CelestiCon 2014 Report

Well, another CelestiCon has come and gone for me and I must say each year it keeps getting better and better.  A special thanks to Roy Scaife, John Lantz, Dan Kerrick, Les Marshall and Wade Shows for making my con going experiences always a fun time no matter where we go.

This is a long one --- covering lots of bases here ...

I arrived at the con on Friday around 10am after getting a large breakfast.  We immediately checked in and moved our stuff into the hotel so we could hunker down into some gaming ASAP.  The first game up was a Bolt Action scenario based around the same bocage scenario I have posted previously, with some minor tweaks to the army lists (a continued work in progress).

The German PanzerSchreck teams could not miss ... they disabled several US tanks which really slowed down the US advance.  We may still have some army list tweaking to do ... but it was hard to say given the abnormally good dice rolls we saw throughout the game.  By turn 8 the US was near the final bocage line, but the remaining US armour was to far back to support and the game was called as a German victory.  Pictures below ...

12:45 - getting ready to start the game at 1pm ...
several more players arrived and filled out our ranks.

Saturday morning was the culmination of the effort I put into my Pegasus Bridge project.  I started setting up at 9am and I hoped to run through the game two times (5 players each time).  We had both experienced players and some completely new to the rules, but each game was 2-2.5 hours ... so we played through the complete scenario two times in 5 hours ... setup and cleanup made the whole engagement 6 hours ... not too shabby!

In both games the British managed to pull out the victory.  Both games were blood baths and a heck of a lot of fun for those who played.  I used the night fighting rules for Bolt Action (Flare).  Each turn I rolled a D6 to see if a flare went up - on a 4+ there is a flare for that turn and visibility is normal.  If there is no flare, visibility is limited to 2D6 + some +/-6" increments for various conditions.  One of the +6" conditions for night fighting is if you're firing you get a "muzzle flashes" marker.  I used the Warlord Games firepower lights to represent muzzle flashes ... which looked really cool (you'll see some of them in the picture below).  I'll be doing a separate post to cover the finalized scenario and special rules that we landed on this week ... but for now just enjoy the pictures.

We played several board games throughout the weekend - many of which were new to me which was awesome!  Dan supported the Kickstarter for "Heroes Wanted" - which we all enjoyed (my only problem with it was that I believe the "Quirk" rules have no real bearing on the game and should be optional ... easy enough to house rule).

Les brought several interesting games we played ... "Vinci" - which is the basis for the popular Small World games from Days of Wonder (the map is of Europe and races are rather combinations of skills/trades and such).

"Star Realms" was another which was so awesome I had to buy it right there at the con and play it several times throughout the weekend (deck building game, quick, very deadly).

"A Study In Emerald" was fun (a game about the H.P. Lovecraft universe ... with the setting being after the Old Ones have taken over and the revolution is one to restore the pre-Old One way of life - players being either loyal to the Old Ones or resisting against them).

John Lantz bought "Legendary: Encounters" which is the cooperative deck building game set in the Aliens universe (yes, covering all the movies)!  Lots of great quotes can be rolled out for this game - which was a very fun and challenging play experience.

John also brought "Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare" along to try out.  I played the Canadian fleet (yes, they have one and it is a separate fleet you can run).  We played a six player game which was I think too much for the system.  My Canadians did well but could match the overwhelming force put against them by some of the other fleets.

I had brought "Takenoko" along ... which is a fun and fast paced game of a Panda that east bamboo and poops points while the gardener attempts to keep growing the bamboo ... a great light game that gamers and the family both can enjoy.

I was able to get a screaming deal on the Wave 2 ships for Sails of Glory at the Friday Flea Market (thanks Dan!!) ... I got 9 ships, which are pictures below ...

Throughout the weekend (mostly on Friday afternoon though ... but some from Saturday and Sunday) I took pictures of various games in progress, the miniatures room ... the hallway immediately outside of the miniatures room ...

DropZone Commander games getting ready to kick off.

A DropZone Commander game in progress.

This is a chariot racing game that I see run each year.

A neat post-apocalyptic skirmish game that looked
really neat and had several players. 

