AN AUGUST GAME NIGHT

 

The view across the room as the club gathers for the August Game Night. 

Despite the ongoing constraints catalogued in recent posts, there are still interludes of hobby activity.  This last Friday, I headed out to our club's monthly Game Night, which will be the subject of this post.  Unfortunately, I don't have details of the course of the particular games, so this will be more of a "virtual visit" on the general goings on. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post.

The evening kicked off, as all do, with the club president (currently Byron, above), introducing the slate of games and welcoming guests, of which there were many (five or six, by my count). On this particular club night we also had a strong turn out from members (more on that anon), a definite sign (fingers crossed) that we've moved out of the long shadow of COVID and back into the swing of things.  As usual, for our game nights there were three games scheduled:

Greg (standing) ran a 28mm Great Northern War game (Swedes v Russians) using his modified Test of Resolve rules. 

Greg is known for his superb figures and presentation, and this game lived up to expectations. 

Bob O (briefing players, above) ran the second game, a 15mm Battle of Plevna game (Russo Turkish War) using his innovative set of modifications for Command and Colors.  

On a previous game night, I played in one of Bob's RTW games using this system and can attest to its viability--and Bob runs a top notch game as well. He has created his own decks of cards that he had professionally printed, and all of his other game materials (which he produced) look as if they came out of a retail box: a good looking game with great components (and an interesting era!).

AJ, seated at right, put on the third game, a Clash of Spears game pitting Romans against Carthaginians.

This is a new system to our club, so AJ had the added challenge of running a teaching game to a group of players who were starting from zero (in a group like ours, there is usually at least one person per side who has some familiarity with a given system and can help move things along: not so this night).  Nevertheless, we (I played in this game) were all up and running after several turns and were able to bring the game to completion in the time allotted (a Carthaginian win--the good guys for this night, since I was among them).  AJ has quite an impressive collection of ancients, both for mass battle and skirmish systems. 

In our club, we generally have someone bring a "stand bye" fourth game (something that is easily transportable and a light setup) just in case we have a heavy turnout and need more seats. That (happily) was the case this last game night.  With 24 gamers in the room, the August Game Night was august, indeed! We needed a the fourth, overflow, game, and Gordon (seated at left) stepped up in grand on short notice to set up and run a Star Wars Armada game.

The club is, generally speaking, focused on historical miniatures, but it has in recent years broadened its range into the so-called "alt" gaming genres, sci fi being among them (and growing in popularity).  

 

Having been consumed for the last two months or so with "real life" issues that have caused me to view my hobby collection mainly as a problem that needed to be solved, this game night came along at just the right time--and I'm glad that I pushed myself to attend. It provided a timely and important reminder that the hobby is not just about figures and terrain. 

Excelsior!