PAX Unplugged 2018

PAX (Penny Arcade) runs a series of gaming conventions (East, West and South), and has for years. They are big shows. Last year (2017) was the first year for PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, a gaming convention geared exclusively to tabletop and roleplaying games, not computer games. I've had an interest in going, but hadn't followed through.

Fast forward to mid-week last week, when I texted Ryan and Josh and said "PAX Unplugged is this weekend...bummer we didn't plan something". Turns out Ryan was available (Josh was not), so I bought two tickets for Saturday.

I elected to drive down to give me flexibility for coming and going as I pleased. Ryan chose to take the train down and meet me. Which we did.

The show was at the Philadelphia Convention Center in Center City Philadelphia, and was pretty huge. Estimates from 2017 had attendance numbers at 45,000 turnstiles, or likely 15-20,000 distinct people (accounting for multi-day attendees). Tickets purchased days before the event would be waiting at the Will Call window. The show opened at 10:00am. So I got there around 9:15. Found the right place to go in this huge place, and had our two passes by about 9:45. Ryan met me soon after, and we waited in the huge lines to get in when the doors opened.

The Hordes assemble pre-opening

The place was even bigger than I had imagined, with an absolutely massive open gaming and dealer area on the second floor, and another huge tournament gaming space on the lower level. A variety of conference rooms and theater rooms for panel discussions were scattered in other places.

Philadelphia Convention Center

The dealer area was impressive. Every imaginable kind of board game and role playing game was represented. My purchases for the day were modest. A few oversized d20 dice on a whim (2 large and 1 huge)...you can never have too many dice, especially odd ones! Gale Force 9 monster card sets for challenge ratings 1-5 and 6-16 (these are new releases). A half dozen blister packs of unpainted D&D miniatures from WizKids (including 3 of the hard to find and expensive-on-eBay Beholders). And a second copy of Dungeon World from the Burning Wheel booth, but more on that later.

Ryan checks out a weird sic-fi Wild West thing

There were a few things that struck me about the dealer area, the main one being the number of dealers that were selling extremely high end stuff. There were several dealers selling dice made of fancy woods, metal and semi-precious gemstones. Now...I love dice...and own many more than any one person would ever need. But I draw the line, at this point anyway, at buying a set of 6 or 7 polyhedral dice for $25. Or $50. Or $100. Or more. Of which there were many options to do so. There was also a dealer (Wyrmwood?) selling all sorts of beautifully crafted wooden items such as dice trays, dice boxes, etc. Nice stuff for sure. And the people selling $5,000+ custom gaming tables. Beautiful stuff. All of which were getting a lot of traffic, and from what I could tell, a lot of sales.

I have become a fan of several people who are Twitch streamers, primarily via their posting VODs on YouTube, which I can watch/listen to in the background when doing other things around the house. These folks are mainly D&D streamers and/or game designers. My favorite among these is Adam Koebel, the co-author of Dungeon World, and the Dungeon/Game Master for a number of streaming game series on Twitch/YouTube. I find Adam to be an excellent Game Master and a very insightful voice on game design and game mastering via his series Office Hours. Anyway...Adam was one of three panelists doing an hour on Heavy Metal and Fantasy Role Playing games. Luke Crane, another well-known game designer (The Burning Wheel, Mouseguard, etc) was also one of the panelists. The panel was entertaining and funny. And seeing Adam in person was kinda cool.

Heavy Metal and RPGs panel (Adam Koebel)

Another set of Dungeons and Dragons celebrities that I got to see and say "hi" to were the player cast of Dice, Camera, Action, a streaming show on the official D&D channel.

The "Waffle Crew" from Dice Camera Action

Rounding out the day was a bit of fanboy fun. Adam Koebel was at the Burning Wheel company booth (distributors of his game) for a part of the afternoon, and I stopped by to get my copy of the book signed. I knew he was scheduled to be there and had brought the book from home. We chatted for a few minutes, and thankfully, he seemed to be a really nice guy. The risk of meeting a celebrity that you like (which he is within the RPG niche) is that they will turn out to be a jerk. Not that you can tell much within a minute or two or three, but a disappointing bad impression only takes a moment. As I said, thankfully that wasn't the case and he seemed really nice. I must admit that it felt a bit weird to have a fanboy moment with someone 20 years my junior, but whatever... I told him that my 14 year old daughter Grace recognizes him on the computer as "the cool pink-haired D&D guy". He laughed and signed another book for her. Nice.

Adam Koebel and my signed Dungeon World!!

Soon after, I headed home. It was a good show. Huge and crowded, but manageable because of the amount of space. As big as it was, I ran into two different people that I knew; something I would not have expected.

