Intergalactic Convention Report

 It's called intergalactic but it's held here on earth, just like the Ms. Universe contest.

Working for the Weekend

The Intergalactic convention recently took place; this is a small local convention in Sacramento Ca.  I like to throw my support (whether they want it or not) at these local conventions because I like having conventions that I don't have to travel far to get to or stay in a hotel.  

So I signed myself up to run 4 games over the weekend, basically in each of the major time blocks; one on Friday night, 2 on Saturday, and one Sunday morning.  It's kinda like community service except that I don't have to wear an orange vest.  While the con had a Sci-fy theme, any game genre was welcome.

Friday is Lord of the Rings

Friday night I brought my Lord of the Rings set up for a skirmish set in Osgiliath.  

Pics of the set up.
Needs more rubble piles.

The rules were Fistful of Lead: Might and Melee.  Which is basically a dark ages / medieval skirmish game so the only thing that makes this fanatasy is the setting; crazy stone buildings and one side being orcs.  

I explained the scenario as "Sauron turned his burning eye to his orcs and said something like "Hey my dudes.  I think I dropped like a necklace or something back in Osgiliath like a thousand years ago.  Kinda been on my mind lately, kinda want it back.  Go there and look for it will ya?  Great.  Super, you're the best. But go NOW."  

There are 3 ruined buildings that cross the center line of the board.  Each has to be searched for the missing trinket.  To count as searched the Orcs have to pass two normal task rolls within them.  Orcs cannot search if there is a unegaged enemy in the same ruins.   When a building is searched nothing is found.  The orcs win if they can search all 3 buildings, as they can report back that the search was complete.  The Good side only had to stop this.  To balance things out a little, the orcs had more orcs than men had men.  

To aid in game play, I once again made sure that every character had it's own Pokémon card.

Boromir's Pokémon, I mean CHARACTER card.
Everything the player needs to know in one spot.

I brought enough warbands for 6 players, had 3 sitting around when the game began, so played myself to make it even.  I love it when that happens.

if you look closely, you might spot where one the ruins got damaged on the ride over,
and I forgot to bring any glue.

Random game pic
I also labelled each of the miniatures for easy recognition.

Another random game pic

In the beginning, the orc players were really invested in ling up shots with the archers, while I kept saying that archery wasn't that reliable in this game.  First two orcs shots resulted in 2 dead men.  They never believed a word I said after.

Players seemed to have fun, I was having fun.  Game started at 5 and wrapped up at 9 PM.

Let's take a look at the other miniatures games going on Friday night:

don't see any?
That's because mine was the only one.

Saturday is Kidding Around

As mentioned previously on this blog; The Intergalactic Convention mentioned having a 'Young gamers' program and since I have young gamers I volunteered to run two games for the program on Saturday.  Later on it turns out I was the entirety of the 'kid friendly' games available.  In the morning there was the Wooden Wars game and in the afternoon I was hosting some kid friendly board games.

Let's take a look at ALL the children that came.

Just one, and I brought him.
My Son#2 (age 6).

Just proves the adage that wargamers are grumpy old men who can't be bothered with kids.  

And one day, I will be one of them.

Daughter#1 (age 10) was supposed to come, but she was invited to a birthday party that same day that was gonna have go kart racing.  She had enough good manners to at least sound conflicted when she said she'd rather go to that.  

Wooden wars set up

Portion of the French line

I have mixed emotions about this.  One the one hand I was fairly disappointed to have put all this effort into Wooden Wars and have no one show up.  I felt bad for my son too, as he didn't really get a great 'convention experience of playing with a bunch of people some cool games' but more just 'playing games with his dad' which he does at home.  On the other hand, I'm fully aware that this game is a nitch, buried in another nitch, covered by a nitch coating so wouldn't be a big draw, especially for an already small convention.  So on one foot I would NOT go through all this effort to put on such a game again, but on the other foot; I already have it, so it would be easy to do again.  

I'm sure that if I brought this to a bigger convention that probably already had a bunch of kids going, it would of been more successful.  

I will say though that everyone was nice to Son#2, and he did get a kick out of walking around and seeing the game tables.  And people let him touch stuff.  

