Vikings Raid Angland Again at DayCon 2025

    Here I am at DayCon 2025, running my 'Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon Town' game for a full table

I feel very lucky that the games that I run at our local conventions always seem to fill up. As a GM, I've been in that awful position of preparing for a game, packing everything up, hauling it to the convention, setting it up again there, and then sitting around and having no players. That's a frustrating feeling, but I feel so fortunate I haven't had to deal with that in awhile. Whether through word of mouth, or my cool-looking terrain and figs, or just luck of the draw, my games tend to fill up. And so it was at DayCon 2025 with my running of my Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon Town. 

    My scratch-built Saxon church is the ultimate goal of the Viking players -- where most treasure is

My friends Terry H and John L both signed up, along with four other players I had not met (or don't remember meeting) previously. The rules I am using, Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers, are quick to teach before the game and easy for players to learn. I like the idea of a cooperative game at a convention, too, but I also enjoy tossing in a little competitive rivalry, too. The player whose Vikings earned the most loot would be the winner. In this case, Bjorn Ironside just edged out John L's Ulf for most silver pieces looted. I believe the score was 33-31, though I did not write it down. The players all said they had fun and thanked me for running the game. 

    Ragnar Lothbrok is surrounded by a horde of Saxon fyrd and a mounted hearthguard

Unlike the last time I ran this at Cincycon, none of the Vikings made it to the church. They all got sidetracked early on by Saxon reinforcements popping up near them. It takes a concerted push by players to make it to the church courtyard, batter down the shieldwall of Saxon hearthguard, and get into the church. Of course, looting the bodies of the Saxon defenders is a valid strategy itself. Every game, it seems there is one of the six Viking raider leaders whose band never ventures far from its deployment area. A combination of random arrivals tends to hem them in early. John L's Ulf the Wise was one of those player in this game. He had mounted Saxon hearthguard gallop down upon his raiders (on the "Wandering Monster" card) more than once. John's three characters stayed close together, though, and helped each other. They also did the 1-2 punch of "You kill him, I will loot his body" that allowed him to grab silver pieces steadily all game long.

    Saxon bowmen engage in a long-range archery duel with Terry's unfortunate Viking archer

Terry and Shauna's Floki and Lagertha, respectively, seemed to have the worst luck. Shauna's rolls were so bad she handed my dice back to me and pulled out her own. Those proceeded to roll even worse! In fact, I would say in the half dozen times I've run this scenario, I think she's had the most misfortune I've witnessed! Like John, her trio of raiders did not make it far off their baseline. A steady progression of Saxons arrived from the trees to the left, often in the form of hordes (2-6 foes that activate and fight the raiders together). Her leader, Floki, was involved in a duel with a mounted Saxon hearthguard for half the battle, it seemed. Shauna would do everything she could to give Floki the best odds to wound or slay the rider, and she would flub the die roll!

    Well-disciplined Saxon hearthguard kept in their shieldwall in front of the church by their captain

Terry's Lagertha was the only group to lose a raider, his bad-luck archer. Lagertha and his swordsman Fafnir advanced quickly through a gap between houses, leaving their archer companion to shoot at some distant foes. What should arrive eventually, but a horde of Saxon archers to oppose him? The Viking lasted for a few turns, dodging arrows and picking off Saxon bowmen. However, eventually, with no shield and no armor, he suffered one arrow would too many. Like Boromir in the Lord of the Rings, he fell, riddled with arrows. 

    The players laughed and celebrated their rivals' successes, and commiserated on their bad dice rolls

At Cincycon, I accidentally left all of my Saxon archers behind. So, in the first game, I used substitute figures for the six who begin the game on the board. After that, I made all of the arriving defenders be hand-to-hand fighters. In the second Cincycon game, I even left out the archers entirely. I definitely think the Saxon defenders are more potent when they have archers -- especially if they show up via an Event Card as a horde. That's what happened in this game, and it is more of a challenge for the players. They have to spend actions on movement to close with and kill the archers. Otherwise, if they ignore them, they will get sniped and begin to lose wounds steadily. Still, at DayCon, only one Viking died. In one of the games at Cincycon, I think the Vikings lost 2-3 raiders. So, this outing wasn't the most deadly.

    Rollo (Ragnar's brother) bursts into a Saxon home and confronts an elderly Saxon couple

Sellswords is an excellent rules set for a cooperative game. I really like how the player's activation failures lead to Event Cards being drawn, which enables the foes to attack (or new ones appear on table). In fact, this usually leads to a flow, or the feeling that there is a storyline directing the defender's actions. There will be times when the players succeed on their activation rolls, and the defenders seem to be back on their heels, reeling under the Viking's blows. Then, someone will roll three failures, and they seem to be rejuvenated, and reinforcements arrive and press home the counter-attack. For people interested in a cooperative or solo game, I would encourage them to take a look at these rules. They're available both on Ganesha's website and on Wargame Vault.

