"What was your favorite convention game?" Topic

All the responses to the convention game you walked away from got me thinking about the opposite: your favorite convention game. So, what was it? What made it so special and fun?

Most of the big ones are fun with the exception that they almost always have too many players. It is a shame, and not exactly what you are asking, but I am always (1) impressed by the number of great big display games, but (2) see most of them ruined as games because there are twice as many players as there should be.

I have always enjoyed the Wild West ones . They seem to suit the show atmosphere and many people can play with varying skills.

When GASLIGHT first came out, I was smitten with it.
Chris Palmer and Buck came up with a neat system, and I could not wait to rush home and dig out the packs of this, packs of that that were not enough to put on a "real" game.
And it was a hoot inventing new contraptions.
All of Chris's GASLIGHT games are highlights in that they were inspirational.

There have been lots, probably the most memorable was a game of 1/600 WWII small ships, using TooFatLardies' coastal patrol rules.

The game played smoothly, we all picked the rules up quickly, and as the 7-8 players all started on blinds during this night action, we had to feel around to find out who our friends and foes were. Which included me trailing, in my little E-boat armed for bear, what turned out to be a friendly U-Boat!

Once the action began it got pretty crazy (in a good way), there was an S-boat vs. MTB/MGB duel at the other end of the table, some Fairmiles hammering at me and the sub at this end, while the tanker we were supposed to be escorting sailed down the middle of the table (with an armed trawler I was escorting it with).

Suddenly, as the game was nearing an end, one of the MTBs broke off from the far duel, raced down at the tanker and got two perfect torpedo launches off, as I fired back with my trawler and racing E-boat, blowing the MTB out of the water as we awaited the arrival of the torpedoes at the tanker.

As I recall, the British player had to roll 8 or higher on 2d6 to determine if the torpedo struck and detonated, and as the last action of the game he rolled a 7 for each torpedo…

Lots of fun, drama, and laughs. On the bad side, I have about $300 USD of 1/600 WWII small ships I need to paint up some day as I got hooked on the game and period.

Convention games using Carnage & Glory are typically very entertaining as the computer moderated system tends to mitigate some of the worst player craziness. I played a Lundy's Lane War of 1812 game a few years back that was nail biting to the last turn just as the time alloted expired. The British won despite some amazing American moves and no small amount of good luck.

Some FOW games can be pretty good (some can be really bad too . . .). I played in the Mataniku River game at Historicaon this year which again was tight until the last turn and the Japanese ran out of stands to Banzia! charge with.

The first time I played Ak47 was at a convention in Los Angeles and the game was put on by Martin Goddard in 1998. The minis, the rules, and his enthusiasm all sold me on what a fun game this was. It is one of the very few games that I've stuck with throughout the years.

Any of Walt O'Hara's "Grande Cirque" games.

Agree with Otto, the "Grande Cirque" race in Central America that I played during an Historicon many years ago was a blast. I brought my our contraption and finished in the lead IIRC. Everyone had a good time, with much laughing and corny accents.

Jim

More it is the people that I meet and played with that make the games memorable. Otto, Bill Gray, Oddball, and a bunch of others over the years is what keeps me coming back

Sounds like a very fun, WWII naval game.

May have to steal some ideas from that.

On the plus side for painting, in many cases you can get away with just a basic light gray, and/or white (S-Boats and R-Boats) paint scheme, at least at first – spray cans are your friend. If desired, and you have the time later, you can add more detailing to them.

I haven't played in too many games, but have created and run several large scenarios at conventions – usually aerial combat games.

The first was an Operation Bodenplatte scenario (Duel of Eagles rules), with the Luftwaffe making a surprising dawn raid on an Allied airbase. Nice snow terrain and evergreens as the backdrop, with the Germans attempting to create as much carnage on the temporary base as possible.

One aircraft per player. Get shot down and sit out a turn or two, before re-entering the fray.

Lots of carnage, though one of the two Tempest pilots taking off on the dawn patrol sortie managed to shoot down a Luftwaffe fighter in a head-on pass, before he even got his wheels up on takeoff.