In the vender hall, I told him that he could pick out 'one small thing' thinking there wouldn't really that much to tempt him.  The folks working at the GEG space knew they're business.  "hey" she said, "check out these dice, they're made from the same material as bouncy balls, so they bounce really well."  

Sure enough they did. It was a set of D&D dice (d20, D3, D10, etc..)

He played with those things for the rest of the day. just trying to get certain numbers to happen. 

hey lookit,
I DID finish that English cavalry.

He was able to play Wooden Wars for close to two hours.  After that we drove to a nearby McDonalds for needed junk food.  Ate it next to the Bolt Action tournament.  

In the afternoon we played some boardgames.  He got through one game of Forbidden Island before basically getting over the whole experience (got mentally tired, but not sleepy).  I did have two grandparents show up for 'boardgames with kids', looking for suggestions on what they could play with they're grand kids.  So I got to sound like an expert as I made recommendations.  

We left for home around 4 PM.

At the end Son#2 said it was "a good time" and "could we do it again next weekend?" Which I took as encouragement for my Father of the Year award.  Though later on when I told him he couldn't play Legos or whatever he wanted to play because we all had to take his mom to urgent care because she felt really sick he yelled "So I WASTED MY WHOLE DAY?!!!"  

Me:  "........"

Anyway, let's take a look at the other miniature games going on Saturday:

Don't see any?

just kidding, that's my fault.  Actually, there was a decent number of miniature games going on, but I failed to take any pictures.  I had a hyper active 6 year old high on cookies with me. 

Nice guy Mr. GM ran a really great looking Rank and File game that I was envious of not being able to pay in.  And Mr GM shared some snacks with Son#2.  There were some nice space ship games and etc..

There was a Bolt Action tournament with some really nice tables that I was also envious of not playing in.  There were 6 players and enough prize support for 10.  

Overall for Miniature games I would say there were scarce options, and I saw quite a number of cancellations as well.  The games I saw were good; just not a lot of them on offer or a lot of miniature players in attendance.  The good side of that is that none were overcrowded, and you could play in any game you wanted.  

The con was kinda spread out over the convention center, with activities in different rooms.  Which I like because it cuts down on noise and bumping butts, and I don't want to be mistaken for a roleplayer.  

Though when I did wander into the role playing and board game areas; those places were hopping busy.

There was a smile on everyone's face, except that one guy who just rolled a 1.

Sunday in Space

I returned on Sunday without the boy for some serious grown-up gaming.  Time for real Grown-up fun with little dolls.  I mean miniatures.  

My friend Mr. CG ran a game of Battle Tech Alpha Strike.

Stompy Robots do the stompy dance

My other friend Mr. DR ran a game of AT-43:

While I ran a game featuring the franchise BELOVED by millions, Star Trek.  

Using rules Starmada unity.

Serious Grown up wargaming.

All in all, it was a fun, laid back weekend.  The location was clean and nice, only about 40 mins from me.  I would definitely attend again and run some more games. 

Thanks for reading,

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

Wooden Progress

 A post where I do minor things somewhat badly.

Fast Times

It's been hectic times over the last couple of weeks here.   Feels like things go at a breakneck pace and then suddenly stop.   Like everyone. You know the feeling.

I lost a few nights of convention prep due to this little known holiday called Easter.  Maybe you've heard of it.  To some people it's a big deal.  In-laws visit.    My wife is sometimes a Catholic and Easter becomes a thing.  Also for small children who like egg hunts and such activities, it's a thing.  For my own part, I needed to make the traditional Easter Egg racing track. Which is a creation of cardboard and masking tape to make various ramps on a large plank, placed onto stairs, and eggs roll down.  

Egg racing in action.
My shirt states my favorite drink,
in case anyone thought I was thirty.

The Monday after Easter Sunday is Ceasar Chavez day.  It's probably a holiday that you've never heard of just like that What's-It's-Name Bunny holiday.  What's important about CC Day is that it's a California State holiday; and I being an employee of the state, had it off.  No one else does.  Kids go to school, and Mexican restaurants have specials.  