    Lagertha and her swords Fafnir fight off the attack of a defending Saxon archer

The Viking Raid will appear several more times in the coming months. Jenny will run it at Buckeye Game Fest (Thursday evening and Friday morning). I will run it at Drums at the Rapids on the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions. And finally, it will be at Origins nearly all convention long, Thursday through Saturday. So, if you've wanted to try it out, make plans to show up to one of these excellent conventions and try your luck at raiding an Anglo-Saxon town!

    The deadliest defenders on the board are the mounted Saxon hearthguard who charge into contact

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

DayCon 2025 Purchases

DayCon is a smaller, regional convention that I've been attending regularly since Randy and Angel Miller began running it. A few years ago, it expanded from a Saturday game day to a Friday and Saturday weekend convention. Like last year, I decided to drive over for just Saturday, though. I would be running my Viking Town Raid game in the afternoon slot. I also was bringing a large amount of Saga terrain to sell to Fireland Games. When I stepped back from running tournaments, they asked if I would be willing to part with some of the terrain that I had made for the tourneys, and we agreed upon a price.

With a nice wad of cash in my wallet, you knew that I would not be able to resist picking up some things from the vendors. One vendor in attendance was Sword & Scabbard Games with a lot of their 3-D printed terrain. I picked up the above wooden ruin because it was different. I have lots of stone ruins, but no wooden ones. Plus, I knew I would be able to paint it up quickly. Primer, base coat, wet brush, and dry brush and it will be done. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks all painted up -- it looked great on their vendor table! It reminds me a lot of an Acheson terrain piece in style and heft.

I also picked up this piece of terrain from Sword & Scabbard. It is a nice flat ruins piece representing the floor of a temple or other columned building. I keep telling myself that I need to scratch build some flat ruins pieces to fill in the spaces between my ruined buildings. I saw this and felt it would work even for modern or post-apocalyptic games. Many government buildings in Europe and America have Greek style columns. So, this should be fairly versatile, too. Plus, like the wooden ruin, it should paint up real quickly. Although, as Scott Gray and I sat there talking, he suggested that you could even do a mosaic like pattern with the tiles. That may add an extra step or two if I try it.

My friend Abel had picked up one of these earlier in the day and showed it to me. It is a 3-D printed turn marker, intended for Saga, but could be used for any game where you need to keep track of turns. I always try to support the vendors at our regional conventions, so added it to my purchase from Sword & Scabbard. I think I will paint the seated king as a stone statue to make it go quicker. I like the way it looks and will be fun little turn marker to have on the board.

I have always had a soft spot for gnolls since way back from the D&D days. When I dropped off the Saga terrain with James of Fireland Games, I saw this box sitting on the dealer table. One of the things James and Rusty from Fireland do is sell individual sprues. They will open a box and sell you just one sprue if you want. Since gnolls are basically hyena men, I thought they'd fit in with my Sellswords & Spellslingers solo games. Rather than just pick up one, which would have been enough for that, I decided to pick up three -- thinking ahead to one day playing Dragon Rampant (2nd Edition coming soon, by the way!) and having enough for a 12-figure unit.

I still prefer metal miniatures over plastic. However, I have found that the Frostgrave/Stargrave figures go together well enough that even a super-glue incompetent like me assemble. Have the legs and torso come together makes it doable. I just have glue on the arms (the harder part) and the head (usually the easy part), and then glue it to its base. In fact, these will probably be easier than the Stargrave figures I have glued together because you don't have to somehow match the shooting right arm exactly up with the supporting left hand. All of the weapons the gnoll arms are holding appear to be one handed.

Of course, my purchases mean I keep throwing off my Painted vs. Acquired ratios...ha, ha! I'm actually ahead on Terrain painted, though, and within sight of catching up on Scatter. However, I'm in the red significantly on Miniatures, though -- especially with my huge 28mm Vietnam purchase. I've picked up some other figures here and there, too (like these gnolls). On the bright side, though, it is only April. I have till December to catch up! Plus, spring is always a busy convention season around here, so that means more opportunities to support the dealers!  

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

Cincycon 2025 Purchases

    Do you have one of these? You would if you had attended Cincycon 2025 like I did this past weekend

It's Monday after Cincycon 2025, so that means it is time for a quick overview of my acquisitions from the convention. My spending was certainly not over the top at this convention, partially because there were only so many vendors that carried things I needed. I would also like to take credit for being more disciplined in spending, but I know that is likely a matter of opinion! I spent about $100 at the show, but did not attempt to offset that with flea market sales or similar. I did recently receive birthday money, so I guess I could say I was just buying presents for myself!

