A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to the Expo…

[Whiterook]

As a few of you may have noticed, I’m a Wargamer. I discovered the hobby in the mid-1980s, when as a Draftsman at a packaging company, the estimator in my office showed me the venerable Avalon Hill games, Panzer Leader and Panzer Blitz. We played Panzer Leader during our half hour lunch breaks and placed the board up on some file cabinets to resume play the next day… I got hooked! I marched myself down to a really good Wargames store in Boston and bought a bunch. Yep… I had the Fevah!

I’m mainly a board wargamer, mostly the hex map and little square cardboard chit counters kind of insanity. WWII was my main drug, due to my fascination with their particular war, and my dad’s involvement as part of the Canadian Army from start to end; though in the 90s, I also branched off into miniatures wargaming. I love the hobby, as much as I do modeling. Back in the mid-2000s, I started going to conventions, tournaments, and expos… big and small. I love them, but worklife always limited my participation. Being retired now, I have the opportunity to attend any that I want and can afford to attend.

One of my favorites has come to be Compass Games’ Fall Expo, and they have decided to go with two expos a year now, with one in May! …with the traditional one in November is still in play. I’ve been going to the November one every year, since their inaugural event back in 2018 (I think that was the year?), with the exception of three years during the pandemic…it was wonderful to return last November, and I was super excited to learn of this May expo being added. I’ll be heading out a day early tomorrow, Wednesday, for some early gaming in the afternoon and evening; the expos starts Thursday and runs through the following Monday. This is in Meriden, Connecticut… and even though only an hour and change drive away, I’ll be staying over at the expo hotel.

The first couple years I went, I played games with just one guy, who’d contacted me because we both played the Lock ‘N Load Publishing series of “Heroes” games. It just worked out that we were perfectly matched in temperament and interests. Last year, we both returned after the hiatus, to trying to play more games with other people, but we both felt over committed playing other folks in a lot of ways (we’ll, I know I did, and am pretty sure he felt the same), so we are returning to the magic formula of primarily playing just each other, and some multiplayer games in most evenings.

I’m bringing three 2-player games, one multiplayer, and one quick playing game for those cool down moments in between the main action. My buddy Tim is bringing about the same. My games are…

Lock ‘N Load Publishing’s, Nations at War series game, “White Star Rising”… a WWII platoon level game.




Days or Wonder’s, “Memoir ‘44”…




Compass Game’s, “Pacific Tide”…




“Escape from Colditz!” …a WWII multiplayer game




Onitama, by Arcane Wonders






I’ve been going over thr rules these past few weeks and feel well versed enough to teach. We’re not very easy going gamers so, this is a No Pressure gig.

OK, so what does that have to do with the subject title?

…after having reentered model building, I am absolutely itching to get back to my model kits! Prep for these wargaming events is always very time consuming and it eats away at anything else you got going. Of the games I’m bringing, I’m teaching all but one! …I want my s*** in order   But I have to say, this is the first time ever, where I’ve had another hobby tapping at my back saying “Hey… whata’bout me, bud?!?”

[Whiterook]

Tim is bringing…

Compass Game’s, “Brothers at War”, a civil war game…




GMT’s, “Plains Indian War”…




Cool Mini or Not’s. “Blood Rage”, a multiplayer of Viking carnage!




And a game called “Unmatched”, which is a simple game to kick off with on Wednesday to whet our appetite!

[tcoat]

The most I have ever done are the Axis and Allies series of games. I have them all except the WW1 version. Unfortunately the guy at the cottage that I used to play with (the GAME before anybody messes with that comment) left a few years ago and I haven't found anybody else that wants to play.

[406 Silverado]

I've never done any gaming like this. I mean....there was D&D in middle school but I quit that for modeling building. This kind of thing is definitely interesting and I admire all of the time that you put into this Emery. Takes alot of work and dedication and it certainly shows.

[stikpusher]

I had a few Avalon Hill wargames that I used to play, neve hardcore, but fairly often. Nowadays, it’s probably been at least close to 25 years since I’ve played. Don’t have the same circle of friends nearby anymore. Those look like some great games to get lost within.

