Enfilade Recap Part 1: Other People's Games

I've divided my Enfilade recap into two posts; this post will cover the general convention and the games I played in, while the next post will cover the games that I ran.

After putting in some extra hours at work, I was ready for a little time off and some gaming. I arrived at the hotel early on Friday and checked to see if any of the Enfilade staff needed help with things. No real help was needed (I did help move a few things around), so I was off to check into my room, say hi to some of the people I hadn't seen since last year, and get an early look at some of the vendors.

The first game period started at 2:00 and I decided to try out Michael Koznarsky's gladiator game. He was using a set of Rules called Arena Games, which are hex based, but simple enough to have six players going at it in a grand melee. We played out four rounds, each round being fought with a different gladiator. I got into a little trouble during the first round (as can be seen in the photo below), but I was able to extricate my gladiator and went on to finish in second place for the whole game. It was a fun little game.

Looks like I'm in a little trouble here!

I also made my way around the room to grab a few photos of the other games. Dean Motoyama (of the WAB Corner blog in my links section) ran his Battle of Ichi no Tani game, with some nice terrain, including a dragon boat. You can read more about the game on Dean's blog.

Chris Bauermeister ran his Battle of the Yalu 1894 game with 1/700 scale ships. The game was one of two that used David Manley's "Fire When Ready, Gridley" rules.

A fuzzy shot of the Chinese Yalu Fleet

The game ended with a Japanese win, although the Japanese did take some heavy damage, including on battleship that was trying to stop flooding from a torpedo hit when the game ended.

Yalu fleets close in on each other.

Friday night I helped Kevin with his Battle of Sluys medieval cog game for most of the battle.

The English try to make their way around the chained French fleet.

The game pretty much went along historical lines with the English eventually getting the better of the French. Kevin covered the full action on his blog. It was a fun game and I'm looking forward to trying these rules out in some more battles with Kevin's cogs. Everyone else must have liked the game too, since it won the "Best of Period" game for Friday evening.

I did look at the other evening games, but didn't get any pictures of those. The other naval games during Friday evening were both hypothetical World War I actions; one covering what if von Spee's squadron had gone west instead of east using the "Fleet Action Imminent" rules and the other pitted an escorted American troop convoy against a German force off Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. The Royal Navy also put in an appearance in this game that used the "Supremacy at Sea" rules. I believe the game ended in a German victory.

I was running my games on Saturday morning and afternoon, but I did manage to get a few pictures of some other games. There were a couple galley games, one using the "Man Your Oars" rules and the other using Eric Hotz's (who was there to run the game) "Roman Seas" rules.

Roman Seas galleys engaging.

Will Thompson, from Monday Knight Productions, ran a 1/2400 Tsushima game using the "Fire When Ready, Gridley" rules. I didn't catch all the action in this game, but it ended up in a Japanese win.

The Japanese Battleline preparing to engage.

There was an attack on a pirate town in 28mm with some nice looking ships. This game was run in two periods and looked like fun, but I was busy running my own games and couldn't get into this one.

Setting up the Port Royal game.

In addition to the naval games, the 'Best of Show' game covering Teutoberg Wald was run on Saturday morning. This was a very nice looking game, but very big taking up a 16' x 6' space.

The Roman Legion trailing off into the distance.

There was also a big game covering the second day at Gettysburg using the "Regimental Fire and Fury" rules.

2nd Day of Gettysburg with Regimental Fire and Fury.

On Saturday night my camera batteries died, so I didn't get any pictures. There was another "Supremacy at Sea" game covering a World War II 'What If' battle between an American troop convoy bound for Iceland, a Royal Navy long-range escort, and a German surface force with the Bismarck. While the convoy got roughed up, the Germans took very heavy losses.

Sunday morning, I got some replacement batteries for the camera and joined in Kevin's Closing Wilmington American Civil War Ironclads game. This was a fictitious battle with land forces, shore batteries, minefields and a Martello Tower. I ended up on the Confederate side commanding a shore battery and the Martello Tower battery. The Union side had a lot of ships, but only one monitor, while the Rebels only had two ships (one ironclad and one wooden ship), but lots of shore guns and two minefields. The Union players had to pick what mission(s) they wanted, while the Confederates just had to defend the area.

The Union fleet approaches.

The game started out with the Union fleet heading up the river as the Confederate shore batteries tried to slow them down. After a couple turns we were getting our range and started a couple fires on the Union flagship, which was headed straight for the island with my Martello Tower at full speed!

The Union Flagship burns as it approaches the Martello Tower

I continued to pound the flagship, inflicting a lot of hull and crew hits, but it was able to maintain enough momentum to make it to my island and run aground. At this point a bunch of Federal troops jumped off the ship and headed for my tower.

Meanwhile the Confederate ironclad had entered upriver and made its way to the scene. The ironclad commander had picked out the Union monitor as his target and sped toward it. The monitor commander seemed up to the challenge, heading for the Rebel ironclad. At the last minute the monitor tired to avoid the Rebel, but was rammed on the starboard bow taking some heavy flotation damage. Then the Rebels blew up their spar torpedo, sinking the monitor. The only problem was the ram had fouled the two ships. The Union players were hoping that the ships would stay fouled and the sinking monitor could drag down the ironclad, but with only a couple turns to go before being pulled under, the ironclad was able to free itself.

Union monitor in trouble.

Over at my tower, the Union soldiers had formed up around my tower and launched an assault.

Union troops attack my tower (I hope I remembered to lock the door).

Luckily for me, the Union player rolled poorly for his attack and his attack failed.

The other Union ships had been taking damage from the shore batteries, including a couple rudder jams that put them perilously close to the minefields, while only doing a little damage in return. With the unsuccessful tower attack and their monitor sunk, the Union forces decided it was time to retreat ending the game.

Overall, it was a fun weekend, although I was pretty beat by the time I got home Sunday evening.