Spur-of-the-moment Historicon 2018: The Games

The Evil Leader and his Mad Scientist keep a lookout on the top floor of their secret hideout inside a ruined chapel

I had not preregistered for any games before I left because this was such a spur of the moment trip. Jason was scheduled to arrive at 3:30 pm, and we had planned to hit up our favorite buffet, Dieners, for dinner that night. So, I was looking only for an evening game on Thursday, the first day of the convention. I went through the booklet and marked games that sounded interesting. I even prioritized them somewhat, since I didn't want to hold up the event registration line. However, every single game I was interested in was sold out on Thursday night. World War II was extremely popular this year -- I would estimate that 1/3 of the games were WW II. I rarely play this period for a couple reason. I am absolutely uninterested in tanks. You can talk to me about Stugs, Panzers, Shermans, Tigers -- whatever -- and my eyes immediately begin to glaze over. The other reason is I feel that if rules writers are an accurate simulation of the conflict, Germany would have conquered the world. Too many seem to be in love with the Nazis, which kind of rubs me the wrong way.

One of the "extras" belonging to my Evil opponent in Jason's 7TV game I played in on Friday night

Anyway, Jason was stuck in traffic, as an accident shut down the freeway, putting him three hours behind. He HAD registered for a game, so I just made sure I was ready to shuttle him quickly through the stowing his luggage at our hotel, registering for the convention, and finding his game. We accomplished all that in about a half hour, and he was able to make his 7pm game. I decided to walk across the street and have dinner and a beer at the Lancaster Brewing Company taproom across the street. By good fortune, who should sit down next to me at the bar but prolific rules writer from Too Fat Lardies, Richard Clarke? We had an absolute blast chatting away about rules, History, our two countries, and more. Three hours (and quite a few beers) whipped by and I was soon hurrying back over to the convention to meet Jason as his game ended.

My extras had military training and quickly began to whittle away at my opponent's troops

We went back to our room -- Jason had booked a double room at Tru by Hilton, a new modern hotel about a five minute walk away from the Lancaster Host Resort (just past the Classic Inn, for those who know that one). While we talked, I went through Friday's event listing prioritizing my event choices. Historicon would have trouble all weekend printing their event tickets for attendees to register for games. Both Friday and Saturday's events did not go out until those mornings -- instead of 4pm the day before, as usual. Hopefully, they get that worked out for next year. It really kind of handicaps those who want to run or play in a morning event if people don't have access to it the day before! Perhaps they kept event preregistration open too long, and it was too complex of a process to figure out how many tickets to print out for each based on open slots.

The missile silo in the early phases of the game, with my "Star" taking possession of it

Luckily, I got my first choice -- Jason's 7TV game with the good guys attacking an evil scientists' lair. He set it up with three separate scenarios running on the same table simultaneously -- much like I do with my French & Indian War games using my Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules. I am pretty sure this is the first time that I have ever played in one of Jason's games -- and I've known him for more than 30 years! Usually, if he and I are at a convention and one of us is running a game it is ME doing so. I helped him carry everything over and set up a bit beforehand.

The Missile Silo opens up in preparation for warhead launch, as one of my extras takes cover by the heavy metal doors

Jason's game (and the rules) were a lot of fun. My opponent in my scenario was a great guy, and we had a blast chatting all throughout the game. Both of us were being very fair -- deferring to others on line of sight and other questions. It is always a good thing when you roll the dice at a convention and come up with a good opponent. We have all been in games where a sourpuss or poor sport ruins the experience. Not so this time, and my opponent even paid me the compliment afterwards of saying what made the game most fun was gaming with me. The rules were relatively easy to pick up, once you wrapped your head around the sequence and the combat process. On each of the 9 turns of the game, each player turns over a countdown card -- a random event, of sorts -- which generally allows it to do some extra things prior to their turn. Once the turn itself begins, players spend out "plot points" -- think command points more than victory points -- to move and combat with their figures.

Jason's table in the second game on Saturday morning with pairs of opponents playing on their portion of the table

In the early going, I had my opponent on the ropes. My military trained "extras" (as opposed to your Star and Co-Star) had picked off three of the enemy to no losses myself. It wasn't just that I was using good cover, my guys seemed to be just a tad better than his (though we had fewer), and I took advantage of a few poor die rolls of his. One of his countdown cards turned the tables, though, and I loss two of my extras in one turn. The game went back and forth until the final turn. For my opponent's fortune card, he turned up one that allowed one of his figures to sprint towards the missile silo to "claim" it (up to that point, my figures had been closer, and thus had it under control). This gave him the edge in victory points, as I had inflicted more losses on him. Great game! If you like a game with some random components -- the countdown cards -- that can mix things up a bit and disrupt carefully laid plans. .Jason was running it again the next morning (alas, on a different table...). So, we packed up, moved everything, and set it up again before calling it a night.

My faction's two freighters which were bringing arms to this fictional African nation undergoing an Islamist insurgency

On Saturday, I signed up for a gaming being run by the guys from Miniature Building Authority. It was set in modern Africa and would feature some of their excellent 28mm terrain that they sell at conventions and online. The scenario featured an insurgent attack on a port town. The government forces had recently been reinforced by a U.S. contingent. Just to add some confusion to the mix, a criminal faction was at the port trying to make a weapons delivery to the insurgents and some other locals. I played the criminals, trying my best to not get caught in between the shooting by the two insurgent forces and the government and U.S. contingents. We had half our forces in the port on two freighters, and a poorer armed half on the opposite side of the table. Their mission was to hijack two trucks and drive them to the port for pickup of the arms.