A game of 15mm WW2 getting ready - using
the Fireball Forward rules.

That's what I have for now.  I got a ton of gaming in and now it's on to the next convention and the next big project ... which there'll be more about that soon ... until then, happy gaming everyone!

Pegasus Bridge Project Completion

Hello all,

Well - it was crunch time this week and so I decided to take the week off to make sure I completed my project in time for the convention this weekend.  Below are pictures of my Pegasus Bridge setup.  As usual, I took the modular approach to the whole setup.

I've gone with a very basic setup for the whole table, but I did try to add some details and work to round it all out.  I must say I'm really happy I used the 4Ground Pegasus Bridge set.  I added some of the 4Ground light wood chairs and tables to the outside area of Cafe Gondree to give it more of a "Cafe" feel.  I did a custom "main road" using MDF and plaster.

I'm running this game on Saturday from 9am to 2pm ... and I plan to take lots of pictures (of all the games at the convention) ... so at some point next week you'll see my convention report.  Until then, pictures below of the completed setup.

Always more to come!

Trenches (Ironclad Miniatures)

In support of my Pegasus Bridge project I bought a goodly quantity of resin trenches from Ironclad Miniatures.  I have much more than is pictured below, as I picked up enough to do a Brecourt Manor scenario in the future.

When it comes to trenches there are clearly two camps --- those who want them embedded (built-in) in their tables with a more realistic "depth" look, and those who need or want the modular approach.  Since I plan to use these for multiple scenarios, I didn't want the built-in type, so I checked on the modular "above board" trenches that are out there.  I already have a large number of trenches from Armorcast, but those are more "sci-fi" looking IMO and I wanted trenches will a more gradual slope to the tabletop.  I had first seen the trenches from Ironclad Miniatures in use by Adam Clark, and they looked exactly like the type I was after.

So I made the purchase and must admit they are very fine trenches.  The resin arrived very clean and I was able to go straight on to painting and finishing.  I have completed painting up only the sections I need for my upcoming Pegasus Bridge scenario, but I do plan to finish the rest of the sections after the convention.

The trenches I'll be using for the Pegasus Bridge scenario.

Standard 6" straight section with two different
types of end sections - one end trench and
one trench entry.

Team position section with trench end section.

A short straight section - 3" in length.  Ironclad
sells a few different versions of the short - this
one I really like because of the side with the
built up sandbags.

With 28mm Warlord British Airborne troops
for size comparison.

I use 60mm round bases for my MMG (and similar) teams
which fit perfectly in the appropriate trench sections.

For the base dirt look I used four colors.  I primed the sections using Armory Black spray primer.  I then drybrushed the sections using GW Rhinox Hide, then Steel Legion Drab, and lastly Karak Stone.  For the grey stones I used Foundry Slate Grey (32A, 32B then 32C).  For the stand bags I painted them with GW Steel Legion Drab, then I drybrushed them with Zandri Dust followed by Karak Stone.  A little white glue for the static grass as the last step and done.

I was also able to add the crew into the 5cm AT gun position.  The officer is just using the base that  he is molded with as if I base him on the normal bases I use the figure will not fit around the AT gun.  I've attached the gunner to the gun frame as the seat and support is part of the figure.

That's all for now --- and as always, more to come.

British Airborne (Bolt Action)

I've just finished up the basing on my British Airborne (more kudos to Artmaster Studio for their always excellent work) that will be used for my upcoming Pegasus Bridge game I'll be running at CelestiCon.  Things are coming along nicely --- my trenches from Ironclad Miniatures arrived yesterday and are spectacular (doing those next).  I've also started putting the finishing touches on the bridge board/river sections.  I still need to base Cafe Gondree ... and do a few other odds and ends ... but I'm on track to be done before the convention.

Nuff talk ... onto the pictures ...

Officer + 2 men
(Can use the radio operator as a spotter
for the medium mortar team)

Medic

Light Mortar Team

PIAT Teams

Sniper

Medium Mortar Team

MMG Teams

1st Infantry Section

2nd Infantry Section

3rd Infantry Section

I'm really happy with this addition to my Bolt Action collection ... more to come!