Photodump: Historicon 2015

Another Historicon down, another Photodump blog post. This about sums up driving from DC to Fredericksburg.

My Historicon plans for this year included:

• Running Reconquest: Elysium (DZC) on Thursday night (5 players)
• Running Siege of Vienna (BFAS) on Friday night (16 players)
• Playing in a BFAS tournament on Saturday (ended up getting 16 players for it!)

Battlefront's Great War demo table

Battlefronts WW2 demo table

 

Poorly taken panoramic picture of a table set up for a game

 Thursday nights Reconquest: Elysium had five players as planned, although only three of the preregistered folks showed up, and two walkins filled the gaps.

This game was 5 players (UCM, UCM, Resistance, Shaltari, and PHR) vs a GM/prescripted controlled Scourge force. It also involved some roleplaying aspects, as each player was given a unique mission brief and tasks that possibly conflicted with another's, but they weren't allowed to share their information. Synopsis of the missions below:

UCM (both UCM players received the same): Extract the objectives from the buildings around the board. You’ll need to clear them of occupying Scourge first. Be wary of anything that looks like a trap. In addition, we have some scouts trapped behind in an old monorail system. The scouts think they can get the train back online. When operational, the train should head for our LZ. Ensure that train makes it to the LZ intact, and if for some reason it doesn’t, check the train for survivors or intelligence left behind.

PHR: Assist with the UCM mission just enough as to not draw attention to our real mission. When the UCM forces get the Monorail operational, you are to shoot it down. Destroy the pillars the track rests upon, and the monorail will fall to the ground when it cross the gap. Get our troops in there and extract whatever you find from the wreckage, and take it off the OPPOSITE board edge the UCM is attempting to extract from.

Shaltari: You have two smaller missions. First, destroy as many units as possible. Preferably opposing Scourge units, but if you feel the need to destroy your friends, go ahead.

Second, we want you to sow as much political havoc on the battlefield as you can. We obviously understand the UCM’s mission of extracting objectives from the board, but we have a feeling the PHR and Resistance might be up to their own schemes as well. Disrupt them and watch the battlefield fall into complete chaos. Once the seeds of disorder have been sewn, we can safely extract you from the battlefield whenever you are ready.

Resistance: Rescue stranded Resistance and grow your army! If you succeed in rescuing Resistance troops, chances are they will join your army and your army will grow. Over time, you could actually have the strongest force on the board if you can rescue them all.

However, some bands of Resistance are not too happy about the UCM abandonists returning to Elysium. Some forces may be hostile. Proceed with caution.

So basically, UCM and PHR each had a secret objective with the monorail that was directly conflicting with each other, but neither side knew the other side even know about the monorail (it didn't start moving or anything until turn 3). The players were happily milling about killing Scourge, while the Resistance player was receiving hidden beacons to rescue to grow his army. He had to convince the other players to divert from their missions to help him rescue troops, and then deal with the inevitable political fallout when he rescued feral troops that turned against the players! Meanwhile, the Shaltari player is doing his best to try to learn everyone's hidden agenda, and gradually turning the players against themselves.

By the time most of the Scourge on the board was destroyed, the players were entirely engaged fighting among themselves and not trusting each other. Gamemaster success!

 That's the end of Reconquest Elysium pictures.

Random cool game

 On Friday morning, Karl and Konrad set up a divisional level BFAS demo game, using Karls studio painted armies and GORGEOUS terrain. It was Polish vs Cossacks. I didn't stick around to play in the game, but I snapped a couple pictures of it in progress.

Another random cool looking game table

On Friday evening, I ran a BFAS Siege of Vienna game. It was set up for a max of 16 players, but I only listed 8 slots with the hope that I wouldn't get all 16 at once.  It turned out well in that I had about 8 at the very beginning, and a few more, including some Wargamer staff, joined as the game progressed.

It was really exhausting running this game, so I didn't catch quite as many pictures. After about four hours of combats, the Imperial/Polish side squeezed out a victory.

On Saturday we had a BFAS tournament that drew 16 players. 16!!!  That's huge for a game most people didn't even know existed before the convention. We had a pretty even split between people who had played before, and newer players that had gotten demos and bought into the game during the convention. Congrats to my man Frank who eeked out a first place showing with Polish! I came in fourth with my Turks.

And of course, the loot haul. I left with two new BFAS armies (Cossacks and Tatars), as well as a BFAS Transylvanian army and set of rulebooks for Joe. Picked up a copy of Frostgrave for Mike as well. Scored a giant Warhammer Fantasy Wizard Tower terrain piece, Warhammer Slaanash Chariot, and a FoW Great War British starter in the swap meet, a box of bases for my new BFAS figures, some BFAS fortification, and also some Blucher bases.