One last comment would be regarding the organization of the show. Professional and first class all the way. The volunteers helping to run the convention wore purple t-shirts labelled "Enforcer". They were everywhere, knowledgeable and polite. Very well done. Assuming it's back in Philly next year, I'll be back.

Fall In 2014 - Saturday, Day 2

Day 2 of Fall In was fairly uneventful for me, and somewhat brief. I arrived mid-morning and had plenty of time to watch various games and do some shopping before setting up a flea market table for the afternoon session.

I've been giving some thought recently to what my miniatures collection would look like if I started with a completely clean slate and were not burdened with a basement full of false starts, sidetracks, and periods that have gone by the wayside. Suffice it to say for the moment that the "ideal" vision differs a good bit from the reality. With that in mind, it was a very successful flea market session, where I sold practically everything I brought. This included three boxes of 25mm Saxons and two boxes of 25mm Vikings (reserving enough of each for modest skirmish armies), my American Revolution Continental army (2 large boxes of Brandywine regiments), Warhammer fantasy battle dwarves, a few miscellaneous odds and ends, and a half dozen board games. I came home with one board game and one rulebook. The carry-out was delightfully lighter than the carry-in.

This was a good step in the right direction towards (profitably) jettisoning the things I will never use. Hopefully they have found a good home where they will be of more use to somebody than they have been to me in recent years.

My two flea market purchases over the two days were a box of 54 nice 15mm palm trees and a set of uniform guides. The palm trees were based very nicely on round masonite bases (flocked), and look beautiful after I got them home and gave them a light overhead dusting of two shades of lighter green and a matt sealer coat to knock the edge off the dark green plastic look. These will be useful for either my 15m Crusaders or WW2 Pacific War.

Age of Chivalry, two volumes, in French

The real find was the uniform guides. Liliane and Fred Funcken did a whole series of uniform and equipment guides (back in the 1970's primarily, I think). The sets came in pairs of two books per period and go for a very hefty price for the English versions. You can also find them in French and less commonly in German. When I see them at shows, they are generally in French. I have Napoleonics in French and Lace Wars (1700's) in German. To this I added the two volume set of Medieval and Renaissance (in French) for the reasonable price of $45. They are in great condition, and I use them primarily for pictures and painting inspiration, so the fact that I can barely fumble through some of the text makes no difference.

All in all another successful show, and it certainly has gotten the painting juices flowing again, as these shows always do.

Fall In 2014 - Friday, Day 1

Things have been pretty quiet (OK, very quiet) on the wargaming and miniatures front over the last few months. Family stuff has been keeping all of us busy, and the time I have had to allocate to hobby stuff has primarily gone to working up the basics of a D&D campaign (for this first time since the late '80's or early '90's).

Knowing that Fall In, the local/big fall convention in Lancaster PA, was coming up soon has gotten the painting juices flowing again, and over the past week or so I have gotten back into something of a painting groove. More on that soon.

For now, today was the first day of Fall In. As usual, I took the day off and made my way out to Lancaster in time to get there and wander the in-progress games before the dealer area opened at noon. On picking up my preregistration badge, I was surprised at how thin the weekend's program book was. In the 15+ years I have been attending these Lancaster conventions, I think this must have been the lightest program yet. Wandering the show over the 6 or so hours I was there would bear this out; not a ton of games being run, and not a ton of gamers. I guess it wasn't too far off what I remember a Fall In Friday as being, but with the good weather today, I still think it was light.

Romans and barbarians in Germania (25mm)

Although the number of games seemed light, the quality was high, and there were a lot of attractive games to check out.

Early WW2, "Brazen Chariots" rules (15mm)

As always, there were friends and acquaintances to run into and chat with, games to watch, the dealer area to cruise, and the flea market (bring and buy to our English friends) to troll for that special "ah-ha" item.

Fish in a barrel...I mean 15mm Napoleonics

As has also been the case at recent conventions, I dove into the dealer area fully expecting/hoping to leave some cash behind, but didn't find all that much that struck a chord. I needed some dice for our foray into D&D (wargamers are swimming in d6, d10 and d20, but have little use for d4, d8 and d12, thus the need to stock up on some of these). I believe I now have at least a modest handful of every type of dice made. Actually, that being said, I think that there is a such thing as a d100, and if so, I don't have one of those.... yet...

WW2 Pegasus Bridge in 25/28mm

Other dealer area purchases were 7 medieval flags and cavalry banners from The Flag Dude and a few packs of 25mm medievals from Old Glory (2 packs of generic 12th century infantry and a pack of early medieval mounted German knights with lances). When in doubt, I buy more medievals. It's a "happy place" thing I suppose...

