Enfilade 2019 Report

Memorial Day weekend brings me to Olympia, Washington every year for Enfilade! This year was a bit different: my usual convention buddy is in Japan, brewing beer, so my wife came along for some much needed quiet, the child being dropped off at the grandparents'. Therefore, it was a bit more of a date/getaway than the usual gamer marathon, which was nice, because we haven't had many getaways recently.

But gaming is what this blog's about, so...

I actually only played in one game this year (!), a combination of a late start and not finding many of the open games appealing, and also being inexplicably terribly tired all weekend.

Mexican-American War with Reg. Fire & Fury

The one game I did play was Terry's Mexican-American War game with Regimental Fire & Fury, a system that's really growing on me. I took charge of the Mexican cavalry and the game went unexpectedly well for them - thanks in no small part to some terrible dice on the Yankee side. Not everything went so well for the Mexicans, as our center collapsed under an American assault. At the end of the period, with the Americans holding the center but the Mexicans closing in around the sides, we called it a draw.

Mexican cavalry prepared to ride down the Yankee invaders.

 I spent the rest of the convention puttering around, planning future games, chatting, and helping out at the Bring & Buy. I did snap a few more pictures, though:

Russian Civil War- the Tsarevich is on the armored train, and the Reds must capture him.

Mammoth hunting - I though this one looked very cool

All Quiet on the Martian Front - someone went all out with that tripod on the upper right.

Muskets and Tomahawks

This year left me with an odd conflict: while the convention itself was really well done, and there was a plethora of good games to be had, most of them left me uninterested in playing. The obvious solution: Next year, I'll have to put on a few games. Leaning toward some big battle ancients, Napoleonics, and possibly World War 2.

I was also a little peeved at not getting an entry into the painting competition. This was mostly because it was difficult to get info about the competition, and at the last minute I was put off by word that entries had to be part of a game as well. That was evidently untrue, as at least one entry was a bust of a Templar knight, but that's the rumor mill for you. I'm also annoyed that I forgot to take some pictures of the entries, as there were some really nice ones. I'll have to try for an entry next year, regardless of the quality of information floating around.

As an aside: since I was with the wife, we did the usual exploring of restaurants. I can recommend Hash on Harrison Ave NW for breakfast, and Hops on the Hill made a pretty good (if very moist) brisket.

Enfilade 2016

Rather belated, but...

Enfilade took place, as usual, on Memorial Day weekend at the Olympia Red Lion. Let me get the bad out of the way first: The hotel was in the middle of renovations, so, while the convention hall was in good shape, the rest of the hotel was a mix of brand new (and still off-gassing) material and raw plywood. They also seemed to be short-staffed for the entire weekend in the lounge/restaurant, which was pretty disappointing. Still, props to the staff themselves, who worked very hard to keep us wargamers happy.

I don't remember what it was, but it looked good!

 On to the good!

Apparently, we had more attendees than any previous year, with an odd concentration on Friday night.

Alyssa's Battle of Watling Street game

Alyssa ran her Battle of Watling Street game with much success, getting the best game for that period, as well as best in theme, if I recall correctly.

WW2 Action

I don't remember this one, either...

 The first game I played was a Blitzkrieg Commander set up, with 15mm models on a decent-looking table. I do need to make one of those tablecloths, as seen below...

The setup was simple - the Germans are defending, while the Americans try to punch through across the river, somewhere in Belgium. The Germans begin with most of their forces coming on the table, while the Americans begin entirely off table and have to do some traffic management to bring their force - divided into four parts - on to the table.

American forces in the Bulge

  And that's where it rather fell apart, in my opinion. My American co-commanders were both pre-teen boys, and while I'm all for bringing new blood into the hobby it's a damned annoying experience to have them completely fail to hold one side of the table - and to prevent a full quarter of your own army from coming on, as well!

Americans getting stuck in - and stuck - during the battle

The scenario limited the Americans to three access points, and thanks to BKC's activation system - and the scale of the figures - it was impossible to get one's entire force on in one turn. The far right commander managed to create such a traffic jam that he prevented the American reserve force, which included the American CiC, from even coming on the table. Meanwhile, the Germans managed to push so far forward across the river on that flank that they cut off the left flank from any reinforcements.

All in all, it was a rather frustrating game. It wasn't helped by the referee, whose vocal style might best be described as "barking". Still, the scenario itself wasn't terrible, and the rules are ok.

The Swedes vs the Empire, all lined up. Gustav's on the far left.

 My next game was altogether more enjoyable, despite having a couple of teens on my side. Kevin ran the Battle of Lutzen, Thirty Years War, Swedes versus the Holy Roman Empire. He used 15mm figures and De Bellis Renationis with some rules updates from DBA 3.0.

Imperial cavalry on the road

 I took command of the Swedish cavalry and its associated commanded foot, which was pretty nice - covering the right flank against Croats and cuirassiers.

Lines closing

 The game ran quite smoothly, though one of the Swedish commanders had some trouble with understanding how to allocate pips from his command dice - he kept trying to use pips from the Scots to command the Swedes in front, which wasn't workable.

After the initial clash - Scottish mercenaries in the back rank, ready to step in

Swedish and Imperial cavalry get stuck in

The right (cavalry) flank is a furball

In the end, it was a close-fought Swedish victory when the period ended - while the Empire still had forces on the field, the Scottish contingent on the Swedish side was just getting into the fight and still fresh.

The Scots are stuck in, probably tipping the battle to the Protestant side.

On the whole, I'm really beginning to warm to the DBA system. It's not my favorite, and I still feel it's too opaque to new players, but it does run pretty smoothly and quickly when all the players are familiar with the modifiers. I think it may, despite my best intentions, become the game I end up playing the most in the next five years or so.

Ancients in 15mm - Gaugamela

 

Barbarians ready to overrun a Roman fort

Roman fort ready to repel the barbarians

Saga - my Crusaders prepare to take on some Scots

Next up was the Saga tournament, but most of the players had gotten their games in during the previous period. I got to play against a fellow who had Scots, a most durable and damnably defensive army. (He also had this neat project where he'd been making unit cards for each army - very pretty, and quite helpful!) Against my highly aggressive Crusaders, it was a bloodbath. Mostly for me. I should have dismounted my knights, as they ended up having to charge into terrain quite a lot. I still managed to scrape out a win, barely, by scoring more scenario points by turn six. Had the game continued for another turn or so, he'd have tabled me.

The Conflict - initial march

Saturday evening I had volunteered to work the registration desk, but the organizer decided to close it - so I gave Bill Hughes' The Conflict another shot.

Form Square!

This time I had a much better experience than last year - they seem to have cleaned up their refereeing system quite a bit and I'm much more familiar with Napoleonic warfare than I was. Still, I came to the conclusion that - while it's well-done - it's much too far on the rivet-counting side of wargaming for my taste. They're planning on publishing it next year, and I hope it does well. I'll probably pick up a copy, even if I never play it again.

So that was my Enfilade experience. I didn't play as many games as I'd have liked, nor did I clear as much at the Bring & Buy as I'd hoped (though I did manage to liquidate all my old Flames of War and Warmachine books), but on the whole it was a lot of fun. I bought into Frostgrave, splitting a box of soldiers and a box of cultists from Twin Lakes Books with James; bought a heck of a lot of terrain from Monday Knight Productions for my 6mm Napoleonics; and picked up a few odd rules sets from the Bring and Buy and the Game Matrix. Ted Henkle's posted a nice round up of other blog posts that give a more complete picture of the convention. Looking forward to next year!