Prairiecon XXXV - Star Wars Miniatures Jawa-pocalypse!

Last weekend, some of the Conscripts rolled out to my hometown of Brandon, Manitoba for Prairiecon XXXV (yes thirty-five). Prairiecon is indeed a "festival of gaming", featuring role-playing games, boardgames, and miniatures games. Conscript Greg and I have run games at Prairiecon for the last several years, and this year was no exception. Greg ran an amazing Suez game set in the Yom Kippur War, and I brought my Tatooine building collection for a Star Wars game.

Conscript Frederick built me some more amazing buildings which I brought out. The Falcon here is from Revell, and the terrain tiles were supplied by Greg.

I used the very simple and straightforward "Star Wars Miniature Battles" rules from Wizards of the Coast, as well as their pre-painted figures. The scenario was a typical convention special - each player controls a faction with 2-15 figures and a special mission (or three). In this game, I ended up with seven players and the factions were as follows:

• Luke, Ben and Threepio
• Han and Chewie
• Rebel Fleet troopers from the Tantive IV
• Sandtrooper detachment
• Greedo's brother Beedo, Zuckuss and 4-LOM (or as Greg calls him, "44 LOMbard")
• Utini and his Jawas
• A Tusken Hetman and his warband 

The various factions deployed across the table and carnage immediately ensued, with Perry drawing first blood from the Tuskens with his Jawa sniper.

Han and Chewie made their way through town, headed for the Falcon.

Jim (Rebel troopers) and Greg (Sandtroopers) ponder their next moves.

I made a couple billboards for Mos Eisley, just for fun.

The bounty hunters took a toll on the Rebels, but 4-LOM was finally gunned down.

Elsewhere, Ben had lightsaber practice on the Stormtroopers - preparation for the Death Star battle...?

On the Jawa front, the few Tuskens left alive finally made it to grips with their hated Jawa foes...

Only to be gunned down at long range by an opportunistic Han and Chewie!

The end of the game was cinematic - Luke and Ben managed to retrieve R2 and along with Han and Chewie, made it to the Falcon and escape! (minus Threepio, who nobly sacrificed himself to save Ben from the bounty hunters. Awwww...)

I think the players had a good time and the game looked swell, if I do say so myself ;-)  Another successful Prairiecon foray in the books! See you next year, Brandon!

Necromunda etc. at PrairieCon

Almost two weeks ago, I joined fellow Conscripts Greg and Dallas in running games at PrairieCon 2016 (the 37th running of this long-standing event!). The program shows the variety of board, role-playing, tabletop, and miniatures games offered.

PrairieCon weekend capped a week of being away from home. I turned a short business trip to Riding Mountain National Park into a mini-vacation with my wife, Jen. (I heartily recommend the Elkhorn Resort, and the restaurants, shops, and hiking trails in and around Wasagaming and Clear Lake MB as restful vacation destinations.) So, for a week, our car was packed with not only our luggage, but a set of golf clubs, two briefcases, a laptop, figures, and enough urban and scatter terrain to cover a closely packed  4'x4' table!

Arriving early in Brandon, MB on the Friday, Jen and I met up with Kim and Conscript Byron, We had a great German meal at Hansel and Gretel's Schnitzel House.



To go with the spaetzle, and the chicken and pork schnitzel, what better than some German beer!



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I ran Necromunda twice on Friday night, using the Total War scenario from the Necromunda by Night campaign. Along with my terrain, I brought my own Spyre Hunters, and three gangs thoughtfully provided by Dallas, his Delaques, Redemptionists, and Adeptus Arbites.

First game, the table was crowded, with the Adeptus Arbites and Delaques allying against the outlaw Redemptionists and Spyrers. The players make quick work of the "monster" (this time porteayed by a Talisman figure with a big stick). Below, the players include Astronomi-con's ChristianA and Conscript Byron.



The turning point was when several Delaque reinforcements were put Down by a Redemptionist with a single-shot flamethrower! The Redemptionists and Spyrers ended up holding the field.



In the second game, one of the players failed to show, so I refereed a Delaque (Conscript Perry)  vs. Redemtionist  (Cliff) fight.



As the (real) Sun set, I lit up some battery operated tea lights for atmosphere.



It took 3 full turns before the monster showed. Parry's team bottled out, but the monster started to whittle down the surviving Redemptionists...



...until  Downed by a one-two meltagun and giant chainsaw beat down.



I was using Bolt Action order dice as ersatz status counters. I ordered from Chessex two sets of custom Necromunda status dice. They arrived in the mail too late for PrairiCon, but I used them in a recent game I had pitting my Spyrers against Levon's Van Saars; Levon thought they worked very well. Below is photo of the test dice provided by Chessex ( I shall post about my game with Levon later).




OTHER GAMES AT PRAIRIECON

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator

[From the convention program:] "Artemis is a multi player, multi-computer networked game for Windows computers, and now iOS devices too. Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. One computer runs the simulation and the “main screen”, while the others serve as workstations for the normal jobs a bridge o fficer might do, like Helm, Communication, Engineering, and Weapon Control. Artemis is a social game where several players are together in one room (“bridge”) , and while they all work together, one player plays the Captain, a person who sits in the middle, doesn’t have a workstation, and tells everyone what to do."

This game was supposed to be run in every time slot. Unfortunately, there was no game-master at the late Friday night slot Byron, Dallas, and I played in! Fortunately, the player Captain had played before and was able to guide us through a scenario. It took awhile before I got the hang of running the Science station.



It was fun working together to try and fight our ship against a series of hostiles.





