Little Wars 2018 pt1 (in progress)

Update on Little Wars 2018

     

     Here's an update on Little Wars 2018, from the early  morning hours of day 3. Registration was a breeze, we pre-registered, and got a nice goody bag!

A 15mm Tiger, a con die, 3 28mm figures, a 1/300 biplane, and a bottle of the new Badger primer!

 Thursday night we, my daughter and I, played in a game of Test of Honor with another couple.  The game is made by Warlord Games and is interesting.  You have hero types and troopies, which are based in groups of 3.   You get a round sabot base so you can remove the figures individually.  The really nice thing about the game was that it's got an intuitive dice mechanic and you only need the 1 reference sheet (1 sided) and your roster, which is just single line entries so that too should be less than a sheet.  The dice are like X-Wing dice in how they work.  They are 6-sided and have either an "X" (that's bad), 1 or 2 swords (that's good), or blank.  To succeed you need 3 swords in any combination with 5 swords being a critical result.  If you get more X than swords it's a fumble, which you can fumble on various portions (hit, damage, dodge, etc).  We understood the rules after a couple of turns and were able to play without much GM handholding.  A big thanks to GM Plosch (can't remember names, especially first ones) for putting on the game and showing us how to play.  I was foolishly mulling the idea of getting Samurai before I came down since I already have some other rulesets, but now I'm definitely  getting some here.

    Day 2 was our first full play day.  I ran my "Aliens in Siberia" game, which I don't have pics of!  I was worried about having enough players, set up, and keeping the game running smoothly to do it but I did see others taking photos so hopefully some of those surface on the interwebs.  Clare played in 2 sessions of Axis & Allies.  The GM had a custom vinyl map that was at least 6 feet in length.  It's an ongoing game through the Con so I took over from a previous player and had to do some changes to my forces.  Having a GM helped the game run smoothly (counting money, figuring out combats, etc).  I played in the second session.  The last game of the night was an X-Wing trench run game which Clare played in.  It was played on a 3d printed Deathstar surface with the trench handled by being lower and the upper sides supported by stands.  The rebels were able to get some Y-wings down in the trench and successfully launch torpedoes.  One side note: Lord Vader got whacked by his own turrets!  Some punishment cell time will be in order.  

     Last but not least I had to hit the vendor hall (2 rooms this year) and make a first strike on my buy list, all from Armorcast (one of my favorite terrain companies)

Decals!  No sloppy shield painting for me.

A Scotia ATAC apc that I've been looking at for years.  You'll be able to get Scotia stateside through Armorcast soon.

Some "can-topper" terrain for the sci-fi board.  You supply the soda can and Armorcast supplies the base and a topper to make it less "can like".

     We've been dining at Harry Caray's Steakhouse here at the Westin and as usual it was excellent!  We had burgers Thursday night, you get to build your own or have Harry's burger (which is what I had).  On the second night it was a burger for Clare and I had Cavatappi with Italian Sausage, very good.  They aren't the cheapest place to eat, there's a McDs nearby but for ease of getting to and the menu options we like to dine there when we're down here.  The waitstaff was great, attentive and cheerful.  

    One last set of pics.  Someone put on a HUGE Lord of the Rings game and we got some pics before it started.  I'm sure it too will be on the web in photos.