SAGA "Crescent and the Cross" in the desert (25mm)

I was on the road and headed home by 3:30. Garnet Valley had a home playoff football game at 7pm (we won convincingly, 35-15). I also needed to spend some getting together the things that I will be taking to the show tomorrow to sell at the flea market table I have from 2pm to 5pm. Selling hobby stuff is a bit like selling off members of the family (fill in your own joke here), but in my advancing years the one, perhaps only (probably only), bit of wisdom I have managed to attain is that if I lived to be 200 years old I would still not have the time to delve into every potential hobby interest that I have stumbled upon (and bought figures for). Thus, tomorrow, with any luck, lots of 25mm Vikings and Saxons, some 25mm English Civil War, a few Warhammer Fantasy odds and ends, and an American Revolution 25mm Continental army will all be going to live on a farm up-state. Or wherever it is that the hamsters, goldfish and other ex- members of the family go.

"Fall In" Saturday to follow (after it happens)...

Cold Wars 2014

The HMGS East spring convention, Cold Wars, in Lancaster PA, was about as brief a "fly by" for me as I have had at one of these. If it had been more than an hour from home, I wouldn't have gone at all.

As mentioned previously, this weekend is all about Julia and Les Miz, with shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening, and a Saturday matinee. Not perfect timing for Cold Wars also on Friday and Saturday, but a trade I would make any time. Having put in to take Friday off long ago (for the convention), I figured I would still have time for a shopping expedition if nothing else before returning home in time to help around the house while Amp and Julia went to the performance. And that's pretty much what happened. I left home at about 11am, arrived at noon, paid my daily entrance fee, shopped and chatted for two and a half hours, and was on the road home by 2:30.

I cruised the dealer area in search of something that struck my fancy, and in the absence of that, made a few useful purchases. From Old Glory, I bought a few bags of various figures (Janissary archers, and Hundred Years War militia, mounted command and mounted crossbows). From another booth I bought a half a dozen 15mm European buildings, both intact and rubbled. Per my prior post on painting buildings this weekend, you can never have too many buildings, especially bombed out ones for WW2 games. [The buildings I bought are separate from the ones I painted this weekend]

As is always the case, one of the nice things about the show was running into some old friends. I probably spent half my time at the show chatting with Ed Wimble of Clash of Arms games and Chris Parker from Day of Battle. That, and stopping by the Fireball Forward! game that I knew Leo as playing in at 2pm, just to say hi. Ed asked me to go out to Tempe AZ with him in May for four or five days to attend a board gaming convention and play a La Bataille de Dresden game against the original Martial Enterprises crew. As attractive an offer as that is, I doubt it is feasible. Bummer.

All in all, it was a nice five hour investment of time. Not exactly the optimal convention experience, but better than not having a chance to go at all...

Fall In 2013

The Fall In convention was held at the Lancaster Host in Lancaster PA this weekend (11/15-11/17), and as usual I went for the day on both Friday and Saturday.

The convention seemed well attended (the weather was good; no snow this year). I did my usual, which is to say wander around and watch as many different things as I could without actually playing in anything. I ran into Leo a bunch of times, as well as lots of other gaming friends and acquaintances. I did leave early enough Friday afternoon to see the Garnet Valley playoff game against Abington (see separate post).

Purchases were modest (sort of...maybe not):

• General de Brigade Napoleonic rules. Still in search of the perfect Nappy rules, and this seems to get played quite a bit in other peoples' blogs.
• Impetus expansion magazine Extra Impetus #5. Most of the content in this issue is the feudal period.
• Three 15mm scale ruined building pieces from Old Glory for use in WW2 gaming. These are nice pieces that will be a breeze to paint up.
• Ten beautiful 25mm scale flags for my medievals from the Flag Dude. These were an assortment of Ottoman, Hundred Years War, and a few suitably generic looking Wars of the Roses pieces.
• A bunch of pre-cut bases from Gale Force 9.
• Two more Flames of War 15mm houses to go with the five I already have. As noted on the blog before, a decent sized table for 15mm WW2 gobbles up lots of terrain, and I don't have enough buildings for this period and scale.
• A book at the flea market: Wellington Invades France; The Final Phase of the Peninsular War 1813-1814, by Ian Robertson. I have liked this denouement phase of the war ever since doing research for my Orthez game.

Primed ruined buildings and some flags

OK, so perhaps my purchases weren't all that modest, but I did more than make up for it. I had signed up for a flea market table on Saturday from 10am to 1pm, and took a bunch of things I had not used in years, and might likely never use again. Over the course of two hours I sold almost everything I brought and pocketed $640. Not bad for a couple hours work (by noon I was substantially out of things to sell). I sold my collection of fighting sail era ships, all of my French and Indian war Brits and native Americans, any Warhammer 40k science fiction stuff I had accumulated over the years, a little bit of Bolt Action stuff I had bought on a whim but changed my mind on (including the rules), and various old books and rules.

