Tom has summed up the show very nicely and what I've got to add is the recommendation to attend this event in the future. I had the best time at this show because I attended first as a player and then as a game judge. I walked in and immediately was invited to play in a WWI aerial dogfight game using a set of rules called "Knights of the Sky" by WAR, WAR, and More WAR. The game was played on a hex map with 1/285th scale aircraft. The British pilots were attempting to stop a Zeppelin attack on London. I was piloting a Sopwith Snipe and had five other pilots in our squadron to rely on for game advice and tactics. We scratched the big beast of a Zeppelin but our skills were not up to the task of taking out the monster. I left the combat with a shot-up pilot and a damaged kite, barely making it above the choppy waters of the channel. The neatest part of the game was the flight stands. They consisted of a hex nut of substantial weight filled with resin and a metal rod to hold the aircraft. The altitude of the model was recorded on a dial at the base of the stand. Very neat indeed. Check out Darrin Loomis of WAR, WAR & More WAR.
Following this game I ran a quick Western gunfight scenario for Darrin Manna, Tom Day and a new to gaming fellow named Matt Matthews. We did a quick hour in the town of Springfield, Missouri 1870. My cocky gunslinger was shot and crippled in the first turn of the game by Wild Bill Hickock. My buddy Matt was hunted down by the two gunslingers on the other side of the fight and finished off in the side yard of the town restaurant. They caught him in a crossfire and it was over. I didn't really need that ten-dollar watch of Hickock's anyway!
The next event had us all on the Plains of Abraham at the Siege of Quebec. Darrin Manna shared his incredible collection of 15mm French and British figures for the Seven Years War. The French took a loss due to army moral failing but the British came in piece meal and had rough handling by our guns during the contest. Very good gaming system with Age of Reason Rules.
For my next adventure I played in George Knapp's Alamo experiment. This game has been to at least three conventions that I have been to and I have always wanted to play. This time I set aside the time and energy to get involved. At this moment there was a crowd gathered around my table set up for Western Gunfight. Upon my investigation I learned that this group was eager to play my game and was wondering when I was going to run it. I explained I really wanted to have a chance to be in the Alamo game and they asked if I would show them the rules to my game they thought they could handle it well enough on their own. So I did. And they did. About two hours later I saw they had finished and left everything picked up and tidy. The whole time I was twenty feet away at the Alamo battle getting clobbered by columns of Mexican Infantry.
I call George's game an experiment with no disrespect intended but the game is a growing organism. Changes to the rules and scenery have evolved over all of the shows that the event has been run at. The story is unfolding and is well presented by George as he works to create a model of the last stand game concept. I enjoyed the game and I think the Texans may have won on points at the end of the score. I know that one unlucky player failed to get his column of infantry to engage the Texans even when there was a huge undefended breach in front of his position. I was one of several artillerists firing rounds into his column to keep them from advancing.
Finally my evening would wind down with a very exciting run through Springfield once again for the age old rivalry between Wild Bill Hickock and Dave Tutt over the gold watch and women' feelings. This time the event attracted 10 players, five on each side of the fight. Hickock's men all rolled very high on the experience table for skill level. Tutt's men were not so lucky. Tutt was the only elite gunfighter on an Average to Novice squad. Amid loud hoops and catcalls the Veterans sauntered down the street looking for Tutt, the gold watch and revenge. Tutt's crew began rather cowardly by crawling out the Mercantile's back window into an alley. True to their outlaw ways they ambushed the Hickock party in the street and in an instant Hickock and Tutt were down and bleeding in the street. Subsequent analysis of the gunfighters wounds found that each had been hit by a crippling head shot that left both Hickock and Tutt dead. The fight broke up as the backers of the two gunfighters ripped through the town of Springfield shooting with recless abandon. Three more Tutt men were found throughout the town severely wounded. One young lad was found much later cowering behind the stone wall at the edge of town.
Saturday was really crowded and we took in the museum on the base. The Army museum is really worth a look. We ran two games of the World War Two skirmish game we brought for Saturday's sessions. The objective for the game was to have an American platoon clear a section of a town that held a German observation post. Each side had a different set of victory conditions. U.S. -clear the objective vs. German -time on task equaled victory. The first run through the U.S. platoon took the objective and the German team exited the board under orders after too few turns on the board to effectively call in artillery. The second game was a rout. The German observation post was destroyed on board in a record five game turns!
Both games saw the effective use of smoke rounds to get near the target area. In the second game a grenade trough a second story window to take out a sniper landed at the side door of the radio teams car in the shell of the buildings ground floor and blew up the crew and flattened the tires effectively winning the game for the Americans.
The auction was a real treat as well. I sold a number of old computer games and a selection of dead lead that I dressed for the event with quick and effective paint schemes. What we purchased from the auction will need to stay under wraps until after Easter weekend.
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