Enfilade Post Report 2015!

Enfilade is our local (by local I mean in Olympia, Wa) gaming convention.  This past weekends convention, like those previous, was fun and entertaining.  Our small group was there in full force with myself, Andy and Kevin hosting games this year.  Andy ran a series of Harpoon and Command at Sea games, while Kevin ran a Battle of Kolin and Field of Glory game based on Charlemagne's invasion of Denmark.  I ran my Washington Strikes Back at Germantown battle (I'll do a separate write up about that one). 

Shawn and I arrived on Friday around noon, got into our room immediately, we grabbed our registration packet and dropped off our bring and buy stuff and for us the convention had started. I ran my game in the first session on Friday, so I was busy setting up for that.

After that I was free the rest of the weekend to play, shop and catch up with friends I only get to see once a year.  I also made some new friends and the nice thing is that they live in the Portland area so they can attend our games and vice versa.  

I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures of the other games while I was playing but below are a few of the games I was in and some of the others that were being played this weekend.

This series of photos are from Greg M's "Over the Top" game. It's a home brew set of rules and his terrain for the battle is fantastic.  My pictures don't do it justice and it's all in 15mm. I played on the German side and we won!!

This series of photos are from Chuck H's "Battle of Ligny" using Sam Mustafa's rule set Blucher. I wanted to try this game but all of the spaces were taken.

This small shot is from Dean M's game Actium (Sink the Republic).  Dean is a wonderful person and fantastic painter and game master.  Check out his blog for his work here http://wabcorner.blogspot.com/ 

If I remember correctly this is Robert S's game Salems Church. ACW battle using Black Powder.

This series of photos are from the White Rock and North Shore Gamers who put on a massive 28mm Waterloo battle using Shako 2.  These photos were taken while they were still setting up. The end result had Napoleon winning this time.

These photos are from the game I played in on Saturday morning. Terry G. ran the Battle of Zama using Field of Glory. I was playing the part of Hannible and I did just as well as he did, we lost. :-)

Because the Battle of Zama game didn't take up the whole period I was able to snap these photos of the Waterloo game in progress.

I believe this is Mike C's Assault on Pestszentirmre as WWII using home brewed rules.

This was another 6mm Napoleonic game and I think it's Bull H's Battle of Antwerp using the rules "The Conflict"

The ACW game in progress.

I loved the town for this one. This one is the Battle of Aachen by Greg M.  Another set of home brewed rules.

A CY6 jet age Cold War battle put on by Paul G.

This terrain I fell in love with. It was fantastic and it won best in show for Saturday afternoon. This was Fireforce: Rhodesia '76 by Damond C. and Bruce S. and Lawrence B. The rules used were Force on Force.

This was my Saturday afternoon battle.  It was called Panzer Lehr Attacks using Fireball Forward by Steven W. The game played well and the Germans (which I played on) were able to achieve their victory conditions.  The miniatures are from Axis and Allies. I'm not sure where he got the 3" printed hexes though.

All of those little bases have 2mm figures on them and they are painted very well. This game was a full campaign game played on a 5'x8' table and it was Napoleon's 100 Days Campaign put on by Gary W.  This was also a home brewed set of rules.

These last three photos are from my last game Saturday night.  This was Robert K's Battle of Yamazaki. The figures are 10mm and there a 1000 of them on the table. It was impressive. I played this same battle last year. Only this time I played on the opposite side and I still lost. 

Overall it was a great weekend and I can't wait for next year. It will give me enough time to plan what I want to run next year as well. I might GM two games next year!

The Battle of Germantown 1777 Play Test

To get ready for Enfilade and the game I'm running, I put on a play test game with my group this past weekend.  The battle this year will be Germantown. The rule set for this game, I decided to use Piquet: Field of Battle.  Instead of trying to recreate the entire battle which covered a huge area, so I scaled it down to the area around the Chew house and the town of Germantown.  The battle starts off after the Continentals surround the Chew house and the bulk of Washington's army pushes past it to face General Howe and the British.

This is the table layout and my good friend Shawn.

Shawn took over a portion of the Continentals.

Kevin also took the Continentals and Washington's duties.

The Chew house with the British light infantry barricaded inside and the American Rebels attacking.

The Continentals push forward and engage the British

British cannon trades shots with the Rebels.

The British retreat into a house

The Continentals push forward against the Hessians.

Rebel Militia march forward.

General Cornwallis and his troops prepare to take the town.

The Hessians get their orders and race to face the Rebels.

An overview of the battle.  The Continentals did very well through most of the battle.  At this point the British were down to only a few morale chips left and they had a few routed units fleeing the field.  I (as the British Commander) thought things were going to end soon.  I couldn't roll very well to get Cornwallis into the battle sooner and got caught marching by musket fire.

The Chew house stood firm throughout the battle.

The British attempt to rush the Continentals with cold steel.  It didn't work out very well.

The Hessians advance and begin to inflict some damage on the Rebels. They begin to fall back.

Cornwallis' troops finally advance on the flanks.

The Continental right crumbles and their morale begins to tumble.

The last stroke of the Hessians saves the day and routes the last Continental unit.

At this point we called the battle as the Hessians had started to encircle the Continental middle and provide some relief to the troops trapped in the Chew house.  For most of the game I really thought the British were going to lose this one but as with most Piquet games the tables can turn.  We fully enjoyed this game and I hope the people who get to play it at Enfilade will enjoy it.

Battle of Hydaspes 326BC

So this past Saturday the 4th, my request of our members we ran the Battle of Hydaspes to coincide with the Society of Ancients Battle Day. We missed it by a week. :-)

This particular battle, Dave, decided that we would use Warrior for our rule set. I've only played Warrior a few times and mostly with Dave running the game.  I'm not a huge fan of the rules (all of the math to figure out losses turns me off) but I do like the complexity they build into movement, morale and so on. Much more than Fields of Glory or DBA.  If they could simplify the combat/melee part of the system I could probably enjoy the rule set.

Anyway, I took over as Alexander the Great and looked out across the table and the massive amount of Indians setup across from me and all of the elephants.  I don't play a lot of ancients games but I know having elephants are a huge bonus for the side who has them. They are tough to take down and essentially run over everything.
I failed at getting a good shot of the entire table. The picture I took was blurry and horrible.

King Porus sent his son as recon force to see if Alexander was willing to fight.

Alexander and his starting forces.

Alexander decides to play and sends his troops forward.

A couple of shots of Dave's great looking Pikemen.

Alexander's Companions charge ahead.

King Porus' troops stream roll ahead.

The Alexander's infantry hit the recon force and loose and fall back.

More of Alexander's cavalry charges ahead.

On Alexander's right flank the rest of his troops start to cross the river. Heavy bow fire from the Indians routs a few Alexander's troops.

The middle of the battle seesaw's back and forth with little to no ground being given.

The troops landing from the river have a tough fight ahead of them.

Alexander and King Porus clash and Alexander loses and routs away.

Despite Alexander routing, his army pushes forward and routs a few of King Porus' troops.  The cascade effect begins with a few of King Porus' also routing.

King Porus routs!

After 4 hours of play we called the game a draw.

It was a good night of gaming.  We are going to try this battle again only this time we are going to run it with either Piquet's Archon or Piquet's Pulse of Battle.