Report: Historicon 2011, Day 3

   I know it has been a few days, but I am just now fully recovered from my relaxing stay in lovely Pennsylvania. Not that I saw a whole lot of it, because I spent most of the time indoors.  But you don't want to hear about all that - you want to know about the games!

Beautiful terrain from Miniature Building Authority.

  So by now it is Saturday, the last real day of games for Historicon. I have a game at 0900, a WWII game using a rules system new to me called NUTS! It's from Two Hour Wargames. The scenario was pretty simple: D-Day, American Airborne forces approach a village held by the Wehrmacht. Wehrmacht must hold village. Didn't enjoy the game. One of the main opponents was a 'psychic.' Always knew what my troops were doing even if there was no way for the troops to have such information. I didn't like the rules either. One of my troops dropped a hand grenade into a room full of Amis, rolled the best result possible, and the result was that two of the GIs charged up the stairs and killed not one but three Germans at the top. One of the Germans was my second best guy, and a 'Hero', unloaded his SMG at the GIs, while waiting at the top for them to approach, and missed totally. An unbalanced scenario maybe, and a bad opponent for sure, but any result that leaves a group of people in an enclosed area in which a grenade has gone off totally unharmed - not stunned, not anything? Needs work.

Amis appear in the woods and ambush a Wehrmacht patrol

  My next game wasn't to be until 1900, so I thought I'd hit the vendor's area and Wally's Basement (the flea market). the boys, on the other hand, were headed to their game at 1300; a game of Car Wars. I've been playing the game off and on since about 1983. Even been planning on getting a Matchbox scale game set up. So the boys take off; about 1305, I get a call from Greyson and they need another player since there's only the two of them there to play. Had a pretty good time. Killed Greyson's car, got rear-ended by a ramplate but survived (barely!), got revenge on the rammer by virtually eliminating him. Time was just about up so we called it, and I won (only 'kill').

My car. Twin MGs and a bumper trigger.

Dane in red, Greyson in green, myself in the rear.

   My last game was one of the ones I most anticipated since registering: a G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. fleet battle. Simple scenario was that a new German aircraft carrier was damaged by a storm, and the British are trying to capture it while the Germans seek to prevent that.

Patrol boat HMS Courageous (fore) and cruiser HMS Essex

   I liked the game. It was very similar to Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., and so it was familiar, with a few changes which had to be made in order to accomodate the third dimension. It seemed impossible to get to the carrier (the Valkyrie) before she made it off the table, and it proved so. Highlights of the game include the performance of HMS Cossack, one of my patrol boats absorbing fire from two German patrol boats and a German cruiser. After several turns, she was a wreck, and had three commanding officers killed aboard her. Finally, she settled to the surface, with no guns, no engine, and no officers left! Things looked very bad for the British side until the battleship finally got within range. Three German capital ships were crippled or destroyed, and three escorts, to the loss of three escorts on the British side. The Valkyrie did manage to escape, however.

The Valkyrie.

  The Valkyrie is a total scratch-built job, except for the mast and the flight stand. Absolutely beautiful piece of work. I especially like the raised hangar on the flight deck.

Despatches from Pennsylvania, Day 2

   The major disappointment of the day was the fact that the Sky Galleons of Mars game that I was most looking forward to had a no-show. GM was at the con, and picked up his badge, but simply did not appear to run his game. It disappointed about 12 players who waited a half an hour to see if he was just running a bit late. This kind of thing should result in him paying for his entry, rather than receiving a free GM pass, barring some extenuating circumstances. For example, two years ago I had a game canceled at the last minute because the GM's wife got very ill and he had to take her to the hospital. Legitimate excuse. But this kind of thing happens a little too often to be an emergency situation (not this particular GM, just an observation in general).

   In other news, a strange rabbit-man was spotted in the Valley Forge area. If you see this man, simply back away slowly and keep your hand upon your wallet. He has a variety of devilish methods of separating innocent passersby from their heard earned money.

Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures

Bunnyman and All-Around Good Guy

Historicon 2011, Day 0 (Wednesday)

   Up at 0300, arrive at airport security at 0440. Minis in carryon and my Crocs test positive for RDX, a military grade explosive. Needless to say, it took a while to clear that up, but we still made our plane with some time to spare. Get to Atlanta, change planes to Allentown, PA. The little jet can't take our carryons, so we have to check them anyway. Naturally, some of the minis got messed up by the bag smashers as a result. The same minis that caused all the trouble at Houston security. I should have just packed them in the check baggage in the first place, I guess. Oh well.

