"What was the worst convention game you ever played in?" Topic

many years ago i played in a what if Longstreet attack at Gettysburg. but 1)the guy made the hills too steep so the figures slid down the ridge line and hills if you weren't careful.2) it didn't really matter since i wasn't allowed to move anyway(there were off board troops that i was pinned by) so my turns consisted of 1 long range artillery shot every turn. other guys playing did have more fun but my troops shouldn't have been on the board.

as an addendum, i have played in way too many games were it is obvious they haven't play tested…

These two threads-

"In Confessions of a Winning Poker Player, Jack King said, "Few players recall big pots they have won -- strange as it seems -- but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career."- Mike McDermott, Rounders

Either I've been lucky or too easy to please but I've never played a convention game I didn't enjoy.

Either I've been lucky or too easy to please but I've never played a convention game I didn't enjoy.

I had two bad games last year at a convention. First one was killed by a husband and wife team that didn't really get the concept of a multiple team skirmish game. They kept calling the game master on rules that he had explained clearly and calmly a few times over. At one point he had me roll his attacks for him because they thought he was picking on them. I give him credit for keeping his cool and doing what he could to speed up the play.

Second game had the same pair plus 12 more of us in what should have been a 6 or 8 player game – could be the same one TGerritsen played in. Wonderful game table and a lot of effort by the game master but too many players diminished the fun. I activated only 2 or 3 times in 4 hours.

Thankfully I have enjoyed all my games so far this year – even when crushed by my opponent, the games have been fun.

I have played in many terrible games. The worst was I was playing Gettysburg home rules. When the game ended we noticed that if there were NO Union troops the Rebs could not reach there objectives.

Back in the early 1990s, I attended a show in Independence MO. A guy ran a colonial game of British vs Zulus.

It was strange combat firing table. At close range it took a 1-2 to hit. At medium range it took a 3-4 to hit. And at long range it took a 5-6 to hit. So it was a 33% chance to hit regardless to hit. The designer never understood the players problem.

Sorry Rudy, but that is hilarious.

It has the advantage of disenfranchising loaded dice.

There was this WW2 game I played at a show when I was in my teens. 10mm I think. But this game was run in the 1980s, where game designers thought in terms of complexity, "simulation" and screwing the players. So the players had a troop of Bren carriers and some infantry and they had to traverse across a wide board, capture a bridge and the hills beyond it. Players had to log their moves on paper two turns in advance (a very 80s concept, I don't know how it made the game more realistic) and you could only shoot at what you could view through a periscope placed on top of your models; the mirrors were dusty and the terrain was dense so you could see diddly squat. Anyway, what ended up happening is that Bren carriers would accidentally ram each other because of the two turn advance planning rules and none made it over the bridge because there were well camouflaged and sited anti-tank guns that could see everything. Funnily enough, the umpire controlled Germans didn't need the perisocope….

I've played in a couple. At Historicon a few years ago I was in double blind game of Midway. GM was using a home brew computer program to determine searches and contact. After sitting for three hours, he announced that none of the searches succeeded so there would be no contact and thus no combat. There were several of us who wanted to drown him.

Then there was the Fire and Fury game a couple years ago. My second turn, I got lucky and rolled a ten on a D10 and had a couple + modifiers and so had double move. I moved at an angle and ended up on the Confederate players flank. The GM then moved my troops back and said he was not allowing angled movement even though it is clearly in the rules. Apparently the flank I came up on belonged to one of his buddies. I just laid down the dice and walked into the dealers area.

Then again, some bad games are not the fault of the GM. I was in a WWI naval game at Historicon in Valley Forge. I had the Geoben and was trying to escape the Bristish battlecruisers. This one Brit player waited about 2 hours till his BC came on the board. As it did, I said I would fire at extreme range. Needed like a 3 out of 100 to hit and I rolled a 2. Hit. Rolled location, midship deck or some such. Rolled three D6 for damage and I rolled….three 6's. His ship blew up. I felt badly for him and the GM, but just one of those things.