Otherworld

Dallas ran his Otherworld skirmish game, which elicited fond memories of my playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends in high school. The human adventurer figures I ran, painted by Dallas, are also from Otherworld. I really liked how they were festooned with adventuring gear (50' rope? Check! Wine-skin? Check! Potions and scrolls? Double check!)



Settlers of Catan

Settlers is one of Jen's favourite games. PrairieCon hosted the Canadian National Settlers of Catan Championship. It was cool to see the variety of players who participated, both young and old. IIRC, the winner won airfare and hotel for the World Championships!




Warhammer 40K Tournament

There was a 40K tournament on Saturday. The participants fielded some nicely modeled armies. I still play 40K, but it was interesting to note several longtime 40K players who weren't playing at the tournament (Dallas, Greg, MikeK, and myself, to name a few).




Epic 30K

Greg ran his truly "epic" 30K Smackdown on Sunday morning. I have been following the progress on his beautifully painted forces. His desert terrain table is also real eye candy.




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All in all, I had a great time at PraireCon. I highly recommend the convention, which has something for just about anyone's gaming taste.

"It's a - well, you know..." - PrairieCon Battle Report

As previously reported, Conscript Greg and I ran games at PrairieCon XXXIV, held last week in beautiful Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Greg brought out his excellent Tomorrow's War future skirmish game with a ton of terrain while I quite sensibly brought a few spaceships and a terrain mat for a Star Wars Starship Battles fleet-scale game.

The scenario I had designed was based on the Battle of Endor at the end of "Return of the Jedi" - the rebel fleet comes out of hyperspace ready to attack the defenseless Death Star II, when all of a sudden the Imperial fleet heaves into view and Ackbar utters the immortal words:

"IT'S A TRAP"

Yes, surrounded by the Imperial fleet (including a Super Star Destroyer on which the Rebels are repeatedly exhorted to concentrate their fire), the Rebels must hold out until Han Solo and his merry band can destroy the shield generator and allow the snub fighters to penetrate the space station.

The Rebel fleet turns hard about to face the Imperials. Models are repainted/converted Micro Machines (Mon Cals and Victory/Interdictor Star Destroyers), Titanium-Series Star Destroyers, and resin confections from the excellent range produced by Odyssey Slipways. The one-piece resin SSD Executor is an eBay random, I think it was originally produced by a modelmaker in Brazil. Fighters are the "stringvest" models from the Star Ranger forums, now produced by Studio Bergstrom.

Ackbar orders the fleet to move in for close action. The Rebels split their force, with one half attempting to screen the other from the worst of the fighting. The idea was to buy time for Han and friends to deactivate the shield generator - this would happen on a random turn. If there were Rebel fighters left (and/or the Millennium Falcon) these would then have a chance to blow up the Death Star.

The Rebels really mixed it up with the Imperial fleet but it became clear that they would be overwhelmed...

...especially once the "fully operational" battle station started laying waste to the fleet with its superlaser!

As the game wore on, the Headquarters Frigate finally got the signal that the shield was down - time for the fighters to move in!

The Millennium Falcon had been lurking in proximity to the Death Star since the beginning of the game; here at last was a chance for Lando and Nien Nunb to prove their value to the Alliance. The Falcon took some damage from the Death Star's anti-fighter defences but was able to make it all the way to the reactor core and... 

KA-BOOOM!!!

The Death Star went up with all hands on board (except Luke and his dad, naturally) and the Ewoks began to sing their song of victory:

Thanks to the guys (Greg, Mike F., Cam) for coming out to play, the other PrairieCon players who also played, and to PrairieCon for being, hands down, Brandon's best gaming convention for over 30 years ;-)

This Was Prairiecon XXXIII

 

As threatened, last weekend (1-3 June) Conscripts Greg B., Mike F. and me made the trek out to Brandon, Manitoba for Prairiecon XXXIII. We were happy to see Conscript ("Chemical") Cam out as well, having come down from his new home in Minnedosa.

Greg and I ran some game there too. On Saturday morning I rolled out a Star Wars Starship Battles "Hoth" game, using some extra rules additions to the basic game. They worked out pretty well. My wife made the papier-mache ice planet!
 

Space carnage abounded and I think the 5 others who played had a good time :-)

Prairiecon was back at Assiniboine Community College this year and I think it worked out great. I used to be very involved with Prairiecon when I lived in Brandon (and have the "President-in-Exile" t-shirt to prove it ;-) and I try to go out every year to run a couple games and help where I can. For a long time now I've been involved in the used game auction which is great fun - "Yes, it's compatible with AD&D! Copyright date? marred and illegible!" Cam apparently stole bought a bunch of 40K stuff for cheap cheap after the auction... got that stuff painted yet Cam? It's been a week!!

Some of the miniatures gaming (including Warhammer 40K and Fantasy) went down in the gym. Lotsa space but really hot down there.

Greg's Robotech game was a hit, as usual. Amazing figures and terrain surface. He always seems to be able to design a good close scenario - something I aspire to but often fall short of...

I ran a Star Wars "Hoth" ground battle game as well. It was a fun time but a bit of a walkover for the Rebels. "Recall the Transports...!"

I spiffed up the terrain a bit by faking up a hangar at the Rebel end of the table.

New Shield Generator looked pretty decent.

"Suck on some Dak! AAAaaaaaaa..."

This young feller was the Rebellion's star asset. Here he is posing with the critical hit he scored on the hapless Cam's Imperials...

All in all, great times at the 'con. One's brain is always fried after a weekend of gaming and this was no different. It's good fun to roll out your stuff and put on a game for a convention, and it helps the 'con out too. Highly encouraged if you've never done it, and if you have, I salute you!