Summer of Gaming, Part 1

While I haven't posted in a bit, I have been active. Summer, for me, is working at a private school's summer program. I "teach" classes such as Strategic Gaming, Toy Soldiers, Mythology, NERF Wars, and other fun camps. I use wargaming and gaming in general in most of my camps. None of these are part of my "regular" gaming, so I plan on breaking down what I did over a couple posts.

Toy Soldiers

I have three sections of Toy Soldiers: Medieval, WWII, and Sci-Fi. 

Medieval

Medieval battle rules came from Junior General. If you haven't perused that site, do yourself a favor. I selected the battles of Agincourt and Towton. The kids enjoyed the experience and I listened to them compare strategies outside of the actual battles. Win!

We also had a jousting tournament. I used Thomas Foss's Breaking Lances rules (unpublished as of yet). It's a quick, fun set of rules that really capture the essence of the joust and grand melee. Foss's web presence is found at http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/. From there you can link to his store and FB pages. 

To make the jousts and battles more memorable, we discussed heraldry, livery, and what the symbols meant. I had the kids create their own heraldic devices. While not totally accurate, they liked making their "shields". I used the very easy and convenient site CoaMaker to convert their ideas into functioning devices. Seeing their designs on the knights as they jousted really made it fun for the boys. It also stymied the almost inevitable "He's got my knight!" arguments.

WWII

This one was trickier. I decided early on to use skirmish rules, as 54mm toy soldiers don't lend themselves to mass actions in this theater. I finally decided on Wiley Games Fistful of Lead (FoL) rules. Simple, but with enough "meat" to make it memorable and fun.

What I didn't anticipate was the most obvious obstacle: my campers' ages. 2nd to 6th grade, to be exact. The kids "got" the rules easily enough. What the younger ones didn't have was a long enough attention span. The campers that did had a great time. The ones that didn't wound up playing other games. I also had 16 campers, so it was difficult to keep them entertained. Live and learn.  The last pics of urban combats were separated into 4v4 engagements. It was much easier to manage than a full-blown 8v8!

The scenario was Western front, American GIs vs German Wehrmahct. Painting the figs was daunting due to sheer numbers, but fortunately, 54mm figs take paint easily.

A ruined farmhouse became the battlefront for three days!

Another angle of the battlefield

Urban combat #1

Urban combat #2

Sci-Fi

Same rules, half the kids. Same issues with youngsters not maintaining attention. I made this one more interactive for the players, in that they got to decide location, naming rights, etc.

The plot: Planet J34456, or "Jasper", was discovered to have rich deposits of Barstownium in a series of caverns and tunnels. Barstownium is used to power spaceship engines, so is valuable to Human expansion. 

Two companies, Lanayru Corporation and Temptania Labs, laid claim to the planet. Stopping short of waging war for the rights, they settled for splitting the planet in half, figuratively speaking. This is the setting in which the campers found themselves. 

Having learned that scenarios overstay their welcome quickly with youngsters, I told the boys that there would be four, linked scenarios for the week. 

The first took place on the perimeter of the shared border between the two companies. Border guards lazily eyed each other from built-up areas, as they had done for nearly six months. The land was barren, desolate, and boring, as terraforming efforts hadn't reached that far. The only cover were rock formations and hardy native scrub plants. 

Suddenly earpieces crackled with reports of an attack inside Lanayru space! Reports were minimal, but casualties were being taken. Attack!

Lanayru forces

Temptanian forces

I see you...

Eventually, Lanayru forces took too many casualties and were forced to retreat. Temptanian forces seized the opportunity and pushed into their rival's zone. 

Day 2 found Lanayru having set up a hasty defense outside a facility. Temptanian forces needed to force their way past the hill before reinforcements from the facility arrived.

Lanayru, set up

Temptania, on the attack

Reinforcements!

Perfect kill spot

Just as the two groups are really going at it, an alert sounds from the compound! The attackers aren't human, they're "bugs"! Cease hostilities and band together - or die!

The two groups do just that and kill the few "skitters" that had escaped the compound - but not before the sniper had his head removed by a sneak attack!

Day 3: Enter the compound and retrieve the bug research.

Banding together, the companies were tasked with finding the data Lanayru had compiled regarding the "bugs". evidently, mining and terraforming operations had awakened the indigenous apex species on the planet - and now they wanted to feast and breed. The data would go a long way toward understanding the threat, both to humans and the corporate bottom lines.

Bug factory

For more (and better) pics, go to The Penny Whistle on FB. Thanks, Ken!

Day 4: Get to the LZ!

Having acquired the data, it was now time to get to the LZ and off planet! I warned the kids that this one would be brutal, and it was. I switched the rules to a variant of the old Leading Edge Games Aliens rules. They simpler than FoL, but are proven to work very well. 

The kids wanted to "turtle" and take their time, but this was simply a "run and gun" mission. Nobody lived. The companies will have to figure out a way to manage this "issue". 

Contact!

There goes the pilot!

Last man standing

The co-pilot, after the pilot was dragged into the jungle by a skitter, wisely chose to hole up in the landing craft. Once radio contact with the withdrawing force was lost, he dusted off and swore he'd never return...

All in all, the kids loved the camp. Another win!