After finishing the flea market, I spent a few more hours wandering and watching various games and then headed home with my head full of inspiration for new projects and expansions to old projects.

It occurred to me after the fact that despite taking a point and shoot camera and having my phone as well, I didn't take a single picture. Oops. Next time...

Cold Wars 2013, Day 2

AWI on "teddy bear fur" terrain. Very nice...

Day 2 at Cold Wars for me was fairly low key. After my big caching day on Thursday, I was close enough to 1,000 that I wanted to take advantage of the multitude of Lancaster caches, so I spent the first hour and a half of my day in Lancaster getting 13 caches in a commercial area NW of the Lancaster Host convention site. All easy caches, but good quantity in a short period of time. This left me with 998 caches, and at that point I had to stop because I had promised Grace that I would not get to 1,000 without her. By 9:45am, my caching was done and I was walking into the show. Not a bad use of a part of a morning...

As for the show itself, Saturday was certainly more crowded than Friday, but it still didn't seem tremendously busy to me. There were a bunch of attractive games to look at, and some bits of inspiration to be sure. Some really well executed teddy bear fur terrain was one of these, and I have already been googling advice on how to make nice terrain mats from this material (see the AWI picture attached for a great example).

Today's purchases were a building and an additional castle wall section from Miniature Building Authority, and a few more packs of Blue Moon 15mm Napoleonics (bicorne French artillery crew and guns).

Napoleonics in the Peninsula

The high point of the day though was getting a chance to have a glass of wine (or two) at the bar with Chris Parker and having the opportunity to discuss his new skirmish level adaptation of Day of Battle. That and getting a chance to see a bunch of friends, older and newer, was what really made the drive out to the show worthwhile. Just about anything I buy at these shows could just as easily be bought on the internet, but nothing can replace the bits of inspiration that come from seeing the really well put together games, nicely painted figures, and good terrain ideas that can be shamelessly stolen from.

The Cornfield at Antietam, ACW, 1862.

It's hard to believe that the next convention will be Fall In in November. I am still not happy that Historicon was moved from my backyard to 3.5 hours south, but what can you do. Maybe I need to investigate some smaller local shows...

Cold Wars 2013, Day 1

Poles vs Russians in 25mm in Carnage and Glory II

After my goof yesterday, today was actually the start of Cold Wars. I left for Lancaster after dropping elder daughter at school, and drove through a blowing snow squall most of the way out. I arrived at around 8:15, but had one work conference call that I needed to be on from 9:00 to 9:30, so rather than going into the show and registering, I took a few minutes to find one nearby geocache before getting back to my car for the call.

After my call I made my way in to the register, and then wandered around for a while. There wasn't much going on yet, and the dealer area didn't open until noon, so after exhausting the "mill about and look at the games" possibilities, I went back out to find another geocache across the street, but came up empty. But at least that killed enough extra time that I was able to go back to the show and wander the dealer area, as well as the increasing number of games being set up. I paid particular attention to an 1813 Napoleonic game using Age of Eagles, the Fire and Fury variant, and a handful of Fireball Forward WW2 games (a rules set that Leo heartily endorses and I have purchased and read, and like the look of).

19th cent. Prussians vs Bavarians in 6mm - Bruce Weigle

I left at around 3:30 to get home in plenty of time for some family things tonight, but it was an enjoyable day, and I got to see a lot of acquaintances from over the years. I'll be going back tomorrow for a full day, and hope to get into a game or two to play.

No convention write up, no matter how brief, would be complete without listing the spoils of war, which were modest. Or maybe moderate. I picked up Age of Eagles as well as Chris Parker's new Day of Battle supplement for The Crusades. I also picked up an order from Old Glory that I had called in a few weeks ago for pick up at the show. This contained odds and ends of medieval cavalry to expand some existing units (German knights and Teutonic sergeants - you can never have too much medieval cavalry) as well as some Seven Years War Austrian and Prussian artillery and Austrian Grenzers. Leo has shown a renewed interest in gaming Napoleonics, and I have been looking at early war Prussians and bicorne French, so I picked up a few packs of Blue Moon (Old Glory) 15mm/18mm 1806 Prussians to paint as samples. If I like the figures, which I am sure I will, I will get more and send an order off to Sri Lanka to get an army started. I'll be starting with a few packs of musketeers and fusiliers, as well as some guns and crew. I just hope my eyes can still see well enough to paint these little buggers...

