Circus Minimus

The Circus Minimus tournament required only one heat, as it drew five participants: tournament organizer Ric Van Dyke, designer Dean Essig, Rod Miller, Dave Demko, and rookie driver Gary Perkins. For some reason the drivers agreed to forego weapons, sabotage, and "entertainment," electing to just race.

The surviving racers approach the Roman "photo" finish.

But it was no bloodless race. On the second lap Ric flipped on the home turn, cut loose from his horses, made an unsuccessful attempt to hijack Dean's chariot, and was run down by Gary. Dave flipped in the first turn of the second lap, where Gary swerved to run him down. Dave survived to make a hijack attempt against Gary but, already injured, was knocked dead in the struggle for the reins.

Though Gary's horses were flagging with high fatigue, the (now) three-man race remained tight.

Rod Miller and Dean Essig tied for first in the Circus Minimus tournament.

At the finish Dean and Rod were neck and neck, with Gary only two spaces behind. That's how it ended, with Dean and Rod sharing the coveted Golden Whip. Many thanks to Ric for organizing and running the event and creating the Golden Whip trophy.

DAK

Top: Rommel has taken Cairo, opposed by South African armored cars.

The travelling campaign game of DAK, begun in February at Rod Miller's house and continued at John Kranz's MonsterCon, reached its triumphant conclusion at HomerCon--triumphant for the Axis team of Dean Essig (Germans) and Rod Miller (Italians) that is.

Bottom: The end draws near as Axis forces approach the defenses of Alexandria.

The HomerCon session began on April 12 1941 with the Axis already in possession of Tobruk. The Commonwealth (Andrew Fischer and Dave Demko) backpedalled but decided to make a brief stand before Mersa Matruh to bleed some Axis supply. The Axis broke the line in two places, and the Commonwealth had to squeak out of the Mersa Matruh pocket.

While the Commonwealth set up an El Alamein line with those units that hadn't departed to the Near East, Dean used some carefully stockpiled fuel to drive his panzers wide to the south-and into Cairo. Despite a valiant stand by some South African armored cars, who repulsed two Rommel-led attacks, the Commonwealth position was decisively compromised.

Plastic Ships & Scurvy Men

Plastic Ships & Scurvy Men, Dean's computer-driven miniatures game on the age of fighting sail, is a different experience from Air Combat Maneuver. The positions take longer to develop, and once the ships are in range of each other, they give and take a good deal of pounding. All in all about eight guys tried the game. In one engagement, Andrew Fisher and Dave Demko lost 3 British frigates and a 74 gun ship of the line to Dean Essig and Rod Miller's three Constitution-class frigates.

The Neats versus the Scruffies in Plastic Ships and Scruvy Men; inset: a complex engagement

Sicily

In Sicily, John Loy and Mark Owens tried a non-historical landing with the Brits landing between Gela and Licata and the US west of them. The idea was to drive up the center rail lines, with the Brits branching east with the rail to avoid the east coast river lines. The dice were very much against the Allies: snake eyes on a couple 41-point barrages and a couple of blown surprise rolls with +2 modifiers, not to mention lopsided (5 to 1) air losses.

John Loy (British), Mark Owens (US), Steve Askew (Axis) and Erik Boice (Axis) enjoying Sicily

The Allies did manage to capture Palermo and the western ports from the Axis forces of Steve Askew and Erik Boice. At the cost of several ships, the Allies bombarded the east coast air bases from the sea. But in the end, it was clear the Allies would not capture the island. 

Korea

Two different groups played Korea, The Forgotten War. Both started the campaign game, but each group arrived at different results. Gary Perkins and Perry Andrus as the ROK/UN found that the North Koreans under Mike Galandiuk and Thomas Buettner pushed them all the way into Pusan. Poor flying weather, which disproportionately hurts the air power rich UN, didn't help.

The UN/ROK is constricted to the area around Pusan (first game).

In the second game, Rod Miller and Andrew Fischer gave ground to Dean Essig and Dave Demko's NK assault till the Commies ran out of steam, then countered with a successful Inchon invasion.

An amphibious end run to Inchon gets US forces into a fight for Seoul (second name).

Play of both games moved quickly; the second group played 16 turns in 6.5 hours. The defining features of Korea, especially in the opening of the campaign game, are speed and ease of play, high mobility, wide-open strategic possibilities, and plenty of drama.

A Fearful Slaughter

Those playing A Fearful Slaughter at HomerCon had a great time. We used the Confederate historical rules which made the whole thing much more difficult, and interesting, for the Confederate side. Bob Cloyd and Paul Van Etten played the Union side with Bob having the southern part of the line. Joe Linder and John Reed played the Confederate side with John having the southern part of the line. The northern Confederate attack had initial success, pretty much knocking out Sherman's division, but then ran into stiff resistance around Ben Howell and Woolf Field. The Confederates had used up 3rd and Reserve Corps in this attack.

John Reed (left) and Joe Linder demonstrate A Fearful Slaughter with components provided courtesy of Dean Essig, Dave Powell, and MMP.

In the south the Confederates had much trouble getting 1st Corps going but managed to crush Union 6th division and clear Barnes Field, the Davis Wheat Field, Sarah Bell's Old Cotton Field, and the Peach Orchard. But Bob Cloyd had been cagy and had set up two good Union divisions just behind this line, defending the Sunken Road and the Wicker Field. The Confederates were in for a tough fight and would probably have come up far short of the historical results.

Top: Climax of the battle (at least what we fought at HomerCon). After spending most of the morning in Distorted status, the Confederate 1st Corps finally accepted orders to attack the Peach Orchard, starting around 11:30 AM. Albert Sydney Johnston led the attack, using the special AS Johnston rule. Bob Cloyd, the Union commander, promptly rolled the appropriate 12 on a leader casualty and killed AS Johnston-in the same hex and at the same time as he was killed historically.

Bottom: This is the staging for the Confederate 1st Corps attack. R/1/1 is an excellent brigade and it rolled over the Union 6 Division troops leading to AS Johnston's attack two turns later.