unexpected surprise!

Just recently, I was picking on Aaron for bailing on the Bushido challenge from last month. (This is mainly because Aaron is a great painter, unlike me, and I need to get these things in when I can.) Tragically, I can no longer pick on him about that, because it turns out he chose to skip the challenge to sneak in painting presents for Mo and myself! So outta nowhere, he hands these two Hasslefree treasures over to me, fully painted.

Knowing my love for the Hunger Games books*, he painted up Laurie, including an incredible freehand mockingjay graffiti on the base.

Seriously, fantastic stuff.

Next up was Sgt. Spanner, painted up faithfully as everyone's favorite, Captain Hammer. The pic makes it look more shiny than it is, but yes, the symbol on the chest is freehand as well.

I am spoiled.

* - I also love the movies, but I love the books slightly more.

Fall-In 2014: day one: The Hunger Games!

Friday morning brought an early but pleasant drive up from Maryland to Lancaster, with only a slight detour for the scenic route. The gents and I spent some time in the car chatting and speculating about bringing in some additional content and changes to This Very Blog. More on that as it materializes.

Got in right before the deadline for their Flames of War doubles tournament. I had... ample time before my first event so I stuck around a bit to check it out.

The tournament was in the Showroom this time, a large theater with high ceilings. Actually really nice! Never seen the room in use before, very strange. I am positive full reports will be up on WWPD before too long, and do a better job of talking about it then I could even begin to do.

Look, tanks and stuff. (I am not a historical gamer.)

After hanging out at the tourney for a bit, took to the halls to check out some of the other early games in progress.

One of the highlights of the show as a whole was the positively massive "Speak Easy & Carry a Big Stick" game on Friday night. Blocks of roaring 20's action lovingly rendered in 28mm scale. I formally regret not playing in this one, because wow. (Unfortunately, it conflicted with my game for the evening. Had I known how this one would look, though...)

For some closeups, check out Brooklyn Wargaming. For more pics, check out Mr. Olsen or Buck Surdu or Lord Ashram's and pretty much anyone who wandered near Fall-In the whole weekend.

Seriously.

Another drive-through at the FoW tourney. We were amused earlier that there was even a table set up on the stage, and sure enough, the dynamic duo were playing on that vaunted platform.

Aaron on the left, Maurice on the right. Action!

As noted above, I had lots of free time on Friday, so I ended up getting a table at the Friday session for Wally's Basement. Usually, I just stick with the Saturday morning session (the most popular one) but figured as long as I could make a few bucks past what I paid for getting another table, I would come out ahead. This turned out to be a great decision, as I ended up making more than I expected over the course of the weekend. Yes, I might have sold some of those items on Saturday instead, but it all comes down to the count of passers-by you get who might want to buy your things. And I was priced... aggressively low. So bonus! Don't think it'll be a regular thing for me (the actual selling is very draining, especially working the table solo) but glad I phoned in for the extra this time around.

As seen last year, they had the massive "Attack on Fort DeRussy" game set up again.

Again, more sweet pics over at Mr. Olsen's gallery.

All Quiet on the Martian Front is becoming a staple of cons, as well. Looks so good all prettied up. But why would anyone want to play anything but the tripods?

After a day of eating junk, I needed some vegetables in me to help balance things out. Sadly, the best I could do at the Host was a chicken caesar salad. I'll leave complaining about the location to others more qualified, but I really wish there were healthier food choices available.

On the other hand, the bar now has cider on tap, so let's just say the meal was not a total loss.

My game for the evening, and in fact the first thing I signed up for at the con, was The Hunger Games!

(Oh look, if you squint at this pic from Buck Surdu's gallery, you can see me sitting behind that guy who is standing up. Internet famous!)

 

Using the Blood and Swash rules with some modifications, each of the players got two characters, one male and one female. Each player was given a number. When that card came up in the deck, we got to active one character and take an action. The players informally decided that those were the districts we were from, because, well, that was kid-of a no-brainer given the setting. Plus, I was #10, so go farmers?

As you might notice above, the figs we used were some Doctor Who/pulp figs that were borrowed from one of the HAWKS gamerunners. Perfectly serviceable, but I note that it would have been pretty fantastic to have a bunch of miniatures of kids. You know, for theme. Speaking of...