Fall In 2012 Convention recap

Nice looking beach landing game

November 2-4, 2012 was the annual Fall In convention in Lancaster PA, and I was especially looking forward to taking the day off on Friday and going up for the day Friday and Saturday. Since Historicon moved to Fredericksburg VA this past summer and I didn't attend, it has been since March that I have been to a show. And while I have done a good bit of painting this year, I have played almost no actual games. So going to the convention would be a good thing to get the juices flowing again. If nothing else, these conventions always spur a flurry of activity afterwards.

With all the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy in NJ, NY and CT, attendance was definitely down. Tournament areas were not as full, some dealers normally in attendance were not, and there seemed to be many less games. Still a good show though with plenty to do, and no bad weather messing up the drive.

Highlights of the show for me:

Villers-Bocage (Fireball Forward game)

• Spending some time chatting with Chris Parker, author of the Day of Battle rules, and a friend and great guy. I picked up his new Norman Conquests supplement, which looks really nice. Some good DOB conversation has me working on my Ottoman army after my return from the show, and thinking about events we might be able to do at Cold Wars in the spring. Very nice to see his brother David as well.
• Watching, at length, Leo play in a Fireball Forward WW2 game of a German attack on the railway station in Villers-Bocage, defended by Brits. I have read through much of the rules for this and it seems like a fun, playable, WW2 game. Leo recommends it highly. After watching for a while, I know I would enjoy it.

Purchases were kept within reason, and included:

• A bunch of Gale Force Nine pre-cut bases for more medievals and for my Seven Years War order that is currently in Sri Lanka getting painted. I prefer Litko's plywood bases (you can write on the light colored bottoms), but I wanted the instant gratification purchase and Litko doesn't come to shows any more (presumably because they have a suitably established client base). Cheap. Quick. Done.
• Fireball Forward rules and the Panzer Lehr at St Lo scenario book. I am a sucker for rules, and this scenario book makes sense for me because I have Americans and Germans and have much of what I would need to play many of these scenarios.
• Day of Battle supplement Norman Conquests as noted above.
• Three bags of Old Glory medievals very cheap at the flea market. All Hundred Years War, and exactly what I was thinking about buying retail. Sometimes you get very lucky.
• Extra Impetus 3 supplement for the Impetus rules.

It was a fun couple of days, and if nothing else, it has done the usual, which is to re-energize me and cause of burst of activity. I am assembling and prepping a few more bags of Ottomans, and am devouring all of my new rules and supplements. Next weekend I want to set up a Day of Battle game and actually push some figs around and roll some dice.

Cold Wars 2012

Due to a cheerleading competition in Hershey PA tomorrow and Sunday that will be an overnight trip for the family, the extent of my involvement in the Cold Wars convention in Lancaster this year was limited to a day of shopping and visiting with friends today. This was disappointing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that with the move of Historicon from the Philadelphia area to Fredericksburg Virginia this year, this will be my last show until Fall In in November.

On the way out to the show I made the obligatory slight detour to get a couple of geocaches, and arrived at the venue by about 11:00am. I had no particular plans for the day other than to buy a few things and to wander around. There are enough people I have met at these shows over the years that there are always familiar faces to run into, and I knew Leo would be there. In a way it's kind of a strange thing, but I think I enjoy just wandering around and soaking it all it rather than to actually play in a game, although I do that on occasion as well. I like just browsing and finding things that inspire me to get back to painting, or terrain making, or whatever area of interest is rekindled (or kindled) by something I see.

I did go into this show with a few specific things that I wanted to pick up, and for the most part I stuck to that plan. Things that I wanted (and bought) were:

• A couple of European village building from Miniature Building Authority, and a ruined wall section to expand on the wall set that I have been accumulating over the past few years. These guys are really nice, and make the most beautiful buildings, which are pre-painted and ready to go right out of the box. I still have visions of running a game someday in the not-too-distant future of a medieval siege assault on a town. [See attached pictures of the MBA buildings I purchased]
• A few more bags of Old Glory 25mm figures - Ottoman foot spearmen and archers, Ottoman akincji light cavalry, Seven Years War Prussian heavy artillery, and one bag of medieval french crossbowmen.
• The new edition of Chris Parker's Day of Battle rules, which have been published by On Military Matters. I have become detached from what Chris was doing with this edition of his rules, so I am anxious to read through it and give it a go.
• The pleasant surprise of the show was three units of French 15mm Napoleonic dragoons, professionally painted and reasonably priced. My pickiness generally prevents me from finding anything I like at a reasonable enough price at the flea market, but today I got lucky. And you can never have too many dragoons...

As usual, I have come home inspired to paint, and have cleared everything but a few units of partially painted Ottoman medievals off the painting table. I will sneak some time in with them, and will post pictures soon.