Lots of heavy flak fire at the attackers, who shot up a few aircraft around the runways. One of the German pilots managed to destroy the petrol dump as well, resulting in a large black mushroom cloud near the airfield.

Good fun.

Another was a combined air/sea game, with 1/600th Argentinian jets beating up the anchorage at San Carlos, during the Falklands Conflict (Clash of Sabres rules for the aerial portion, combined with Shipwreck for the naval side of things, and flak/SAMs – they work very well together). IIRC, each of the Argentine players got a flight of jets to run. British pilots got a Sea Harrier each, and a vessel or two to control – flak and SAMs.

Had quite a few escort vessels to serve as targets for the Argies, and one custom-built British RFA. Sea Harriers had to stand off from the ships to avoid becoming "own goals" for the vessels' AA and SAM gunners.

A few Argie jets splashed, and a few hits on the escort vessels, as expected, with mainly minor to moderate hits from bombs, due to their low-level attacks, and fuse arming issues.

The orbiting SHARs did get in the mix at the end of the game, as the Argentines egressed over open water. I think one managed to hit and damage an Argentine jet.

Another Argentine pilot became the hero of Argentina for going head-to-head with a Sea Harrier pilot, with all aspect Aim-9L missiles. His jet was damaged, but still flying, when hit by the Sidewinder. He managed to hit the SHAR with his cannon, and then got a "golden-BB" shot (10% chance of that, and then another 10% chance for the pilot hit, or a 1% cumulative chance of that result occurring), killing the pilot that had wounded his aircraft.

The Argentine pilot successfully flew back to a hero's welcome at home.

Needless to say, the British were stunned.

Cold War goes hot over Europe (C21 Aerial Combat rules). 1/300th Mig-29s and Su-27s vs. F-15s, F-16s, and Typhoons.

A nice big furball, with each player controlling one aircraft. Get shot down, get another aircraft after a turn or two of delay.

Lots of good, head-to-head action.

Finally, a mega 15mm Pirate game that I helped GM at a convention a few years back. Lots of factions and vessels vying for supremacy on the high seas, and shore, in the Caribbean.

A set of quick-play convention rules was developed by the club, and hundreds of miniatures were painted up by various members to help pull it together.

Tons of terrain to fight over and for, villages and towns, and lots of vessels sailing about on the high seas as well. A few natural events and sea monsters to keep everyone on their toes.

Good fun seemed to be had by all.

South London Warlords Asterix Bar-Room Brawl.
Well organised, great looking figures and scenery, very easy to follow rules and so much fun…..just so much fun!

A real breath of fresh air in the days when the game conventions were dominated by WRG, TTG and Newbury turgid minutia counting.

Any game hosted by Howard Whitehouse.

Third vote for Howard. In his games, fun trumps everything, and a good time is had by all.

My personal favorite are the games put on by Miniature Building Authority at Historicon. I go with the "Desert Breeze" scenarios but they use the same setup for gnomes and other things. The sheer spectacle of the layout is always a major draw.

My personal best was at a small con held in Columbia, MD. The organizers pulled out all the stops and arranged for Duke Seifried and Scotty Bowden to fly in. Duke ran his Rorke's Drift. It was a small game by Duke standards, just 6 players on a 4x3 set up.

I ran Hook's contingent in the hospital. I had maybe 35 figs, of which maybe 12 didn't have something wrong with them. The wounded figs could shoot but were bad at melee, the sick figs were bad at both. We had Zulus at the windows from turn 1. The hospital interiors were beautiful, with furniture and punch outs in the walls. The able bodied figures were trying to carry incapacitated figs from room to room, and at the same time fashion furniture barricades and fight. Duke had a sound effects tape playing. The figs were custom prepped, no straight out if the blister molds. There was even a Sgt. Maxfield, the poor bed ridden blighter too delirious to even try to move. His fig was molded into the bed. It was intense.

I have to go with the Ron Prillman and Rich Hasenauer Alamo game way back in 85 or so. Tons of fun for both sides (although the Mexicans had to take it for the first wave or so). Not entirely historical now, but hey, it was back then!

A couple of years ago Bowman put on a Victorian Sci-Fi game using a nice mix of historical figures and sci-fi figures. I don't think I ever had a better time playing a game before that!