   That was the only real problem with the travel, though, so not too bad. Hotel was right, rental car fine, etc. Registration at the convention went pretty smoothly, and our badges are right. Free swag in the registration bag (x3, 1 for each of us):

• 1 sprue of Perry plastic Mahdists (2 figs ea.)
• 1 sprue of Warlord plastic Celtic Warriors (10 figs ea.)
• 1 CD-ROM for MMO game World of Tanks, with free M3 Stuart upgrade
• Flyer to redeem for free issue of Strategy & Tactics

   Not as much swag as in previous years, but still not bad. Already run into a few familiar faces, too. This is my 4th Historicon in 5 years now. I won't be able to make next year, but should be back for 2013, wherever it ends up being held. That's it for now, I guess. The boys and I have figured out our games for tomorrow and Friday, if we can get them. I'll be taking lots of pictures, and hope to get some uploaded as the convention progresses.

  EDIT July 7, 2011, 0653: After posting, I turned out lights and headed for bed. Immediately smashed left knee into coffee table, producing much cursing, the removal of some flesh, and a great deal of pain and swelling. Ice and Tylenol seem to have pretty much taken care of the damage, thank God.

Interesting Finds at Historicon

   One of the big draws (for me, at least) to Historicon is the cahnce to see a lot of stuff that I never would have sought out on my own. All of the vendors, and the flea market, are a simply dazzling source of ideas. Plus, you get to see some things up close and personal to make a decision about them. Photos on the internet are nice, but they don't take the place of the Mk. I Optic. I thought I might share a few of the finds I found while wandering the many stalls. These are things that I may not have bought (yet!), but that definitely interested me.

   Top of the list has got to be the 25/28mm airships being scratch-built by Mister Rick Stakes. If you saw my post on the Sky Galleons of Mars game, I believe every ship on the table was built by Rick, and many of the guns for them as well. The decks are magnetic sheeting to hold the crew figures and guns securely in place. They are lightweight, made of layers of insulation foamboard, and well detailed. Every one of the common vessels of Space 1889 was represented. Very impressive. I have his email and website address if you are interested in them, but be warned - they ain't cheap! I think the decked out Aphid-class was about $100, if I recall correctly.

   I also saw some very nice figures at the Iron Wind Metals booth. Everyone knows about their BattleTech figures, but they had a couple of other items I thought worth mentioning. First, the Sanwar range. These guys are perfect for post-apocalypse desert types. I am thinking of making them a Martian Deep Deserts culture. Racially the same as the City Martians, but dwelling in the Deep Drylands, in the sand-buried ruins of their ancient cities beside canals long choked to death with the ever-shifting red sands of Mars. The other interesting bit was a vehicle I saw in a post-apocalypse game being played on Thursday night, something like a sand sailer. Imagine a giant windsurfer on three off-road wheels. Somewhat perfect for Mars! The range is called "Warlands", from Aberrant Games.

"Nice Harpoon Gun Ya Got There..."

   Speaking of post-apocalyptic roadways, Stan Johansen attended H'con, and his booth had some interesting bits. His Road Warriors line includes guns, armor plating, turrets, and even motorcycles scaled in roughly 20mm to match up to Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars. perfect for Car Wars, Mad Max, or whatever. I'll be getting some of these in the future.

  Back to VSF-y things, another booth, sort of a FLGS come to the con kind of place, had some model balloons for sale, from the Wings of War series (a Balloon Buster expansion set). Already painted, impressively large... these are a future definite maybe.

   I suppose the point to all of this is that there is a lot of really neat stuff to shop for there. If you can get to a Historicon, I recommend it at least once.

Historicon 2010, Day Two, Part Two

Sky Galleons of Mars
Friday, 8 PM

  This is a game of Sky Galleons of Mars, usually in 1/1200 (about 1.5mm), blown up to 28mm scale. The ships were scratchbuilt by a fellow attending the convention. Absolutely great, but not real cheap. The main structure is insulation foamboard. If you want contact info for him, I have it. Rules are available easily from Amazon.com.

The British Aerial Squadron of Syrtis Major

My ship, the Red Hullcutter. As commander of this vessel, I was Admiral of the Martian fleet.

