PAX AUS 2015 report

I was fortunate enough to attend PAX this year. I sold the deal as a family holiday where I would not be around for three of the days, and that worked out fine for everyone!

PAX is held over three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I don’ have the gate figures but I think the cumulative attendance is around 30,000. Saturday is by far the busiest day, so if you are not a fan of queuing, I recommend Friday or Sunday.

If you haven’t been to PAX, I recommend it. Whatever games you like playing, you will find them there.

Being greeted by this banner as I walked in was a nice touch.

While the AAA computer game titles were much in view, it was the smaller indie titles that appealed to me. This is fairly representative of my computer game playing habits. The one exception, not pictured above, was Warhammer: Total War. I lined up to play that game and was not disappointed.

However it is the tabletop area that is the heart of PAX for me – and for many others.

There was a library of games you could check out and play with people, before returning to borrow another. This went on until late on Friday and Saturday night, an until 6pm on Sunday.

Also attached to the Tabletop area was the awesome Paint and Take stand.

You could pick up a Bones miniature (there were 12 to choose from) and paint it up with paints and brushes provided. The brushes were looking worse for wear by Sunday, but it was a fun activity. I painted two Bones miniatures I didn’t previously own. It was a great activity, and a good showcase for the Bones range and for Reaper’s Master Series of paints.

Many people at the tables were painting their first model, and many more had painted fewer than 10 before this. There were also some very good painters at the table showing off what could be achieved with the paints and models. Being Bones, people could simply paint without needing to undercoat, though some chose to give their models a quick coat of white before starting. In the air conditioned hall, the paint dried quickly.

There were a series of vendors close to the tabletop area, including the full range of Reaper paints and Bones right next to Paint and Take – I think they sold very well! New board games, including many Australian-designed games were available at the vendor tables.

If it all became too much there was a chill out zone too:

PAX for me was a great three days, but it is definitely better with friends. I had not organised to go with any fellow gamers this time, and promptly bumped into nine people I knew around the tabletop area!

I will follow this article with some more specific ones with a couple of games I really liked, and a mention of the panels too, which were great.