[Real G]

Back in middle school, a friend introduced me to the Steve Jackson series of micro-games with GEV, Ogre and Car Wars.  Ogre was the most popular in our little group.  We used to play in the back of the shop class during lunch time.  My friends also played D&D and Starfleet Battles, but I never got into role playing or games that required stacks of record keeping sheets.  During high school, I painted D&D figures for my gamer friends, and still have a couple that were given to me as compensation.  I did get into FASA's Battledroids, and remember playing till the wee hours of the night, rolling 2D6 and screaming HEAD!  HEAD!!  HEAD!!!

But after college, we all went about doing grown-up stuff like getting jobs and starting families.  No time for wargaming past midnight anymore, plus now that we are all in our 50s-60s, bedtime is around 9:00!

[tcoat]

May 16, 2023 13:11:38 GMT -5 Real G said:

Back in middle school, a friend introduced me to the Steve Jackson series of micro-games with GEV, Ogre and Car Wars.  Ogre was the most popular in our little group.  We used to play in the back of the shop class during lunch time.  My friends also played D&D and Starfleet Battles, but I never got into role playing or games that required stacks of record keeping sheets.  During high school, I painted D&D figures for my gamer friends, and still have a couple that were given to me as compensation.  I did get into FASA's Battledroids, and remember playing till the wee hours of the night, rolling 2D6 and screaming HEAD!  HEAD!!  HEAD!!!

But after college, we all went about doing grown-up stuff like getting jobs and starting families.  No time for wargaming past midnight anymore, plus now that we are all in our 50s-60s, bedtime is around 9:00!

Between the ages of 17 and 22 I used to wargame a few times a year. We often went for 24 hours or more straight.

[Whiterook]

Had a great time at the Compass Games Expo in Connecticut! I’d been playing mostly 2-player’s with my buddy Tim and having a blast! He and I are cut from the same cloth, where we game causally and for the fun of it. I’m a very casual gamer… I’m competitive, but I’m just as happy to loose and I am to win! …I know that sounds weird but, I never get mad or flustered at a loss, except in tournament play, where that can hurt a little 

Im sure there are more than a few general gamers on here, and maybe a smattering of wargamers (there’s a difference!), so I thought I’d share some of the action!


Wednesday Action

The action started a day early, on a Wednesday afternoon setup for Compass Games, where the gaming halls were open a day early. I certainly didn’t want to miss out on that so, I started playing a game with Tim, after check-in… although, the first thing we actually did was buy games, of course! …Compass Games has a nice little Expo store setup and those games are greatly discounted. I got all the games I had on my shopping list except two, which weren’t ready for sale yet, so a really good purchase outing! I had a list!!!

That first afternoon was spent playing a nice, deceptively simple  looking, but wonderully challenging family-style game called “Unmatched”, in which Tim had several expansions. What you have are small, boxed games with characters from different movie and folklore genres that you can pair up in battle against each other from that set, or pair them with characters from a different set. For instance, our first game was me with a miniature figure as Sherlock Holmes, with a disc of Dr. Watson vs. a miniature figure of Dracula, with several disks of his Sisters (women vampires). In the following pic, you can see the Dr. Watson disc to the left, me as Holmes at center, and Dracula at right pursuing me…



It’s a card-driven game, where you have to take two actions a turn, out of three options on all cards (move, an event, or attack); each player card also may have some special abilities. You move along the dark lines (a path) through a city or other fanciful area; those paths have move-spaces that have terrain in them (like street cobblestones, wood decking, etc.) covering the whole move-space… you can only attack at Range with some characters, or in Melee (adjacent) along a path of same-terrain spaces…so it can get tricky! …a lot of maneuvering where, you can only move 2 spaces at a time, or use a certain number on any other card as a “Boost”, to add that extra number of spaces moved!

In the following pic, that’s one of Dracula’s vampire chicks (I hope no one finds that micro-aggressive!) on the far left! As an example of combat, Watson can fire at Dracula (if he has a card allowing him the option), because the path between them has spaces that have boardwalk decking in them…Watson combats at “range”; whereas Sherlock can’t fight Dracula because he’s not adjacent (he fights in-close).



These are really gorgeous maps… small, but nicely laid out! The miniatures are incredible… top-flight sculpts, with a beautiful primer coat and dark wash on them…they are playable as is, or would look amazing painted (I don’t know if I dare!!!).

In the following pic, Watson can’t attack Dracula at range, even though they are both on a connected path (connected black lines)…but different terrain.



