Summer of Gaming, Part 2

Living History

I created this camp because Kansas City has a lot of great military history. The camp features a trip to an American Civil War (ACW) and the WWI memorial museums, with wargaming sandwiched in between.

This year, I focused on the Battle of Westport (Brush Creek) from the ACW and we always end our week with WWI aerial combat. If you haven't been to the Battle of Westport museum, it's a nice visit. The Docents really know their stuff and they'll tailor their presentation to your needs.

For those not familiar with the Battle of Westport, it was the largest ACW battle west of the Mississippi and spelled the formal end of Confederate presence in Missouri.

The campers enjoyed the museum visit and were excited to wargame the battle. I used Junior General rules, but created the scenario myself. Ironically, history did not repeat itself, as Union infantry forces were eliminated by the Confederates. However, Union artillery chose not to retreat and used grapeshot to devastating effect. At the end of the day, it was acknowledged that the artillery would have withdrawn and the Rebs would have won the day.

The forces around Brush Creek

The Rebs thwart the Yanks from crossing the creek

The following day, we journeyed to the WWI memorial and museum. Always a great time. Always informative. Always shocking how similar conditions were then when compared to now.

The final day was WWI dogfighting. I made my own planes and map, as I'm too cheap to spring for the "real" toys. Again, I used Junior General rules, but added a lot of pilot information to the pilot cards. 

The opening pass, guns blazing!

The Flying Circus in the house!

A great camp! Next year, I want to try to head to the Battle of Lone Jack museum and fight that fight.

Strategic Gaming

I ran this camp twice this summer. Every time I run it, it's different. I give the kids free choice as to what we play. This year, Pirate Dice and Stratego were the big winners. 

Having said that, I made a point of exposing the kids to an upcoming game, Dice Legions. This little gem of a game will be released by Modiphius Games later this year. Until then, a special edition was released to earn money for "frontline aid efforts" in Ukraine. I can get behind that.

For those not familiar with the game, here's the official blurb:

Dice Legions is a fantasy style tabletop top battle game, where vast armies of every day gaming dice, are transformed by its lightning fast rule set, into vast legions of fantasy battle units. Dice Legions is designed by Australian writer and game designer Adam L Dobbyns and published by UK based Modiphius Entertainment. The game is part of the “dice as models” genre of hobby play whereby brightly coloured everyday dice from 4 sided, right up to 20 sided dice, are used to represent various combative game Units, in both solo and oppositional play.

I can't wait for the full game's release! I've included pics of the four maps I made for the game. Most are 1v1, but the largest (A Bridge Too Far) accommodates 2v2. The actual game features terrain cards that you can put on literally any flat surface, so your games fit your needs.

A Bridge Too Far

The Crossroads

Swamp of Death

You Shall Not Pass!

Shoot 'em up!

"Bring your Nerf gun."  That was pretty much the only thing I said in the invite to the game.  Nevertheless, the gang was ready; packing more "heat" than anyone outside of pre-pubescent youngsters should...

The Plot

The sleepy border town of Deadrock was set to wake up.  The Mexicans, who had been in the town since it was named Roca Muerta, had had enough.  The Texians that had swaggered in treated their Mexican counterparts like offal.  They boasted about Texas independence and how much better they were than Mexicans, Mexico and basically anything or anyone that wasn't Texian.  Enough was enough.  

Today, as the sun broke over the horizon, it was time to give Deadrock its true name and drive out the Texian squatters!

The Players

Jon Mark and Bill played the Texians (three apiece).  Terry, Tim and I played the Mexicans (two each).  It was last team standing.  Simple enough!

Did I make the shot?

Terry, wearing the SHL +2 Poncho of Warmth.

"Wild" Bill shootin' up the joint!

Jon Mark, bringing the heat!

Tim with his fancy ammo.

The Game

Using Ken's wonderfully simple rules that combine movement elements from the Song Of... family, easily understood and remembered modifiers and a special "shooting element" using Nerf guns, we began.

The two forces began on opposite long sides of the board.  They soon came into contact with one another and the Nerf "lead" started to fly.  

Let's go thataway...

Texians moving up

Wrapping around the left flank.

An Irish Texian?!

The Mexicans (and an injun) advance

Peek-a-boo...

...I see you!

Carnage.

The blood flowed heavily.

Extra powder in that bullet!

    

Ol' Doc died on the stoop of his practice.

Things were touch and go for quite a while, with neither side gaining an appreciable advantage.  Finally, it came down to Nerf accuracy.  Unfortunately for the Texians, either the powder in their bullets was of an inferior grade or they were just lousy shots.  By the end of the night, a single Texian scampered away...the lone survivor of a short, but bloody, gunfight.

I ran so far away...

As the sun set on Roca Muerta, the tequila freely flowed...

A fun night of hearty entertainment!

ConnCon 2016

It was a wonderful day of gaming in the Conn basement!

Game 1:

My friend, Scott, brought over medieval FUBAR.  He had a full table of six players.  I gladly gave up my seat for a somewhat late arrival, but that was fine by me.  I had jalapeno poppers and other snacks to prep!

Blind set-up

It sounded like everyone had a grand time.  Judging by the awesomeness of the layout on the table, how could someone NOT have fun?!

Thanks again, Scott!

Game 2:

The second game of the day was a homebrew Western game from Kenny.  It combined aspects of Fistful of Lead, Song of Blades and Heroes and Nerf guns!   We got a couple of games in before we broke for lunch.

Kenny, explaining the rules...

...and the targets.

My weapon of choice.

And our mugshots of the dead...

Game 3:

 Ken had also brought a Viking lawn game called Kubb.  Behold the fun pics!

Thanks again, Kenny.  You brought a lot of fun to ConnCon!

Game 4:

The final game of the day was one of our favorites: Aliens.  This is my homemade copy, thus the white board (it should be dark and scary).

The first scenario is the Colonial Marines against the Bugs.  We fared fairly well on this one.

 

 

 

The second scenario was the Operations room and airducts.  We did okay, but lost Gorman and Vasquez.

 

 

  

All in all, it was a great day of gaming.  Thanks again to everyone who attended and brought their fun games to play!  Next August, fellas!