    3-D printed "dead trees" from A Critical Hit to enlarge my growing (??) dead forest

I dropped the biggest amount of money at the booth for A Critical Hit. Blair carries 3-D printed scatter terrain and has greatly expanded her line since I first saw her last year at Cincycon. She makes lots of useful scatter for modern, fantasy, Sci-Fi -- you name it! What first caught my eye were the "dead trees" in various sizes. I grabbed five of them (only $3 each, and they are fairly large!). These will "paint up" very quickly. I intend to just do a base coat, dry brush, and black wash on them. After flocking their bases, they'll be added to the dead tree collection I've picked up from Jarl's Workshop and Mantic Games. Expect to see them done quickly, as I want to keep my Acquired vs. Painted at a reasonable ratio...!

    I love A Critical Hit's Sci-Fi scatter -- especially the pieces that use the 'color shift' filament

Some of my readers may remember the Sci-Fi scatter I painted up from A Critical Hit last year. I was struck by the "color shift" effect the material she uses to print some of her pieces. I asked her about it and she said it is three separate colors spiraled together into a filament, which causes the surface to change colors when viewing from different angles. Even though I knew I had plenty of Sci-Fi scatter, I couldn't resist buying a handful more pieces. One is another weird vegetation-encrusted alien nodule. Three are Sci-Fi containers for objective markers, and the last has three cylinders that look like rockets laying on their sides. These may not get painted up immediately, or at least until I start my Sci-Fi gaming back up.

    These tables & chairs will likely be the first thing from my purchases that is readied for the tabletop

What may be the first to be done are the two wooden tables and four chairs. Already printed in brown, I will likely do a dry brush of tan on them and a dark brown wash. Hopefully, they'll look just perfect after that and I won't have much else to do on them. They'll work perfect for any modern, post-apoc, or zombie game.

    These capitals, or tops of Greek or Roman columns, will take almost no time to be ready as well!

Another purchase that should take even less time is the "capitals" or tops of Greek or Roman columns. They're already in printed in gray, and I will likely do only a dry brush and black wash on them, too. I'll toss the three of those that I bought in with my ruins scatter that I can use in various games. 

    I like how they print much of their scatter in colored filament so that you can use them 'as is'

For modern games, I picked up four fire hyrants and four trash cans. These will also take very little time to prep for the tabletop, mainly just a dry brush and wash again. I like how Blair prints much of her scatter so that it can almost be used straight off the shelf. Some people may use it that way, but knowing how quickly a dry brush and wash can be done and how much better it will make it look, I have no problem putting in this amount of time. The 3-D material used has a slight sheen, though, so at the minimum I would suggest people doing a clear coat spray on the pieces to take that luster off.

    Even though I have no current need for them, I couldn't resist these colorful crystals

The final purchase from A Critical Hit was a series of variously sized crystals. I bought two larger ones, two medium ones, and three smaller ones. The larger and medium sized ones do not have a "base" and will take zero preparation. They don't have ground depicted on them and will be used "as is." The smaller ones have a surface depicted. I plan on giving them a black rocky surface using a coal ballast material I picked up from the train store. I want to get them completed soon, too, as I know how little time they'll take...!

    I think I can handle putting together these MDF double-barreled turrets from Dad's Armies

I also visited the booth for Dad's Armies, who carries MDF structures and buildings for various periods, especially Sci-Fi. The genesis of many of his products was from the Impudent Mortals line of MDF products, which he purchased and now produces. Last year, I bought four packs from him at Advance the Colors. However, I struggled to put them together. I am not good at jigsaw puzzles (nor do I enjoy them). After attempting to put the simplest of the four together a month ago or so, I gave up. So, I brought the two more complex ones with me, knowing he would be at Cincycon. I placed them on his table, and confessed to him that I suck at jigsaw puzzles. I offered to give them back to him so he could sell them to someone else. Unexpectedly, John asked me, "Do you want me to put them together for you?" I said yes, and asked him how much. He said no charge, but it might take awhile. I told him to take his time -- no hurry. Much to my surprise, he had the largest of the buildings ready by Saturday at Cincycon! Now, THAT is service!!!

 

    In gratitude for John at Dad's Armies generosity, I purchased this laser pointer from him

Since he wasn't charging me anything, I felt that I had to buy something from his stand. I picked up a laser pointer for doing lines of sight on gaming tables, and an MDF kit that looked so simple even *I* could do it. It was a pack of 12 MDF double-barreled turrets ostensibly produced for Gaslands. To me, they looked more like something for a space station or Sci-Fi game. If I ever get back to doing Space Station Zero, they will come in handy. They can also be used in various other Sci-Fi games as perimeter defenses or whatever. I think I should be able to handle putting these together...!

