Cold Wars 2012 Report Part 2

Hi Kids, Here's part 2 of all the action at Cold Wars 2012!  Brace Yourselves, it's going to be a Biggie.  And speaking of the bigs, here's two shots of Dave Bonk's 25mm Carnage and Glory Nappie game.  Those Raleigh lads know how to get the lead out!  So has anyone decided to attend Spring Fever, the upcoming Raleigh NC con?  Late April.  Don't make me beg.  So screw your courage to the sticking point and brave that exercise of destruction known as Raleigh traffic!

Monsters of the Midway?  Bloodbowl?  Too Tame for this boys.  If you want real violence Ice Hockey is the only way to go!  Remember that joke, "I went to the fights last night and a hockey game broke out!"

Bring out yer Mechs!  Olde School Battletech (aka Beetletech aka Battlewreck aka Macross) with Ral Partha/ Iron Wind 1/285 minis!  Battle rages outside the soccer stadium.  Those soccer holigans are getting serious!

The action moves to deep space with Firestorm Armada from Spartan Games.

 When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro! This one was called "All Quiet of the Ruritarian Front." The Axis/ Central Powers side in a Victorian Sci-Fi 25mm game.  These guys had everything except Chittichittibangbang on the field.  Probably waiting in the wings to swoop in and save the day.

The opposite side of the field, Allied land battleships/ war machines rev up to speed and ease across the trenches!

 This bad boy makes the Paris gun seem like a wimp.  Who woulda thunk Lucas would get in on the act?  And backing the huns to boot!

Just when you thought the grass was greener on the other side, it's another game of Gnome Wars!  Those guys must breed like rabbits, they're everywhere.

 25mm American Civil War action, I think this one was in the Hawk's room.  I still dream of getting terrain like this!

More of the same.

 IIRC this was a 25mm with 1/48 vehicles, WW2 early war game put on by the Hawks.  I really dig the canal, we should have more games with such stuff!

The hun spearhead for another nearby game, just starting to move out.  Looks like the best damn tank of the war, the Pz 38T.  It just looks too sexy, TOO SEXY!

 Downtown Mideast, probably a Force or Force game in 25mm.  Now if they'd just do something to limit the popcorning reaction tests, we could get down to the shooting!

 "Check Your Six" in 1/200 scale, it's the Arab-Israeli Wars!  That's me driving two Mig-17's, a plane way too sexy for the Israelis! Two of those smoke columns are down Israeli jets, one is a destroyed troop concentration or a Mig-17 flown by some Zero-rated dude.  Then again, most of us Egyptians were rated Zero. It's tough to be Arab.

Here we have the final moments of our hero (yes, that would be me) flying to tempt the final Israeli pilot into a stern chase.  Luckily for him, the other Egyptians with a hearty, "Up yours pal!" decide to break off and head home, leaving our hero high and dry.  Naturally they didn't bother informing me of this plan when I told them I would lead the Israeli to a perfect bounce position...... Thanks guys!  Appreciate it!!!!  What can you do?  Some guys just suck on ice.

 Downtown Beruit, 1982.  "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" in 15mm.  This is the PLO side of the table, those are the PLO blindes in red, and the troops lining the edge of the table.  Once the IDF gets close we'll flip the blindes over to reveal troops, ATgun, or dummies.

Here we have the IDF forces; Merkavas, APC's, Engineer vehicles and an extra bonus, an M109!  Due to truly hellish luck the IDF were battered early on and try as them might it was just too tough to make up the losses.  I was told it was the only time EVER that a Merkava was taken out by an RPG hit.  (I rolled 6 hits on 9 dice, IIRC!)

 The Ambush Alley of Beruit!  An APC is immobilized on the first turn with a lucky hit, and in the foreground a Merkava burns.  PLO punks on the rooftops rejoice.

 Another PLO blinde flips to reveal a WW2 surplus Brit tank in PLO colors!  The APC brews up, and the engineers inside take to their heels.

Endgame, two Merkavas head off the board edge, but it's not enough to secure victory for the IDF.  Nearby PLO punks lob RPG's with furious abandon, but don't hit anything except a M113.  For more details on this most excellent game, see the "Daddy's Little Men" blog.

 For those of you who think I have big minis....  here's the real Bigs!  25mm pirate ships from the days of fighting sail!  I shudder to think about transporting stuff like this.  Thank God they don't need much terrain.

Oh yeah, the Chuckster could use a new project!

 Ok, ok, this is the last picture of Gnome Wars games.  Lon, you oughta be paying me for this!

 Got a good game?  Convert it over to minis!  Here we have Memoir '44 made into a 6x15ft extravaganza!  Hit the beach!

25mm Old West.  High Noon.  Cover is your friend.

You guessed it!  No con would be complete without a big honkin 40K game!  I betcha there's a fistful of zombies in there somewhere.

One of the rows of 25mm Ancients games in the tournament room.  This room was about the size of 6 tennis courts.  It wasn't all ancients, they had DBA, FoW, Wargods of Egyptus, card games, and a lot of room for pick up games.

A Yemeni Boeing 747SP stands out on the ramp, probably bringing a couple hundred hardcore gaming dudes to get the lead out!  Ok, ok, this shot is from LAX, not the Lancaster County Airport.  But you gotta admit, an SP is one cool looking plane!  And rare, too!  It's been my dream for the last 20 years that the big HMGS cons would be near a decent freakin airport!  Who's with me?

So that's it for this wargaming extravaganza report!   Hopefully this can inspire us all to drag out the figs and dust off those dice!  And remember, life is too short to play crap games!