GAME DAY OCT 2023: BIG SHIPS, BIG KNIGHTS, AND THE WAR OF 1812

 

Club members gathering ahead of things getting rolling on Game Day.

Our club recently held its "Game Day" event.  For our regular gaming, we convene once per month on a Friday evening for  "Game Nights."  In addition, we normally schedule one Saturday per year for a "Game Day"--often, this is to run a special event, either a big game or some other format  that we can't do on a game night. This year, things got knocked around by circumstances, and our featured "big game" (based on an engagement from the Seminole Wars--US Cavalry vs Seminoles in Florida), got pulled at the last minute when COVID took down the host (he's fine, thankfully).  I was going to run my Joust for the Fun of It Game alongside the featured game in order to provide more seats for the game day. Rather than cancelling the event, I still put on my game, and the call went out to the membership to put on two other games (which was answered in style). In the absence of a "big game" that would run all day, we were prepared to run a mini convention, with each game being run in a morning and an afternoon session. More on that later in the post.  As it turned out, attendance was impacted by the weather, with a coastal storm swirling into the area promising wretched conditions later in the day, some scheduling complications of several club members, and the COVID hitting a few others (aside from the host of the originally scheduled game). 

Nevertheless, we still had three game masters and twelve players in the room for a 9 a.m. start on a Saturday:  although it was easy to feel a bit disappointed at the turnout given the circumstances this time around, I have to remind myself that our club still mustered 15 people to play historical miniatures on a Saturday morning--not bad, really, and not to be taken for granted.  I was quite busy setting up and then running my Joust for the Fun of It game, so didn't get too many shots of the action in progress, but here's the report...

PIRATES, THE ROYAL NAVY, AND AN EVIL GENIUS

Michael B (standing at left) ran one of his signature 28mm age of sail games using  Blue Waters, Bloody Pirates rules (I believe they are a modified version of an ages of sail set).  For those in the region, Michael will be running this same game at the upcoming Carnage Convention in Killington Vermont. 

Michael is adept at the pirate game genre, and his games always move along with good pace and period flavor, and his big ships are a sight to behold as well!

BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE, WAR OF 1812 

Mark N, seated at left in blue shirt (fellow bloggist of of Come on My Brave Fusiliers! fame) stepped up and ran a 28mm War of 1812 game using a variant of Mr Madison's War rules (streamlined and faster playing, I'm led to believe).  If you skip over to his blog you'll see his report as well as many images of his astonishing collections of War of 1812, American Rev, and Crimean figures (recommended). 

Not only do Mark's games stand out for his splendid research and brushwork, but also for their visual appeal, with large figure count battalions of 16-24  28mm figs.   

JOUST FOR THE FUN OF IT 

And as mentioned, I put on my Joust for the Fun of It! game.  It was a successful dry run of my transport and set up system--I learned a few things that will help when I next set this game up.  One thing I found was that I can stack my boxes and they provide the equivalent of a handy side table where I can keep those bits and pieces that come in handy when running games. 

One new bit of kit that I used in this game was this whiteboard. It was suggested that between rounds it would be good to let players know what the standings were (ie, how many points each player had as they went into each round, which would help to inform how they would manage their match). This turned out to be a great suggestion that really adds to the game experience, particularly as players enter the last round with the standings being tight.  I bought this small white board (with easel), but it didn't fit in with the rest of the theme (all chrome and metal, with a cork pinup bit on the bottom). So I added the wooden frame, covered the cork pin up board with the jousting graphics at the bottom, and produced a themed tile for each team (numbered 1-6 along with their color). I write the player's name over the number and at the end of each round I record the score under the respective tile. 