My orders were not well obeyed.

  Martian objective: get past the British squadron and attack Syrtis Major. British objective: stop the Martian savages. The Martian plan was to try and lure the British in close to our main battleships, pound them with gunnery to damage their liftwood panels, and then board them, while the smaller, faster vessels made for Syrtis Major.

Boarders Away! The Blue Hullcutter grapples and boards HMS Bumblebee

  Martians are boarding for two reasons: 1) their gunnery SUCKS, and 2) they have Marines and most of the British ships did not. Unfortunately, the British were able to keep at higher altittudes as a result of the general failure of Martian gunnery to harm their liftwood panels.

Wreckage of the HMS Bumblebee, with Martian marines dragged to their deaths.

  The final result of the game was a minor Martian victory. One small Martian craft was aflame, but still flying, and several Martian vessels had broken through the line of the British and were headed for their objective. The only ship lost was the Bumblebee, though several Martian vessels were quite badly battered.

  A great deal of fun was had. So much that I did a crap job of taking photos and writing notes. Taunts were thrown, challenges were made, rum was drunk. I still claim the Martians are better than the British Royal Navy because the "Martians only believe in rum and the lash." And we sang "one-nil, one-nil one-nil one-nil" over and over, as that was how many ships were brought down.

Historicon, Day Two (Friday 7/9), Part 1

"A Very British Civil War"

Friday, 1PM

  The first game I played in on Friday was "A Very British Civil War", using the Disposable Heroes rules system by Iron Ivan. I was pleased with the rules, really. Very dangerous stuff. The "Very British Civil War" is a setting, not a rules set, and so can be used fairly universally with whichever scale or rules you prefer. It is an interwar period struggle, assuming the Fascists have taken power in Britain and widespread rebellion (led by the Anglican Church, among others) swiftly followed. Incidentally, I played a rebel. Big surprise. Here are photos and some of the AAR...

Anglican League Rebels "Redcaps"

   SitRep: Anglican League rebels are protecting a group of 'undesirables' in a church in Weblington-on-Avon. Loyalist forces, including militia, Silvershirt partisans, and Royalist Regular Army troops are advancing to capture the refugees and relocate them to secure detention facilities (i.e., concentration camps).

   Turn 1: As Royalist militia advance, they are cut down by murderous fire from the rebels. All but the sergeant are slain; he prudently seeks cover. Additional Royalist forces (at top of frame) enter a large house across the lane from the defended Church.

Militia Slaughtered Like Lambs

Turn 2: The Royalists in the house return fire on the Anglican League infantry behind a stone wall. Their fire was very effective, and would reduce the squad to a lone Lewis gunner in a matter of minutes (two turns). Said Lewis gunner fires on a truck full of Royalist reinforcements far down the lane, and has a lucky result: his .308 rounds rip into the vehicle's vulnerable running gear, shredding tire, wheel, and damaging axle, crippling the truck! Meanwhile, an additional squad of Royalist militia advance through the open area, again into a withering hail of lead from the squads on the Anglican right. Their survivors would join the hiding sergeant in the depression.

Turn 3: The Anglican Vickers in the Church has been concentrating its fire on the Royalists in the house, who have a plethora of Lewis guns and BARs. After several minutes of concentrating their fire, the Vickers manages to reduce the enemy squad to scattered remnants. Meanwhile, the Royalists have brought additional reinforcements up on foot (bailing out of the crippled truck) and into the house. From there, they begin to pour fire into the second squad across the lane, with ferocious efficiency. Finally, an enemy armored car appears along the road into town, and pushes the crippled truck out of the way. Its fire is ineffectively directed at the Anglican lieutenant and parson. God is with us!

3: Dead Royalist Machinegunners...

   Turn 4: Anglican reinforcements begin to arrive in the rear area: two squads of infantry and an armored car! Sadly, the remnants of the original Royalist forces in the house have plucked up enough courage to approach the second squad (already seriously damaged by fire from the house) and pop up to fire a blizzard of SMG rounds into the last remaining two. Second squad dies valiantly.

4: Royalist Militia Survivors Pop up from Depression, Killing Valiant Anglican Redcaps

Turn 5: The Anglican armored car (a Rolls Royce, naturally!) fires both heavy machineguns at extreme range into the Lanchester armored car driven by the Royalists. One round of the intense bursts finds a weak spot, plunges into the fuel tank, and ignites the Lanchester in a blast of flame! Anglican reinforcements reach the church building, and prepare to assault across the lane into the house where a few Royalist troops cower.