Historicon 2011

...or, Just Passing Through

Our biggest area wargaming convention of the year is going on this weekend, and by the time it ends Sunday around lunchtime, I will have been there for a total of about two hours. The  event is having its second year at the new venue, the Valley Forge Convention Center, which is certainly a bigger facility than the Lancaster Host, but I am not sure that it is dramatically nicer. I suppose it is, but I am not 100% convinced yet.

One undeniably good thing about it is that it is closer to home, and in fact is about 10 minutes from where I work. Which turns out to be a good thing this time around, because if it weren't for stopping in for a couple hours Thursday evening on the way home, I wouldn't have made it there at all. Not attending in any meaningful way is not something I planned, it just sort of worked out that way. The 4th of July holiday weekend was just a few days ago, and I took a couple of extra vacation days to make a very long weekend out of it. Work is busy at the moment, and adding another vacation day or two just wasn't possible.

So a quick fly-by was all I was able to manage. I had just enough time to stand in line behind 4 people (for 20 minutes!) to register as a walk-up attendee, get double charged in the process (yes, apparently the first credit card charge did go through...as did the second), and do a quick cruise of the games area and the dealer area. There wasn't really anything I needed, nor anything that especially struck my fancy, but I did buy some additional "muddy stream" pieces and two bags of palm trees for my 15mm Crusades project. As any good wargamer worth his salt will tell you, there is no such thing as too much terrain.

The best thing about the brief stop at the convention, though, I would say, is that it seems to have rekindled the desire to make the time to be able to pick up a paintbrush and get back to work on some figures. Although to be more productive, I really should get back to work on re-basing those Crusades figures... or paint some more Lord of the Rings figures... or work on my medieval retinue... or Napoleonics... or get back to that Seven Years War project... Hmmm.

Cold Wars 2011 - Friday

Cold Wars in Lancaster PA this year is a Thursday to Sunday affair, but due to other things going on I only planned to attend on Friday. Since I was not preregistered and signed up for any particular games, and had become boxed in in the morning by a business meeting that I really couldn't get out of, it looked like it would even be a short single day.

My general plan was to get out of work by no later than 1pm and head straight to the show. Since February was a very unproductive month for geocaching due to horrible weather and all the standing snow on the ground, I wanted to take 2 or 3 hours on the way to the convention to grab a bunch of caches in the Lancaster area. Since I only get out that way a couple times a year, the area is still ripe with easy caches, so a few hours could get me a nice bunch of finds. After wrapping up my geocaching I would get to the show in time for an hour or more of browsing and shopping before the dealer area closed at 6pm. Then I would hang around with Chris Parker for the duration of the evening, batting around ideas for Day of Battle 4th edition and pushing some figs around to test those ideas.

The day ended up similar to that, if not exactly according to plan. I didn't get out of work until 2pm and traffic getting out to Lancaster was bad, so it was after 3pm when I found my first geocache. Instead of the 15-18 that I was hoping to get, I found 8 before needing to get to the convention in order to do any shopping at all, and I didn't want to miss that because there were a number of things on my list that I wanted to buy. Nothing urgent, but some odds and ends, mainly for my Crusades project.

The goal for my purchasing at this convention was not to buy anything that required assembly or painting. In other words, only finished game-ready stuff that could be dropped on the table immediately. I stuck to that very well. An hour of power shopping netted me two pieces of swamp terrain and two sets of "narrow muddy rivers" (all by JR Miniatures), a bag of 20 nice little palm tree clusters, two buildings from Miniature Building Authority (a castle wall tower and the Witt house), and two booklets (Extra Impetus 1 and 2 for the Impetus rules). And I still had time to spend 10 minutes or so catching up with my friend Ed Wimble from Clash of Arms Games. He was excited about the impending publication of the new edition of La Bataille de Moskowa, as am I.

After that I got together with Chris, who had remembered his schedule wrong, and was actually running his game at 7pm. I sat and watched his Stirling Bridge scenario, which was a brief and bloody English disaster (historical in other words), after which a number of us sat around and discussed the rules. It was a nice evening, and I think some promising rules change possibilities were proposed. Chris and I both agreed to write up what we think we all discussed and then try them out. I can't wait. I am going to wrap up Crusades game number 1 this weekend, and will use the new rules in the next game.

Leaving the convention at around 9:45pm, I grabbed three more park and grab caches in the new shopping center next to the convention hotel and was home in bed by 11:30pm. So while things didn't go exactly according to plan, it was a productive day. More than half of a work day, eleven geocaches, a little gratuitous spending on hobby stuff and a miniatures game. Now that I think about it, that sounds like retirement if you drop the work part...

