CLUB OPEN GAME DAY

 

Gamers  gathering and perusing the tables at the start of the Open Game Day.

Last Saturday (Oct 19), our club (The Northern Conspiracy) held it's first open game day. Our club is located in Northern New England, with members from New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont, and it meets once per month for a game night gaming session at a venue in New Hampshire. Once or twice per year, we hold a "Game Day" on a Saturday. These are usually big games or linked table campaigns that are all day affairs.  However, we sometimes run multiple smaller games on our game days--an extended version of our game nights that allow people to get in a full day of gaming.  This year, we decided to do some outreach and held an Open Game Day. Although we certainly were interested the usual--introducing our club to new prospective members--a major aim was to showcase historical miniatures gaming to the larger community of gamers. Towards these ends, we hosted a range of participation games, five in the morning and three in the afternoon. The idea was to have games that weren't too challenging in terms of rules, that would be in known/popular periods (like WWII), or that would demonstrate the visual appeal of other, lesser known periods, showcasing the range of options available in historical gaming. Here is a run down of the games (I ran my joust, which is the last in this report). As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. 

Battle of Rhode Island, 28mm American War of Independence 

AJ (standing at the end of the table) briefing the players.

AJ ran his Electronic Brigadier American War of Independence Game with a full compliment of players. AJ's eBrigadier games have quite a following and are always a draw. He is working on expanding it beyond AWI in the future. 

Rome Vs Carthage, 28mm Ancients

Bob O seated at the end of the table

Bob O has put together a faster playing multiplayer variant of Command And Colors Ancients, complete with superb custom made cards and wooden trays to organize and hold them. He has put together a similar C&C variant for the Russo Turkish War. This game pitted a Carthaginian force under Hannibal's brother (Magon) against an equal sized Roman force under Varo trying to block him from linking up with Hannibal. 

Operation Epsom, 15mm World War Two

John M (yellow hat) getting players ready for his game.

John M ran a game of Blitzkrieg Commander set during the Normandy Breakout. John's specialty is World War Two (gaming and history), and his games are always appealing and fun to play. This one was no different.

Invasion of Norway, 1:1800 World War Two Naval 

One of our naval experts, Ross, put something on for the naval gamers using the elegantly simple War at Sea rules pitting a German force transporting troops for an invasion of Oslo against an intercepting allied force. Unfortunately, I only managed to get a few shots of this game during setup. 

The Battle of Carchemish, 650 BCE, 28mm Ancients

Ralph (blue vest) setting up.

This was (unfortunately) one of two games that I only managed to capture set up pictures for. Ralph and Charlie used Ralph's fast play "Hannibal at the Gates" ancients rules for the "anchor" game of the afternoon session, featuring a striking table festooned with clashing chariots and all the other colorful trappings that Babylonians, Medes, Scythians, and Egyptians bring.  Ralph's terrain pieces always add much to his games, and the feature of this one was this stunning aqueduct. 

V2 Rocket Heist, 28mm World War Two

Rob, cap at the end of the table, setting up his Iron Cross World War Two game. Again, I didn't capture any images of the game in progress, but the premise of it was an inventive mix of "adventure" and history, with Polish partisans, Home Army, and British Paras trying to capture a crashed V2 rocket and smuggle components of it out for analysis. The V2 models on the table were quite arresting (Rob is among our club's 3D printers, and creates lots of interesting materials for his and other people's games, the V2 rockets on this table being among them). 

Jousting, 28mm Medieval

Your humble correspondent (standing in black and white club shirt) briefing players during the morning joust. 

My contribution was to ran my Joust for the Fun of It game.  I ran this twice, once in the morning session and once in the afternoon. I had four players in the morning and six in the afternoon, a mix of club members and guests in both. So in my game alone there were ten players for the day. One new thing I added was the "leader crown" (seen in the upper left picture). This is worn by the player who is in the lead after each match--a mixed honor since it also serves as a target, letting other players know who they need to take down a few pegs if the chance arises (great fun). 

