2015 Retrospective, 2016 Intentions

Looking Back

'tis the end of the year, and therefore time for a little navel-gazing. It's been a year with some ups and downs in my personal hobby universe. But mostly ups.

Could have been better...

I didn't finish, really, any personal projects save one. This has more to do with continuing to pick up new figures for unfinished projects, not to mention picking up new projects.

My sportsmanship at a few events could have been better. I need to remember not to take this thing too seriously. Also, need to avoid things that make me grouchy at events: lots of ambient noise, not enough sleep, low blood sugar, arguments over trivial matters...

I started too many projects, including a few that I gave up on rather quickly - but not quickly enough to save me some cash. Examples include Star Wars Armada, Star Trek Attack Wing, and my Circle Orboros force.

Speaking of cash... I really spent too much on hobby every month.

Could go either way...

Well, I gave up on competitive Warmachine play. I still want to win, but I recognized that I don't have the time or energy to really compete with the top players in the local meta.

Likewise, I gave up on 15mm Flames of War, for a couple reasons, but chiefly out of irritation with the continuing cycle of releases from Battlefront, and the way competitive FoW play works. I can't say I've seen anything from Battlefront since that's made me regret this decision.

I discovered I don't really like list building. This is enlightening, and also a little annoying.

The monthly historical miniatures game day I've been trying to get going at Guardian Games hasn't really taken off. The days that went well - with attendees, interesting games, and so on - were much fun, but they were somewhat outnumbered by the days where no one showed up and I spent five hours by myself in the bar.

... but this was pretty good!

But on the other hand, there was more good than bad in the past year.

I really got into Saga, which I enjoy, and the sole personal project I really finished - as in I have no unpainted models and it's a complete playable force - is my Crusaders army for Crescent & Cross. And I finally won an event, the Saga tournament a couple weeks ago.

Even though I turned back to Skorne in December, I did have a good bit of fun with my Circle Orboros, especially the painting side. It was a nice palate cleanser, and I don't regret it at all. Plus I'll be able to use the furry dudes in Dragon Rampant or Song of Blades & Heroes!

Both conventions I attended - Enfilade and Lock & Load - were loads of fun. Really looking forward to Enfilade next year; not sure I can swing Lock & Load in terms of budget...

After dropping the idea of competitive play, and dabbling in Circle, I'm really enjoying playing Warmachine with my Skorne army again. Also, it's mostly painted. Just a dozen or so models to go...

I managed to get a few historical game events in - a few Waterloo battles and a few others. Each one was without exception quite a lot of fun.

I painted a lot. Even though at least half of it was commission stuff, that's plenty of practice. I'm pretty happy with my painting skills right now, but I can still see places to improve. It's a nice position to be in.

I seriously winnowed down my collection of unpainted and/or unplayed toys through some ruthless purges over the course of the year. This freed a fair bit of basement space, not to mention room on the painting queue. It also lets me focus on just a few games in terms of actually playing.

Looking Forward

If 2015 was good, I hope 2016 will be better (though I'm not counting on it). I have certain intentions, but experience has taught me not to make resolutions.

First is my Skorne army - as I said, only a dozen or so models left to paint. (Plus quite a few that are neither essential nor even competitive, but will be fun to paint when I get around to them.

After that are a number of projects that I'm defining as "playsets" - that is, two or more opposing forces plus the terrain and table for them, so I can have a complete game for demos or what have you. In likely order of completion, they are:

• 12th Century Holy Land, in 28mm - for Saga and Lion Rampant. I have the Crusaders already, the Saracens are on their way, and the terrain is in progress. I'll probably grab a desert mat from Cigar Box to complete the set.
• Europe, 1944, in 15mm - for platoon level WW2 games such as Bolt Action and Troops, Weapons & Tactics. I have all the figures I need, but not much in the way of terrain. The terrain from this will overlap quite a bit with some of the other playsets.
• The Battle of Magnesia, 190 BC - Probably for Hail Caesar, but really I just want to build something I can use to mess around with ancients rules. I have most of the Seleucids already painted, still need to pick up the Romans, and the terrain needs are few.
• Napoleonics in 6mm. After Enfilade, I said I'd decided against 6mm for horse and musket. I changed my mind after encountering a very good deal on a lot of figures, which I hope to finish buying next month and then rebase for... well. Not sure yet. But I'm going to be trying out Blucher and Black Powder for certain.
• The Neo-Spartan Revolt, 15mm - some sci-fi skirmish with a variety of figures. A militaristic state fighting a servile war on a colony world at the same time as a xeno infestation erupts. This is a long-burning project that I'd like to get done this year, but it's very low priority. I do have a good bit of terrain for it already, though.

Outside of the playsets and the Skorne army, I'm thinking about a few other things. I'd like to stay in the black on hobby expenditures, paying for them with my commission painting. I did not do well on this in 2015; try harder next year...

I'm definitely planning on hitting Enfilade 2016. I'd like to run a game for it, but I don't think I can get enough done in five months to really pull it off and enjoy the process. I can start planning for Enfilade 2017, though. Other conventions I'd like to attend, but haven't committed to are Gamestorm (in Vancouver, WA) and Lock & Load, as well as Trumpeter Salute in BC and Fix Bayonet and Tactical Solutions in Washington. Most of that boils down to being able to swing a hotel room and the travel...

I'd like to finally get a handle on airbrushing. That might involve getting a new airbrush, and will definitely involve putting in some serious practice on models I don't care too much about, something that's eluded me so far.

I want to get in more historicals gaming in 2016 than in prior years. That might mean cutting some Warmachine from the play schedule, but that's already been happening anyway... It might also mean badgering certain interested onlookers into actually playing instead of just making noises about it. Getting some of the above playsets completed will be a great help on this score.

Finally, I really want to make the historical games days work. I'm looking at some changes to the format to help this happen, but in the end this depends on the community - I can't very well force people to attend. So, here's hoping.

Lessons Learned on Painting

A clickbait-esque meditation on the things I've learned since I started painting miniatures for tabletop games.

Most of the time, it'll be seen from at least three feet away, in poor lighting. And probably by people with less than perfect vision.

An OK paint job and a good base looks twice as good as a great paint job with a lousy base - or no basing at all.

The smaller the figure, the easier the paint job. (But the more you'll have to paint, usually.)