An insurgent IED takes out a police vehicle and most of the police station -- and some of their own forces!

This was definitely a game of "best laid plans going astray," as the violence opened with the insurgents setting off an IED which took down the police station (killing half the prisoners they wanted to rescue), as well as the truck they were sending on their own to the port to pick up their arms. No doubt, inside that overturned white van was our payment for the arms! Although the opening shots went to the insurgent side, it quickly became obvious that the U.S. player was on a roll. His shooting was accurate and overwhelming, as he took down Islamist group after group. His patrol vehicles aggressively scoured the town, shooting up anything that looked like an insurgent.

My sailors on the docks awaiting vehicles to load the arms onto and moving to take positions to secure the port area

My two hijacked trucks were in cross hairs, but he ended up deciding not to shoot. However, he or the government player shut down all five of the routes that I could cross the town towards the port on. As one route was closed off by heavy firefights, I redirected to another -- only to have that one become a shooting gallery, as well. I kept going for backup after backup until I had only one option, which was blocked by two insurgent technicals dueling it out with the U.S. forces. It was only after the insurgents in the pickup trucks were gunned down that I was able to burn rubber and zip across the main route along the beach, into the squatter town, and towards the port.

Insurgents pop up on rooftops to engage the U.S. and government forces

It was a curious thing -- my forces were maneuvering for position the entire game, but ended up never actually firing a shot. My missions would have been compromised by me opening up on any of the other players, except if they initiated combat. The other players seemed to sense this and never actually targeted my guys. There was one tense moment when I put my entire port force on "overwatch" and told the government security force player if any of his men inside the compound opened up on the insurgents (provoking return fire into the port, near our ships, cargo, and fuel) I would shoot all of them. The government player backed down and the port became a relative safe zone.

A U.S. mounted patrol dismounts to better engage enemy targets in buildings

It was a fun game, but the die rolling of the U.S. player made it horribly one-sided. He suppressed and destroyed each insurgent group as it popped up to fire. The U.S. and government forces took some losses, but they paled next to the massive losses the insurgents suffered. Just as my trucks were arriving near the port, we called the game on time. It was obvious who had won and who had lost. My missions were probably going to be about 75% successful, but I doubtless came in a distant third or second, at best. The rules were MBA's own "Open Conflict" rules, which seemed to me a bit inspired by Force on Force/Ambush Alley. They were easy to learn and did a good job of reflecting the deadliness of modern warfare, yet leaving things open to random chance.

Although heavily armed, my sailors never ended up firing a shot, as we sought to accomplish our objectives

I took pictures of some of the other games going on at Historicon, of course. One, in particular, was not only visually impressive, it was interesting to me. Jeff Allen ran a game of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago for 10 players on both Friday and Saturday night. It was a show-stopped, spectacularly sited in the lobby in front of the main gaming (Distelfink) room. Many people stopped by and took pictures. One of Jeff's purposes was to promote the game, and he did a great job of that. Most people asked what it was and watched some of the action.

The star on a board full of eye candy was this isle with its carved lizard mouth entrance -- with glowing LED lights!

I tried to get into the game both nights and it was sold out. I talked to the GM both nights, and he said that he actually had a couple slots for walkups, too -- registering it for 8 but ending up having 10 player positions by the time he had it ready to go. What I especially liked was his game enticed a number of younger gamers, too. These are the type of events at our shows that can go a long way towards introducing the next generation to our hobby.

The GM could lift off the top of the Lizard Isle to reveal a cave with more glowing LED lights beneath

As a member of the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago Facebook group, I knew something that most observers did not. Most of Jeff's amazing terrain was simply raw styrofoam a week beforehand. Jeff literally worked on the terrain up until the day he ran the game. He said he spent time on Thursday at the convention painting and flocking in a marathon effort to get it ready for the tabletop.

A look at the spectacular South Seas board for Jeff Allen's Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago game

As a GM who runs games that receive praise for how they look on the table, I found that simply amazing. I would never have the guts to trust myself to get this done in such a last-minute fashion! I am such a planner and so "anal-retentive" that I can't imagine loading up unfinished terrain into my car to go to a show. I would be pulling all-nighters beforehand, rather than do that! I do admit that I often -- as a show approaches -- think of some final tweak that I want to complete before the scheduled hosting of the event. More than once, I have loaded miniatures or terrain that were dullcoated less than 24 hours before. So, maybe this deadline pressure is something that all GMs are addicted to -- ha, ha!

Adventurers onto these islands would be intimidated by this altar with a skeleton of a chained prisoner

Jeff's Frostgrave game seemed to be the appropriate, signature event for a spur-of-the-moment trip to Historicon. About the time he was beginning to work on the major portion of his scenery a week before the show, I had finally decided to attend. It was a good trip, all in all, with plenty of spare time at the dealer area or wandering around checking out events. It was a bit light on games played, but considering I usually don't play ANY games when I run events at conventions, something is better than nothing! Thanks to Jason for sharing his room, Chris for allowing me to ride along, and all the GMs and Vendors who helped make my trip a success!!

The steep steps leading up to the pyramid on the temple isle on the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago board