Spring Fever 2013 AAR Part 2

Hi Kids, Here we have the second and final installment of pix from last weekend's local Raleigh NC con.  All TRUE gamers make it there!  Unless it conflicts with Cold Wars...  @*#$&@(#*@%&*!!!

 Anyway, on to the show.....   Here's a shot of Dystopia Wars, the awesome game from Spartan!  That's black mass in the center is a steam powered heli-carrier!  What could be cooler than that? TWO steam powered heli-carriers!  Sgt. Fury would be proud!

 The sister game, Firestorm Armada!  Cruisers a-go-go out in deep space.  As opposed to shallow space.

 One of the 40K armies looks mean!  I shudder to think how long it took to paint the details of those funny looking birds.  Bet they're angry, too!

 Back to the Warmachine tournament, run by the local PP group the Gunbunnies!  That looks like a Circle Colossal from the Hordes sister game.  I wonder if Kafka could sue, after all weren't Golems his idea in the first place?

 These things are in such high demand the factory is kicking them out with just a splash of primer!  Shades of Stalingrad, so you could argue its historically accurate!

 When you absolutely positively gotta kill every @($&(*^@!! in the room!

 Ahhhh, there's my baby!  I bought one of these Khador Colossals!  Mine is still in the box, though.  Judging how long it took to build a normal sized jack, its gonna stay in there for awhile.

 Big, bad, and out of control!

 Brace yourselves race fans!  Yesterday's "Formula De" race was just the warm up for Team Ellis' Saturday night hoot:  McGartland Racing card game!

 Can't have a con without Gnome Wars!

 World famous John plots to take over the landscape in "To Reign In Spain," a middle-ages multiplayer struggle for control of Spain.

 More Gnomes, more better!  Maybe these are Prussian.

 Lord of the Rings Helm's Deep battle.

And from the other side of the fence.  Not much greener over here.  We need more guys!

 World famous Curtis left his Macross game in SC to run some Cowboy action shooting!

 The starting positions of the Nascar race.  That's me in the Danica racecar second to last, while the guy running the game's relatives were 1 and 3.  Hmmmmmm......... Yes, its rigged. We all know it but we play anyway.  Things would get worse before they got better, Team Ellis guaranteed!

And here we have the finishing positions.  That's me in second place, after fighting through the mob three times!  I documented all the shabby underhanded tricks the others pulled, but still managed to claw my way past them!  Only one cheating SOB still ahead of me!  Why yes, he is the son of the guy running the game.....  And some people still doubt the existence of Team Ellis.  I bet they turn a blind eye to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, too.  And Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.  Go figure.

 Action heating up at Helm's Deep.

 Leviathan, a new game available from Wargames Factory. Looks really cool!  And everything comes already painted!

 The Hobbit? Lord of the Rings?  These guys are too tall to be gnomes.....

 The wide view.  Those orcs look like they have the standards of the White Hand, so it must be the Fighting Uruk-hai!  Saruman is once again ruining the neighborhood.

The close up.  LOTR has some great minis, but they are so different in overall size I just couldn't get into them.  Every now and then I get tempted by their Wargs, but I continue to resist.

And that's it for this con report!  Hated to miss Cold Wars but once they move it further south I'm sure the bad weather will no longer be a factor!  I heard next year it's going to be in Richmond.  Yes, I'm joking.  More's the pity.

Spring Fever 2013 After Action Report Part 1

Hi Kids, I had originally planned to go to Cold Wars but the weather decided otherwise.  My route was through the hills of western Virginia and the roads seemed dodgey at best.  So it was off the Raleigh NC for the Triangle Simulation Society's con instead! Usually they don't conflict, but apparently the hotel had other ideas this year.  Bummer, I know!

 Here we have a shot of the world famous battle of Camerone, Mexico, 1863.  Those are the 63 French Foreign Legionairres taking on one of the massive waves of 2000 Mexicans during Maximillian's brief reign.  All those tan squares in the background are dead Mexicans!  It was a great game of sniping and assault waves, but unfortunately the Mexicans won.  Don't forget this year is the 150 anniversary of the battle on April 30th!

 There were two tournaments going on, Warmachine and 40K.  This is one of the Warmachine games.  About 40% of the armies had a "Colossal", the latest bigger-better jack.  Standing about 6 inches tall, they make an impressive addition to combat power!  At US$135.00, they make a pretty big impression on the economy too.

 Battletech in 1/285!

 Brace yourselves, its Team Ellis running another rigged racing game!  These things are tremendous fun, just remember they are about as staged as wrestling.  Try to look surprised when Team Ellis members finish 1, 2 and 3.  Good thing we're not in Vegas!