Summary

Although I don't have the numbers, counting the two iterations of my game, attendance was such that it floated eight viable games, with something between 4 and 6 per table (I think AJ's E Brigadier game may have had 8). Attendance in the morning session was higher than the afternoon, but all games ran. Many among the guests were new to historical miniatures gaming, one who had been invited by a club member later told him, "I can't believe how much I liked that historical gaming!"  Of course, club members were in attendance as well and had a fine day out, too. It's always good to get together to game in the club, but it was also a great experience to meet others who came to play. We'll be reprising the open game day again next year. If you're in our neck of the woods, watch for it. 

Excelsior!

SEPTEMBER GAME NIGHT

 

The buzz in the room as things get underway during the September Game Night.

Our club recently (well, a bit over two weeks ago...) held its September Game Night. A blast of extreme weather came through the region and caused a few folks to not hazard the trip, so attendance was a bit down.  Even with the lower turnout, there were still a few guests in the mix and enough players to support all three games (our club standard is to have three games to choose from on each game night).  This particular game night had an unplanned theme, Civil Wars in America, with two ACW games (one naval and one land), and an AWI game. 

George ran an ACW Ironclads game using Bob Cordery's Portable Naval Wargame system.  The game ran smoothly and they were able to reset it and run it twice.

Charlie ran a robust Regimental Fire and Fury game (a club favorite): with plenty of troops and shooting to get stuck into!

AJ ran AWI game based on the Battle of Freeman's Farm using his innovative Electronic Brigadier  system. For those not familiar with it, I would encourage you to follow the link to AJ's Electronic Brigadier Youtube channel. This is where I plopped myself down, so a brief game report follows...

The situation: British on the right, Americans on the left. The game was originally designed for six players, but we had four at the table, so AJ adjusted by pulling two of the commands. Each player had a brigade, each shown with a box (red for British, Blue for Americans). Randy (top left) and I took up the American cause and Kevin (top right) and Earl , took up the British. Kevin commanded a mostly British force while Earl pushed Hessians. The British objective (in yellow) was to both clear a corridor and establish a unit on the hill. The Americans had to block them from doing so. Given the challenge, the Crown's forces were of higher quality with a slight advantage in numbers. 

(Left) The starting view from behind Randy's brigade on the American left: Morgan's Rifles and Dearborn's lights deployed followed by two battalions of militia and a light artillery section marching up. (Right) The starting view from behind my brigade on the American right: all marching in column: three continental battalions (of mid to low quality) and one battalion of militia. 

Opposite me would be the British Left: Earl's Hessian brigade, seen at start.

I sent my best unit (the 2nd New Hampshire) on a march across the front of Earl's fast approaching Hessians in order to harry Kevin's advance against Randy on our left, where we were under the most direct threat.  They took some lumps from fire as they went past, but arrived in good order. To delay Earl, I sent one of my NY continentals to the right to pull attention in that direction, and defended in depth in front of the his Hessian main thrust, putting my militia out front and my other NY continentals holding a position in some light woods behind them. With the 2nd NH engaged in the center, I would be both outnumbered and outclassed by Earl's Hessians--not enough to defeat them, but the idea was it would be enough to hold on. 

Things get under way... 

...and the Americans, Randy and I (in black shirt), watch the British/Hessian steamroller advance straight at us (Earl not being hindered in the least by my best evil eye). 

The 2nd New Hampshire would lock horns with the 34th Foot, exchanging fire toe to toe, for the bulk of the game. Eventually, the 2nd NH would retire but rally back behind the NY continentals. 

Randy's position on the American left: Kevin's British are pushing hard, and the American line is stretched one deep to cover the zone and block the British end run. 

Mid battle, and the entire American line is engaged, with the British/Hessians pushing hard. A hard pounding!

...End game.  Randy looks on with a sense of relief (shared by me, out of the picture), as the attrition finally catches up with the British/Hessians and several of their units fall back in disorder. The American line, battered and wavering at times, held in the end.  A good game, indeed, and a near run thing! Another excellent game delivered by AJ and his Electronic Brigadier system!

An integral part of any game night, visiting with friends around the table afterwards: and looking forward to more games to come!

Excelsior!