    This book covers the Big Red One's engagements in Vietnam -- which is exactly what my new project

My last purchase was a great find at The Nafziger Collection. George is from Ohio and a loyal vendor at regional conventions. He sells books and other source material and has been coming to our conventions since I can remember. He had a book that covered the engagements of "The Big Red One" (1st Infantry Division) in Vietnam. I was actually planning on having my platoon that I paint up for my Vietnam project be from the Big Red One, so this was a serendipitous find! So, this was a great birthday present to myself!

 

    Individual, 3-D printed cinder blocks from Bad Goblin Games -- I requested these & they delivered!

My final acquisition was not a purchase at all (I think...I hope!). Two members of Bad Goblin Games, who make the amazing 3-D printed trailers you've seen here on my blog, were going to be in Cincinnati for several weeks for work. Since their visit coincided with Cincycon, they told me they were planning on attending when I saw them at Siege of Augusta in January. I told them that if they wanted to run a game, I would be happy to bring down a game mat and terrain for them. They messaged me a month later to say they had signed up to run a couple games. They had their miniatures and plenty of scatter, but would I bring some of my trailers? Absolutely! I brought all five of my trailers and two other buildings for them to use. In gratitude, they brought me a pack of individual cinder blocks (I'd asked if they made them, and in response, they printed some out). They also brought me three of their 3-D printed, 28mm miniatures for my post-apocalyptic, zombie, or Sci-Fi games. They didn't ask for money when they handed them to me, so I hope they were meant to be a thank you for bringing my terrain (and promoting their products on my blog and on Facebook). If I was meant to buy them, that would be a giant-sized, "OOOPS!" 

    These are the 3 figs that Bad Goblin brought with them to Cincycon for me (pics from their website)

Oh wait, there was another "acquisition" or two! Attendees to Cincycon receive a free 28mm Cincycon miniature. It is always a pig-faced humanoid of some sort. Jenny always gives me hers because she doesn't want them. Appropriately enough, this year's figure is a Sci-Fi one. So, two of them were added to my collection of anthropomorphic "oinkers" I've collected over the years of my attendance.

So, yes, expect to see some of these items being prepped and ready for the tabletop here soon. Otherwise, what is on my desk at the moment? I have a batch of eight mounted Dark Age Welsh cavalry under way. I also have just finished priming two scratch-built shipping container buildings. I got the idea from a Miniature Building Authority purchase, and converted two Reaper plastic shipping containers. I'll start painting them as soon as tomorrow. Otherwise, it may be a few more days before I publish another post. These things on my desk will likely take a bit of time! In the meantime, check out the hit my Acquired vs. Painted has taken below...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 9

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 51
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Vikings Descend in Fury on Anglo-Saxon Town at Cincycon

    Ragnar Lothbrok (near the church door) tries to fight his way into the church in search of loot

The fabled Ragnar Lothbrok of the Norse Sagas, accompanied by his friends and companions, brought chaos and mayhem upon an Anglo-Saxon town at Cincycon 2025. My convention game that I will run for at least the first part of the year is a cooperative historical miniatures game where all six players are Vikings trying to loot a town. The role of the Anglo-Saxon townsfolk and defenders is played by the game's A.I. and cards. Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers is the rule set I am using, and did a great job throwing the unexpected at the players and making each running of the scenario unfold differently.

    A look at my town tabletop at Cincycon before the figures are placed and the Viking raid commences

I had a full table of six players for both my Friday evening and Saturday morning game. I had a great group of players both times who joked and laughed throughout despite their reversals of fortune. In addition to the players supposedly cooperating, they were also competing to amass the most loot. This could be gained mostly from slaughtering the townsfolk (1 silver piece each), levy Fyrd (1d6 silver), and hearthguard or household troops (2d6 silver). The windfall, though, would be if they made it to the central church, which stood in the center of the hexagonal board. Each player deployed their three Viking raiders along their respective hexagon edge. In Friday's game, they made it to the church courtyard, but did not gain entry. On Saturday, Ragnar Lothbrok and his son Bjorn Ironside both actually made it into the chapel and slaughtered monks, gaining 4d6 silver for each.

    My Saturday players were a rowdy bunch and had a blast teasing each other and enjoying themselves

The way SS&SS works, the player rolls one, two, or three 20-sided dice to activate one of their raiders. For each roll of 8+, they get an action (move, fight, shoot arrows, loot bodies, etc.). For each failure, a card is drawn from the deck. These cards can bring more defenders onto the board, trigger an Anglo-Saxon springing unseen from ambush, and activate defenders on the table to move towards and attack the Viking raiders. Most of the cards are bad for the players, but a few are beneficial or neutral. I had worked out ahead of time what each card would translate to in this historical version of the fantasy miniatures game. For example, a "Wandering Monster" was a mounted hearthguard who appeared on a random board edge and immediately charged the closest raider. "Trap" meant a town dog darted out and attacked a raider. Some of the cards activate the Anglo-Saxon (foe) closest to the player rolling the failure, while others activate ALL Anglo-Saxons on the table.