The key to a good marriage is communication.  It's what any marriage counselor is going to tell you (there, I saved you a session).  I 'communicated' to the wife about twice during the week that on Monday I wanted some time to do the battlefield project.  Typically, I do all my hobbyness late at night after everyone is asleep.  But this project had to be done during the daytime and EVEN WORSE, done outside. Nothing good happens outside.  

What I wanted was a few hours, what I got was 40 minutes.  Even that was interrupted by her saying "hey, I have to go to the store, can you watch the 3 year old for a little bit?"  

Hubby minutes, like hubby points, have a very low exchange rate.  

Battlefield Fail

In order to make the battlefield for the Wooden Wars, just something that marks out 'this is where we are playing"  I decided the easiest and cheapest way would be to get a painting drop cloth and paint it up like ground.  I have all this left over paint from various painting projects anyway so that's no worry.  At the hardware store I looked for canvas drop cloth, thinking that something around 8 feet by 10 feet would work. 

An exciting picture.

closest thing was either 6x9 or this 9x12.  Being American and "bigger is always better" I got the 9x12.  (only exceptions to bigger is better?  my stomach and my wife's ass).

Set it up in the backyard.
 

I was rushing and didn't really have a plan.  I had a hodge podge of left over paint cans / colors.  I would just throw on various shades of browns / greens, whatever, and see what happens.

DONE!

Well, not done.  I ran out of time and had to do other stuff.  I also vastly underestimated how much paint would be needed and ran out of appropriate colors.  Painting, even with a large brush was pretty slow work.  Got about half of it done.  

So leaving it dry outside while I did other things like pick up the kids from school, hit the grocery store, and hiding my frustration and doing a minor thing rather poorly.

Hooray for French Hussars

The weekend after Bunny Day (or whatever it's called), my family had yet another holiday but only in significance to us; Son #2's sixth birthday.  It's a thing.  There are decorations.  In-Laws visit.  

Blowing out the candle.

But as I am  master of scheduling and late night coloring, I finished the French Cav. for Wooden Wars.

French Hussar
No lie, it took me a solid minute to work out that these guys
aren't actually wearing the little jacket, but it's draped over the shoulder.
I'm SURE there is a good reason for that. 

I did an image search for French Hussar Uniform and got a billion different versions. So this one is what I settled on. 

That the French army complete.  I still have the British Cav to do and the game is this Saturday.  I see some late nights ahead.  Gonna need a lot of my favorite drink.  

Not to mention prepping for the OTHER games I'm running this weekend.  I'm not quite the master scheduler Afterall.

Though to be honest, it's not imperative that I finish the British cav, it'll just be nice.  But what is imperative is that battlefield to play on.

Battlefield Partial Success

Communication is the key to a good marriage.  Anyone will tell you.  I 'communicated' to my wife that I would need some time on Sunday to finish the battlefield.  last Saturday was the kid's Bday, Sunday morning the In-laws left, so Sunday afternoon was battlefield time.  This time I was armed with some brown paint, some green, and some white, and a roller.  

What I said and what my wife heard were different things, as often happens.  I ended having to watch the kids and do the project while she took a nap.  In her defense she was sick. 

starting again.
later in the day than I wanted.
Notice where the shadow of the house is.

Being a Master of divide and conquer, I bribed my oldest girl with a new game on her NIN Switch to stay out of the way.  The two boys, ages 6 and 3, could help me or play in the backyard.

done!
See how far that shadow moved?

Took some time.  even with the roller and extra help.  Everyone knows that when little kids 'help' with something it takes longer.  Still, they didn't get completely covered in paint.  Sure, they got paint on them, that couldn't be helped, but not completely covered.  It was bath night for them anyways.

Once again, I was out of paint, and out of time.

To be honest, I don't love it.  

Kinda looks like bad camouflage rather than ground.  And while the roller was quicker it doesn;t blend as much.  Maybe when I get some troops on it, it'll look better.  IN hindsight, I should of just bitten the bullet and gotten way more paint and done more of a patchwork of fields or something.   Oh well.  It's done.  it'll work.  Not every creation can be a masterpiece.

thanks for reading.

double thanks for writing a comment

Till next time.