Also, the smaller the figure, the brighter you should make it if you want it to be seen at the usual tabletop distances. For very small figures, such as 6mm, you may want to make sure the figure contrasts with its basing. This can be tricky to pull off well for camouflaged figures...

Contrast makes for good, easy color schemes - whether it's contrast of hue, saturation, or texture.

You're not painting a single figure, you're painting a collection. Consistency in the work will look better on the table than individually beautiful models that present an incoherent whole. (Unless, of course, you are painting a single figure.)

Always work on two projects at the same time. This gives you something to work on while the first job is drying, or curing, or if you're sick to death of painting ambush camo and need to take a break, but still want to paint something.

Never work on more than three projects at the same time. That way you'll actually get stuff done and on the shelf or table, and you can feel a certain sense of accomplishment instead of being overwhelmed by all the unfinished junk staring at you from around the painting table.

It is - as a rule - more satisfying to have a complete army with an ok paint job than to have a few figures with great paint jobs and several more trays of lead waiting to be painted - or worse, fielding them unpainted.

Take breaks. Every 20-30 minutes, stand up, stretch, and look at something that's at least ten feet away for a few minutes.

If it stops being fun, stop doing it.

Saga Tournament Report: December 12, 2015

 I drove down to Salem - Haven Gaming again - this weekend for a Saga tournament. The weather's been lousy, but luckily the drive was the worst part of the experience. Haven's got a nice gaming space, and the TOs even arrange catering with some pretty good pizza. Saga's a nice change of pace from Warmachine, and I couldn't help making some comparisons throughout this report, since I was Haven last Saturday for a Warmachine tournament. Also, I won.

I brought Crusaders, a mix of Gripping Beast and Old Glory figures:

Warlord
Hearthguard 4 pts
Warriors 2 pts
Levy 1 pt

Each game is only six points, but you bring seven points worth to the tournament and then decide what's going down on the table - and how they're equipped and organized - at deployment. For example, my Hearthguard could go down as four separate units of 4 models each, or as two units of 8, or a unit of 12 and a unit of 4 (max unit size is 12, so no 16-model units); further, they could be mounted or foot, and if foot, equipped with two-handed weapons instead of shields. This gives your list selection a lot more flexibility than Warmachine grants, even if you're using Specialists. It's a nice layer of strategy - you can organize into smaller, more fragile units to ensure a game-long supply of Saga dice, or clump up into bigger, more powerful units at the cost of fewer Saga dice.

Round One

For the first round, I faced off against Randy's Crusaders in Clash of the Warlords - the way to win this one is to kill your opponent's Warlord (rather like Warmachine). (Also, there were a surprising number of Crusaders at the tournament.) His force, built off of his old GW Bretonnian models, was surprisingly ranged heavy: he brought three units of bow-armed Warriors, one unit of crossbows, and two 4-man units of Knights. Usually I shy away from ranged in Saga, unless the faction battle board supports it, but I guess if you go all in it works out. In this game, I wasn't able to get enough models into melee to shut his archers down, and they slowly whittled away at my forces while his knights tied up my own on the right side of the board. I finally went for a hail Mary, and charged my Warlord across a cabbage field to attack his in single combat... and rolled one hit on ten dice. His Warlord was a bit more effective, and brought mine down with hits to spare. So, I lost, but I did get a goodly number of victory points from killing his models. More on that topic later.

Round Two

Second round was against the feared Steppe Nomads - Mongols, basically - run by Mario. This army is one of the special snowflakes in Saga. They're probably the best ranged army, and since they're all mounted, they're very mobile - they even have a trick where they can redeploy a unit on their opponent's side of the table. But they're quite fragile in melee, and any scenario where they have to hold ground is already a problem. This was one such scenario, Sacred Ground, where you score points by having models on one of the zones in the middle of the board. On the other hand, this table had no cover or rough terrain whatsoever, which did rather favor their style of play. It had me on the back foot before deployment.

Steppe Nomads making a final stand against the filthy Crusaders

However, I kicked things off by sending my eight mounted Knights across the table and murdering the Warriors on his left flank - thanks to Taking the Cross, one of the Crusader board abilities, I can push them 32" across the table with two activations, and hit a weak unit with only a single fatigue. In this game, I ended up trading them for six warriors... but also forced Mario to draw his Warlord and half his Hearthguard over to deal with it while my other units moved up toward the hills in the middle. Over the course of the game, he was able to kill off my Knights and my Warlord early, but in the end I was able to kill all of the Nomads, giving me a complete victory. (One turning point would be when his warlord attacked the single surviving Knight and barely failed to kill him, saving me a crucial Saga die.)

Round Three

Crusader knights advance on the river crossings against the Saracens

The final round was against Ollie's Saracens in Battle at the Ford - win by having more points across the river than your opponent does. Above you can see the results of my first turn. Instead of slinging my mounted Knights across the river, I decided to play a bit more defensively. Ollie peppered my mounted Knights with arrows, to no effect, and then threw his right-hand unit of mounted Ghulams into my foot Knights - with terrible results. He lost all but two of his own in exchange for two of mine, and the following turn my foot Knights finished off the unit. After that combat, Ollie was on the back foot and - though I once again lost my Warlord and mounted Knights - I was able to push across the river and kill all of his models.

Final result: With two complete victories and one not-too-terrible loss, I scored enough points to win the tourney.

Tournament Scoring

Which is another difference between Saga and Warmachine. Warmachine tournaments run according to the Steamroller packet are done Swiss style, where winners play winners and losers play losers. The winner of an event will have lost none of their games. There are tiebreakers - number of control points scored, enemy points killed, and so on - but winning each individual game is critical. The downside to this is that the number of rounds is based on the number of players, which can make for long tourneys. More than 8 players usually requires 4+ rounds.

In both of the Saga tournaments I've played in, though, the winners are decided by how much they score in each game, and the score is based on how many enemy models you kill, plus 5 points if you actually win the game. An army is worth - including the Warlord - 27 points. So winning a game, if you table your opponent, is only about 16% of your score: 27 slaughter points + 5 scenario points = 32 points. End result: players have an incentive to focus more on killing models and/or preserving their own than on winning by scenario. On the other hand, tournament organizers can limit the number of rounds and still get a result.