    Ragnar's brother, the sometimes treacherous Rollo, and his Viking raider companions

In addition, some cards dictate the deck to be reshuffled after playing that card, which keeps things mixed up and interesting. There were three levels of foes, as mentioned earlier. Townsfolk were the weakest, levy Fyrd were the next toughest, and the hearthguard were the most powerful. Hearthguard also have armor that might block a raider's hit on them. In a one-on-one fight, the raiders ("PCs" or player characters) are much more powerful. However, the defenders can form "hordes" which give them an outnumbering modifier, which can greatly reduce or negate the raider advantage. Plus, there is still good old-fashioned bad die rolling! For example, on Friday night, Ragnar's brother Rollo almost met an untimely, early end. He was quickly down two of his three wounds, but ultimately survived. Each player had a Viking hero (either Ragnar, his wife Lagertha, brother Rollo, son Björn, friend Loki the shipbuilder, or Ulf the Wise). Each player also had a swordsman or axeman, and their third raider was an archer. The archers had no armor, so were most vulnerable to counter-attacks, while the leaders and other raiders had armor and/or shields which could negate enemy hits with a good enough roll.

    Sounds of steel clashing on steel reach the Anglo-Saxon defenders in the church courtyard

Interestingly, in each game, there was one Viking band that was swarmed by defenders almost immediately. On Friday, it was the maniacal Floki, who had trouble keeping his footing on the muddy streets. Anglo-Saxon defenders sprang from nearby houses and the woods on the edge of town to attack his trio again and again. On Saturday, it was Rollo, who almost never made it off of the wharf where the longship was tied up. Mounted hearthguard came in waves after Rollo and his men, nearly killing all three. Still, in both games, most of the Vikings penetrated the outer buildings and advanced steadily through the muddy streets. On Friday, Ragnar made it to the courtyard in front of the church, but couldn't break through the solid shieldwall of the Anglo-Saxon captain and his hearthguard defenders.

    'Horde Fighter' Rollo takes on a pair of Anglo-Saxon Fyrd in the streets during Friday's game

On Saturday, the players did better. Lagertha's archer stung the shieldwall in the courtyard, prompting them to charge after the shieldmaiden and her raiders. This opened the way for Björn's band to break through the defenses and enter the church. Ragnar followed his son soon after. Monks shrieked as they fell wounded or were knocked senseless to be taken captive. Perhaps hearing the chaos in their beloved church, the Anglo-Saxon defenders began to swarm the perimeter of the table. The sound of their shouting convinced the Vikings they'd gathered enough loot and it was time to escape back to the ship before more of them fell. Both games lasted about three hours before I called them.

    Ragnar's companions, Hakon and Sigurd hurry to keep up with their quick-footed lord

The players seemed to have a lot of fun. They laughed at each other's misfortunes and howled in protest as a fellow player's failed activation rolls sent a horde of Anglo-Saxons randomly at them instead! This being only the second and third times that I had run these rules, I was pretty busy handling the arrivals of new defenders, deaths of Anglo-Saxons, and doling out silver pieces. However, the players do all the die rolling and control the action. Still, Friday night the players kept me hopping and it seemed chaotic to me, at times. However, on Saturday, I was able to relax and anticipate the rhythm of the game. I spiced up the narration of what was happening, taunting the players, "You can't miss that roll, right? You can do this all day...!" Of course, they realized that was likely jinxing them and chuckled at my ribbing.

    Lagertha's swordsman, the wounded Fafnir, is beset by two determined Saxon Fyrd

The die rolls and randomness of the frequently reshuffled deck created its own flow. For example, Blake's Rollo suffering charging mounted hearthguard after hearthguard. Dan's board edge was the unlucky recipient of an odds-defying number of Anglo-Saxon reinforcements. Derek's die failed rolls were to blame for the other players' misfortunes. It was hectic, unpredictable, but enjoyable -- at least that's what my players told me. Several of them planned on going out and downloading the rules from Wargame Vault. I got lots of compliments on how my table looked, especially my scratch-built Anglo-Saxon church. To this day, it is probably still my favorite scratch-build I have ever done.

    The decorated inside of my scratch-built church, defiled by the presence of pagan Björn Ironside

I plan on running the game again at DayCon (April 11-12) and at Drums at the Rapids (May 17-18). And then I will run the heck out of it all weekend at Origins Game Fair (June 18-22). So, if you want to give the game a try, show up at one of these conventions! I was gratified by the number of players who told me they signed up for the raid game because they love my games and always have a good time playing in them. I had a fun time, too, this weekend at Cincycon. I will do another blog post soon about my purchases I made there. Look for that in another day or so!

