The pinnacle wargaming meet up has come and gone in the heartland.
Lee's Summit High School's Recruits convention is a great show and always a fun time as a GM and a player. Here is one fellows tour of duty...
American Civil War in the West. The battle of Wilson's Creek. I have toured this battlefield and even wargamed on the actual battle location at a scouting event. This was my first game to play in at the convention. This game was presented by Alex McDonald in 9mm scale. When we asked him about the scale it turns out that a lot of these minis are old Scruby 9mm ACW! So that was cool in itself.
I played as Franz Sigel and commanded the attack on the Confederate cavalry encampment. We did pretty well and scattered almost all of the mounts. (our objective.) So that too was cool. However I exhausted my command in the Fire and Fury system and was ineffective after this series of attacks.
Marching through the encampment kicking over frying pans and getting dirt in the reb's coffee!
Click images for a close up.
Further afield from my command.
My overall commander over on the hill top. I don't think it was named bloody hill after our replay.
And then to close out Friday night I presented my game called "Angry Birds." This is a cock-fighting game ala gladiator rules and some feathered models I got off of E-Bay. The presentation was entirely to get a reaction from passers by and to that end it was a success. However, it did not get played a lot and was only marginally successful. Anyway, take a look at the pixels because it was funny. Look close at the cock's eyebrows - Angry Birds!
To cap off the night I played Thunder Road from Ted Conn's collection. This is a scaled up miniatures version of the MB boardgame and it was a hoot. Ted has really created something marvelous with these minis and his Axles and Alloys game. See below.
Running and gunning in the wasteland.
Saturday morning I arrived early enough to get in on Scott Newberry's Medieval FUBAR. Wow! A massive collection of toy soldiers from the Warhammer BattleMasters sets was amassed on the table for an interesting look at mounted warfare. Scott is a veteran wargamer and showman. His games are wonderful and have been a formative aspect of my learning about the hobby from years ago when I used to frequent his hobby shop.
Pre-battle line up. The great thing about this presentation that Scott put in the event were: player created terrain selection, hidden initial deployment by use of screens between the two sides and catapults that operated kinetically by shooting sponge boulders at the target troops.
The fray! FUBAR.
Scott looks on from behind the center of my opponents. I commanded a convergence of catapults in the center.
Great game. Thanks Mr. Newberry and Mr. Yates of the Park Forest Gamers.
Nest stop, the Sudan. The HATSOFF wargamers are another keystone in the region. They too have been presenting games at local conventions for over 20 years. This Bod Davis production involved a relief column from the Gordon Relief Expedition pushing towards Khartoum. I landed overall British commander status and was place in the center of the square. The square was broken in a couple of ways and we suffered mightily in the contact with the Dervishes, Ansar, and Baggara horsemen.
From the sandy desert to the deck of a frigate! Only at a wargame convention right. Next battle I played in was Sails of Glory, presented by Tim Harwood. I envy this game however it came out 10 years too late for my collection. I already have all the ships I need for naval gaming but wanted to try this rules set to see what it offered. The rules are great. The miniatures superb. My style of naval gaming wouldn't fit with this because I want way more ships on the table than this could handle. I did have fun except for the jackanapes players that were commanding the rest of our squadron. You know those convention games where your side forgets the overall objective of the scenario only because they want to go shoot at one of their friends/family on the opposing team. Yea- you get it. Anyways I got my taste of this game rules system and I would play again on someone else's dime.
Egregious doohickey. That's our flag ship t-boning our squadron because he wants to go shoot a friend.
And finally the masterpiece of gaming that is Ted Conn's
Axles and Alloys.Fuel Run
from the convention program:
Fuel. Fuel is everything. It`s so rare, you`d do practically anything to get it. When you hear there`s an entire truck filled with fuel heading through the Dead Zone to Summit City, you round up your posse and head out to intercept. Problem is, you`re not the only gang with that thought. Who will leave the Dead Zone with the fuel, you or another gang? Will the fuel truck survive to deliver its goods? Not if you have a say in things! Axles and Alloys is a quick-playing, over-the-top sci-fi vehicular combat system based upon Full Thrust rules. Think Mad Max meets Car Wars, but with simpler rules.
This was popular. Well presented. And amazingly fun!
That is Motherload. The objective of all the gangs desire. Get that beast and win the game.
Well maybe next time.
And that my friends is Recruits. They also have always had really nice signage and branding. This is the convention program. I keep these because I like them to look back over and see what games my club presented and also they always look really cool.
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