You record the Hits you take by turning a disc that has numbers that can be reveals as you turn the top of thr disc…you can see Dracula!s on the top right of the picture below…



This is an awesome game system! Other games played feature me as the Invisible Man, Robin Hood, and as Velociraptors (from one of the two available Jurassic Park expansions) against Achilles! The combinations you can make with the expansions are just amazing! 

I enjoyed this system so much, I ordered the expansion that has Sherlock in it online, last night; and I ordered three more expansions tonight!

Its late and I’m up gaming again early tomorrow at 9am, so I’ll post more on the gaming later!

[Whiterook]

Wednesday evening, our friend Roger joined us for a multiplayer game of mine, “Escape from Colditz!” I decided to bring the newest version from 2016, from Osprey Games…it has upgraded board and card art, as well as a few tweaks to the rules that speed game play. I also own the 1973 Parker Brothers version with the swastika, and it’s a gorgeous version too…but I decided the newer version would play quicker, as designed. I played the Germans, as the Security Officer, against Roger and Tim, as Escape Officers for different nations. I love this game! …I think they loved it, too. Roger managed to escape with two groups, so it was off to the Russian Front for me!

The following is a pic of Roger on the left (playing Orange) and Tim on the right (playing Green)…



There’s an inner castle yard area, where the POWs are imprisoned…as the Germans, I’m the black pawns. You can see above, Roger and Tim with prisoners in the Appel area (the light colored hex area at center) and prisoners milling about the camp. I need to keep an eye on them by staying close, observing whether they’re building escape equipment or digging tunnels. When I arrest prisoners, they go to Solitary, ans can be released into the outer castle, inside camp area, where they make their way back into tye inner compound, or suffer another arrest! Of course, if they escape out of the castle compound, that’s represented by the outer Gaston area, where there are wire fences and Guard Post all around the outer castle.

Here’s some action shots…





This is one of Roger’s escapes (at top)…



…he cut through the wire (where you see the little exclamation marker) and are beating feet to the woods, with me in hot pursuit!



I just love this game… a must own, in my opinion!

It got late that night so, we called it quits for the night…but a very fun start to the expo adventures!

[Whiterook]

Thursday

The official start of the expo, I started the day playing Compass Game’s, Brothers at War: 1862 with Tim. This was my most anticipated wargame to play and I loved it so much, I bought it at the on-site store! (…the 50% off price didn’t hurt, either!). American Civil War action, this is a quad game (four big battles) of quick-playing, tactical battles exploring civil war brigade command. Units are regiments, batteries and companies of skirmishers. Both Tim and I think it shares shares a lot in common with LNLP’s Nations at War’s system, enough so that it makes moving into this system much easier. It’s incredibly fun to play!!!



I played the US, and Tim’s Confederates gave me hell! I was on the offense and had to move into the Confederate lines to siege two cities. 

Command rules are simple and abstracted. There are no combat results tables. Combat and all checks are resolved using six-sided dice, in which results of 5-6 mark success, and 1-4 failure. Brigades activate via chit pull, with their constituent units moving and fighting individually. Stacking is limited to two units per hex. Massive 1.5” hexes allow two 3/4” units to fit side by side… no information is obscured!

Distinctions are made between formed and unformed infantry, deployed and limbered artillery, mounted and dismounted cavalry. Unit facing is not an element of play. Instead, unit deployment in adjacent hexes can trigger pass-through fire, which simulates flanking fire, or fire on compressed lines (both dangerous situations for civil war units).

Battle Cards introduce an element of uncertainty and excitement to play. Unique off-map displays track every brigade's reserves and casualties. Once a unit's reserves are used up, it becomes exhausted and liable to break.

I began the game with Infantry, deploying skirmishers on the Confederate right flank, seeking cover and taking lots of pot shots, whittling away at Johnny Rebs’ lines in superb cover. It was a slog. I found my way behind rock walls best I could and just kept chuckin’ lead!



Meanwhile, a few early turns in, reinforcements arrived in my end of the board and made their way as fastest speed up to the front lines! Here, some much needed artillery enters the fray, racing up the road to battle…



My cannons were limbered and driven at top speed up the road, unlimbered when reaching shot range and let Hell’s Fury fly! Infantry moved at their flanks to support… but the Reba just kept firing away!









just gorgeous charts and components!