Now, I hate sounding critical of anyone running a game at a con, especially a game I had a lot of fun at. But There was definitely room for improvement here. I always enjoy gaming down in the HAWKS area; the games are run very well, the figs and terrain look great, So, uh, sitting down to the above, which looks more like a playtest walkthrough than anything else, was a bit worrisome. Toss in some random figs, and yeah.

I do hate being critical, here. I don't run games at cons because I really don't think I have the patience or temperament to deal with that many players at once, and for a few hours with no break. This game just didn't have the presentation I was expecting. Certainly good for a playtest, though, even if that wasn't what it was billed as. And like I said, I did enjoy the game, and am glad I showed.

OK, back to business.

The game start, and the rush for the cornucopia's treasures is on.

Another surprise was that the ten players included four children. Kids at a con are always a crap shoot, but this group was great. They were all familiar with the setting, and were in pretty good spirits pretty much the whole time through. 

And remember how I said we all decided our numbers were our Districts? Since the kids all sat together, and the gamemaster started counting in that order, they were all in the lower numbered Districts. Couldn't have planned it better if he'd tried.

Much like in the books, the rush for the weapons and supplies (here represented by those chits and scraps of paper) turned into a bloodbath early. I sent in one of my tributes, but the other hightailed it for the seeming safety of the woods. 

This was, naturally, a terrible idea. See those colored dots surrounding the water above? Each was paired with a corresponding color dot at the table edge, dividing the area into... yes, just like the 75th Hunger Games, a giant clock. In addition to the cards used for player activations, there were cards in there that triggered the special events. The majority of which were terrible: poison gas, killer bees, some troll-like monster, etc. The player whose card came up after the event card determined which 'clock facing' wedge it would appear in, most of them being something bad moving in from the table edge towards the center, forcing all the contestants closer together. 

Panem forever.

For some reason, all my activation cards kept showing up at the bottom of the deck. The other random trend was, oddly, I also kept being one of the players triggering terrible disasters. It was amusingly strange luck.

Cotton balls representing poison fog and wildfires roll in from above. Not coincidentally on the side of the table opposite me.

More comedy from the random chance of dice and cards were crazy strings of 'kid luck,' which I am now convinced is a scientific principle. See those tentacles above? The beast behind them had seized the tribute of one of the kids. And after a couple rounds of getting pulled under, she needed to roll like a 19 or 20 just to survive. Triggering her straight up rolling nothing but 19s and 20s for the next few rounds, without fail.

If Troi meets the Doctor on the road, kill him.

In the end, it was a fun beer-and-pretzels game. The rules were simple enough that we all had them down within a couple turns. And it was able to handle ten players, each playing two characters, no sweat. So there's something to be said for that. I'd love to see a prettier presentation, but the game I played in was good times.

Hopefully will have day two up within the next couple days. Stay tuned!

Historicon 2013, day one (many pics)

Last weekend was Historicon 2013, in lovely Fredericksburg, VA. My usual possee couldn't make it this year, so I was flying solo, a new experience for me. Got up at 7:15, just before my third alarm went off. Chugged a delightful iced coffee energy drink on the drive in; it tasted like getting punched in the face feels, but it did the job. No appreciable traffic, even on the Beltway, plus directions easy enough for me not to get lost meant I got there in just over an hour, well on time.

First strike was the dealers hall, to pick up items I was concerned would sell out quickly. Grabbed the Scotland Yard company for In Her Majesty's Name for Aaron, and some choice figs from Rebel Minis. My poor decision of the day was also picking up the Amazons from Wargames Factory (for 7th Voyage.) Good figs, but a.) they weren't likely to sell out, and b.) the rest of the day I was lugging around a box of plastic figs, since they'd melt in the car. Oh well, lesson learned.

When we went to Historicon last year, one of the big complaints was the noise levels in the main gaming hall. The site folks put up these curtains (drapes?) as a sound baffle, which sort of subdivided the room into sections. I was dubious at first, but when things got going, there was a distinct improvement. Hopefully they'll improve on the concept next year, as well as figure out a way to cram a couple more bathrooms into that joint, because yeah, that's still an issue.Anyways.

Next up, hit the early version of Wally's Basement, the flea market where games get a table for a few hours and sell stuff they don't want anymore. Picked up some plaster terrain bits that, uh, I only have some vague ideas for. Heh. I'm an easy sell.

In the Basement, I met the guy behind Dark Lance Designs. They have some nifty projects and ideas in the works, like the above. Will definitely be keeping an eye on them in the future. (He also pointed out they are more than willing to listen to suggestions for future products, so if you have something in mind, drop them a note on their Facebook page, linked above.)