There are a couple of guys at Little Wars every year that put on some really great Pulp/Weird War II games. Ive been fortunate to play in a couple and they are a hoot and a half.

An invasion of Malta game with Command Decision where the Germans won (before the Italians even arrived) with minimal losses. Or maybe kicking 1806 French butt with Prussians in EMPIRE! That's right, the French lost! Lots of good experiences, very few bad ones.

Most definitely "The Bridge" run several times by Ed Morhmann! It has always been a blast with so many memorable moments.

I appreciate the kind words, but I'll nominate the grand, bizarre games put on by the Flying Wasilekis, Jeff and Nick. At Historicon, in "The Sound of Music – the Wargame" I had the privilege of portraying the Evil Twin Maria (Carrie Underwood). I was able to control teenage Hitler Youth by means of my country-fried charm, sing bits of classic country songs to obtain re-rolls, and slap the holy crap out of Actual Maria very chance I got.

Nuns against Nazi fun!

Todd Fisher's "The Storming of the Tuileries" hands down. The production was awesome and no one had every done it as a gaming scenario before.

A huge 15mm 55 Days at Peking game up at Historicon one of the years it was at Camp Hills. Oh, those were the days.

There have been so many but one in particular I remember was a sand table Battleground WWII where no one showed but one other player and myself. Just the two of us and the gamemaster made the game fly. No waiting for indecisive players or lengthy rules explanations and it was a fantastic table set up.

Del Stover puts on some really entertaining pulp adventure games. Always interesting to see what traps will be sprung and what the different players will do.

A game of Gorkamorka many MANY years ago, before it had come out.

It was one of the few games where the audience age difference was something like 50 years and everyone was on the same page.

Re: Jeff Wasileski.
I was Pwince Wupert of Wuwetania, on Mars.
Take it from there.

Despite all the "rah-rah" on TMP, nobody has specifically mentioned any TS&TF games on this thread. Not all Con games require 6+players and yet…

Despite all the "rah-rah" on TMP, nobody has specifically mentioned any TS&TF games on this thread.

I don't see 40K mentioned above. Perhaps nobody actually likes or plays that, either.

My favourite convention game is not my favourite game. In fact, I pretty much go to conventions to play new games against different players. I do see the word "first" and indications of uniqueness in a fair number of the above posts.

My fave was a Circus Maximus clone. It was the first time I had played such a game, easy to pick up, and everyone really got into it, including adding sound effects to their orders during their move.

For me, my favorites at shows is usually any type of skirmish game. I prefer pulp, but any 1:1 is fine by me.

Barring that…. chariot racing or gladiators….

Two games stand out:

1. A Franco Prussian War battle hosted by David Waxtel … beautiful buildings, terrain and nice 28mm models. I got to play and was inspired to collect my own armies for the period.

2. Bob … Can't remember his last name, hosted cool games with beautiful miniatures. He did a Mexican/American War game what was gorgeous. Rusty's Rules were used maybe?? Another very inspirational game.

This was back when the Historical was still in HMGS.

Mike B

There was a Howard Whitehouse Astounding Tales! game at one of the Host cons years ago that was pop-culture spy-based: 007, John Steed and Emma Peel, etc. ISTR one or more of the Wasileskis were implicated, too.

I was so hopped up to play I made up props --U.N.C.L.E. ID tags, a pen with an extensible antenna, and a super-hi-tech computing device (an abacus with some wires and circuit boards hotglued on), and wore a fez--and got to play a KGB agent complete with a thick accent.

One of the high points, for the older farts at least, was when the player running Emma Peel tripped a booby trap and was overcome by poison gas--fumes of Hai Karate!
(for those youngsters in the audience, YouTube link
The room broke up laughing except for the puzzled faces of the younger folk, who looked at us like we were crazy--I told my godsons, "I'll explain later."

Aerodrome 1.1./a good Fighting Sail era game,/Wings Of Glory,and more.

Ship of the Line/Wooden Ships Iron Men
Desperado: I was not the first one killed, LOL
Star Fleet battles when I won a tournament with a Hydra paladin
Car Wars, just plain fun.