    Another look at Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends (28mm from Brigade Games)

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 9

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Fun Games and Good Times at Siege of Augusta

    Headed down to 'Gator Country' for Siege of Augusta - very cool pool terrain with lurking reptile

It had been quite a few years since I had driven south to Siege of Augusta. My friend Jason, who lives in Columbia, SC, regularly prompts me to come down. Now that I am retired, I don't have the excuse of not enough days off for another convention...ha, ha! So, Jenny and I drove down Thursday, spent the evening with him and his family, and then headed to the convention on Friday.

I'd looked at the games on the Siege of Augusta website, and there were a few that I was interested in. We planned arriving before the noon session of games so that we didn't have to get up ridiculously early. Jason lives about an hour and fifteen minutes away, and Siege's first session begins at 8am, so there was no way I was getting there Friday in time for the morning session! Siege has an unusual system for attendees to sign up for games: it doesn't have one! You have to find the table and ask the GM if he or she has room. Nothing at the registration desk, no sheets on the game table (well, the chariot game had a signup sheet, but that was the only one I saw) -- nothing! I have to confess that I was disappointed with this aspect of the convention. 

    Main hall at Siege of Augusta -- I got to hang out with Jason, play in fun games, & meet nice people

Another thing I wasn't thrilled about was that start times are v-e-r-y approximate. The GM can list a firm start time in his description. If not, you have to assume it starts when the session starts. Except that they don't always do that. For example, I was told by people who got up early enough that the "8am" games that most didn't start till 9am. However, you don't know that. Since you can't sign up for it in advance, if you really want to get in a game, you have to be there at 8am. Or actually sooner, as spots are given to the first players to arrive (assuming the GM hasn't already promised spots to someone). All in all, it encouraged me skip the first session on Saturday morning. I just didn't want to deal with the uncertainty.

As Jenny and I made the rounds checking out the games Friday, we ran into another problem. Which games were which? There was no schematic or map anywhere to be found, so we had to deduce that from the event titles. The event descriptions were online (if you brought your laptop with you). However, the Siege website doesn't work well with mobile devices and condenses the nice, easy-to-understand grid into spaghetti. So, that part is hit or miss, too. We did our best to match the terrain and figures we saw on the tables with event titles on the handout we'd picked up from the registration desk.

    Col. Munro leads his daughters & a British column through the woods in Magua's Revenge

One of the games we talked about getting in was "Magua's Revenge" by Les Faison. He was just setting up when we walked by. We saw the trees and dirt road and figured that was it. We asked if this was the right game, and if he had spots open. Les said he had one of his five spots left. I encouraged Jenny to play, as I had some serious shopping to do from the nice selection of vendors (see yesterday's post on my Siege of Augusta purchases).

   Hawkeye & Chingachgook escort Cora Munro while in the distance Uncas helps Alice

It would have been fun to play, though. As some of you may know, I am the author of the rules he was using -- Song of Drums and Tomahawks. I watched a bit of the game in between my shopping. I was hesitant about stepping in and explaining the rules when players had questions. Les had listed in his description that it was a modified version, so I didn't want to tell anyone the wrong thing. After the game, when he found out I was the author, he said I shouldn't have been so shy. It was only his second time playing the game and he had questions. Jenny has run Song of Drums many times, though, so she was able to assist when I was off wandering around. Les' tabletop was very cool and his 40mm French & Indian War miniatures were awesome. Jenny said she had fun and was able to recreate movie history by having Hawkeye and Chingachgook rescue Cora Munro and get her off the table. Uncas did rescue Alice Munro, but both them were shot down by treacherous Huron as they tried to flee off-table.

    Les, the GM (in red), assists one of his layers as he moves up his Huron to ambush the British

I spoke with Les for a bit after the game and praised his game and adaptions to the rules. I gave him my email address in case he had further questions. I liked how he adjusted the turn sequence so that players would not necessarily have to wait too long if they "crapped out" early on their activation rolls. Typically, I do four players maximum in one game to avoid player frustration when their dice are not cooperating. His system of using a card deck to determine whose turn it was alleviated some of the bad things that poor dice rolling can make occur in multiplayer games of Song of Drums. For only his second game with the rules, he did a great job!

    A U.S. naval landing force of sailors takes position on the rooftops looking for downed airmen

Jason and his high schoolers, Lily and Graham, showed up a bit before the 4pm session. We all decided to get in Mark Young's Banana Wars Mayhem game together. He could take up to nine players and ended up with somewhere around seven, if I remember right. Each of us controlled a faction in early 1900s Nicaragua -- U.S. Marines, Banana Corporation private security, bandits, rebels, and more. I took control of one of the two rebel factions. We each had about 15 or so miniatures (except the more elite Marines and U.S. Naval landing force). The activation order was randomized each turn, which in the end, worked out really well, allowing my rebels to execute their nefarious plans.