Now on to the meat of our tale. The games. First one I wanted to stop by was the Saga campaign board. I'd been curious about Saga, since it's caught on in the convention scene, and cons are a great way to learn about new games. As noted in the pic above, this was to be a multiplayer battle, the outcome of which would affect the next game. Neat concept, and I figured it'd be a good way for me to get how the game works.

"From the wrath of the Northemen, O Lord, deliver us."

Did I mention it was a lovely table? It really was, and drew a crowd of observers in short order.

Seriously, look at that.

The game itself was interesting. I may write up my thoughts on Saga eventually. I feel like I should play an actual game of it, but I am not sure that's in the cards at this point.

Also wandered by this lovely Stalingrad board.

This Jerusalem board was used for a couple games during the con, and man, that's some great work too. Cons are always great for terrain pr0n.

This beast was set up for a "Mars Needs Steam" game, the link to which I will provide tomorrow. Definitely a major undertaking, and I admire their efforts.

No, seriously, it was that big.

And man, I love the big dungeon boards. Love.

Snuck in a quick lunch after that, in which I struck up a random conversation with a fellow gamer, and learned a lot about Eve Online, and why I should travel overseas. Noted! Dude was a real gentleman.

Next up... a beginner's class on painting terrain. Here's the not-so-secret: I enjoy painting, but I am not very good at it, and I am not very fast at it. And I have a lot of terrain bits I never got around to painting, because, you know, hard. And I could be painting figures instead! But no. I declared this the Year of Terrain, and this class was step one. We learned such techniques as drybrushing, flocking, color choices, etc. Yes, real easy stuff, but I learn best by having someone show me, and this class fit the bill perfectly. Will definitely be looking at more of these in the future.

After that, another quick walk-through the dealers hall. Reaper had a booth there, for the first time. I am betting the fact that a lot of people just scored figs from the Bones kickstarter suppressed sales, but I would pick up a couple things there, and saw other shoppers, so maybe not.

I finally found the booth for Darkest Star Games this time. I'd wanted to get a look at their Spec-Sec figs for 15mm scifi, and heavens, I wasn't disappointed. This is definitely a company to watch, with a real eye for the ultra-slick vision of games like Infinity, or something from, say, Ghost in the Shell, but in 15mm. Quality stuff. They had sold out of the Colonists I'd wanted to pick up initially, but I found a couple other easy picks. He was also one of the cooler people I met this con, which is just added value at this point. Wish I had got a pic at the time, but hopefully will get those figs together shortly and up here.

Damn you, Blue Moon/Old Glory. I didn't know I needed gangster figs and terrain, but here we are. (Spoiler alert: I renew my Old Glory membership at the end of my weekend. So many treats.)

Lovely downtown Granville, IL. Nice place to visit, but I'd recommend against moving there.

My final event of the day was my first actual scheduled game of the con: "The Walking Dead of Granville, IL." I always enjoy the multiplayer GASLIGHT games run by the fine ladies and gentlemen of the HAWKS wargaming club, and this was no exception.

This time around, I played the brave hero Duke Morrison and his loyal troopers, as well as the police. The citizens of this fine burg were being turned into mindless zombies by some wicked Venusians. We were in town to rescue as many locals as we could, gather needed supplies, and track down Professor Nannini's secret lab.

Look, only a couple zombies wandering. This'll be easy, right?

I started in the southeast corner, which would also be the road out of town. Our allies, a motley groupd of roughnecks, sailors, and gangsters, started various places around the board. We made some vague plans to meet up towards the middle. (No, we didn't actually expect the plans to work. But hey.)

We can be taught.

On turn two, we learned very quickly that sound attracts zombies. Lots of zombies. And the zombies are damned tough to put down. Alright, heroes, let's get to work.

The west side of town. I never made it that far.

What followed became a race instead of a fight, with us trying to avoid firing any guns, and only hotwiring cars when necessary. (Starting a car was certainly noisy enough to get the undead's attention.) So we ran, and were tactical, and trying and failing to thin out the zeds.

Duke Morrison: action hero.

Having created a small horde by myself (whoops) I lead them on a merry chase, taking advantage of Duke's awesomeness to let me sneak a civilian out of harm's way. Personally, this was my best play of the day.