I was engaged with running the game and so didn't get any in progress shots. As it turned out, my game was the only one that ran in the afternoon (some folks couldn't stay, and a few others had some distance to drive and didn't want to be on the road as dusk approached and the weather got worse).  Both jousts were four player affairs. The morning session was a real cracker, with the players being separated by only a few points (I think the first place player had something like 38 points and the "last", fourth place, player 34. The afternoon session was also a barn burner, with the first place player at 37 points, the next two tied at 34 (the second place determined by tie breaker), and the fourth place player at a distant 22 (poor Randy had the worst run of luck I've every seen). In both the morning and afternoon sessions, the front runner was overtaken by another during the last round and wound up coming in second.  I've run a good number of jousts now, both in the club and at a convention, and the outcomes have thus far been pretty close like this. So I'll take this as an indicator that the game system provides good balance and is viable.  

All in all, it was a fine way to spend a rainy Saturday: indoors with friends playing at toy soldiers!

Excelsior!

TAKING THE JOUST ON THE ROAD

 

I'll be running my Joust for The Fun of It game in our club's upcoming Saturday Game Day later this month. I'll be putting on the big knight version, with the Schleich Knights and associated accessories.  This game presents special challenges given the over-sized figures, the way that they are posed, and the size and number of customized bits I fabricated for the game.  Being retired, I'd like to take this particular game on the road to several US conventions in the upcoming year, so I'm using this opportunity to put together a dedicated system to efficiently and safely transport, set up, and take down the game.  With conventions in the US consisting of participation games, it is not unusual for your table to be occupied in the time slots prior to and after yours. Convention organizers do allow time for setup and take down, but it can still get quite hectic to get ready, particularly if the game ahead of yours runs over, and equally so in the aftermath of your own game as you visit with players while trying to pack up and clear the table (and things never seem to fit back in the way they came out).  So in this blog post, I will share my solution to this challenge. As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post. 

I started off by getting a pack of 24" long letter sized banker's boxes. These are an elongated version of the standard banker's box.   

I then put 2" Pluck Foam sheets into the boxes (two 12" x 12" sheets fit into each)... 

...and then plucked (as the name suggests) squares of foam to create a custom space for each fig. Given the size of the figures and the length of the lances, the figures fit in puzzle like: The first box was fairly simple, but the second box turned out to be much more involved. The idea of specialized foam slots for figs is not a new idea, of course. It's quite common among fantasy/sci gamers in particular for some of their  more high end/high priced models (many of which are quite large). I managed to get all 24 of my knights into two boxes. 

I managed to configure the heralds, characters, flags, and stands in a single box.  The reviewing stand (included in the above right image) nests over the heralds. 

I put together a separate "logistics" box (above left) which contains all the non figure stuff that goes on the table (the score board, the lists, the team trays, the list signs, etc). This way, I pull things from each box in turn while setting up as opposed to having to go between boxes.  I also put together a "game master" tub (above right). This has all the stuff to actually run/play the game (the rules, reference sheets, ploy cards, tracking mats and markers, dice, pencils, clip boards, etc, etc).  

The devil is in the details, of course, with customized storage. You want to not only be able to easily tell which box is which when setting up, but the real challenge  comes when you try to put things back--particularly under a time constraint. Not only do you need to get the right figure into the right box, but also into the right spot in the "puzzle." To help with this, I came up with a one-brain-cell solution that anyone can follow: I put a picture of the contents on the box lid.

Above: the complete game system compartmented into four bankers boxes and one tub--a fairly compact and easily transported configuration for such a large layout. The figures and foam are not heavy, so those boxes are an easy lift. The game master tub has a bit of heft, but is easily managed.  Most of all, when I want to hit the road, all I have to do is load things into their pre-designated spots and go. The only thing not included are the three game mats that I use (one under each list). These are Fat Mats (Grassy Field); each comes with a handy carrying case, so they fit quite nicely into this portability scheme. 

Some may think this is all a bit "over the top." But my experience has been that this kind of work done up front allows me to focus on other things once I'm at the convention. I also generally prefer to run convention games as opposed to playing in them, so I consider time invested in systems to set up and run games as much a part of the hobby as painting figures. 

Excelsior!