Tim tried sending a terrifying formation of Cavalry to storm my cannons, but o was able to repel them; at considerable cost, however.



In the end, I was just hammered down, as were the Confederates… I thought I had just enough to seize the last town objective, but just fell short by Tim’s crafty blockade of the only route in on the last turn, where I simply ran out of movement factors.

Confederate victory!

I think the most exciting parts of the game was Tim’s cavalry charge, though he thought it might have been a bit foolhardy… and use of artillery was just fascinating for me! I love this game!

Late in the day, we played some more Unmatched… that turned into a fav that I just had to own, and I ordered Cobble & Fog while at the expo, on Amazon, which came in the day I got back! Here I was the Invisible Man…



Below,Mi was King Arthur vs Robin Hood!



We were going to get some folks together for a multiplayer that night, but my back was hurting quite a bit, so I decided to call it a night and rest up in the hotel room… a good move, as it was hurting all night, but felt much better by the next afternoon.

[406 Silverado]

Sounds like you all had a LOT of fun with all of this Emery! You get twice fun by building alot of this stuff because you get to build it and then play it. How cool is THAT??

[Whiterook]

Friday

The joint was rockin’ …the expo really took off on Friday, and then had its biggest crowd the next day. We started off with Memoir ‘44. Tim is a huge Command & Colors fan, yet he actually had never played M44, so this was a great opportunity to show him how the system works. I didn’t get any pics, unfortunately, but it was more a play through game to answer questions and get him familiar with the rules. We’d planned to play later in the week so we moved on to another game…

He brought his copy of Plains Indian Wars, by GMT. I was really curious about this game for a bit now,map it was an awesome opportunity to take it for a spin. It is a card-driven, cube game that uses area movement and control. Game play averages 60-90 minutes. The Plains Indian Wars Map board centers on the Great American Plains between the Mississippi River in the east and the Rockies in the west, the Canadian border in the north and Mexican border in the south. The Northern Plains Tribes (NPT) and the Southern Plains Tribes(SPT)each defend 12 regions while the Northern (Crow)and Southern (Mexican) "Enemies" each defend 5 regions of their own.

Separating the NPT and SPT is the planned route for the Transcontinental Railroad. US Completion (linking the two lines) ends the game and earns the US player a bonus. The Indian player earns a bonus if this is prevented. Through the course of the game Wagon trains attempt to travel historical trails to the Rockies. If they make it they earn victory points for the US player if they don't the Indian player gets the VPs.

I played the Indian tribes, as they were the defensive side of things and I figured I could get a better grasp of the game. I fell short of winning by just a small fraction of final victory points, but a5 least I did manage to halt the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad! The game took the entire afternoon, until supper time.





I really love this game and want to buy it, but unfortunately I’ll have to be a bit creative with the brown and green cubes and dice, as my color blind condition make them virtually indistinguishable! I figure I could use a Sharpie marker to put dots in say, the brown cubes so I can have a quick visual reference on the board… but those damned dice are problematic as hell! …I’m thinking I could apply a wash or straight out repaint to the symbols (like maybe, yellow) or engrave a dot in them

We got back together that evening to play a round of Onitama, which was fun and my frost playing of it myself!

Afterwards, we played a game called Cascadia, a puzzly tile-laying and token-drafting game featuring the habitats and wildlife of the Pacific Northwest.

In the game, you take turns building out your own terrain area and populating it with wildlife. You start with three hexagonal habitat tiles (with the five types of habitat in the game), and on a turn you choose a new habitat tile that's paired with a wildlife token, then place that tile next to your other ones and place the wildlife token on an appropriate habitat. (Each tile depicts 1-3 types of wildlife from the five types in the game, and you can place at most one tile on a habitat.) Four tiles are on display, with each tile being paired at random with a wildlife token, so you must make the best of what's available — unless you have a nature token to spend so that you can pick your choice of each item.

Ideally you can place habitat tiles to create matching terrain that reduces fragmentation and creates wildlife corridors, mostly because you score for the largest area of each type of habitat at game's end, with a bonus if your group is larger than each other player's. At the same time, you want to place wildlife tokens so that you can maximize the number of points scored by them, with the wildlife goals being determined at random by one of the four scoring cards for each type of wildlife. Maybe hawks want to be separate from other hawks, while foxes want lots of different animals surrounding them and bears want to be in pairs.

