MAYHEM 2026 CONVENTION REPORT

 

 View of the main room on Saturday afternoon.

A combination of the usual suspects has caused recent blogging activity to lag for the last few months (understatement).  As a good prompt to get back into the swing of things, I thought I'd post on my recent trip to the Mayhem Gaming Convention held here in New Hampshire. I was there for the entire time, ran two games, and sold a few bits and bobs at the Sunday flea market. More importantly, I engaged with lots of other gamers, in particular connecting with a cabal of Pikeman's Lament/ Lion Rampant gamers of whom I was not previously aware.  I hope to hear from one of more of them in the follow up.  This post will mainly be pictures, with a bit of context down at the bottom to highlight fellow club members in attendance and my two games--in other words, a light post to get me started again.  Being a US convention, all events were participation games.  Speaking with Josh (the event coordinator), this year's attendance was a bit above 800: good crowd once again. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. Here we go...

 A SAMPLING OF GAMES

CONSPIRATORS

Fellow members of my gaming club in action...

Running Games

Phil (red shirt) running his Dewey at Manila Bay game

Earl (blue and white club shirt) running his French and Inidan War Rebels and Patriots game.

AJ (blue and white club shirt) running his One Hour Skirmish WWII game (above left) and his Electronic Brigadier game.

Michael Bailey briefing players for his Cruel Seas game (he also ran a 28mm pirate game later that day--I didn't get a shot of that one). 

Your humble correspondent (in crown) running his Saturday Night Joust game...

...two shots of my Friday: Pikeman's Lament game set in the Eastern Renaissance (Poles vs Cossacks). General Dice was with the Poles, skewing the results, which can happen in this family of rules, but the players understood that this how it can  sometimes go in this system and so maintained an excellent attitude and a good time was had by all.

Robert (seated at far end of table) running his 15mm Napoleonic game. 

Playing Games

From left to right, Robert, Byron, and Michael, playing in the Griff Memorial Cup game.

Charlie (blue and white club shirt) in action in AJ's Electronic Brigadier game. 

Dr Dick (standing at left) playing in a Napoleonic game on Saturday morning. 

Phil, bearded at left (not in a club shirt: out of uniform!) playing in an air game. 

CONCLUSION

I'm awful with names, so I'll just mention an appreciation for the players in my games. First, the Friday night Pikeman's Lament crew (above), the good-sport Cossacks (left) and the victorious Poles (right)...

...and the six jolly jousters in my Saturday Night joust, who rousted, boasted, and wagered to the end. Thanks to all for making it another quality experience for me as a game host.

I'm looking forward to hosting again at Mayhem '27!

Excelsior!

NEW YEAR: NEW STUFF (LION RAMPANT II RESOURCES)

 

A group of us are gearing up to present a club "game day" in April pitting Mongols vs Western forces using the Lion Rampant II rules. For those who may not be familiar, our club generally has one Saturday "game day" per year that features a large format event. This year, we will be putting 650, 28mm figures down across three connected tables, with 18-24 players divided into two teams (Mongols vs Westerners). In support of our efforts, I have put together a few more products and updated the  Lion Rampant II Resource page. 

So, to put the bottom line at the bottom, this post is simply an announcement that the aforementioned resource page has been updated with the following...

LION RAMPANT II: 

THE MISSING TERRAIN EFFECTS CHART

(V1 and V2)

The chart is divided into the definitions of the terrain categories (top) and then the specific types of terrain and the categories they fall into (bottom).  Items in parenthesis are conditional effects. 

I made a similar product for Pikeman's Lament but had not yet done one for LR II. So, in preparation for Game Day, I did one for LRII. There are two versions. Version 1 (with the yellow header) conforms to the rules. Version 2 (with the black header) is a modified version. Regarding the modified version, we added a narrow stream and modified the ditch effects (combining both on the same line). They both affect movement and close combat, but have not effect on missile combat. They are both on the same pdf for efficiency. Just be aware of which one you are using if you grab these.

LION RAMPANT II PLOY CARDS

These are drawn from the special leader characteristics and others inspired by them and put on small cards. The concept is that these can be cut out and given to players to employ as one-off events (which is how we'll be using them during the Game Day).  You can use these in addition to the leader effects (they aren't exclusive of one another), but these provide a way to incorporate these effects into the game in more discrete ways.  I'll probably work up a version of these for Pikeman's Lament. 

Exceslior!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Burgomeister of Oberkringleburg

Been a lull in time and energy available for hobby posts (life gets in the way of art...nothing nasty, just the usual stuff). But I can find time to at least mark the season and send along holiday greetings. 

And for any new readers interested in a bit of seasonal nonsense who may not have seen previous Xmas reportage from Kringleland, feel free to check out the December 22, 2022 Post.

 To regular visitors and accidental lurkers out there in the blogosphere...

✨ Merry Christmas!  ✨

Excelsior!