Thanks Mako. Just re-read my original blog post from that game and I mis-remembered a few things, I had an R-Boat, not E, and the torpedoes had to roll 8 or LESS on 2d6, and he rolled a pair of 9s.

Mini game, I'd have to say my favorite was playing with my son when he was 8 and single handedly won a game by teleporting off a flaming starship that was about to go boom and having his crew seize a nearby enemy cruiser with an ungodly set of rolls. By the end even the guy that was losing his cruiser was cheering for him.

There was a really innovative WWII dogfight game that unfortunately with my horrible memory I now forget the name of the gent that ran it. More complicated than wings of war but no less easy to play. Hope that gent publishes his rules – IIRC we were playing British Hurricaines vs the Regia Aeronautica.

And the Space 1889 guys put on a mean Victorian Martian table.

Convention games in general? When I was 15 and beat the #1 rated player in the US in a RPGA event. Then I was 16 and got invited to play in the grandmasters tourney, the youngest ever at that time.

A Larp where I was voted most evil, LOL. Didn't hurt the girl I had to kill was good natured about it and made a pass at me. I was an idiot, and followed up the game instead of the girl. :D

Another vote for Howard. My goal is run a game one day as good as his worst game.

Had a
great time playing Silent Death, Circus Maximus, and Fasa's Star Trek mini game. All of these at GenCon Milwaukee.

Coolest game I ever saw at a convention was in Lancaster at the Host, in the back of the Hotel lobby. I'm not sure if it was Cold Wars or Historicon. The game was A Pulp Adventure set inside an Egyptian style tomb. The tomb was built inside many modular boxes, which were stacked and arranged differently over the course of several games. Each box had a cover, which was not removed until a player's figures entered that area. I didn't get to play in any of the games but I stood there watching for quite a long time at several points during the weekend.

@Snurl – yeah, that one was awesome. The guy ran 4 games using different designs in the pyramid IIRC, and they were various settings, such as Dr. Who, the Mummy, etc. I wanted to try it but it was sold out. Thanks for reminding me about that one!

The Guys from Pittsburgh Brad and Bill.
They ran Sideling Hill and the Kanittany Raid 1756 at Fall-In. Awesome scenarios and scenery. Both games made Wargamers Illustrated.

Rick the Flag Dudes Rorks Drift in 28 mm at the Williamsburg Muster was fantastic. I was defending the Hospital and had to pick Axe my way out of the burning building only to be swarmed by the Loins of the Bull.

The Guys from I-95 gamers running a FoW scenario at Fall-In. I was Russian Paratroopers trying to clear the beaches for landing Barrages. Did not go well for us Russians, but like Comrade Stalin said, "Quantity has a quality all of its own."

Every Mid-night Massacre by the Rogues was a blast. Only once this past Cold Wars did the Union win the 2 AM Sing off.

In the End, The GMs set up great scenarios and set the stage, but it was the Players/Friends that made them Memorable.

A couple of years ago Bowman put on a Victorian Sci-Fi game using a nice mix of historical figures and sci-fi figures. I don't think I ever had a better time playing a game before that!

Thanks King30, that's very kind. As next year's Weekend will have a Sci-FI theme, maybe I should trot that game out again.

For myself I had 3 Favorites.

The first one was an Alamo game where I played as a defender I was placed where Davy Crockett was got to fire a cannon at the Mexican's.

As the game went on the Mexican's broke thru at the North Wall and the defenders slowly was forced to fall back to the area with Crockett and his men.

The fighting was pretty intense and when the game ended the defenders had lost about half their men and so we won.

The second one was a Boxer Rebellion game where I played the Japanese contingent and enjoyed myself a lot the figures and the terrain looked great as did the Alamo game.

The third one was for me my Favorite overall it was the Attack on Pearl Harbor and I got to Bomb Battleship Row and believe me no Battleship was able to get underway when we got through with them.

You should've seen the pall of black smoke over Battleship Row I wish I had a camera but alas I didn't.

This game was played at Origins in San Jose Calif back in the 80's or early 90's.

I really had a blast playing in that game the Pearl Harbor layout was fantastic I must say.