Onward Wooden Soldiers..

..marching as to war.

PBJ

Got Time to see some pictures of Wooden War flats?  Of course you do. It's the best thing since sliced bread with PeanutButter and Jelly. It's a good time for everyone.  It's a PBJ post, the most-est favorite-est  time on blogs.   

More Wooden Wars

I've been coloring and staying in-between the lines like a big boy (mostly). Trying to get everything done before the deadline.  Doesn't help that I fell victim to Project Creep. After the fairly successful inaugural game of Wooden Wars (featured in the last post), naturally I decided there had to be MORE.  

Not long after, another box of wood from Thomas at Skull and Crown Miniatures arrived.  

What project creep looks like.
Looks like a box of fun times ahead.

The success of my quest

rests with inventiveness,

precious freshness is stressed

as this chart will suggest...

The idea now is to have an 8 player game that looks like:

This chart is super fancy

My thoughts being that each player (be they either a child or an adult with youthful joy in their hearts) would get 1 bog-standard-boring infantry unit of 14 figures, and one unit of something COOL; Could be a 3-cannon battery (two available), or a 7 figure cavalry unit, or a 14 figure elite infantry unit.  

What does an elite infantry unit look like? They have fancy hats.  

Sampling of the elite British.
See the fancy hats?

Sampling of Elite French with even fancier hats
They also have fancy boots.
The French just love to be fancy

Elite infantry are better at melee and get a save when knocked over by shooting balls.

Since I am such a loyal Wooden Wars customer, Mr. TF threw in some fun extras like some command sprues and flags. These don't get any special rules, just spice up the overall appearance of infantry.

Sampling of the Command; flags and drums.
French left, British right.
Cummin and Turmeric

Everybody knows that Napoleonic infantry were terrible, lazy soldiers.  to help them out with some necessary leadership I've added two Officers on foot for each side.

Officers also have fancy uniforms

Officers lead from the front and provide a rally and melee bonus.

That also rounds out all the infantry needed.

And now to sprinkle in some more Artillery to add some needed kick..

British 3-gun battery
3 cannons and 12 figures.

French battery of the same make up

Going back to my freshness chart above, all the infantry and artillery are done.  grand totals of 72 foot soldiers, 6 cannons, 24 cannon crew, and 1 mounted Army leader PER SIDE.  Not bad.

Put like that, it sounds like a lot of miniature flats.  Luckily, storage has never been easier...

The flats are quite robust, being all wood and glue,
so just tossed into a tub.

Final Effort

It's 3 weeks to the convention and it's the final push to get everything done.  A few more things for Wooden Wars and not to mention the 3 other games that I'm running that weekend.  

The crucial thing for Wooden Wars is the actual battlefield.  While we could play on whatever floor / carpet is there at the place, I'm gonna go the extra mile and make a 8 x 10 foot -ish sized battlefield by getting a big canvas drop cloth and painting it various browns and greens.  As long as it doesn't come out looking too much like bad camouflage it'll be acceptable.  Lay it out like a giant rug.

Also I'd like complete all the cavalry if possible:

Here's a big pile of cav sprues.
Cav is always a pain, no matter the game system.
And it looks like they also have fancy uniforms and saddles.
Nap cav must be Primadonnas.  

Wooden Wars uses a 12 inch stick for all it's measuring.
In some circles that's called a ruler.
But I got these fancy 'Batons' for extra class.
Not needed, but fun.

3 weeks out is a pretty good spot to be in, but one never has as much time as one thinks.  There's also in that timeframe Son #2's birthday and Easter coming up, which means I also need to make the Easter Egg Racing track for the traditional Easter Egg race down the stairs.  

Stupid family traditions that bring joy and laughter to family, why'd we ever start that one I'll never know.

Thanks for reading,

Double thanks for writing a comment, fancy or otherwise.

Till Next time.

Firsts of the New Year

First Games

Doesn't everyone remember their first time? Or times?  Especially if you don't get it right the first time and have try it again.  I'm not thinking of anyone in specific....