 The latest hot flash in gaming, X-wing!  I ended up with a new M Falcon myself.  Too cool to resist.

 A long shot down one of the rows are Warmachine games.  There were two rows total, about 5 games per row.

 Could it be Arkham Horror?

 One of the friendly vendors, Yadkin Valley Games. Specilizing in cardboard AH/SPI/GDW style games, look for them on Consimworld, ebay, etc.

 Hanger 18, one of the local Cary NC shops.

 Wargames Factory was offering good deals, too, including the new Leviathan from Dreamforge.

The Game Connection, another local store.

 Here we have a 15mm WW1 game called "Trenchfight."  Some french tanks prepare to cross the friendly trenches. Crossing 6 feet of trenches isn't going to be easy!

 French infantry in their starting positions.

Smile for the camera ya Boche!

 One of the table rows of 40K, they had about 20 guys show up to beat each other up for the tournament.

 The other row of games.

 Two dropships going head to head at 1000mph?  Nope, two different games.

 More of the Emporer's finest holding back the foul spawn of Chaos.

 Sled dogs run amuck or Space Wolves?  Raleigh games always bring out the Forge World stuff!

 A 1/32 scale WW2 game!

 The French infantry about to jump into the Hun trenches.  Any port in a storm, as they say!

Out west, cowboy action about to start.

 

 Lord of the Rings, a big honkin' game of Isengard.  The good guys about to storm the walls!

 20mm WW2 Russian Front action, some KV's get crankin'.

 German halftracks prepare to be assaulted.

Infantry join in the mayhem!

Well kids that's about it for this installment.  I've been told posts with 50 pictures take too long to load, so I'll have to add the rest in another post.  I highly recommend the Raleigh NC cons, the next one is Southern Front, usually in Sept or October.  I might even get off my butt and run a game myself.  I'm thinking the world famous much beloved Operation Barras 25mm game! 

WWI at Game Connection

A group of the Basement of Heaped Miniature players headed to the Game Connection in Knightdale NC for a play test game ran by Dave Bonk. He is planning to run a Price of Glory game for Southern Front gaming convention in September. We helped him get familiar with the system and run through the scenario he plans to run.



The Scenario
Late May 1918 An American force composed of both Army and Marine elements advance toward a french village, with orders to secure it. In the village a group of German regular army and Stormtroopers are digging in preparing to hold at all costs.

The game table from the American entry. The American entered from the right corner and had to advance through the field toward the village.

The bombarded village. Dave really had some nice terrain and well painted miniatures.

German infantry and a heavy machine gun set up in the heavy woods on the German right. This is also were they would set and drink beer most of the game. The Americans wouldn't move into their line of sight for the duration of the game.

A Stormtrooper unit set up forward of the village.

Another German infantry squad and heavy machine gun set up in the graveyard. These guys ,on the other hand, will be in the middle of the action.

American 37mm antitank gun set up at the end of the center lane. It was a great position until their controlling player learned it could only fire 24 inches and would have to spend several turns moving it up to get into range.

Army troops move up to the hedge grove and start firing into the village.

Return fire from the German defenders double suppress the American and cause them to fall back.

A group of Stormtroopers manage to double suppress another Army unit on the German right flank.

A group of Stormtroopers move up to try and get a shot at the American light machine guns across the lane.

While the Army troops are pinned down the US marines are moving up to join the fight.

An Army squad sneaks over the hedge grove and to flank the Storm trooper squad that has kept the American advance stalled.

A German rifle squad crowds into the top floor to add it fire to the heavy machine gun that is emplaced there.

The french standoff, The American rounds the corner of the hedge grove and exchanges fire with the Stormtroopers.

The last three Stormtroopers go down clearing the American advance.

The Marines reach the hedge grove and begin to pour a murderous fire into the village. With the Marine rule of getting an extra dice to fire if they don't move, they proceeded to burn down a German squad or machine gun every activation.

The Stormtroopers move up to the closest hedge grove to try and stop the American advance on the German right.

Return fire from Marines and the 37mm guns cause the Stormtroopers to fall back.

The German infantry squad breaks cover to run forward and reinforce the suppressed Stormtroopers.

The Americans move forward rolling the 37mm guns up.

The American flanking force moves up the German right.

There were still German forces on the board but we ended up calling the game. The Americans still had more troops on the table and had enough fire superiority to knock out any German unit they had line of sight to.

I had a fun time playing on the German side and even though the American side had some claim about winning, I stick to the German Delaying action was successful.