Our stand is rubbish

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For somewhere so 'dirty', Vegas is a clean town, but luckily we can sniff out trash anywhere. Scouting around motorways and behind Casinos we managed to find enough junk to decorate our stand. Blown-out tyres, bits of piping, old beer bottles, jazz mags and some sand bags. It's amazing what you can find if you look in the right places.

Of course we received a few strange looks, three guys sneaking along embankments picking up any old shit we can find. Still, but we're used to strange looks, and you can always scare them off by shouting "that's right, we're here to clean up this town!"

We thought we had everything sorted and then Tom came up with the idea of burning one our 'rabbit rats', a genious stroke and an entertaining minute and a half as the rat went up in flames whilst Tom bashed it flat with a big pipe.

More than one person telling us that we'll sell thousands because 'everyone hates Bush so much'So we're ready, we've got everything we need to try and scare the hell out of everyone at the GAMA show. It's Monday, set up day, we turn up late due to car hire problems, but there's still plenty of time to make our stand look wonderful, in that 'big pile of shit' kind of way.

As soon as we fire up the screaming, blinking 'crow on skull' plastic wonder we get people poking their heads round the corner and jaws drop as they realise that they're sharing an exhibition hall with us. The most common reaction to the stand so far is 'AWESOME'.

Tom confused a few people by sitting at our stand flicking through Playboy with a sloppy grin on his face, it took him a while to convince and show people that in fact Playboy had covered our game in the May issue and called it “one of the most thought provoking games [they’ve] seen in years”. Nice.

We've met a few distributors and other 'games people' and already there's a positive vibe. More than one person telling us that we'll sell thousands because 'everyone hates Bush so much'. Hang on, surely people will buy our game because of the quality gameplay and finish, we don't mention Bush anywhere, because sadly the 'War on Terror', and our game, will last a lot longer than he does.

A few hard-working hours later and the stand is pretty much finished, and it looks great. None of us expecting a pile of crap and a stack of boardgames to look quite as good as it does. We're happy and excited, ready for the first full day of the fair. Just enough time left to iron the orange jumpsuits.

The long good Friday

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Finally the day has come, after dragging ourselves out of bed with our respective ladies, we three, Andy T, Andy S & Tom MJ, manage to meet and catch the 3.30 coach to Gatwick without a problem. After the initial excitement of 'being on the road', we all pass out, arriving at Gatwick feeling rough, but in the full knowledge that we've got a way to go yet.

Gatwick doesn't present us any problems and we meet half of the WOTumentary film crew there, who look as rough as we do, which is comforting. Andy T must look the most terrorist like, getting the full search three times before he's even on a plane.

Eight and a half hours later and we arrive in Cincinnati, time for US customs... Andy T draws the short straw and lugs the bag containing the camo netting, EVIL Balaclavas and 'warning unexploded bomb' signs through customs. No questions asked, phew, the bag goes on the conveyor belt and it's on its way to Vegas.

Andy S, being the only Vegas veteran, ended up 80 dollars up, which is just about the same as Andy T and Tom lostAnother couple of hours waiting around in airports and we're on yet another plane heading for Vegas. Andy S attempts to write a press release whilst holding his eyes open with match sticks, Andy T and Tom fall asleep in each other arms, a touching moment.

We hit Vegas and manage to make it past the slots in the airport without losing too much money. A quick taxi ride later and we hit the Gold Coast hotel, our home for the next six days.

It's Friday, 6pm, our Friday started 38.5 hours ago but that doesn't stop us. We off out to check out the strip, gorge ourselves on cheap American food and learn how to lose money in Casinos. Andy S, being the only Vegas veteran, ended 80 dollars up, which is just about the same as Andy T and Tom lost.

By 1am we're dead on our feet and the bright lights, beeps and whistles start to grate a little. Time to hit the hay and catch up on some sleep...

Vegas baby, one crazy assed town, somehow we seem to fit in.

Please Note: Finding Internet access in Vegas was a harder task than we expected, but now we're set up expect regular updates!

Off to Vegas!

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The day has come: we're off to the States to see what the citizens of the country that invented the phrase 'war on terror' think of our game. Hopefully we'll pull off a licensing or distribution deal, but who knows, just making it back would be good enough.

Due to extreme planing, the final day is nice and calm. We've impressed ourselves with our new press clippings pack. The stencil on the orange jumpsuits looks good. The stickers stick to the cockroaches, it's all going to plan.

All we have to do now is to see who wins the toss to take the bag with the camo netting and balaclavas through customsIt's not often you get to take a transatlantic flight with such an interesting packing list:

• 200 plastic cockroaches
• 3 orange jumpsuits
• 4m x 4m camo netting
• 3 'warning mines' signs
• Atomic radiation sign
• 4 end of world bed sheets
• 20 plastic rats
• 1 unexploded bomb sign
• Raven on skull head figurine
• 40 EVIL Balaclavas
• Cardboard cut-out burning TV falling from sky
• Flashing lights
• 1 Geiger counter
• Lots of other shit...

Quite a nice list, all we have to do now is see who wins the toss to take the bag with the camo netting and balaclavas through customs.

We're going to try our best to update this blog as much as possible whilst we're away, but who knows, we may end up losing our minds... Fear and loathing here we come!

The WoT Sessions

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So plans for the 'end of world is nigh' diorama for our Vegas convention stand are finally taking shape. We've been purchasing strange objects and working out just how much camo netting we're going to need. But something was missing... Sounds. What kind of end of the world would it be without some screams, sirens and submarines diving now and then.

We even had time to record a rare glimpse of Tom Morgan-Jones guitar geniusA late night recording session is arranged... Andy T, Tom MJ and 'audio boy' Ben set about trying to invoke a sense of doom with a synth, mp3 player, microphone and a large cardboard tube. The first 'Terror Sessions' are about to be laid down on tape and the sense of occasion is mighty.

After several failed recording attempts we manage to get some free-style rapping under way. Ben and Andy playing off each other with synth footsteps and sounds of electric staplers. Although some tracks are forever lost to the ghosts of the mixing desk, we managed to pull off something weird.

We even had time to record a rare glimpse of Tom Morgan-Jones guitar genius. This man can do wonders with his hands.

We're not too sure how this all ties in with the 'end of world is nigh' theme just yet, but it'll hang together somehow...

Other news! We had a bit of a shock when we thought that Hilary Benn had given our game a bad review... Turns out he was talking about the 'real' war on terror, phew.

War on Terror - the Tournament

Just two weeks to go until the world's first War on Terror Tournament, taking place at Meltdown Comics in LA from 28-29 April. It's not too late to sign up, just click this magic link to go to the War on Terror Tournament website.

It's going to be a fun couple of days and we're not quite sure what to expect. Probably lots of war cries, some tears, a few laps of honour and more than one or two fall-outs, both nuclear and friendship. We have some cool prizes too, including original artwork.

But it wasn't our idea. Oh no, this is all the work of Bill Gilman, a very talented and monomaniacal man with a vision, a dream, a plan. That dream is that people of all genders, political persuasions, religions, races and creeds might come together and share the thrills, spills and spoils of the War on Terror and then go away weeping, mere shadows of their former selves. It's quite a sadistic vision.

If you'd like to be part of this historic and histrionic occasion, get in touch now and we'll sign you up. If you live in or around LA, please also spread the word. You can download flyers from the War on Terror Tournament website.

And if you want to know what tournament rules look like, they're pretty much like regular rules but with extra incentives to play as many games as your sanity allows.