Now, this might be what the designers had in mind, but it seems a bit askew to me that a player can lose a game - or even all their games - and still win the tournament. The worst case for this is probably Clash of the Warlords: Able could damn near table Baker but lose only his warlord, to Baker's sole surviving Hearthguard, and the scores would be Able: 26 points, Baker: 8 points. Even though Baker's won the game, he's dramatically behind Able in tournament standings. Spencer and I talked about it on the way home, and the most elegant fix (aside from adopting a Swiss system, which has its own problems) seems to be to raise the reward for winning scenario to 15 points. Then Able would be at 26 - still, and Baker would be at 18. Still behind Able, but not nearly so badly - and in less ridiculous games, the winner would probably have enough of a points lead so that the winner of the tourney would also have won all their games.

And yes, I know about Pyrrhic victories and winning the battles but losing the war. This is a game of toy soldiers, a tournament is not - usually - a campaign, and the drive home isn't Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. I hope.

Tournament Report: Ticket Takedown, December 5 2015

Yesterday was the annual Ticket Takedown at Haven Gaming, the first prize being a ticket to Lock & Load 2016. I forsook Circle for this event and went back to Skorne; just can't stay away from the elephants. I'm just more excited about the Skorne lately than I have been about the Circle stuff, even if Circle is seen as a more powerful faction. The tournament was Master's format, so I was able to take advantage of ADR. Here's what I brought:

Master Tormentor Morghoul

* Aptimus Marketh

* Mammoth

* Titan Gladiator

* Titan Sentry

* Cyclops Brute

Agonizer

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Extoller Soulward

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

VANGUARD

Aradus Sentinel

Basilisk Krea

Cyclops Raider

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate

* Tiberion

* Basilisk Krea

* Cyclops Shaman

Hakaar the Destroyer

Ancestral Guardian

Ancestral Guardian

Cataphract Arcuarii (min)

Cataphract Incindiarii (min)

Nihilators (max)

VANGUARD

Basilisk Drake

Nihilators (max)

Immortals (max)

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Morghoul is one of my favorite casters, and I'm pretty happy with the Mammoth attached to him. Of course, for this event, I forgot the Mammoth at home as it's too big to fit in the bag and usually has to sit in the passenger's seat. Luckily, another player was kind enough to lend me his model...

Zaal 2 is the new hotness, or he would be if he hadn't gotten such a lukewarm reception from the Skorne community. Most people who haven't played him think he's crap; those who have played him think he's not that bad. I'm still on the fence, but he's definitely got some interesting facets. Most of the community, myself included, is disappointed that his playstyle is more of the same "ax to face" that Skorne has had throughout Mark II. We were hoping for a bit more variety.

Round 1

Scenario: Recon

Kommander Zoktavir, the Butcher Unleashed

* War Argus

* War Argus

* War Dog

* Ruin

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Saxon Orrik

Iron Fang Kovnik

Kovnik Andrei Malakov

* Spriggan

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Ogrun Bokur

Iron Fang Pikemen (max)

* Black Dragon Officer and Standard

Widowmakers

Greylord Ternion

Game End: Ruin has just finished squishing a prone Morghoul. The big white disk is the Mammoth, model removed for ease of play.

I took advantage of ADR and swapped the list around so that I had the ranged battlegroup instead of the melee-focused one, planning on trimming down his infantry and support with boosted blast damage from the Mammoth and the Sentinel before sending in the Mammoth to clean up and either dominating the zone or trying to kill Butcher with whatever was left - probably Morghoul, the Brute, and the Krea. In retrospect, the Zaal list might have been a better choice.

I won the roll and went first, and advanced about as aggressively as I could. Under Abuse and Rush, the Mammoth moved up quite far to set up for some round 2 shooting, while the rest of the army clustered around him. Doug advanced pretty far, but a little more cautiously.

Second round, I got very aggressive and was able to pick off some of his infantry with the Mammoth and the Sentinel - critically, a lucky shot managed to take Madelyn Corbeau off the table. I then ended the turn by pushing Morghoul up into the center of the zone under feat and Admonition, and camping three transfers. I figured he was pretty safe; without the ability to spend Focus and unable to target him with Combined Melee Attacks, the Khadoran forces were extremely unlikely to be able to kill him.

Unfortunately, I neglected to have the Brute put Safeguard on Morghoul, so he could be knocked down. And both Malakov's Spriggan and the Ogrun Bokur can Slam without needing Focus. So he was able to position a War Argus, lower its defense with the Greylord Ternion, and then use the Ogrun Bokur to slam it over Morghoul, knocking him down. After that, it was just a question of putting enough attacks into him, and that was game.

Aside from that mistake, I was pretty happy with how this game went; I felt like it was at least a 50/50 matchup, and if I'd played a bit more carefully, I could have won.

Round 2

Scenario: Destruction

Captain Victoria Haley

* Squire
* Stormwall

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Journeyman Warcaster

The Black 13th

Tempest Blazers

Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers

* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

Tactical Arcanist Corps

End game: Mammoth in mid-swing on the Stormwall, Morghoul lurking at the bottom of the photo, and Haley hiding behind the wall in the upper left.

With a Stormwall in one of my opponent's lists, I felt like I had to drop the Morghoul list. When James did, indeed drop the Stormwall list, I chose to do the same swap I did last round, mostly to pull the Krea in. Under the Krea bubble, the Mammoth and Sentinel are extremely resistant to shooting, and most of the shooting in his list was POW 10 - practically worthless in this matchup.

I lost this game on clock. Had I moved quicker on my second and third turns, I'd probably have won. The picture above, at game end, shows the Mammoth tearing into the Stormwall; I'm up two control points, and if I'd had time to clear the zone, all that he'd have had left would have been Haley herself. In return, he only killed four models - two Beast Handlers, a Willbreaker, and the Extoller, and that on his last turn of the game. He did manage to set Morghoul on fire with the Tactical Arcanist Corps on round three, though. That was a little exciting.

Aside from time management, this is the game I where I felt I played my best. But that's a pretty big caveat.

Round 3

Scenario: Close Quarters

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm

* Druid Wilder

* Warpwolf Stalker

* Ghetorix

* Riphorn Satyr

* Pureblood Warpwolf

* Gorax

* Winter Argus

Gallows Grove

Shifting Stones

* Stone Keeper

End game: Kromac, sans all his heavies, base to base with the Skorne flag. Morghoul has just used Admonition to back out of range of Kromac's ax.

