logo links for our new sponsors - Gamer's Inn and Imperial Games/ManaWerx.  We highly recommend frequenting these establishments, along with our other sponsor, Wayne's Books and Old School Games.  Keep in mind these are the folks who care enough about the Strategy Gaming Hobby to become sponsors of the Southwest's Premiere Strategy Gaming Convention for you.  While we want to see everyone connected to the Strategy Gaming Hobby be very successful, sponsors take it up a notch and show that they aren't just in it for the profit, they're out there to grow and support the hobby.

This week's also seen Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 get a little love from the media, with an article on the ubernerd news site Nerdvana - http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/2011/01/02/vul-con/

We're going to finish out the week by attending Amazing Arizona Comic Convention on Saturday and Sunday.  We'll have a table in the gaming area, so be sure to stop by and see us.  Oh, and don't forget, if you're planning on attending Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 or exhibiting there, we're are running some very sweet specials for a limited time only - a $20 discount on memberships and a $50 discount or more on exhibitor booths.  These specials are to celebrate our kickoff and presence at Amazing Arizona Comic Convention, so if you're interested, act quickly because you won't see deals this good for Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 again.

Thanks for checking in - Team Vul-Con

Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 Registration Links Live

Team Vul-Con is ringing in 2012 by opening up our registration pages.  Registration for Citizens (attendees), Senators (volunteers), Exhibitors, and Sponsors are now live.  Guests will follow in the next few days.  Celebrate the New Year by heading over to http://www.vul-con.com and registering to attend, volunteer at, exhibit at, or sponsor Phoenix Vul-Con 2012 and take advantage of our special rates to celebrate the New Year and our presence at Amazing Arizona Comic Convention on January 8th and 9th.  Hurry though, these special rates will only be available for a limited time.