First, I want to start off by saying I think the noise level this year is a bit better than last year (or maybe I'm just getting used to it now). Also, compared to the first year at F-burg, I think they did a good job of breaking up the main play area and I appreciated the carpeting they added, making my feet hurt less this year. They still have problems with one of the toilets (all the urinals that I visited seemed to be working, but the same cannot be said of the #2 stalls--at least not in the front hall).
Thursday
The traffic up I-95 was light, so I rolled into Fredericksburg at around 8:30 on Thursday morning. Registration had opened early, so I checked in and, after wandering around a bit taking pictures, moved over for my first game—Oil Boom!
This game was run by Stan Johanson and took place on one end of a very nice urban Middle East board using 28mm figures. It revolved around a pipeline in Iraq, which two factions (including US Army) were trying to protect, another faction was trying to destroy, and two others (including mine) were trying to steal from. There was another group that wanted to hurt just about everyone (their faction description and motivation were a fun read, basically consisting of "you don't like x, y, z, and everyone else." My group was headed by a local corrupt police chief, so I entered the game with lights blazing and sirens screeching, trying to make everything look official—then entered into a "deal deal" (said in a good Don Rickles voice) with the pipeline protectors, giving them a share of the profits if they let me lift a tanker-full off their hands. Unfortunately, while filling up the tanker, the "we hate everyone" group arrived and started shooting. And so did the local gang trying to steal more gas. And then the Americans came, which proved to be a two-edged sword, since they didn't believe my story about having authorization from Baghdad to take a truckload to Tikrit. But thankfully, one of my now-wounded lack---uhh,I mean deputies, accidentally struck a few barrels of gasoline with my police car and set them off (ka-boom!). This seemed to be the signal for a whole bunch of KA-BOOMS, and within a turn the tanker truck went up followed by the pipeline, killing many of the Americans as well as most of the locals. My chief and one of his deputies managed to escape. Alas, no oil was coming back to the black market in Tikrit. And now you know why the scenario is called oil BOOM!
I then wandered around some more, including a stop at the paint-and-take and then over to the flea market (aka, Wally's Basement) and picked up about 60 skinks which I plan on modifying and using as Venusian lizardmen for a steampunk game at some point.
Next came a game of Privateers—based upon Cog Wars. This involved two frigates of His Majesty's Navy escorting the Governor (aboard a ship of the line) past a veritable fleet of pirates. I was playing Commander Griswald Jenkins of HMS Slaughterfish, the frigate on the right flank of the Governor's ship. With a steady hand, I guided my ship so that it (no, SHE, all ships are she) stood between the pirates and the Governor. Slaughterfish managed to rake one of the pirates and sink it, depopulated the foc'sle of another, and boarded a third pirate with the remains of her Marines, who acquitted themselves well by capturing the foc'sle of that ship. With the Governor's ship blasting another of the pirates and the other frigate sinking another, the game was called—and the Governor made her way to England unmolested. Huzzah!
I then made a leisurely circuit of the dealer area, especially the Wargames Factory booth and the Eureka booth, before heading back home. Traffic was again light, so I made it in good time.
Friday
I had another morning game scheduled, so headed up to Fredericksburg relatively early, again arriving before 9 AM. My first game was the Battle of Grozny using Force on Force and put on by NoVAG.
The real battle featured some pretty amateurish moves by the Russians against some pretty desperate resistance. Alas, that was not to be in this miniature version of the fight. Luck seemed to be on the side of the Russians, with all but two of their "fog of war" cards being beneficial: they received an elite sniper team, a T-72 (played by a PT-76, as the team putting on the game did not have an additional T-72 to put on the board), and a Spetsnaz team as reinforcements. Did I mention the elite sniper team? That played havoc with the Chechens. I ran a large Chechen team in the game, which escaped two building-collapsing barrages from the Russian armor by crawling through sewers, to end the game destroying a Russian BMP by volleying RPGs at it. Despite this effort and the sacrifice of four Chechen teams (well, one was Ukrainian mercenaries), we still lost the game by a relatively narrow margin.
That game over, I did my usual wandering, snapping pictures of neat looking games, before visiting Wally's Basement (picked up some 28mm Spencer carbines to arm some of the skinks I had bought on Thursday) and the Vendor area (picked up two boxes of WGF Numidians that were going for a really good price, as I am thinking of doing a DBA project in 28mm).
My next game was Cog Wars—this time I was commanding a small cog on the flank of the main line. The two sides were identical, so I initially faced off against the other side's small cog, but as I got the weather gauge on my opponents, was able to zoom in at my pleasure. My archers were very effective in defending my ship, and my men-at-arms efficiently dispatched surviving enemies on an enemy cog's foc'sle, which cowed the remainder of their crew, capturing a large enemy ship. I then had to flee, as most of my side ended up captured by the enemy.
I returned to the vendor area to pick up a Cog Wars 15mm ship with crew (my prize for doing well in the last battle). I may have to build some more medieval ships, so I can run a game or two in the future, as the rules seem fairly simple and quick playing. Well, I might just have to give the rules a tweak or two, but then I'm always fiddling with stuff like that.
Games over and my funds for the day spent, I once again headed back to Richmond.
Full report with pictures available here: link
I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday--especially Sunday, as I'll be running a game then.
Rob
is after something that has presence, that actually looks like a small stand of tropical bushes, and is cheap, tough and portable.
surprises her grandmother on her 80th birthday.
