Huzzah!

I am newly returned from HuzzahCon in Maine. I drove 10 hours on Friday and gamed Friday night all day Saturday and Sunday morning followed by a 10 hour drive home. I am still tired but it was worth the effort. I had the company of my youngest son and audio books to pass the long drive. But enough of that and on to the games!


Friday night I played Ross MacFarlane's 16th century scenario using 40mm figures. Lovely figures and terrain. I played the British battling the French for possession of a town and supply lines. Victory was achieved by holding the town and getting two intact formations off the table on the far side. The French gained the initiative, grabbed the town and formed a cavalry blocking force to slow down pursuit. A cavalry battle ensued and the screening French brigade was broken. The English cavalry brigade that broke them headed for the table exit. The French pushed ahead with a giant pike unit. The English countered with their own pike unit. a push of pike ensued resulting in the resulting in the French pike falling back broken but the English pike were also all but spent. While this was going on, the English sent in their light troops to try and retake the town. This resulted in a see saw battle and the English were repulsed. The French occupation force was later broken. with the screening forces exhausted, it became a race to get units off the table. The two forces met at the road and fought for position to escape with depleted forces. In the end the English withdrew first claiming a narrow victory. Fun game and simple rules. We were 3 players a side and as the battle wore on we also started to wear down and discussion became heated at times but overall I enjoyed me co players and the GMs kept the game moving.

British pike block and skirmishers

French heavy cavalry in reserve

Cavalry screens engage

Gendarmes

French pike

Saturday morning I put on my game of Command and Colors Ancients Epic Battle of Zama. I only had 2 players signed up but had lots of walk ins bring the total to 7 players. My game felt a little "Plain Jane" compared to the beautiful set ups around me but I can work to improve things for next time. I have no pictures from the game but will add some from when I ran the practice battle (camera forgotten in hotel). The battle went very well with the players settling into the rules and getting down to the business of slaughtering each others toys. Set up, teaching the rules and playing the game took 3 hours. This worked out fine for my 4 hour time slot. The Carthaginians had lots of elephants which they merrily charged the legionnaires with. Much havoc and damage was caused but in the end all were casualties. One of the players referred to his elephant as a grenade because when they stampede they do damage to all around them. One of the players was blind but he enjoyed himself as much as the others, I was able to help him with getting the dice in his hands and fine tuning maneuvers. I got lots of compliments on my figures and exchanged cards with players to remain in contact. Great fun!

Saturday afternoon I played Bolt Action on an amazing table set up as a Soviet factory in Stalingrad. I was on the German side. there were 3 players a side. We each ran a platoon and an asset. I had the sniper. The Soviets blobbed together and occupied one of the large buildings. The Germans set up with open ground in front of us. We were able to maneuvre safely because there was so much interfering terrain and occupied a neighboring factory. The Russians held some units in reserve and were able to surprise assault us. The Germans took casualties but defeated the fanatic Soviets. We learned the Soviets were all Green Fanatics. The Germans were Veterans and well equipped but few in number. The Soviets approached cautiously but were shot to pieces when they made an appearance. Victory for the Germans! As you can see from the pictures, the local gamers made some amazing game tables for the Stalingrad themed event.

Saturday night, I played a game of Age of Sigmar with Eric. The GM was straight out of a Games Workshop store and ran the game with great enthusiasm and many asides of the story line from the game history. Once again I forgot my camera so I will do my best to describe the scene. There were four players a side. One played a human warband and the other a orc warband. Each player played a character corresponding to an archetype: fighter, wizard, rogue, bard and cleric. On your turn you first use your characters special ability, then movement, firing and combat. The warbands fought over a chaos camp populated by bad guys that held the objectives of each warband. It was a winter scene with lots of Saxon style A frame buildings. The GM ran the Chaos warriors. The game was simple and had lots of room for roleplaying if you wanted. The GW figures were impressive as always. Not exactly my cup of tea but a fun game to play with Eric.

Throughout the show, I took lots of photos of other games going on. There were many tables and lots of quality figures and terrain to drool over. I have not been to the con in 3 years and it certainly has grown. I will add the photos at the end.

Sunday morning I focused on trying to sell the armies I had brought for just this purpose. Bring and buy was only held on Sunday morning so as not to compete with the paying vendors. I was able to sell one of my 3 lots of figures and used the proceeds to buy 3 28mm lasercut buildings, a 15mm T70 and BT7 for my Soviets and half a dozen fantasy figures. My goal was to increase my terrain collection and I was able to do so.

Eric got involved in a "pulp" genre game and dashed my plans for an early departure. Ross was running demo games of Portable Wargames so I gave that a try. The period was around 1880 and was Red vs Blue. I advance boldly and learned that caution was the key to victory in the age of rifles. My troops were quickly bundled off the board by my wily opponent. The rules were fairly simple and intuitive. They gave a decisive result in about 45 minutes. I would play them again.

Without further ado, here is the eye candy from the show:

Vendors