I dropped Morghoul again, but this time I stuck with the melee loadout. Becky's a newer player, and she lost on clock in this game. I made some rather bad mistakes, though; forgot to feat on the turn where it would have made the biggest difference, forgot to take the Agonizer's Gnawing Pain aura into account while she was killing the Mammoth, and should have boosted to hit rolls when I sent the Mammoth after Ghetorix and the Stalker. Dice didn't love me either; to get around Cricle's high DEF, I tried to head butt most of the beasts before buying attacks on them, and failed every attempt but one. Had Becky played a bit more aggressively, she could have taken the Mammoth off the table in exchange for Ghetorix or the Stalker, and used Kromac and the surviving beasts to assassinate Morghoul. So... not my greatest game.

Round 4

Scenario: Fire Support

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight

* Succubus

* Zuriel, Champion of Everblight

* Angelius

* Angelius

* Harrier

* Harrier

* Shredder

* Nephilim Bloodseer

Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion

Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

End game: Saeryn dominating her friendly flag, with most of the Skorne army jammed out by the winged beasts. The lone Arcuarius in the upper center has run over to contest in order to deny one last control point before time.

This was my last game, and I was getting pretty tired by this point. Since I was 1-2, I figured I might as well drop Zaal, regardless of what Scott was putting down. This resulted in a bad matchup; once again, the Morghoul list, with ranged battlegroup, would have been a better choice. Also, Scott's a pretty solid player. His list relies on a combination of Saeryn's feat preventing melee attacks against her battlegroup, and the Nyss Sorceresses preventing ranged attacks to jam out the scenario and dominate toward a victory. If I hadn't run out of time, this probably would have worked, too.

This was my first time to put Zaal 2 or the Arcuarii on the table. I chose not to swap anything in the list. It was a learning experience more than a serious game from my perspective, so here's a quick list of lessons:

• Nihilators should have been deployed close to the center instead of on the flank, so they could run up, jam, and get killed early for those sweet, sweet souls.
• Zaal 2 is shockingly durable, even at DEF 10. I don't think Scott made any serious attempts to assassinate him.
• The list really does depend on melee + Transference, so Saeryn's feat was a real problem. I also did not boost via Transference when I should have - mostly on to-hit 
• Zaal himself is no great shakes in melee. He made a fair number of attacks this game out of necessity, but I probably should have kept him back and tried to do more work through Transference/Sunder Spirit.
• The Big One: For years I've been playing Ancestral Guardians as if they had Ghost Shield. They don't. Oops. Lesson: read the entire card...

Anyway, a good game in the sense of learning stuff, not so much in the sense of playing well. About what I expected. Scott's battle plan worked very well, though I did throw him off his stride a little by threatening with Tiberion and a Guardian on turn 2 and forcing him to turn back to deal with them. Wasn't enough to get me up on the attrition game.

Final Thoughts

Pretty good experience, though I do wish the local meta started events a little earlier. I dropped before round five as I had no desire to get home at midnight. Thanks to Lucas for running it and to Haven for hosting it, and to all my opponents for a set of fun games. As for the pairing... well, I'm actually happy with it. Morghoul's an old favorite, and Zaal 2 looks to be interesting to mess around with. They'll be seeing more table time together.

Painting Update: Circle Orboros and Samurai

Finally finished some personal figures, and a commission for a friend - the first of many samurai for Ronin.

Perry Miniatures samurai in civilian clothes

Circle Orboros figures for hordes - that's two units of Shifting Stones, a Gorax, Warpwolf Stalker, Druid Wilder, and Stone Keeper.

Cog Collective Open & Field of Battle: Italy, 1859

Yesterday saw the Cog Collective Invitational and the accompanying Cog Collective Open at Guardian Games, a pair of Warmachine tournaments. The Invitational was the culmination of a year's worth of tournaments, with the best players in the Portland and Salem metas competing for bragging rights and a Cephalyx army. Congrats to Adam for taking first.

I, on the other hand, played in the Open and came in dead last. But I did have fun. I brought Circle Orboros, pairing Krueger 2 and Kaya 2.

Round 1: Krueger 2 vs. Siege Brisbane. Lost on assassination after a failed assassination run.
Round 2: Krueger 2 vs. Haley 2. Lost on assassination after a failed assassination run.
Round 3: Kaya 2 vs. Kromac 2. Lost on assassination after a failed assassination run.

You may notice a trend... Ah, well. To be fair, my dice did kind of fail me on round 2, but I didn't play terribly well, either. At this point, I think I'll just finish painting my Circle force in time for the Ticket Takedown in December, and then flip back to Skorne for 2016. I'm looking forward to messing around with the new Skorne Active Duty Roster - Hexeris 2, Morghoul 1, Makeda 3, and Zaal 2. (I'm also probably going to swap out Kaya 2 for Morvahna 2 so I can have some sweet, sweet dice-fixing in Circle.)

After the Open, I sat in on Victor's Piquet Field of Battle game, taking on the left flank of the Imperial Army in the 1859 Italian War of Independence.

Austrian center, as seen from the left, at deployment

Italian cavalry threatening the Austrian center

Austrian and Italian centers move into rifle range

It's a fun system, and Victor's 10mm Pendraken figures are almost enough to sell me on the scale. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much due to the vagaries of Piquet and and the need for an early departure. I think Piquet - Field of Battle specifically - is better suited for one-on-one games instead of team games, just due to speed of play and the likelihood that one flank (i.e., mine) may end up rolling rather badly for activation and thus not do anything for two hours. C'est la guerre.

Wargaming Update - October 2015

Crusaders and Vikings in battle

As it's been over a month since my last post, I'm blowing off the cobwebs of October with a quick All Saint's Day recap. In fact, I haven't been doing an awful lot of gaming lately. Life keeps getting in the way, especially family stuff.

In terms of play, I've been getting back into my groove on Warmachine/Hordes, after very nearly dropping the game a couple months ago due to a terrible win/loss record and some personality conflicts. After some careful introspection and a change in attitude, I'm enjoying it again. Two reasons for this: I switched from Skorne to Circle Orboros as a palate cleanser for the remainder of the year, and I've pretty much given up on competitive play. I simply don't have the time or energy to compete with the dedicated competitive players in my meta. I did play in a tiny 8-player tournament a couple weeks ago, where I went 0-3 with my Kaya 2/Krueger 2 pairing, losing to assassination all three games - but I did have quite a bit of fun, so that's what matters. I'm planning on bringing the same lists to a tournament this upcoming Saturday, and I hope I'll do a wee bit better.