Fall In 2010 - Lancaster, PA

I always look forward to the three big area wargaming conventions, Cold Wars in the spring, Historicon in the summer, and Fall In in the fall. Since Historicon had been moved from Lancaster to Valley Forge this year, Fall In was moved from Gettysburg to Lancaster to fill the void. Lancaster is within an hour of my house, so it is much closer, but I had gotten used to the idea of a yearly pilgrimage out to Gettysburg to see the show and stop at some of my favorite spots on the battlefield. Perhaps that's why I wasn't looking forward to the show quite as much this year, or perhaps it's just because I have been in a lull period as far as miniatures goes.

I couldn't get away from work on Friday to go this year, but I planned on putting in at least a token appearance on Saturday. I left bright and early to go on a geocaching barnstorm through part of Lancaster county on the way out (the subject of another post), and arrived at the convention before noon. I paid my daily admission fee, wandered around for a while, saw some decent looking games, but for the most part... felt nothing. The usual surge of gaming adrenaline I get just wasn't there. I'm not sure if it was the sparse turnout (not a ton of games, and not a large crowd by any means), or what, but it felt hollow.

Even wandering the dealers' area in search of new toys turned up nothing that struck my fancy. All told, I didn't spend two hours at the show, and didn't spend a penny other than my admission fee. That's definitely a first.

One effect that these conventions always have on me is the desire to paint something, and I do feel a little of that. Progress on my Ottoman army is creeping along at a glacial pace, but I did dig out a unit of janissary archers and put them on the painting table. We'll see if anything happens to them anytime soon.

Historicon 2010 - Hundred Years War game, Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

Having been playing in part of the game, and therefore focusing on a smaller piece of the battle, I don't have a great memory or overview of parts of the game, and so it is difficult to do a very good battle report. The English position stabilized quickly after Warwick's initial disaster, and Chris did a very good job of putting Clermont back onto his heels. In the center, Edward's attacks against the Dauphin were largely ineffective. On the French right, the Captal de Buch did a better than expected job of holding their own against Audrehem's qualitatively superior knights.

On the right, English and Gascon knights bring the fight to the French, pushing them back up the hill. Cheshire longbowmen in their green and white tunics can be seen at far right.

Edward and the Dauphin go at it in the foreground while Clermont and Warwick continue their fight in the background.

Situation toward the end of the game. The English have made some headway, but not nearly enough.

Edward is held back in the center. Warwick rallies and holds off Clermont.

Captal de Buch continues to do well against the French nobles on the right, driving them further up the hill.

I think that every figure on the table was Old Glory. Flags are by The Flag Dude (the nicer ones) or by me off the internet. Painting was split between myself and Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka. I did every mounted figure and maybe half the foot figures. The Pros did the rest.

The game was a success insofar as it went, and everyone who played in it had a good time. I committed to running the same scenario again at Fall In in Lancaster over the Halloween weekend. Maybe we'll see you there!

Historicon 2010 - Hundred Years War game, Part 1

Day of Battle, 1356
King Jean II vs Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince

I ran one game at Historicon this year with the assistance of my nephew Ryan and Chris Parker, author of the Day of Battle rules. 3rd edition Day of Battle were the rules we were using, and the battle was a "Poitiers-ish" 1356 battle between the French and English in the Hundred Years War. The game was published incorrectly in the Event Listing book, saying it was 90mm instead of 25mm, and this error probably scared away some people who look at the very large scale figures as toys. (Yes, even in a niche hobby, we still have snobs). As a result, we were expecting few if any people to show up for the six player slots for a game that was scheduled to start at 8pm and run until midnight. As a result, Chris, Ryan and I began the game just the three of us playing, and were joined a bit later by two players. So it ended up being an enjoyable game with all three gamemasters playing.

The overall situation was a different spin on the historical battle of Poitiers, but a "what if" that had a reasonable basis in the realm of possibility. In our version of the game, part of the French army under command of the Duc de Normandie (the Dauphin - the eldest son of the King of France), was able to get in front of the English army as it headed south to get back to friendly territory. Also in the Dauphin's army were two cavalry wings commanded by the two Marshals of France, Clermont and Audrehem. In our scenario, the entire English army would fall upon the French force, and would have to try to drive them off and get across the river safely before the remainder of the French army, under the King himself and the Duc d'Orleans arrived. Because of the shortage of players, we played with a partial English army and no French reinforcements. Chris played the Duke of Warwick's battle, Ryan played Prince Edward, I commanded the French (and was joined by 2 players who would each take control of one of the Marshals).