Luckily, my horde was mostly creepers. Other players were dealing with bloaters and runners, undead with different powers. (This is called foreshadowing.)

Any car that we did get running was jam-packed with civilians. This would come back to haunt us, as the zombie players (well, the players running the zombies, I mean) figured out if they attacked those cars with the bloater zombies, when the bloaters got hit, they could potentially explode and infect everyone in the vehicle. Ouch. The cars were still a good call, considering how fast they were (comparatively) but a distinct liability. I don't think a single vehicle made it out without having to deal with one or more passenger turning.

Things are rough. The zeds are everywhere, we can't find the lab, and have not been picking up enough supplies. And what's more, the zombies have started pushing cars around, causing me to exclaim loudly about there being 'some sort of brain zombie.'

Tragically, the last building we search turns out to be the secret lab. But the equipment is too heavy to get out without vehicular conveyance, so I make the heroic decision to abandon the lab junk in favor of getting the last civilian off the board safely. I just didn't think we'd get enough turns to get a car there, load up the gear, and get off the board before being surrounded by zombies, who were now massing near the exit.

Morrison ushers out the last civilian on foot, as one of his men clears the way.

And this is how Granville fell, in a storm of dice and creepers.

A fun game, indeed. There was a family of younger players there, but their father kept them in line and focused for the most part. They just needed a bit more patience to rein in their more... energetic impulses. And they seemed to enjoy the game as well, which is the reason we're all there.

Mr. Surdu discusses the game on his blog here.

Drove home after that and tried to get some sleep for an early morning and a busy day ahead.

League of steampunk skirmish? Yes please.

"It is 1895 and the world is in turmoil. In the decades to come historians will reflect upon the cause of this state of affairs and many will point at Charles Babbage. His perfection of his Difference Engine and then his Analytical Engine gave the new scientific establishments in the great imperial nations the tool they had so long needed in order to make a great leap forward. The ability to make huge and repeatable sets of complex calculations revolutionized the world. 

"Within twenty years we had the perfection of miniaturized steam engines, electric light and motors, Radium Bricks, Arc weapons, Hydrogen and latterly Helium Dirigibles, Road Trains, Calculating Artillery Engines, Sea and Land Dreadnoughts and, well, the list is almost endless. Nothing is impossible when the wealth of a great nation is coupled to the unlimited imagination of educated men of science and their engineers..." 

In the past I mentioned that while I was all over Empire of the Dead, in the end I didn't get in on the most recent Kickstarter, in favor of dumping money on Zombicide 2 instead. But just reading through it reminded me how much I love that convergence of steampunk and dark Victoriana and what have you. Fiddling with the idea of a 7tv steampunk game distracted me for a bit; that may still happen at some point, especially when our Blackwater Gulch figs come in. (See how my mind works? Just keeps going and going...)

But really, for me, it always comes back to the League. Even before I started branching out into pulp gaming, I had been keeping a list of figs to get to convert the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I loved the comics, and adored the concept and the setting, all the fiddly historical details and discreet references to obscure literature.* (And truth be told, even that goes back to Anno Dracula, which was written by one Kim Newman, bringing everything back to gaming. Full circle!) There's a definite allure to the anything-goes feeling of pulp adventure, and when you get to bring in excellent characters like that (or a pastiche version of them) it really strikes a chord with me. A cowboy game is good, but bring in a masked man in black with a bullwhip and a rapier, and I'm hooked.

So when I ran across In Her Majesty's Name by North Star, my curiousity was roused. Equal parts steampunk and AE-WWII-style historical revisionism, this is straight up my alley. I don't have any real experience with Osprey's rules, but this post on the development of the game definitely sounds like it's worth investigating. Other posts in that blog gave me even more confidence in the direction they were taking, and this thread notes some of the other companies and clues. They're running a pre-order, which is a not-Kickstarter, but will likely net you a couple extra figs if you order ahead of time. I'm already brimming with ideas.

* - I also... didn't entirely hate the movie? No, it was bad, but they did bring in a couple good ideas.

Cold Wars 2013

A couple weekends back, we made the trek to Pennsylvania for Cold Wars 2013 for some gaming, shopping, and selling.

Promptly on arriving (and after an inauspicious 90-minute detour) at the con, I signed in and headed straight to my first game, "Duke Morrison and the Mounties." Nothing like pulp action first thing in the morning. I played some dastardly French trappers allied with the alien invaders and some bootlegging gangsters, facing off against the noble Duke Morrisson ("I hate that guy.") and his backup from the Royal Canadian Mounted.