Outside of Warmachine, the only play I've gotten has been in Saga, with the tournament near the beginning of October. I'm quite happy with my play there, as I won each of my three games using my Crusader warband. Even so, I didn't win the tournament due to the unusual format (well, unusual to me anyway). Instead of the Swiss format I'm used to in Warmachine, the TO had something of a partial round-robin, with the ultimate ranking determined by scoring. The scoring system heavily favored killing as many enemy models as possible, rather than winning games - though, of course, killing a bunch of enemy models usually results in a victory, so... Not the way I'd run it, but that's the TO's prerogative. The event was quite a bit of fun, and I'm looking forward to more Saga stuff.

Outside of actually tossing dice and moving figures, I've been getting in a decent amount of painting. I finished up a Hungarian company for Flames of War on behalf of CGR Painters, been making progress on some (quite nice) Perry samurai in street clothes for a friend, and plugging away at Circle Orboros models.

The newest thing to grab my attention is Kings of War. I collected a Vampire Counts army back when Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition was released, and then promptly found I disliked the system and so it never went anywhere. With the Age of Sigmar release this year and the subsequent exodus of Warhammer players, Kings of War is slowly growing in popularity, so I've dusted off the zombies and ghouls. I should be getting my first game with them today, in fact, and I'm looking forward to playing games that feel bigger than Warmachine or Saga.

Marshal Ney's death at Quatre Bras - Black Powder AAR

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of playing in a refight of Quatre Bras using the Black Powder rules, plus the Contemptible Little Wargame Club house rules. Alyssa organized and hosted the game at Guardian Games, and provided quite a few figures...

Quatre Bras, occupied by troops under the Prince of Orange.

I took up command of the 2nd Netherlands Division, 1st Brigade (more or less - logistics dictated that not all battalions present at the battle actually appeared on the table), and occupied Quatre Bras itself. To my right, the bulk of the Allied force faced off against the oncoming French west of Quatre Bras.

Allied Forces holding the intersection, Prince of Orange nearby.

The French outnumbered the Allies badly, so our mission was simply to hold until our reinforcements could arrive. The first to arrive were the Brunswickers, who, well, had some command and control issues and came on rather slowly (failed command rolls two turns in a row).

French forces approaching Quatre Bras from the southeast.

The French attacked with considerable boldness from the southeast, pushing cavalry charges ahead to assault the defenders of the town. Unfortunately for l'Empreur, Ney attached to the first of these, and perished in a devastating countercharge from the Brunswick cavalry.

First wave of British reinforcements march into Quatre Bras.

French Cavalry charging in; Dutch line infantry form square, while the Brunswick cavalry are caught in column.

Successive French charges into Quatre Bras were repulsed, and the situation became static.

Gunnery duel in the fields of Quatre Bras. Dutch troops hold the wall while the Highlanders attempt to storm the French guns. French troops hold the hill opposite.

Final position. The French have effectively lost the firefight and their eastern flank is deeply imperiled.

As we drew to a close after a good seven hours of play, the Allies held Quatre Bras and - despite the French finally routing the western flank - would probably be able to hold it indefinitely.

On the whole, it was a lot of fun. Alyssa had things nicely organized, and I continue to like the Black Powder rules as a playable system.

Gaming Styles: Open v. Closed

Some quick thoughts on how tabletop miniatures games are designed and marketed.

Tabletop miniatures games can be divided into two different models, which for the sake of this post I'll call Closed and Open.

A Closed game is one where the maker produces both the rules and the figures, and often associated other paraphernalia, and the rules can only technically be used with the figures produced by the manufacturer. These games tend to be more successful, commercially speaking, than Open games, and examples include Warmachine/Hordes, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy Battle Age of Sigmar, Malifaux, X-Wing, and so on. Pretty much any game where you can walk into your local game store and they have a big shelf of models and associated rulebooks is a Closed game.

Closed games have several advantages from a manufacturing, retail, and player perspective:

• They're usually quite successful, so you can often count on finding other players without having to cultivate them from friends and other interested folks. In my opinion, this is the biggest point in their favor.
• The manufacturer can use the rules to sell the models, with varying degrees of success and/or skill.
• The retailer gets a complete package to sell; they don't have to cobble together rules and appropriate miniatures from various manufacturers.
• Likewise, the player has a one-stop-shop; also, a single package on the shelf will usually correspond to a single unit on the table. No odds and ends left over on the painting table after assembling a platoon...
• As the manufacturer wants to keep selling figures, new stuff comes out on a regular basis for the game, keeping things fresh and exciting.

Of course, there are also disadvantages, especially for players:

• You're tied to a single miniatures line. This can get expensive, especially if...
• A poorly designed (from the player's POV) game can be "pay to win". If you want to be a competitive player, you need to either make a huge initial investment to get enough models for the base game, or you need to keep buying models to keep up with new releases - either to get those releases or to counter them. Worst case scenario, you need to do both.
• The manufacturer's desire to keep selling models can lead to poor game design decisions. GW has a reputation for this, deserved or not. Age of Sigmar seems to be a textbook example of this.
• Since new things keep coming out for the game, there's always something new to buy. You'll never have a complete collection unless the game line ends.
• If you decide to drop a game, you're stuck with a bunch of models that are purpose-built for that game. (Mitigated somewhat because you can easily sell these models at knock-down prices if the meta remains healthy in your area.)

(Yes, of course you're free to use whatever figures you like with any rules set, but in a Closed game that's not part of the design.)

An Open game is one where they can be used with any appropriate miniatures, regardless of who made them. All historicals fall into this basket, since you can't copyright or trademark history; a Panther tank is a Panther tank regardless of who made the model. Mind, many makers of Open games also produce miniatures lines that match their games; frequently this happens in the other direction, as a miniatures manufacturer will later produce a rules set that goes with the figures they sell.

In terms of numbers, Open games outnumber closed games by a wide margin, simply because it's a lot cheaper and easier to produce a rules set without an associated miniatures line. And this might be why it's harder to find players; if everyone can find a rules set that fits their requirements to a T, you get a pretty fragmented marketplace. Instead of forty-odd players buying into Warhammer 40,000, you get little clusters of four or five apiece splitting up among Napoleon at War, Bolt Action, Five Parsecs From Home, Flames of War, Song of Blades and Heroes, De Bellis Antiquitatis, and so on. Fairly often there will be one enthusiastic proponent of a particular game and no other players...