5: Burning Royalist Vehicles... Is Anything More Lovely?

   At this point, the game ended. It seemed as if things were going well for the League at this point, but the Royalists have more coming forward - including an artillery piece! - and the battle was far from over.

Blog Fixed, and Historicon Day One Report

   As you can see, I found the old templates, and reset the blog. Much better looking, I think.

   I'll be splitting postings on Historicon between this blog and my other, The Scattergun Gamer, so I don't flood either one too badly. Plus, it makes for good cross-pollinating! Be sure to check for stuff on the other blog.

Historicon, Day One (Thursday, July 8)

Battle of Edgehill

15mm ECW, "Declare Thee, Sir!" rules.

  Pike and Shotte is the theme for this year's Historicon, so I thought I would start off the convention with a stab at a new genre and a new rules set on Thursday night. I was given command of the far left flank of the Parliamentarian forces, as General Sir James Ramsey (a historical leader).

Things Get Hot!

   The first contact I had with the enemy, the King's Lifeguard Regiment of Cavalry charged into my own cavalry. I held my own, and the Lifeguard retreated! In the retreat, I caught up to two (of three) bases of the enemy cavalry. This does not eliminate a base under these rules, but causes them to continue to rout further. I pursued further, but came into contact with another unit of Royalist cavalry, the Prince of Wales' Own.

The Prince of Wales' Own misses charging my musketeers by thaaaat much.

   Things then began to go down hill. On the right, the cavalry overextended and got slaughtered. The infantry refused to move forward (the player's choice - bad call) to support them. The Parliamentarian right flank began to collapse. In addition, the leader of the battle between my left flank and the center was killed by shot from a saker, causing his battles to go to pieces rapidly.

Royalists on the left, Parliament on the right... the Royalists will win this battle.

My cavalry routs off the table, pursued by Prince Rupert's.

   My cavalry was chased from the table, leaving me with only a general and two seperated units of musketeers. Musketeers, I might add, who were entirely ineffectual, even at point blank range. Out of 30+ rolls, I rolled one hit. One. You needed a 7 on 2d6. Not 7+, not 7-, a total of 7. 1 in 6 chance on 2d6 to get that total. Not for me, it isn't. I rolled snake eyes twice and boxcars three times, but only one 7 (3/4, if you're interested). At that point, Sir Ramsey surrendered to the advancing Royalists, throwing himself on the King's Mercy.

  To be honest, I didn't enjoy this game. My direct opponent liked to gloat, the fellow immediately to my right was obnoxious, and I was accused of cheating (by the Gloater) when I made a mistake because I misunderstood a rule. The rules themselves were not easy for me to follow - a bit counter-intuitive. While I think they might have modeled the infantry fighting of the period well, I didn't have enough infantry to tell. The pursuit rules fairly ensure that if you rout your enemy, your own cavalry will follow them off the table. Which may be historically accurate, but it sucks on the game table. I'll not give up on the period, but I don't think these rules are for me.

Another game going Thursday night, looks like fun! Post-apocalyptic Road Warriors...

Bit pissed... and Historicon Travel!

...and I don't mean thanks to the rum.

Blogger's new template designer. Avoid it at all costs unless you want what you see here to happen to you. I tried to widen my old template, and you see the results... total change! And not for the better. I'll be trying to re-establish my old design template, but can't seem to find it in the new system. If anyone out there has better blog-fu than I (and it wouldn't be hard), let me know.

In other news, I am at Historicon. 0745 on Friday, officially Day Two, but I didn't arrive until 5 minutes to closing yesterday for the Vendor Hall. Played one game, had my command run away, ran into an old acquaintance, met new ones, had a few drinks, wandered a bit. I will be posting more details later, but there's the gist of yesterday evening. The trip out was mediocre. Got hit in the head with a suitcase by a fat smelly guy when he was putting his overhead luggage in the bin. Said fat smelly guy had the decency to not sit in my row, which had an empty seat adjacent to me. Had a gyros in Chicago while on layover. Sat next to a really interesting guy into Philly and had a good chat with him. Met a nice British fellow on the shuttle to, as he put it, "Giglio's little thing." Had my hotel changed for me, but that turned out well enough.

More from Historicon Later...