Cold Wars 2013 - Saturday

First off, I still got it!

After wandering into our room around 2:30am and finally hitting the pillow at 3:30, I was up, dressed and ready to go by 7:15.  I spent some time chatting with my friends about fatherhood (Steve's little guy is eight months, and Jeff just found out last week that his wife is having twins.), mediocre chain restaurant food, and horrible GMs.  It appeared that the duo got into a bad string of aerial games, be it biplanes, Mustangs, or star cruisers.  These guys are the type who will tell you straight up they've never played before or that they will need help the first turn or two, so to be invited as a walk up to three separate games over the course of the day and  each time leave with a bad taste, I may be biased, but I'll say that a few GMs have a bad day, and some the regulars haven't had a good day in a couple of years.

After the required breakfast over at The Continental, I headed over to get into the 9am Trench Wars game.   Gnome Wars owes a tremendous amount rules-wise to Trench Wars, so it was ridiculously easy to pick up. So easy that my years of gnomish experience made me the commander of the nine other Allied players as they attempted to assault the Hindenburg Line.  Two items that hadn't translated to the gnomes were unit activation and destroying bunkers and that threw me for a loop as a tried to coordinate these players taking 50% casualties by turn 3.  My main duty was to direct the offboard artillery, and my of my, was I on fire.  On the dozen or so rolls for it during the game, I rolled direct hits (6 on a d6) five times, and at least five other times to deviation hit troops in a trench, an exposed machine gun team, or hit the barbed wire, allowing the French troops easy access to charge to their deaths.

Trench Wars: The Allies race across no-man's land to reached the German trench

The French are full of Elan, and by the end of the turn, full of lead as well

I couldn't coordinate enough and concentrate firepower, so while the Germans were significantly weakened, we had no troops left to sweep the trenches.  Fun game.

My afternoon was another quick dash through the Flea Market with lots of teasers, but again, nothing caught my eye and wallet.  The dealer's hall got me for some more random dice, Killer Teddy Bears from Macho Women with guns, and a pile of Howard Hues paints that I may not use for awhile.  I also finally made it to the Brigade booth to shop and despite Russian gnomes, Russian gnomes on bears, Spanish buildings, and a pile of books, I came away with three little gnomes to round out existing units and a pack of WWI Nigerian tribesman that I will used as trained rebels for Samoa.

The rest of the day was GNOMES, GNOMES, GNOMES (separate entry to follow) with hearty meal with the Gnome Crew at Five Guys before I made the trek home.

Romans vs ?

Hobbit related?  It looks like an awesome Car Wars track to me.

More Middle Earth Mayhem

1st Gulf War

28mm ACW

Simple and spiffy

A few random thoughts on Saturday:  While I did see a LOT more girls/women participating, I also noticed a rise in loud obnoxious women as well.  One woman in the Flea Market had such an annoying voice, with a Jersey attitude, that I apologize to her neighbors, because I just rushed by to make my ears stop bleeding... and my bullshit meter from going off.   Another one that got to me was the one in the First Gulf War pic above.  She kept harping on a mailing list and Kickstarter project to anyone new walking by within earshot, and it was in a "know it all corporate trainer" tone, if that makes sense to anyone.  The larger numbers of moms playing games with their kids, hopefully offsets that back into a positive light.

Friday night was wild and Saturday night was working up to that when I left.  Nothing we don't deal with every other years.

I saw cleaning staff in the bathrooms multiple times and the food stations had more staff than I remember, cutting down on wait time except for perhaps peak meal times.

Five Guys was good, but underwhelming.  I've had better burgers at a lower price elsewhere, but it was the company I kept that made it worthwhile.

Finally, the group of Gnome Wars fans we lovingly (and quite accurately) call "The Canadians" have been spending the last year working on hockey rules to use the Fantasy Hockey figures Brigade Games sells, as well as other manufacturers.  The were nice enough to give me a copy of the non-league rules, as well as a regulation size laminated map of a hockey rink to play on.   It's on the slate of games for the group to play, right after another two Cthulhu RPG sessions and some CLA playesting to make sure Samoa might be able to work with teams of newbies.  At least my oldest, Maja approves....

My daughter playing Fantasy Hockey:  Spanish-American US Infantry vs Peeps.