Advantages, then:

• Not tied to any miniatures line - or, indeed, particular scale, as you can find appropriate miniatures in scales from 54mm to 2mm, depending on the period/genre.
• Can be easier on the wallet
• Easier to find just the rules you like, since you're not tied to a miniatures line.
• Can feel less constricted on the rules front.
• You can build your own game experience just exactly how you want it, and fie on anyone who says differently.

Disadvantages, though:

• It's harder to find players, since any one Open game is unlikely to be as popular as the big Closed games.
• Support for your favorite period/genre may be quite thin on the ground. World War II is easy; finding figures and rules for more obscure conflicts might be quite a bit more difficult. (e.g., most conflicts outside of Europe and the Mediterranean before the 20th century. This tends to be a pretty Eurocentric hobby on the historical side.)
• It can be quite difficult for a retailer - at least a brick and mortar one - to support an Open game. Without a large player base, and with such a potentially fragmented market, it's quite easy to get stuck with a bunch of stagnant inventory.
• While with Closed games you usually just build one force, with Open games it's better to build two or more, so you can provide both sides of a conflict. This can offset savings quite a bit...

In the final analysis, Open vs. Closed systems boils down to, mostly, convenience vs. freedom of action. There are some nuances there, of course. If you buy into Warhammer 40k, your freedom of choice in fellow players is rather higher than if you go all in on, say, 15mm Napoleonics - unless your local gaming scene is much different from mine, in which case I'm rather jealous.

DBA Republican Romans

I just finished my first proper army for De Bellis Antiquitas: Polybian Romans from Essex Miniatures, suitable for fighting Carthage or Syria. I'm pretty happy to have finished an entire table - ready army in a week. Next up I need to finish the Japanese and Galatian armies to oppose them...

July Historical Day

Saturday was the monthly historical miniatures wargame day at Guardian Games, and for the first time in quite a while we had more than just me and Gabe, thanks to a crowd that came up from Salem. I played Saga with Oliver, and my Crusaders sadly lost to his Saracens on scenario.*

Saga - Vikings versus Pagan Rus

We played a couple other Saga games - Finns vs. Jomsvikings and Vikings vs. Pagan Rus - as well as trying out a game of Lion Rampant.

Lion Rampant

* So my main game is Warmachine, and one of the reasons it does well competitively is because of the updated-yearly Steamroller packet, which contains the official tournament format(s) and scenarios. I'm going to try adapting a few features of that to Saga. The easy sell is the scenarios; the hard sell is using a chess clock or timed turns, as I've found most non-Warmachine players are extremely reluctant to use them...

Battle Report: That's A Huge Base Tournament, July 18, Haven Gaming

I competed in a Warmachine Master's format tourney this past Saturday down at Haven Gaming in Salem. I didn't do very well, 2-2. I'm feeling pretty burned out on competitive Warmachine right now, to be honest; I don't feel like I can keep up with the competitive players simply because I don't have the time to dedicate to practice and theory. And I'm not sure it's really worth it, in the larger scheme of life, to make time...

But enough maundering. The games!

I brought the following lists, using the ADR rules. Rasheth is the caster I'm most comfortable with, and since my meta has a preponderance of Legion, he's a really solid drop in most competitions. Makeda is there to drop against Cryx and Cygnar, but I'm very inexperienced with this list.

Archdomina Makeda

* Mammoth

* Cyclops Raider

* Basilisk Krea

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Extoller Soulward

Cataphract Cetrati (max)

Venator Slingers

Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer

Paingiver Beast Handlers (minimum)

Specialists:

Cataphract Incindiarii (max)

Gatorman Witch Doctor

Cyclops Shaman

Tyrant Vorkesh

Objective: Bunker

Dominar Rasheth (Chain Gang theme force, Tier 4)

* Titan Gladiator

* Titan Sentry

* Titan Cannoneer

* Bronzeback Titan

* Basilisk Krea

Agonizer

Agonizer

Agonizer

Paingiver Task Master

Gatorman Posse (max)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (minimum)

Specialists:
* Titan Sentry

* Basilisk Drake

* Basilisk Drake

* Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Round 1: Vyros, Incissar of the Dawn

Turn Three, and Ryan's set the line of engagement well forward for him.

First game was against Ryan, who brought Vyros 2 and Issyria to the party - both at tier 4. He dropped Vyros with a battlegroup evenly split between heavy and light 'jacks. I countered with Makeda, and swapped out the Krea so I could bring in the Gatorman Witch Doctor to Tough my infantry.

The scenario was Close Quarters. I lost the roll and selected the side without the enormous obstruction in front of the deployment zone. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake, since the wheat field (rough terrain) on the side I did choose turned out to be something of a problem.

At any rate, he moved up the board extremely quickly, and managed to jam me out of the middle of the board. Although I killed just about all of his army, I wasn't able to contest my own flag, and he was able to win on scenario by turn 4.

Round 2: Lich Lord Terminus

Turn two: Cetrati hold the line against Mechanithralls.

Kyle brought Lich Lord Terminus and the now-ubiquitous Deneghra 2 Body & Soul Tier. He dropped Terminus, to my regret; I can deal with Body & Soul, but the Terminus list brought way, way too much meat for me to kill. Bane Thralls, two Mechanithralls units, and, of course, two units of Stitch Thralls. I dropped Makeda again, and swapped out the Slingers and the Krea for the Incindiarii. I probably should have actually taken the Cetrati off the table instead, just to maximize my ranged attacks.

The scenario was Recon. Terrain made little difference in this game, except for the craters in the zone. I'd assumed they were simply rough terrain, while he thought they granted cover (+4 Defense). Remember, kids, talk out terrain with your opponent before the game starts!

This game went much like the last; he managed to jam me out of scenario, and though I did kill quite a few zombies, I wasn't able to contest. He killed my objective, dominated a flag, and controlled the zone to win by turn 3.

Round 3: Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight

No picture for this one; it was too blurry.

Don brought Thagrosh 1 and Abyslonia 2, and dropped Thags T4 - two full units of Warspears, Carnivean, Ravagore, Scythean. I dropped Rasheth and subbed out the Cannoneer for the two Drakes.

The scenario was Outflank; I lost the roll and picked a side. The only terrain that mattered was a forest between the two scenario zones which divided my forces, but made no difference to the Legion units.