    My force of Nicaraguan rebels arrives on the board ready to cause trouble in Banana Wars

Besides being rebels and killing government troops (Jenny's Federales -- I would end up pitted against her all weekend...ha, ha!), we were also on the lookout for two downed U.S. pilots. It would be a feather in our rebel sombreros if we could take possession of them and give them to the leader of our rebel movement (presumably to ransom back to the U.S. for lots of money!). Wouldn't you know it, but the Naval landing force (their to rescue the pilots) came on board to my right, while Jason's bandits entered the table on our left. I immediately began politicking and dissembling. I told the Naval player that we had nothing against the United States. It was our own government we hated and wanted to overthrow for the horrible way it was treating its people. He let me know he was looking for the pilots (everyone had a secret mission), and I told him that I would definitely not fire on him or the pilots. If I found them, I would let him know (heh, heh...).

    Dole Corporation's trucks ferry a shipment of bananas through town, guarded by private security

I moved from the board edge to a large building to our front, and then to another one in front of that on the next turn. We manned the second story windows of the second building looking down the main street. And who should appear in our gun sights but the hated Federales? We shot up Jenny's troops for several turns, though her leader did use his Jedi mind tricks on us to make us miss several times after we'd hit. Apparently, her leader was in charge of the secret police and causes fear in anyone his malicious eyes are turned upon! After a few turns, we'd killed all of Jenny's visible troops (she had others on the opposite sides of buildings, and was busy shooting at pretty much everyone else on the table). She did a great job making the Federales the hated force that they were!

    Jason's bandits arrive on board, hungry and looking for some bananas to steal from Dole

Just then, a rocket flare went up not far from us. I guessed it was the pilots signaling the U.S. forces of their location. We returned closer to our board edge, which fortunately was near where the pilots had secretly moved. The Naval player asked what I was doing and I said that we'd killed all the Federales. Did the sailors need any assistance? He was suspicious, but I'd done nothing negative to him all game, so he seemed satisfied. Soon enough, the pilots ran to the building the sailors had occupied, adjacent to the neighboring building where all my men were huddled. As the last turn began, I hoped we would move after everyone else. Fortune smiled on the Revolution -- everyone else moved before me. 

When our turn finally came, we sprang our treachery and dashed into the sailors' building, seizing control of the pilots. It was likely the last turn, but there was no guarantee I would be able to maintain control of my hostages if we'd played another. So, I told the player controlling the landing party maybe we could come to an agreement. The pilots were apparently carrying a wad of cash to bribe their way out of trouble. I suggested we do a trade. They hand over the cash and I would give them their pilots. He agreed, and thus I declared a "cinematic victory." After all, our fearless leader off-table was going to ransom them anyway, right? I just saved him the trouble! Victory -- with an asterisk!

    A gorgeous looking game I would have LIKED to get in -- 'Mythic Earth' run by Mike Frang

Jason and Lily decided they wanted to go to dinner and skip the evening session of games. Jenny and I agreed, as spending time with them was the main reason we'd decided to attend the convention. Graham is a hard core convention goer, though, and he stayed and played in Renaissance Naval Warfare game. When we returned from dinner (bringing carryout for Graham), we walked around and shopped a bit. Jason and I marveled at the 3-D printed terrain that Bryan Stroup of Garrison 3D had brought. He picked up some Egyptian statues from him, and then admired an Ancient, domed temple. I could tell he wanted it, but Jason is a very deliberate shopper. He's not prone to impulse purchases and likes to think things over. I warned him it might be gone tomorrow, but he stayed true to his nature and held off buying it (until the next evening!). We closed out the night with a game of Settlers of Cataan, which I somehow managed to win (no asterisks this time).

    Deer Hunter, left, moves up to guard our flank while Pork Chop hurries towards cover

As mentioned earlier, I skipped the early session of games. Thankfully, the folks at Bad Goblin Games had saved Jenny and I a spot in the noon running of Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse. We had both played in this game at Historicon 2024 and had a blast. I had chatted with three members of their group Friday and had been encouraging them to follow through on their idea to run it at Cincycon 2025 this March. Two of the members will be in town for work, and they thought, "Why not stay in town for the weekend and attend the convention?" They live in Florida, though, and are flying to Cincinnati. I offered to bring down my own trailers I had bought from them, as well as a game mat and other terrain for them. I hope they follow through. I think Cincycon players would enjoy playing their game.

    Monster truck in the center of the board (at left), is everyone's objective - but first, you need the pig!

