"28mm Market Garden game Sept 31, 2017 @MINI-CON in Fullerton" Topic

This is almost one year advance notice for any/all Southern California gamers (and gamers from anywhere else in the country or the world willing to travel a bit further!) with interest in Market Garden, are invited to come participate in a 28mm game of Operation Market Garden at the annual HMGS-PSW Mini-Con, to held at California State University Fullerton in Orange County, on Saturday, September 31st, 2017.

The rather large tabletop(s) will incorporate bridges at Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Arnhem, landings by British 1st Airborne, US 101st and 82nd Airborne, various glier forces, and of course the ground advance by XXX Corps.

There will be room for multiple Allied and German players during the course of this day-long mega-game, slated to begin at 9:00am and play on until a decisive result is reached, some time that evening.

We have a brand-new dedicated blog to keep folks posted as preparatioin for the game proceeds on all fronts: troops, terrain, rules, play-testing, etc.

LINK: opmktgdn.blogspot.com

Stop by and see how we're doing, and let us know if you plan to join us on the day. You've got almost a year to make room on your schedule, so if you're into large scale WWII gaming or airborne operations in general, or "A Bridge Too Far" in particular, come on down!

In the meantime, here's a link to a post on my blog re: our play-test back when we were only gaming Arnhem, which give you a chance to see the British airborne forces in action on the tabletop, as well as their German opponents, and will also give you a sense of the what the terrain will be like):

link

Sadly it would be a trek too far from Scotland or SWMBO and I would be signing up right now. A pity, since we could provide most of the British Airborne Division organised for Rapid Fire.

What's the real date? The date stated in the topic title is incorrect.

The table and miniatures look great.

Glenn,

My sincere apologies!

The date is Saturday, September 30th.

I was in a rush and racing out when I started this thread last night and I screwed the date up rather badly. Again, sorry about that, and thanks for pointing it out so fast.

@uglyfatbloke: wish you could make it to join us, with or without your troops -- though "with" would of course be best!

The con will be September 30th and October 1st at the Titan Student Center on the Cal State Fullerton campus.

There was a hex-map-and-counters game of Operation Market Garden back in the 1980s. I think SPI published it. If you put all three maps together, the playing area was about 8 feet long. I laid it out on my living room floor and played solo after work for a week or so. I really liked the feeling of having the entire area in front of me.

I doubt that I'll be able to join you. I hope you have a great time.

Was that Highway to the Reich? Masses and masses of counters as I recall.

That sounds right, Uglyfatbloke.

Madguru – we both wish we could join you….SWMBO could bring her rafts of Germans. We also do Arnhem battles in 54mm, but that really would be a bit of a challenge for transport.
As it happens we're off to play some games at Arnhem (again) over the New Year period…there's something nice (but very, very sad and geeky) about playing the battle in buildings that were fairly important locations during the fighting – the Rhine Pavilion and what is now a community centre behind Zwarteweg. Why don't you come and join us?
Looking at the British OB on your blog, I think we could actually manage the entire Airborne division less one Para battalion. You might want to add a six-pounder for each of the Airlanding battalions and IIRC they each had an extra mortar platoon too.

uglyfatbloke,

Thanks very much for the gracious invite! I'm actually supposed to visit the UK with my entire family over Christmas break, but don't think we're going to the Continent. When exactly is the "Arnhem in Arnhem" game you refer to? We might be back home already, but if not, maybe I can find a way to add a brief trip to Holland to our itinerary. Unlikely but not impossible!

On the OB front, thanks very much for the suggestion, I will share it with my fellow gamers -- including most importantly the guy who owns all those British Paras! -- and see what develops.

Lastly, that's awesome that you and your wife game together!

Not exactly sure, but we're there from 29th-5th so I expect between 30th and 4th with Ludwig's increasingly wonderful terrain…I'd guess at least 80 Arnhem-specific buildings.
We'll be taking stuff to play with ourselves as well. Check out threads from last year 'Arnhem at New Year' for Ludwig's set-up.
Pat (SWMBO) owns more figures and does more periods than I do. She's got WW2 28mm Germans for miles and miles.
She's just started painting after all these years and her first attempt is better than anything I've ever done (not saying much admittedly) which I find a bit undermining.
Mail me… thathistorybloke@outlook.com …and I'll see if I can't find something interesting for you.
Have you read 'The Cauldron' (Zeno)? If not, do.
Also…at one gun model for 5 guns you maybe want two more 17-pounders.
Also also…I'd love to see those 'Fie and Manoeuvre' rules.

Game was on the 3rd…many thanks to Ludwig…and we had a great time. We might well do another big 'Arnhem game in Arnhem' in the spring. If anyone is interested drop me a line …thathistorybloke@outlook.com

Rules? Link to said rules?

For rules we'll be using, "Fire & Maneuver."

Here's a LINK which I hope will take you to a brief "PRIMER" for the rules, which you could potentially use to give them a try. The Primer includes aspects of general introduction to the miniature wargaming hobby as well as specifics for the rules system, but it's short and sweet and IMHO pretty user friendly. It's part of a FACEBOOK page, but I don't have a Facebook account and am able to access it, so hopefully other non-Facebookers will be as well:

link

Once you reach the linked site, just click on the first page to blow it up and then scroll through them one-by-one at your leisure…

@Uglyfatbloke: Very happy to hear your Arnhem game was a success! Hope to see some pics in the future, and also to hear about the next one, played in Arnhem!

Mail me Guru….might be interesting!