This match up was one I'm quite comfortable with. I jammed out one side with fast moving Gators, used the Drakes to engage the other side, and brought my beasts up the middle. The Sentry with Carnivore under feat was able to remove both his Ravagore and Carnivean in a single turn. After that, it became a bit of a grind; I narrowly avoided assassination thanks to Thagrosh not having Eyeless Sight to draw LOS through a forest, and then was able to finish off Thagrosh himself with the Bronzeback.

Round 4: Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight

Rasheth's POV on turn two

Derek had Absylonia 2 and Kallus; he dropped Aby, I dropped Rasheth. Lost the roll, picked a side (same table I played round 2 on, as it happens), and we got underway with the Destruction scenario.

Aby had a pair of Blight Wasp swarms, two Scytheans, a Seraph, and an Extreme Carnivean. I used the same setup as I had in round 3. This game was a bit tighter than last round. Derek was able to kill off quite a bit of my pieces, but I caught him out with a classic Gladiator slam & follow up assassination.

All told, not a bad tournament. It went to 5 rounds, but I dropped after round 4 to get home at a reasonable hour. But I think this will be my last tournament for a few months, maybe for the rest of the year.

Painting Update: Summer 2015

It's miserably hot in Portland right now, which means I'll be spending as much time as possible in the basement, where it's cool, painting. The 2015 summer Cog Collective painting challenge is in full swing, so I'll be working toward that as well as polishing off a few unfinished projects that have been taking up space for far too long.

Cog Challenge

For this year, I'm limiting myself to just four projects, and I don't even expect to finish one of them. They are:

Essex post-Mongol Japanese army for DBA

Old Glory Crusaders, for SAGA
These probably won't get done, because I need to order spears and that probably won't happen till August

Krueger the Stormwrath, a Pureblood Warpwolf, and a Shadowhorn Satyr
These are for the summer Journeyman league, and about the only Warmachine models I plan on carrying out from start to finish this summer.

Battlefront WW2 Hungarian infantry, for a commission

As for unfinished projects, they are legion. In order of priority, more or less:

• Skorne Mammoth. Really need this for an anti-Cryx list.
• Kings of War Undead army. Interest in KoW is rising in Portland thanks to the imminent release of 2nd edition as well as GW's release of the very different Age of Sigmar to replace Warhammer Fantasy. This will invovle some rebasing, something I swore I would never do...
• Assorted Minion models for Warmachine - Gatorman Posse, Bog Trog Shamblers, and Efaarit Scouts.
• Not quite unfinished so much as not yet begun, but I have an army of Essex Attalid Pergamenes that I want to get finished so as to have something to throw against my Seleucid force in Field of Glory.

So that's a summer's worth of work, easily. We'll see how much actually gets done.

Hougomont in Napoleon at War

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a Waterloo refight at Haven Gaming in Salem. Well, due to some confusion in the arrangements, it turned out to be separate refights of Hougomont and Ney's cavalry charge on separate tables. I took command of the French light infantry assaulting the British position at Hougomont.

The game was Napoleon At War, my first time playing it, and this scenario was drawn from the Hundred Days supplement. We used plastic 1/72 figures from several manufacturers, I think. (I painted one battalion for the organizers, and my take away is that I'm fine with the scale but detest the soft plastic material.)

French light infantry deployed in attack column in the foreground.

We deployed as we chose, French first. The British deployed with one battalion holding the farmhouse, the Nassau battalion holding the wall, and another battalion to their left in the woods. (The treeline in the photo above represents the edge of the woods, which extend back to the British table edge.) I deployed my six battalions with three in attack column to move up to the Hougomont, two on the right flank in line to prevent any outflanking, and one just behind in attack column to act as a reserve.

French advance. Leftmost battalion has taken the house.

The first two turns went swimmingly for the French; the leftmost battalion performed valiantly and stormed the farmhouse, destroying the occupying British battalion. In the center, I advanced more cautiously; on the right, advanced to exchange fire with the Allied troops in the woods.

Same table state as above, different view.

British reserves trickled on throughout the game, but did not get into action until turn five and six.

Turn four...

By turn four, the French light infantry had two battalions, one at full strength, occupying the farmhouse. An initial assault on the Nassau troops behind the wall had failed, but they now faced three battalions in attack column. Meanwhile, the battalion on the right had inflicted a nasty blow to their opponents, who had fallen back in good order, and took up position behind the wall.

Battle's end.

At last the line infantry came up from the French reserve. The three battalions opposing the Nassau troops assaulted, but the Nassau troops held the wall and nearly destroyed their attackers. In the farm compound, one Landwehr battalion was able to move into position to assault the French defenders... but they got cold feet at the last moment and the assault faltered.

The final result: a reversal of history, as the French gained a foothold in Hougomont from which they could not be dislodged.

As to the game, I found it rather nice. It played quickly; with both the French and British commanders completely new to the rules, we finished the game in about two hours (with considerable help from two experienced players acting as referees). It's been said that Napoleon at War is "Flames of War: Napoleonics" and that really rings true. It plays faster than FoW, though, and seems less fiddly. I liked it, though I thought the basing was maybe not to my taste.

Congrats and thanks to Oliver and the Wargames Oregon crew for setting this up and running it, and thanks to Haven Games for hosting it.

Lock & Load 2015: Master's Qualifier Report

Lock and Load 2015 was this past weekend, June 5-7. Since I live in Portland, it's an easy drive and after Enfilade, it's my favorite convention. This year I signed up for the first heat of the Masters Qualifier, so James and I left Portland before 6 to get there in time...

Qualifier Tournament Report

I brought carbon copies of Martin Hornacek's Masters' lists, because I'm terrible at list building and wanted to use the ADR rules. Mordikaar, who's a favorite caster, and Naaresh, who's not. But it availed me not...

Round 1

Deployment

Up against Brandon Anderson playing Body and Soul for a bad matchup to start things off, but this was the only game I won. His list was pretty straightforward B&S, and I dropped Mordikaar.

I was able to weather his feat pretty well due to him being about 1/4" further back from my lines than he thought he'd be, thus leaving huge amounts of my models able to move. We traded pieces back and forth until I was able to go in for a sneaky Essence Blast assassination and win the game.

Post assassination

Round 2

Deployment

This round saw me playing Jamie Perkins, noted tourney player, who was running Sorscha 2 with a bonded Conquest, Nyss hunters with Valachev, and the Winterguard Death Star. I dropped Naaresh into this one just to get him out of the way. Highlights of the game were Jamie's first turn, where he tried to pull off a double-handed throw assassination by pitching Alexia 2 at Naaresh. This, he told me, was to win a bet with Trent Denison. The assassination failed, but he was able to run roughshod over me with really clean, careful, fast play. Even though I lost to an assassination on turn 3, this was probably the game I most enjoyed playing in the tourney.

