I attended the 2nd Annual Buckeye Came Fest, held Oct. 26-27 at the Ramada Inn in Columbus. The event was sponsored by the Columbus Area Boardgame Society (CABS) with participation by COGA. There were about 40-50 attendees while I was there on Saturday. Most of the events were boardgames, including a War at Sea tournament. There were a few historical miniatures events, including an old west gunfight and a World War II Battleground skirmish.

I participated in an epic 15mm Sword and the Flame event based on the Battle of Khartoum. It was great fun. As one of the Mahdist players, my forces assaulted the walls of Khartoum, with the help of an old artillery piece that I used to batter open one of the city gates. My forces then swarmed through the gate and took the mosque, which was one of our victory conditions. The game included British gunboats on the Nile, which did not arrive in time to stop us from taking Khartoum from its Egyptian defenders.

Of course, like all large TSATF games, there was a lot of waiting for the next card to come up. The funniest part of the game was during the first turn. Both sides' fire combat seemed unusually effective at picking off officers (which requires an ace to be drawn). It was only then that we discovered that the GM was using a pinochle deck by mistake.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day.