Crisis 2015

First purchase of the day, Ironically I was looking for this on the internet a few days before hand

These days I seem to be more interested in attending wargames shows or running events than actual playing tournaments.  Crisis in Antwerp, I think, the second largest wargames show in Europe.  It had been on the radar for some time but the logistics, it is far away and hard to get to, meant it had not been visited yet.  That changed this year when rumored appeared that some of the natives were planning a trip to the show.  The rumour turned out to be a fact and after one of guys had to drop out at the last minute I got a spot in the car and a trip to Antwerp.

Germans on the move in the Ardennes

So Matthias, Eric, Mike and myself took the nine hour drive to one of europe's wargames Mecca’s.  We made great time thank to Mike and his shiney new car.  We arrived late Friday. We knew a couple of the traders and were able to get some earlier access in exchange for carting stock from various vans to various stalls. We got to see the event pre-access and may have made a few purchase. I have very weak will apparently.

Blast from the past with some 40K action

After a Belgian take away and some beers at the hotel (where most of the traders seemed to be staying) we took a time out to draft the shopping list on the recce on the hall.

Things that go BOOM!! with the League of Augsburg

Traders wise we hit a bit of bad luck. The plan was to see Baccus (6mm Napoleonics), Two Fat Lardies (28mm ww2), and Pendragon (10mm ACW) but they had to pull out for various reasons.  Which was probably better for my wallet in the long term.

DUST (alternative ww2) tank

The interest in 6mm Napoleonics is driven mainly by the release Blucher the next game from the Honour series after Longstreet.  Longstreet in the rules we are using for our current ACW campaign. The game is interesting in that it is a game system around a campaign system rather than the normal game system with the campaign rules being stuck down the the back of the book.  With Blucher again it is something different in this case the pre-game build takes on a Kreigspeil effect (Wargames role playing). In which each player creates his army then splitting it up into columns and sending them out on a small campaign map. At some point on the map the armies meet and the battle begins. Columns really close to the battle location start on table with columns further away arriving later in the game, possible on the flanks. While columns that are too far away miss the battle but get the option of capturing location on the map to give their side a victory point bonus. Potentially it adds a lot of depth to the game in terms of how to build forces, move the army and engaging an enemy.  An added bonus all though not in the rules would be if some kindly soul offered to GM the pre-game phase so come the battle you would have no idea what state your opponent is in at the start of the battle.  He could be caught at a disadvantage or possibly his main force is outflanking you at this very moment.

lots of Napoleonics on display

2016 project

Next on the shopping list was Soldiers of God by Ironfist publishing (AKA Warwick,  the guy who make the battlegroup rules for plastic soldier company). The Battlegroup rules never really appealed to me for some reason. I liked the concepts like having having a set theme and auxiliary units like medics and ammo resupply trucks and I think the force morale system is one of the best on the market. But the activations just seem to bug me and the fact it is the same game regardless if you a a platoon leader, company commander or brigade commander does not appeal to me.  Soldiers of God I hope will be a different experience. The game is set in the Crusades so players can be either Crusaders or Saracens and players use card activations similar to Longstreet to move and fight. I am thinking 15mm legion heroica models for this one sometime next year.

Or maybe the middle east

Muskets and Tomahawks (M&T) got some attention in the form of wargamers Annual books From Charles M Grant. He use to write table top teasers for wargames magazines before branching out on his own and for the last few years had been publishing a wargamers annual similiar to a monthly wargames magazine but every six months or so. I am not sure how that makes it an annual but regardless it was something I was interested in since his table top teasers provide inspiration for many of my own made up games.  My M&T games seem to be getting increasing megaomanicily with the last one being three times the size of a recommended game but still great fun.  Studio Thomahawk were there demonstrating their up coming game Congo. In the game you play one of the fraction in the Belgian Congo in the late 19th century, You could be an explorer, cannibal chief, Soldier of some foreign power, Arab slave trader, etc wandering around the jungle getting into various kind of escapades from hunting man eating lions to rescuing the damsel from the aforementioned cannibals.  It looks promising and should be out for Salut next year.

A lion in the Belgian Congo

I also managed to pick up a Norse Gaels fraction for Saga. These guys are Norse who settled in Dublin and established the city as a trading centre. The inspiration came from a trip to Dublinia last time I was home. I hope the Gaels can be used as any second generation vikings who settled somewhere in Western Europe around the same time period.

So reading for the trip back home

With the shopping out off the way I got to try a nice little gem of a DIY game from a Dutch wargames club called (by me) “The Cognac caravan”.  The theme, a French legionnaire convoy has to reach the fort to re-supply the commander with his Cognac.  Several attempts had been made during the day but none had been successful.  With the BEND OF DOOM sounding particularly ominous when said with a heavy dutch accent.  The convoy started out badly with every rock and dune seemingly hiding rifle armed tuaregs intent causing mayhem. The parade ground formation quickly dissolved as the Irish and German legionnaires had rotated men to minimise loss while struggling to predict where the next attack would come from. Approaching the bend of doom the convoy got managed to get it tactics together ( or more likely the tuaregs ran out of rifle armed warriors). The convoy cleared the bend and passed the high water mark of the previous attempts. Within shouting distance of the fort tuareg cavalry swept past the dunes. The legionnaires opened fire but the numbers were with the cavalry and they made it into contact. Cavalry vs infantry in combat tends not to go well for the infantry. But this time the infantry was able to fight off the cavalry and escape into the fort with the convoy intact.  It was a really nice and simple game playable in twenty to thirty minutes.

The convoy has arrived

Overall a nice day out if a little heavy due to all the driving

Swag

A photo dump movie can be found here

Off topic, your truly has been letting some steam off by blowing sh*t up in Malta recently

Number 2 gun fire

That is all for now thanks for stopping by.