Post assassination

Round 3

This game wasn't a lot of fun. Not the fault of my opponent, save that he dropped a Skarre 1 list that pretty much took my Mordikaar out behind the woodshed and beat it six ways from Sunday. (Also, my opponent, Robert, was from my local meta, which always a little bit of a disappointment when you're hoping to play new people.) For his Ritual Sacrifice over the four turns of the game, he rolled 6 6 5 5, which pretty well put me on tilt. I lost on scenario.

End of game

Round 4

After my first turn.

Played Jon with his Khador. He ran a Harkevich list with Black Dragons, MoW Shocktroopers, Demolisher, Behemoth, and Black Ivan. For the first few turns, I pretty well had this game under control, to the point where I was able to jam his Black Dragons on one side and start scoring on my flag by turn 3. However, I'd shifted Tiberion too far to the left to deal with Behemoth and the MoWs, and when he slammed the Demolisher into my lines, I wasn't able to deal with it. I was running low on time, so I went for a low-probability assassination. It failed, and he was able to use his Demolisher to squish Mordikaar.

Right before the assassination.

Final Thoughts

To be honest, I'd have had more fun if I'd dropped after round 2; my game with Robert was very much not a fun experience, and I'd have been able to rack up some skulls in the Iron Arena or attend a painting hangout. It was also rather disappointing to face only Cryx and Khador... Still, I learned something from my games (positioning and don't lose sight of objectives), and I had enough fun. I'm also glad I made sure to pack some energy bars, 'cause not having to buzz off for food or dealing with hunger pangs made for a much more pleasant experience.

Final Record: 1 win by assassination, 2 losses by assassination, 1 loss by scenario. I felt I played quite well in first game, but not very well in the others.

I'm also not sold on ADR as a major advantage. I think it's a good edge, but not compared to having really solid practice with a caster already. So I'm excited for the next season's ADR, which has two casters with which I'm pretty well practiced and one caster with which I have a passing familiarity.

Enfilade 2015 in review

Memorial Day weekend is one of the highlights of my year, because that's when the Northwest Historical Miniature Game Society throws its flagship event: Enfilade. This year, it was in the Red Lion at Olympia, Washington, which is a very convenient drive for me.

Friday

James and I arrived in time to check in and then buzz off to the Fish brewpub for a tasty lunch. We got back in time to drop stuff off at the Bring and Buy and register for events. Well, James registered - I volunteered to help judge games for the first period. The highlight of this year's event was two very large Napoleonic games being run in half the hall, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. Friday was Ligny, while Saturday was Waterloo itself.

Battle of Ligny being set up

Something in 6mm

Judging the games was pretty quick; I and the fellow judges wandered around and checked each game for looks, organization, and the fun the players were having. We reached a verdict halfway through the period. With plenty of time left, I headed upstairs for the Warmachine open play.

Rasheth gets eaten by gators

 Sadly, the open play was very poorly attended, probably because of some late publicity and, to be honest, a lot of the attendees have no interest in fantasy gaming. I did get a game in with the organizer, Earnest, in which his gators crushed Rasheth's Skorne. This was damn near the exact same match up I'd played and lost to last week... Fun anyway.

Carthage defeated

After dinner, for second period, I tried out DBA for the first time. It was a learning event, Rome vs. Carthage, using the new DBA 3.0 rules. I liked it well enough to pick up the rules and a couple armies.

Ligny in progress on the big table

Saturday 

Crusaders prepare for the Viking onslaught

We kicked off Saturday with the SAGA tournament; I brought my Crusaders, and lost two of three games. It's really not a terribly good list, but it's all the models I have at the moment. The mounted knights I have on the painting table will improve it greatly, eventually. Congrats to Gabe for taking home the trophy with his Viking hearthguard deathstar.

The Conflict in progress

 For the afternoon session I signed up for Michael Hughes' The Conflict, a homebrew and quite developed set of grand battle Napoleonic rules. I have mixed feelings about this one. The rules were quite complex, in that way that seems simple to someone who's experienced with them but are pretty opaque to a newcomer. I'm still quite intrigued by the game, but I found actually playing - and coming in halfway through the (hypothetical) Battle of Antwerp - very frustrating. It was a case of not knowing what was going on, not knowing what to do, and the noise in the hall didn't help either. It's all the more frustrating because I think I'd quite like the game if I had a chance to play it in a quieter setting with better play aids for learning the game. (The only play aid at the table was a "How to play pamphlet" which involved playing through two scenarios and had a recommended running time of one hour. Not good.)

One good thing about the game was that it sold me off 6mm as a scale for pre-modern warfare. I want a little more pageantry from the figures, so I'll be sticking with 15mm for my ancients and black powder games. At least for now.

All that said, I have to say that I'm tempted to play The Conflict again.

Danes ready for the army of Karl the Great

After dinner, I sat down to try out Field of Glory for the first time, and took command of the right flank of the Danish army opposing Charlemagne in another battle that never happened. I cut out early as this one ran quite a bit later than my bedtime, but I had more action than anyone else on the Danish side: my brave shield bearers took the charge of Charlemagne's cavalry and acquitted themselves... well enough, I suppose.

I liked the system well enough, and it was well run, but I was already a bit grouchy from the last session and a lack of sleep, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have.

Karl's cavalry smash into the Danish right flank

Sunday & Final Thoughts

Neither James nor I had anything we wanted to play on Sunday, so we took a leisurely morning and stuck around for the business meeting. (Note for next year: bring a wargame or something to play in the mornings, as I'm an early riser.) Then it was back home for another year.

The Bring and Buy treated me well; out of a very large lot, I only brought home two items, and cleared enough to pay for both this trip and the Lock & Load trip that's coming up on the weekend of June 5. And I brought home a bit of swag:

• 15mm Essex Attalid Pergamene Flames of Glory army
• 15mm Essex DBA 2.2 armies for Post-Mongol Japanese, Republican Romans, and Carthaginians
• DBA 3.0 rulebook (and the Game Matrix's terrain set for DBA)
• Several Field of Glory Ancient and Renaissance supplements
• A couple Disposable Heroes supplements
• Some 15mm terrain for SF gaming
• Stargrunt II

All told, a quite satisfactory convention.