Historicon 2011: Part Three - More Gnomes and Innuendo

I thought I could slide all the gnome action on one post, but obviously that didn't happen.

The Joust: I had a pile of people tell me how awesome The Joust was Friday night, yet no one could tell me who won it! All I know is that bounties were at an all-time high! Can't wait to get a chance at Fall-in!

The Stanton Games: The "real" Gnome Wars games that captured the hearts, minds, and wallets of dozens of players took place on the other MBA board:

Pic stolen from another blog

Minor rant time: Sometimes I wonder why I ever read the post-con chit-chat on TMP, because one post out of dozens ends up pissing me off. In the same conversation about why fantasy/sci-fi games are allowed at the con, someone condescendingly remarked that my gnome game had moved to the modern (re: historical) board. I laugh at this for two reason. The "fantasy" board pictured above ran a great non-weird WW2 game while I set up and ran my game. And the while the evening session looked like militants vs Marines, the session after mine focused on the main reason our troops haven't left Iraq.

Zombies.

So what consitutes "fantasy" or "historical"? I don't know, I don't care, so just shut your pie hole, grab some dice, and have some fun!

God, I'm grumpy recently, I need sleep!

Anyway, if this set up looks familiar, it should. It has been a standard display from MBA for the past few years. That doesn't mean Jim's been using a static battlefield.

Each year this is used, two separate battles are fought to ease play with the mass of humanity around the table. One is a tooth-and-nail fight in the village, the other a slugfest for the castle. This year's tweak was the location of the castle walls:

With the main walls at the bottom of the hill, the traditional bottleneck up the castle ramp was eliminated. It also allowed the defenders (IRISH!) a chance to maneuver.

I only caught a portion of the afternoon game, and was too busy helping out the evening game to snap some pictures (camera battery died anyway). The high point for me was watching a unit of bunny cav use a tank as a springboard to jump over the main wall. Of course, most didn't make the jump, and those who did were slaughtered the following round, but it oozed awesomeness.

Don't Try This at Home. Seriously.

In the afternoon game, there was a joint masscre in the village, and the Germans managed to bash down the defenses to try to rescue Lon the Lunkhead.

In the evening game, the village slaughter continued, and if rumors holds true, the Irish were actually going to try and breakout of the castle. I'd love to hear details from the participants.

The Last Line of Defense

Other Gnome Goodies:

Holy Gnoman Empire: The Gnomans are out and they look very nice. The regular infantry are customizable with separate arms available. How the arms come for mail order I never got an answer, and truth be told, it was late Saturday when I thought of it. Lots of special rules to ensure the melee-centric Gnomans might survive a game.

Gnome Wars 2.0: Is out!!!!! Huzzah! It is chock full of new info, including the American Gnomes and... Scottish Cav? I will do a full review as a separate post in the future, and I definitely promise not to be a Gnome homer (Gnomer?) Let's just say the book isn't perfect, and is missing things that reliable sources told me would be in it. Critiquing asise, it's back in print!

The Americans Gnomes: Still in the planning stages, these guys are divided by Northern and Southern Gnomes. I will pick up some Federals, but I really think I'll make them into the Grand Army of the Repulic (or Empire) of California. I just have to be different.

Michael Lung: Some of you might remember the custom Swiss Cavalry officer from Cold Wars. The gentleman who created him is Michael Lung, and he and his son, Scott are now diehard gnome players. Michael has tremendous talent and imagination and has created unique models/figures for the game. My wife can't believe I have the patience and talent to paint regular figures and admits she could never do it. I have the same reaction towards Mike when I see his work:

I snapped up so many pictures of his projects that I turned it into a mini-photo shoot (hence the dead battery by 8pm). Once a week, I'll fill the Gnome Wars void between now and Fall-in! with Mike's work. And to be honest, yes I asked him if I could do this, and no, I don't know if he'll put these custom items up for sale... or commission pieces.

If I did, I'd get my dibs in first before letting the world know.