Here’s a few progress pics along the way to completion…









…in the final total, I came close to winning that one? …I don’t think I won it, but it slipped my mind by this point   The point is, it was a lot of fun.

It was a fine day of gaming!

[Whiterook]

May 26, 2023 9:45:25 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Sounds like you all had a LOT of fun with all of this Emery! You get twice fun by building alot of this stuff because you get to build it and then play it. How cool is THAT??

Exactly, on the building! …more so the miniatures side, where they have to be assembled, painted, and based; but also on games where yiu can “home rule” them, adding to the mechanics… and of course, designing your own!

This is my favorite of all expos/conventions I’ve attended over the years, big and small. It’s very casual and run by great people.

[Whiterook]

Saturday

This was the busiest day of the expo, by far… I estimate just over a hundred people were there. The morning was playing Lock ‘N Load Publishing’s, Nations at War: White Star Rising. I brought this game and taught it to Tim… he has World at War, which is relatively the same system, but modern war, whereas WSR is WWII. It depicts platoon level combat.



The afternoon found is playing more Unmatched! The more o played this, the more I loved it! I was three Velociraptors against Achilles!



Compass Games very generously hosts a free pizza night, but unfortunately, I’ve started a new whole-foods plant-based vegan lifestyle almost a month ago, and pizzeria made pizza is definitely not vegan friendly… not the place they got pizza from, anyway… so, as I was starting to get pretty tired at this point, I took the night off and watched the Florida Panthers vs Carolina Hurricanes playoff game in my room!

[406 Silverado]

Very cool stuff here Emery! That last game, Cascadia, really sounds interesting with pretty much a wildlife contruction/ populating concept.

[Whiterook]

May 26, 2023 9:51:30 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Very cool stuff here Emery! That last game, Cascadia, really sounds interesting with pretty much a wildlife contruction/ populating concept.

It’s funny… I really wondered how well I’d like it, ‘cause it hits so close to home of my job I retired from..the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)… they are the leading wildlife and habitat conservation agency in the world… but it was really cool in both regards to play and my history in the field.

[Whiterook]

Sunday

Aaaaaaaaaand, it was a Ghost Town! I seriously could not believe it!!! Maybe a couple dozen games left, at best…probably less. I suppose most wanted to go to work Monday and left early, but I’ve never seen the expo that empty in Sunday.

Tim and I didn’t waste the opportunity however, and we played Memoir ‘44 all day and night! Tim is a huge Command & Colors fan, but had never played M44. He really liked it! I believe we’ll be playing it a lot in the future. The fellow that played in Colditz the forst night, Roger, is a huge M44 fan so, future expos could be interesting, with mega multiplayer games!













…we just played scenario after scenario in order, my playing the Germans and he the Americans. It was a blast!

[406 Silverado]

I've found that most venues are generally over by the time Sunday hits as most folks are ready to head home to get ready for their work weeks and doing everything that they've put off all weekend long. lol

Thank you for taking the time to share all of this with us here. Looks like you had a great time and you just can't beat that.

[keavdog]

Quite an expo! I was a stratego and risk guy but never got exposed to these types of games. Looks like a fun few days.

[Whiterook]

Monday

We got together for a quick game of Unmatched again… I played a demented monkey and won! We had a nice talk and then went on our way by noon.

…it was a hell of a fun expo, and I can’t wait ‘til November!

[Whiterook]

May 26, 2023 10:04:04 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

I've found that most venues are generally over by the time Sunday hits as most folks are ready to head home to get ready for their work weeks and doing everything that they've put off all weekend long. lol

Thank you for taking the time to share all of this with us here. Looks like you had a great time and you just can't beat that.

Yeah, the November Expo is on Veteran’s Day weekend, if they can schedule it with that, which allows gamers to stay a bit longer. Thanks for taking a lookie at this… it’s a cool hobby!

May 26, 2023 10:19:06 GMT -5 keavdog said:

Quite an expo! I was a stratego and risk guy but never got exposed to these types of games. Looks like a fun few days.

Thanks for checking the thread out! Yes indeed, RISK is still in my Top 5 Fav boardgames… it’s a lot of fun, especially when you get six players!

[406 Silverado]

Glad you had a great time buddy. Always great to get together with "birds of a feather". Thanks for sharing all of this with us Emery.