Well this certainly took a lot longer than expected to put up. In brief, I forgot my camera, squirrels attacked the house cutting short my Cangames and then work got very, very busy. Fortunately, Rob of Captain's Blog kindly sent me the photos below a few days after the event.
My game on Day I went very well. Five of six slots were filled and the players seemed to have a good time. As with every event, something important got left behind and that was the camera and of course my fancy new movement bases.
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| The Objective - An Ancient Martian Temple |
I learned a great deal about running convention games. The play aids went down pretty well. However I did learn that a good percentage of players won't even look at a QRS, I found myself explaining things that I thought were pretty clearly laid out on the sheet. I also found out that players will do the unexpected especially when they are not familiar with the time period.
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| Hill Martian light cavalry survivors flank the Earthers after charging formed infantry. |
On the Earth side, the three players had a good understanding of colonial era tactics and deployed and moved accordingly. On the Martian side, this was not the case. I really didn't expect to see hill Martian light cavalry charging in the open against a formed British company (it wasn't pleasant). Later, another player told me he had never heard of an enfiladed line. Again no criticism of the players and a clear sign that keeping things simple is absolutely critical in a convention game. The young lady whose Hill Martians charged the British with disastrous effect later routed a rifle company with her High Martians so player skill was not in question.
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| Watch the Monkeys..... |
Of course, the game brought out a number of sticking points with the rules - or rather my understanding of them. A close re-reading after the fact cleared up some problems we had with opportunity fire - it is there, just not obviously so. My only real complaint was with the initiative system. The Martians won initiative something like 5 times in a row leaving the Terran players twiddling their thumbs until the defensive fire phase. This wouldn't be a big problem in a club game but it really isn't good to have players standing around in a convention game. Card activation by unit is probably a better route.
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| Please, Sir - Can we move? |
A good game for a first time outing and many lessons learned on my part. A big thank-you to all the players.
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| Martians Sir! Dozens of them! |
Day two - Saturday was a slow one with some non-game related frustrations. It began well enough when I found that the naval game I thought had been cancelled had been moved to later time period. I had missed the game last year due to a scheduling conflict and was really looking forward to it this year. I did my shift on the information desk and then the missus came by and we walked home together taking in a street festival along the way. Very pleasant indeed.
I was cooking up some chicken burgers for an early dinner before heading back to the con for the naval game when I saw our attic squirrels were all grown up and ready to be booted out. To keep it short, a mother squirrel had chewed through a roof vent and nested inside. We had been advised to leave her be if possible because if we sealed her out away from her babies she would do a lot of damage getting back in and to put it bluntly, dead squirrel babies in your roof create quite a stink. Having been considerate to momma squirrel we now found she had torn away some of the shingling and of course it was going to rain the following day.
I went back that evening to play in the home brew WWII naval game put on by Chris Evans from Ottawa Miniature Gamers. Buckets of dice fast play but with a good level of detail. One of my Italian destroyers put a full load of torpedoes into a British light cruiser sending it to the bottom. I also learned a lot from Chris on how to run a convention game.
On Sunday, I went in for my volunteer shift as promised. I flipped part of my admission refund into Air Force, Tactics II and Lufwaffe from the gamer's market and headed home to repair the roof. I missed a WW I Naval game and sadly the DBA tournament.The only good side to this was that the damage was much less severe than we thought.
So a great learning experience and some great gaming with good people sadly cut short. I will go back next year - and may be run another game.
Rogues Gallery
A very big Thank You to Rob for allowing me permission to use his pictures.
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| Hill Martians advance past Shield Gunners |
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| The regulars advance supported on their right by stragglers and staff from the Officer's Mess |
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What? Another flipping hedge? Canal Martian infantry tell the ref some area features
would go down well in the next battle. |
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| Using Earther tech against the invaders! A Whitworth gets ready to fire. |
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| Temple Fanatics Charge the thin Red Lin! |