Initial dispositions. Marshal Clermont is on the French (near) left, with the Dauphin's large battle in the middle, and Audrehem's cavalry was on the right flank. The Duke of Warwick has begun advancing in the left distance, with Edward advancing in the center and right distance.

Edward (Ryan) boldly surges forward, attempting to get his longbowmen into range as quickly as possible. The French wait, with Genoese mercenary crossbowmen sheltered behind their pavises manning the front line.

The English are coming! The English are coming! A small English mounted wing under the Captal de Buch, a Gascon noble, advance on the right in the distance, facing off against Audrehem's elite knights.

The battle lines, after trading missile fire for a while, are about to clash. On the French left, Warwick's men have advanced very close to Clermont's knights. The French Marshal spurs his horse forward and sounds the charge.

Clermont's first charge was devastating, breaking through the first line of longbowmen and crashing into the English dismounted knights behind them. As a result of the flight of the first English line, two supporting units broke and fled as well. The three fleeing English units can be seen in the distance, milling about in the farm fields in confusion. In one charge, fully half of Warwick's battle had fled the field. Not an auspicious start for the English...

...to be continued.

Historicon 2010 - Duke Seifried's Display Games

One of the venerable and colorful characters in the miniatures gaming community is apparently in poor health and chose Historicon 2010 as a last hurrah to bring together many of his famous display games from throughout the years together in one place. These games are typically on tables that must be about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long with thousands of figures. It was impressive to see a life's hobby work on display. There were 14 such games. Pictures of them could fill a book by themselves, but here are a few of my favorites.

British vs Zulus at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift.

British and Sepoys vs Afghans and Pathans on the Northwest Frontier.

Romans and Carthaginians.

Inspirational stuff to say the least, and the pictures barely do them justice.

Convention Report - Cold Wars 2010

HMGS East's spring convention, Cold Wars 2010, was held in Lancaster Pennsylvania (USA) beginning Thursday and ending today (Sunday). The most glaring thing that struck me, having been attending these shows faithfully for well over ten years, is that attendance was way off this year. There were less people in general, the dealer area was not crowded, some of the people I always see weren't there, and from a game mastering perspective, there were many less games being run and therefore less for attendees to do. Wandering through the main ballroom gaming area, I have never seen so many empty tables with nothing going on. The same was true of all the smaller side rooms, where around half the tables were inactive at any point in time. It was sad and disturbing.

The reasons for the lack of attendance are hard to pin down, but are probably a combination of the economy, a very rainy forecast for the weekend (Saturday was an all day downpour), and possibly some dissatisfaction with HMGS over their repeatedly botched handling of the moving of the upcoming Historicon flagship summer con away from Lancaster to another location. But that's a whole different story.

What did I do? Not too much I suppose, when I think back on it. I live about an hour away from Lancaster, a little more with traffic, so I drove up and back Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I played in a couple medieval games, bought a bunch of stuff (more on that in a moment), met and caught up with a bunch of friends that I only see occasionally, and did a lot of wandering and watching. More wandering and watching than anything, really.

As for the spending, I certainly did my part to revive the economy this time around. Having had the bug to get out of the medieval period(s) for a while, my next project will be Seven Years War in 25mm, and to that end I added 10 more bags of Old Glory figs to the small pile of SYW that I already have. The short term plan is that most of the infantry will be packed off to Sri Lanka in short order, and I will begin working on some guns and cavalry, with a few other odds and ends like Prussian grenadiers mixed in.

Other purchases included 3 rules sets: LaSalle, Impetus and Saga's Lace Warfare. Eight feet of JR Miniatures one-inch streams to expand my two-inch river set. A few bags of bases of various sizes from the nice folks at Litko. A few 25mm Ottoman flags from Rick O'Brien (the Flag Dude). Three Conflix brand painted buildings good for anything from early medieval through 1800's. And last but not least, in the effort to get back into playing Napoleonics, enough painted 15mm figs from Gajo to make a small Spanish division and a Portugese brigade. Adding these figures to the French and Brits I already have gives me enough to run a modest sized game on a 6 x 8 table with some troop variability.

Wow, I bought more than I thought...

While talking to Chris Parker (Day of Battle author) I committed to running some 25mm Day of Battle games at Historicon. King of Prussia PA is even closer than Lancaster, and I have been lazy about running games over the last couple of years. So I will sign up for a few games to run. Games that require little or no work beyond what I already have completed, which is the nice thing about being virtually done a few periods. Really the only thing I need is to mail order a few specific flags from the Flag Dude, and then I am done.

As always, going to these shows gets the fire burning again, so I expect that this will trigger a burst of activity on my part. Let's hope. At the very least, I expect to be able to post pictures of the new painted figs that I bought from GAJO, as well as some of the other Napoleonics that I am re-basing.