GASLIGHT is very popular with the HMGS convention crowd. It's not my favorite ruleset, but it works well, and the players seem to have a lot of experience with it. And I'm an easy sell, so give me a French trapper named "Rattler Ralph" and I'm good.

Mounties make their way across the ice. Minis were primarily from Pulp Figures, and man, great stuff.

One of my favorite parts of the game: the Mounties had their brave canine companion, Yukon King, along for the ride. Any time a baddie targeted King with an attack, everyone, good guys and bad, spontaneously went 'BOO!' And when King won the roll and was fine, everyone went 'YAY!' It was fifty shades of awesome.

Evil French trappers hide in ambush in the woods, taking (ineffective) shots at the Mounties.

In a moment of ill-planned aggression, the trappers charge out to engage in fisticuffs with the good guys. This... doesn't end well for our foul henchmen.

The aliens' subterranean lair awaits!


After the game, picked up a couple hot items at the dealers' hall, mostly things I thought might sell out by the second day. Sadly, I put off a couple purchases from Acheson, and true to form, they sold out by the time I made it back with my cash on Saturday. Next time.

Another thing that caught my eye was test models for All Quiet on the Martian Front, a new 15mm War of the Worlds game. Definitely will be checking that out more later.


Friday evening was playing Songs of Our Ancestors, the Quar ruleset from Ganesha Games. I'd played some Ganesha rules previously, so I knew what to expect, and I have to admit, they worked pretty well for a large con game. Measuring sticks aren't my thing in general, but really speed things up. (And card activation really is faster than dice.)

Basic layout. Road runs from south to north. To the east of the crossroads, a tavern that we Crusaders had to 'pacify.' North on the road is the brewery that the Partisans had taken over. A supply depot was located on the road leading west.

I admit I am a sucker for blind movement. Each player had a couple chips to assign their troops to, plus a couple blanks to move around. Chips remained until encountered by an enemy and successfully spotted. So the game started with a game of cat-and-mouse, as players positioned, angled, and tried to ID what was real and what was a decoy.

Two brave Quar. Those trees were also pretty nifty, and theoretically easy to make (and shockingly sturdy.)

The tavern! The terrain was very cool.

My job with the Crusade was to protect the caravan, which came in on the south of the road, and needed to make it to the supply depot. I was particularly bad at it. My first encounter with the enemy was when my leader was killed in an ambush in the forest. The forest in which we were hiding, to ambush the partisans.

The brewery, which the partisans decided they would blow up instead of seize. Those fiends.

Half the caravan gone, my surviving troops lead the survivors through the relative safety of the forest to  reach the depot. Fun game, even if it did really cement my not-winning streak for the day.


Maurice and Aaron spent their Friday doing up the Flames of War doubles tournament. You can check out Maurice's full report here.

Their first game, which by all accounts went splendidly for them.

Their second game, on a nifty desert board.

Friday night was spent playing Zombicide and Lords of Waterdeep, both highly worthy board games.

Following are a few table setups I observed while wandering the con. I love wandering the con, so much eye candy. As a renter, I don't have a huge amount of space for terrain storage, so I am often impressed by some of the layouts I see at conventions.

I believe this was for the big Resident Evil game, and wow. The rooms were covered until they were encountered during the scenario, so the players really didn't know what they were getting into. Lots of narrative potential there.

The bluffs here were massive. So cool.

Old West table setup. Simple, but highly playable. We'll be trying out Blackwater Gulch in the near future, and one day I am eager to try out 7tv for a Wild Wild West game.

Saturday morning was up early for the Wally's Basement flea market deal. Didn't make quite as much as at Historicon, nor did my Imperial Guard sell as well as I'd hoped. Nevertheless, took in enough cash to cover most of my purchases in the dealers' hall (mostly Rebel, Acheson, and Old Glory.) So, success. Took notes for what to bring to Historicon come summer.

This is what happened to my Saturday night. Good times.

And when I finally made it home Sunday, this was greeting me on the front door. Note my daughter took the time to not only illustrate our bad cat knocking my minis off the table, but also the other cat scowling at him.

For more reading, Maurice gives us his con coverage here, plus some great tables by O My Ruritania! and gaming by the inimitable Doctor Merkury. I also missed the Santa Claus vs. the Nazis GASLIGHT game, but wow.