The 2nd Tactica tale

Black ops on the high seas

Ship Ahoy

Table top Saxony make port at Tactica

And so another Tactica has come and gone.  This year’s theme was a blast from the past with old wargames. But first the arrival of the table top Saxony project, aka the big ship, aka the James Bond game was a bit unique for me. The big ship is about 2 meters longs and about 0.4 meters wide.  The container it arrived in looked a lot like an open coffin and there was some humming of the funeral march as it was being carried through the hall. Equally amusing was being able to lay down the mat and push the boat out of the container and then say the set-up was finished bar some minor adjustments. To top it off we were promoted to the big boys room this year.

Mr Bond  sneaks around the poop deck looking for unsecured rear entrance

Mini-Bonds contemplate their next move while Alex brazenly reveals his plan to over the world in the next round

A quick sweep of the hall showed a good mix of the usual suspects such as THS doing another Napoleon in Egypt game and some new players like a very nice Game of Thrones themed SAGA set-up. During the sweep a couple of items that fell into the purchased stuff bag.  Along with the Perry miniatures, THS Napoleon in Egypt presentation and some others are pushing me towards a Napoleonic Egypt project.  With the set-up and tour done we went back to the apartment for a quick game of Zombies to hone our skills in the event of a zombie apocalypse

THS rowing in with another great napoleon in Egypt game

For our participation game we used Osprey’s Black Ops rules coupled with Necromunda sentry rules. The plan was to run three different missions. But the rules are pretty elegant and first time players quickly picked them up and the games moved a lot faster than we thought. The games pretty cinematic with Bond weaving through goon-fire to save the lady and blow up the ship or to sometimes go down in a hail of bullets.  The quick turnaround in the games was fortunate because the game ended up being a lot more popular than we expected and we had to run extra games to meet demand with a few people returning later in the day try to a different mission or play the game with their friends.  Visiting the event were the guys from Crooked Dice who make the 7TV rules which we had considered using for the game. Judging by their looks at the ship I suspect there may be a ship theme game at their table at Salute this year. Also passing through were the folks from wargames soldiers and strategy. Hopefully some of the photographs of ship will make it onto their blog.

Winter walking dead

Last stand f the wildings

One bonus about a two day event with a group participation game is there is more time check out the other games and exhibits.  The Theme room was a trip down nostalgia road with airfix kits, Battlemaster and 1st additions 40k, etc all on display. Even better some of the games were participation games so you could roll some battlemaster dice again (I think my set is in an attic back back home).

Playmobil clash of ancient empires

Another thing I am trying to do is to take part in more participation games by clubs and vendors. I am keen to more of this at future shows but one day events like Salut and Crisis make it more difficult to get the time. But two days if fine to  try more than one game. I Got to play SAGA game of thrones.  The idea was to take the SAGA game and create battleboards for Game of Thrones fractions.  ICs and myself took control of some undead white walkers trying stop some wildlings from fleeing to safety. The SAGA homemade rules did a great job capturing the relentless nature of an undead horde even though the wildlings had some powerful fighters and buckets of saga dice compared to the white walkers. Fatigue and relentless numbers wore down the wildings until they were not more. Amazing terrain and and some well themed figures made this game standout for me. There was much muttering afterwards about starting a game of thrones based saga campaign.

somewhere in Afghanistan

force on force with a fast moving Taliban Photobomber in background

Next up was force on force playing as a SEAL team hunting a person of interest in Afghanistan . Unfortunately SEAL team 6.5 had all hands man down half way through the second turn. Apparently I am destined for a bad end as US navy SEAL due an inability to roll 4+ on many many D12s. Still not a bad introduction to the game on a magnificent table.

High water mark of the coalition assault on the compound.
Unfortunately it was just the deployment phase:(

The fox and hound as a hidden counters in muskets and rapiers

Last but not least I got to try musket and rapiers, (Musket and Tomahawks danish style).  The Danish guys who were at Tactica last year as spectators and actually played our M&T game returned. This time sporting a Danish history theme M&T game set in the 2nd Danish-Swedish war. ICs played the sneaky Danes intent on mischief in the night while I controlled the Swedish supply convoy in camp  The Danes made short work of the sentries and the sleeping collaborators but the alarm was raised before stolen convoy could slip away.  The rest of the game was spent with the Danish trying to escape with the stolen supplies while the Swedish chased after them. Fortunately the game timeout before the Danes could make their escape.

Danes trying to escape with a stolen supplies

With Swedish dragons giving chase

For next year, Alex did not seem happy when I suggested we should cut the ship in half and then cut it at an angle so both ends were sticking up out of the table and have Bond and friends trying to escape from a sinking ship. That idea sank fast, no imagine that man ;)

Ever evil villain next a gold fish tank

Overall a great weekend away. The two day event is a nice change of pace from the mad dash I experience at one day events like Salut or Crisis. more photos can be found here

Now I just need to convince Franco the DGG should put on a game for Salut next year  :)

That is all for now thanks for stopping by