The new year is off and running, and I've occasionally managed to escape the dungeon of my responsibilities to get in some FIRST games of the new year.   The thing about dungeons is that it can be hard to get out, but easy to get back in.

Like a lot of miniature wargame bloggers I spend most of my time painting, writing witty blog posts and even wittier comments on other blogs.  But that's not all.  Gaming is the thing that I like most, and I have some games I've played that I'd like to share in shotgun blast picture style.  

This post is kinda wordy, kinda long, has bad jokes, and full of pics.

The way I like'em.  It's the most fun on the internet you can have with your pants on.

But seriously, put your pants back on.  There are children in this post.

First Boardgame:

I went over to my friends Mr. PC house to play the best Starwars game EVER; StarWars Rebellion. 

Not only is it the best StarWars game, but it's also the best game of asymmetrical warfare EVER.

You can Trust me on this. I'm a stranger on the internet.  

What's on the board.

What's in our minds.

I actually didn't take pics of our game, that one is stolen from the internet.  Pics of boardgames are boring, unless there is a lot of context and providing that context takes time and talent that I don't have.  We all can't be Norm.  And recently Keith.

Just wanted to tell you about it since it's the best game EVER.  Especially if you like the three original movies. As the Rebel Alliance I saved the galaxy from the evil space empire.  

Speaking of space;

First Miniatures

As the Intergalactic Conquest convention is coming up and I'm gonna run my Star Trek using Starmada Unity rules; I though a refresher game was in order.  I invited myself over to the house of my buddy Mr. DJ of the elusive Lasgunpacker Blog cuz he is my Sci-Fi buddy.  And because my house was full of children and In-laws and a man can only take so much family togetherness before he fakes a head injury so he could be left alone for a while.  Mr. DJs very much biased and self-aggrandizing ARR (LOL) can be seen HERE.  he does have some better pics.  

There's not much to show except for my pretty Star trek ships swooping around the table.

Mr DJ provided the venue and the fun, all I had to do was bring the game.  Another good thing (besides getting together with Mr. DJ), was that I had redesigned all the ships and got a chance to test out the builds.  Mr. DJ and I thought they worked very well.  

I'd go more in depth about this but not everyone is a super space Starmada nerd like me.  

ok, FINE.

Previous Galaxy Class Starship Display

Updated Galaxy Class Starship Display

BIG differences huh?  Needs no further explanation.  Say Less Already.

Playing as the Federation I lost -badly- to the evil Empire and now the Galaxy belongs to Klingons.

That's one galaxy saved and one galaxy lost so far this year.  Luckily, they're not the same universe.  That joke works on many different levels.

First Game of Wooden Wars

One Sunday afternoon, after several days of the kids and the wife being sick, and finally starting to feel better; we were all lounging in our pajamas. I thought it was the perfect time to spring the Wooden Wars game on them, because they had enough energy to do 'something' but not enough energy to really argue with me about it.  

Oh, I didn't get sick, because I was sneaking cigarettes the whole time.  Smoking kills germs as everyone knows, it's one of its health benefits..  (don't worry, no one in my family reads this stupid blog, the secret is safe).

Refresher: Wooden Wars is a game played on the floor using wooden soldier flats.  Players can move and charge like any other miniature game, but shooting is done by throwing a rubber ball at the enemy and knocking them over.  Like a throwback to HG Wells.  

Primarily aimed for children, I invested into it as a game to play with my children and also thought it would be cool for family events, cub scouts, conventions with children, afternoon stuck at home, etc...

Introductory Bristish Force.
3 units of infantry, 1 3-gun battery, 1 mounted leader.
The French was the same.

Having completed an introductory force for both sides, I was anxious to have them play it.  I was also anxious about how it would be received.  After already investing a fair amount of time and money into the project I was hopeful that they would LOVE it, and I would feel justified.   

Also would feel better about the sacrifice I'm making on spending MY hobby time doing this project for them instead of miniatures for myself.  Fatherhood is a constant sacrifice.  

(which is unfair, especially in this case, because it's not like they asked for this).

