Borodino 2002

Side Wargames: Survivor, et al

by Russ Lockwood


A number of "side" wargames were on display for folks to play in case the action on the main boards had a lull for an individual commander.

I played in one: Sharpe's Survivor, a take-off of the Survivor TV show. Here, we were British riflemen who had to get to a particular terrain locale. The first player that did won immunity and the game immediately ended.

We started off with 6 players. You could either take a move or grab a reinforcement. The reinforcement could be French, in which case you used them against the other players.

I moved, grabbed a reinforcement, and then moved again on my three turns. On the fourth turn, I managed to get into the terrain (the town well), and so the game stopped. I had immunity. Here's where the survivor portion comes in...the players vote a player out of the game.

Many French may be guarding the well, but those crafty Sharpe riflemen of mine will surprise them by leaping around the corner of the house and storming the well!

I voted the player who shot at me off, and so did others. Then, two players had to leave to get back into the main game. In the next round, I did not win immunity. With only three players left, one of which had immunity, that left me and the other voting against each other. That meant the immunity player decided who would go, which he did via a roll of the die (50-50 as it were).

All throughout this short game, the PBS fellows were filming. At one point, a French unit failed morale and had to fall back to and into a house. However, all the figures would not phyically fit inside the building. Next turn, they regained morale and piled out of the house.

Now, I want to make it perfectly clear that if you see a pair of hands stuffing French into the house and pulling them out AND hear a comment -- in a bad French accent -- to the effect, "Look, it is ze French clown car..." those fingers and voice are mine. Hey, it got a laugh around the table...

Borodino 54mm

OK, you can't really tell much from the shot, but Frank Chadwick (left) runs his Volley and Bayonet game using 54mm figures, usually two to four per 3" x 3" base on an 8' table. I noticed a number of folks trying out his system during the weekend, including this fellow who was quizzing Frank about the rules.

In the background, the red MagWeb.com banner shows the start of the dealer area. The bookrack belongs to George Nafziger, and in between Sash and Saber Miniatures and a painting company.

I saw Napoleon's Battles and Empire also set up and in use.

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