I recently went to a gaming convention after a long hiatus. I had actually decided that I wasn't going to go to anymore California gaming conventions. However, my son said he was going, and that some of his friends were going, so I decided, "what the heck."
Background
I went to my first gaming convention almost 38 years ago. These early conventions featured mostly role playing games, dominated by Dungeons & Dragons, but with a growing diversity of other games. In my younger days these were Champions, Runequest, Arduin, Chivalry & Sorcery, Gamma World, Boothill, and Traveller.
I went to my first historical miniatures convention during my years on the east coast. There the game being played was mostly DBM for ancients. Ancients, as I posted earlier are what got me into collecting historical miniatures. I attended
Cold Wars.
Back in California I found that there was no convention to compare to the ones put on by
HMGS. But I attended a few of the smaller west coast conventions, hosted a game using the
Piquet rules of Archon, and then Archon 2. The games were well attended.
Then I decided to take on a big project. I got my New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittite armies up to a point where each could accommodate 5 players. I used Baueda's models to paint up an Egyptian camp, and even had a modest representation of Kadesh. I put together lists, folders, quick reference sheets, purchased additional dice and measuring tape. I enlisted the aid of my son.
We signed up to run the game on Saturday. Previous experience demonstrated this to be the day with the largest attendance. I thought we could get a good size group to sign up for the game.
Not a single person signed up to play.
I have a good notion as to why this occurred. I probably should have coordinated with the gaming group that tends to dominate this convention. But I was burnt, or burned out. The effort had cost too much and I decided not to return.
I still haven't gone back to that convention. The one I attended is called Kublacon. I was impressed by its polish, its size, its diversity of games, and its outreach to young players.
I was pleased that people were hosting games I wanted to try, like "
To the Strongest." I had hoped to try "Command and Colors," but that didn't work out.
I was able to sign-up for two "To the Strongest" events.
The first event featured a clash between Pyrrhus and Carthaginians. The figures were quite stunning.
An elephant for the Epirians, but none for the Carthaginians.
An impact marker for some Epirian cavalry
Here come the Numidians!
Some of my command.
In the thick of the fray. I'm not a big fan of the cards from a visual point of view.
It was a fun event. We even had time for a second game. I'm still not sure about the grid system. The Carthaginians (my side) lost the first game, but we took the second game.
The second event was not as visually stunning. It was Persians against Greeks, a classic (pun intended) match up. I was stuck with a command of mostly Persian skirmishers which I think I skillfully managed.
It was interesting seeing the differing interpretation of this rule set in the two separate events. We wargamers are always fiddling with rules. I myself am already thinking of a marriage between the command activation of these rules with modified combat table used in Pulse of Battle, no grid.
My son's friend bought
Pandemic:Call of Cthulu. We played a couple of games.
Shoggoth on the move, four old ones revealed! It didn't end well for the players.
A cool Napoleon period Naval game.
