KulbaCon 2023

KublaCon has come and gone.  I've just returned and unpacked.  I headed out on Thursday at lunch with Dan Kerrick.  We got checked in and went straight to playing board games.  Adam Clark quickly joined us and we played games late into the evening.  Roy Scaife and John Lantz joined us on Friday and we hosted and played through many miniature games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I took lots of pictures, but oddly enough, still wanted to take more but didn't get a chance as hosting kept me busy.

Men of the West

I pulled out a good chunk of my Middle Earth collection to run this game.  I used this as a large play test of my rules updates for War of the Ring.  Both sides contained a wide range of different units and heroes.  

I had 12 players, 6 per side.  The table was 6 foot wide and 16 feet long and I needed every inch to get the forces deployed.  The game had about 2,500 minutes when I ran the numbers.

Fun was had by all and the forces of Mordor managed to gain the upper hand (even if only slightly) and pull out a minor victory.

Fords of Isen

In addition to my large War of the Ring game, I brought along my Fords of Isen game to run on Sunday.  I had some new players in this game and I believe they really enjoyed playing the game and picked up the system quickly.  The forces of Isengard had to secure two of the 3 fords and kill Théodred in order to win the day.  Isengard managed to secure one of the fords, and contested a second, they did not kill Théodred so victory went to Rohan!

Siege of Altdorf

Adam Clark brought his Siege of Altdorf game all the way from Germany (he's crazy!).

This is using 10mm Warmaster figures but a home brew set of rules by Adam that are loosely based on Hail Caesar.  The Orcs had to break through the walls/defences and exit units off the back table edge in order to gain victory points.  A total of 20 victory points were needed to win.  On my side we managed to push through and gain a lot of victory points after many hard fought and bloody fights.  The "other end" of the siege ground on more slowly, but that side managed to close the gap and get the Orcs the additional VPs necessary to claim victory.  Altdorf fell to the Orc horde!

It was great to see Adam (he lives in Berlin).  Here is a horrible picture of Adam and I on Thursday night after some adult beverages had been consumed playing board games :-)

On Friday we tested out Adam's rules for the game with a smaller game of Orcs versus Humans.  I played the Orcs and despite some truly horrible dice rolling, managed to get a victory here.

Raid on Endor

Dan Kerrick ran a Start Wars game using Galactic Heroes.  I played a group of Ewoks commanded by Chewy.  The rebels had to shut down the large laser turrets in preparation for the rebel attack on the second Death Star.  The rebels managed to squeak out a victory here - of course thanks to my brutal Ewok assault down the right flank (LOL).

Echo Base (Hoth)

John Lantz hosted a Star Wars Bolt Action game for Hoth.  I played as the rebels and ran a couple of units of Tan Tans.  I was able to assault some units and help stem the tide of the Imperial forces.  It was all for not - true to the movies the rebels has to abandon the base and flee the system.

Stalingrad

Jeff Hiatt ran of great looking Stalingrad game.  I didn't get to play in it but I was able to take some pictures.  Great terrain and scenario.

Other Games

I manage to grab pictures of other games being run around the convention --- certainly not all of them, but just a few when I was running about to the bathroom or checking out the dealers room.  I'll say the convention was very busy and I didn't even make it into all the different rooms.

And there you have it.  Another great KublaCon in the books.  I look forward to going back next year.