At the very least I wanted them to like it and say it was fun. 

We split up into teams, the wife and daughter#1 (10 years old) on one team and Son #2 (5 years) and myself on another.  

Game took some time to set up
as Son#3 (3 years old) kept demonstrating his technique of how to deal with infantry;
Hit them with a Truck.
It was his nap time so luckily for us he fell asleep on the couch.

Son#2 wanted to play the 'the Blue guys."
because he thought the officer was cooler.
French force deployed at his feet.

You will excuse the mess the house is in.
We were in the middle of a sort through of old stuff when everyone got sick
and the project halted, and there it sat.
My wife will be mortified if she knew I posted pictures of it.
Luckily, she doesn't read the blog.  like ever.

Son throwing a ball at troops under his mother's command.

Action shots!
Blue ball starts in my wife's hand, and then streaks forward!
like a cannon ball. Like a wrecking ball.
But ill aimed as it bounced over.
Balls have to bounce at least once to be valid shots

Consensus: Lots of fun.  My wife, myself, and my son really liked it. Both children liked to fire the cannon battery as you get to throw 3 balls (one for each cannon) instead of 1.  

My daughter however, got more and more frustrated because she couldn't hit very much, and started to complain that "this isn't fun because I'm losing." as the boy kept making shots.  And I launched into a well thought out (some might say 'heated and annoyed') discussion (some might say lecture) on sportsmanship and how one can't complain just because they are losing and the trick to games is to have fun even while losing; and if if she's gonna be a bad sport then no one is gonna want to play with her.   FURTHERMORE; no one is going to be her friend if she whines and complains when something doesn't go her way.  This went over really well (some would say poorly) and was well received (some would say ignored) and ended with her quitting the game on an extended time out. 

And the long experiment of Nature versus Nurture continues.  So. Very. Long.**

First Game of Bolt Action

The even more elusive Dia of The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted blog came over to give me my fist ever game of Bolt Action.  Does every gamer have a blog these days?  Sometimes it feels less like a miniature game and more of a internet collaboration. 

This time I played host and provided the venue and food, while Dai brought everything for the game.

I took over the kids playroom.  Beat it children!  It's serious grown-up play time.

looks like we both wore the standard white guy uniform:
black t-shirt and blue jeans.
How to tell us apart?
One of us is a handsome charming man with a shaved head,
and the other one is ME.

Dai has been threatening me for a very long time to demo me a game of Bolt Action, and brought along his winter themed Russians versus Germans setup.  

Dai really nailed the Winter theme

It's very cold in Mother Russia.

I elected to be the Russians, the attacking force against a German position.  Since it was my first time playing the game, I figured Russians were a good choice because if I did something stupid and lost a unit that I'd probably have a spare.  

Soviets advance...

zoom out, a HT coming in behind them with another platoon

Soviets (on the right) about to take an objective.

Soviets (on the right) trying to take another one,
and dying to a man, like Soviets do.

There's no real AAR.  There were 3 objectives spread across the Germans table edge that Dai had to defend, I had to take two to win, 1 to draw.  I got one objective and had a reasonable chance to take another one at the end of the game if the rolls went right and then.....

This HT full of troops needed a 9 or less to advance and maybe win me the game.
It rolled a 11, so instead retreated ALL the way to it starting position.
Might as well call it a Backtrack instead of Halftrack.

It was great to see Dai after way too long and his stuff is always top production.  I also really liked the Bolt Action rules and can see why they're popular.  And as always the sign of a good game and an even better time, the next day I was looking 28mm WWII stuff online....

and lastly...

**First Dance

I realize that some of you might think I was a little harsh on the little girl.  And I was.

Rest assured that we made up and had a more civilized and meaningful conversation later.

Fatherhood is also constant repair work. 

And the next weekend we went to the Father-Daughter dance (Hawaiian Luau style) and had a grand ol' time.  I know all the Taylor Swift songs.  Afterwards we went out to dinner for super big hamburgers with her friend.

Daughter and I making funny faces,
in MATCHING clothes no less.

So I can't be a complete ogre.

Thanks for reading,

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.