This was my first Fall In in many years. I usually attend Historicon and have a great time. Since I retired this year I found myself able to attend on Friday and stayed for Saturday. I really enjoyed my stay but only saw a couple of friends there. The game boards were amazing, so many beautiful terrain sets and well painted figs! I don't know how to add pictures to this board, I wish I could because there were some beautiful games.
I played in four games, two of which were ongoing games where you pick up where the last session ended. I was fortunate to be in the last session of Marines Invade Cook Island in the South China Sea. It was a fun game of bloody modern combat. I was one of two players playing the marines and the GM, Scott Caldwell, played the Chinese with the help of another gentleman. It was a fun game.
The other on-going game was Wellington verses Ney. The battle was well under way when I took over. Unfortunately, the GM, Jody Sherrill, and I were the only players with a huge table of 25/28 MM figures. We were only able to finish one game turn before time ran out. I had the French forces. It was too much for one person per side. While I was playing the Cook Island game at the next table Saturday evening, I noticed a full table of players picking up where I left off. They seemed to be having a really good time.
On Friday at noon, I had my first game, Bloody Crossroads D-Day +1. The GM, Joe Urbaniak, created a beautiful gameboard and won an award for it. We used Bolt Action Version 3, and Joe created a great scenario, and ran a great game. The game was a blast, everyone was involved and it was a close outcome with my side (the Americans) eeking out a victory. This was a quality game and all of the participants were excellent to play with. This was only my second exposure to Bolt Action as I played version 2 at Historicon this year.
Saturday morning at 10:00, I played Army Gold using a Fist Full of Lead rules. This game was tremendous. I have really grown to love these skirmish games as the GMs can adapt to any situation on the board and allow you to be creative in what you do. Sean Barnet was the GM and he had a great looking wild west town and surrounding desert. There were three of us playing the three factions with GM Sean controlling the 4 townspeople. I had the dismounted cavalry troops guarding the gold shipment, while tow other players had the Apache (David), and Banditos (Matthew). They were both playing to get the gold, while I played to keep it. GM Sean's townspeople were wild cards. This was my first time with a Fist Full of Lead rules and I love them. they are great, fun, easy to learn rules. Everyone had a great time. This was an excellent game, excellently run.
I didn't have a lot of shopping time, but did manage to pickup a few things in Wally's including a set of 25 MM Perry Polish Napoleonics, and a beautiful Viking hut. In the Dealer Hall, I grabbed some Saga tools, a building from Diabolical, a 6 foot section of road, and ordered a Bolt Action Version 3 rule book from Dennis at OMM.
The facility was much improved over the dilapidated condition the Host used to be. I enjoyed Fall In a great deal.