It was the same scenario I had played at Historicon, and I even controlled the same faction, aka the "awakened" mutants of Team Road Kill. Jenny had won that game in cinematic fashion. The goal is to seize control of a pig who has a surgically implanted monitor which deactivates a kill switch on a Monster Truck that all four factions were drooling over. If you try to start the truck without the slippery pig with you in the cab...BOOM! The other factions included Jenny's "Bubbas," Dave's Childen of the Soil plant mutations, and Lily's Bubbas. We each began in a corner of the 4'x4' board out of sight of the other factions. 

    Col. Clucker takes advantage of the cover in the trailer park to move towards the board's center

Over the first few turns, we crept forward utilizing the cover (chiefly provided by eight of their trailers, as well as various other buildings, walls, and dumpsters. I really like their activation system. You begin the turn rolling 1d10 per figure you control (we all started with four). Then, each round you secretly choose one of those dice to use that turn. First to activate are 10's, then 9's, and so on. That way, the order of activation switches each round. Some turns you may want to move (or fire) first, other turns you may want the react to what the other players do. There is a card deck, too, which can affect Initiative, protect you from damage, give you an extra turn -- all kinds of interesting possibilities. You draw back up to five cards at the beginning of each turn, though there are some cards you may want to hang onto. I hung onto one the entire game in case a player got a "kill shot" on one of my figs, which thankfully never happened.

    On our left, the Children of the Soil move towards the center, threatening our flank

The pig begins the game on the truck, but then moves about the board controlled randomly by one or more players each round. If the 10-sided die you used to activate that turn matches the one rolled for the pig that round, you get to move it. In a weird statistical occurrence -- which my friends would laugh at and say is just my bad luck -- I think I activated the pig only twice over the entire game. Jenny was fortunate on pig activations, and was the first to grab the pig. Unfortunately for her, that also made her the target for the other players. My leader, Col. Clucker (a mutated chicken) blasted away at Joe, her leader, a couple times along with other players and Jenny was soon down one gang member. I had placed Deer Hunter (a deer armed with a hunting rifle) on my left to keep a bead on the plant people. He ended up killing their Mushroom Man and wounding his large carnivorous plant, Audrey (yes, from the movie). 

    Pork Chop's gambit - sprinting across the street and snatching up his distant porker cousin

My own mutated pig, Pork Chop, dashed into the trailer bordering the street where Joe lay bleeding. Using an extra action card, he dashed across the street, snatched up his distant cousin, all the while keeping an eye on huge, lumbering two-headed Jethro in his bib overalls not far away. Naturally, someone else activated the pig before Pork Chop could carry it towards the monster truck, and I lost the opposed die roll with my 5d10 vs. the pig's 2d10 (there's that statistical occurrence again!). He squirmed away, squealing, "Four legs good, two legs bad!" (Hopefully, some readers get the Animal Farm reference!) Things got real confusing after that. Lily's faction entered the fray, blasting away at Jenny's depleted ranks. She returned the favor, lining up her flame thrower to fire up three of Lily's gang members with one shot!

    The other players, including Jenny's 'Jethro' here, would keep Porkchop from succeeding

As we headed into the last turn, Jenny looked ready to pull off her trailer park magic, again. She played the right combination of cards and one of her gang members scurried to the cab of the monster truck with the pig. Unfortunately for her, she had moved first in that round. EVERYONE opened up on her. Jenny was secretly holding onto a card which allowed her to heal 1d10 wounds immediately. She played it after her last character moved, but before my final one. If she rolled high, she would survive and win. If she failed, I had -- you guessed it -- another nefarious plan. I m-a-y have chanted, "One, one, one!" to influence her roll, which was indeed a "1"! With that, Col. Clucker fluttered down from the sandbag emplacement on a nearby trailer and hopped into the cab with her many-holed corpse, but more importantly, the pig. We pressed the start switch and lobbied for a cinematic victory. I did not have control of the pig, true, but it was already in the cab. So, the truck should rumble to life and not explode, right? 

    As it turned out, the Children of the Soil didn't cause my Team Road Kill any harm

The GM conferred with his partner, and they said they do like to allow for the "Rule of Cool" in their games for strange things that occur. So, they admitted they were leaning towards awarding Team Road Kill the victory, albeit with another asterisk! Either way, it was once again a very fun game that came down to the last turn to decide who would drive off with the monster truck. If you get a chance to play in their game at an upcoming convention (or buy their rules), I encourage you to do so. 

With that, Jenny and I decided to hightail it out of Augusta, Georgia, as snow was forecast the next day in the mountains for our drive home. We stole a march on Mother Nature and made it home shortly after 1am Saturday. I had fun hanging out with Jason and his kids, played in some really fun games, and bought cool stuff from nice vendors. A successful trip to Siege of Augusta! Will I be back next year? Hmm...I do wish they'd fix their event registration system. If so, definitely. If not, I would have to think about it...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1