Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Enfilade 2013 Recap Part 1 - Other People's Games

Well, Enfilade is over for another year and this was a very good year for the convention. We have a record attendance (around 350, including vendors) and the gaming tables were almost full for the Friday night and all Saturday sessions. Everything seemed to go smoothly and I didn't hear of any major issues. While Enfilade doesn't measure up to the eastern US conventions attendance-wise, I think that we would match up nicely on the quality of games.

As with the recaps from previous years, I’m doing two Enfilade posts; one on the general convention and other people's games (including ones I played in) and a second covering the games I ran. This post will cover the general convention stuff and games I played in. For more pictures and descriptions from Enfilade, be sure to check Kevin's blog, Dean's blog. and David's blog. There are some other blogs out there too and I will try to post links as soon as I see them get some Enfilade entries up.

Friday Afternoon 
The first gaming period started at 2:00 on Friday afternoon. This used to be a pretty sparsely populated period. But as more people decide to show up early, there are more games. I was looking for something fairly light to start the convention and jumped into a game of Silent Death (easy space fighters). I took four small attrition fighters and was knocked out pretty early by the heavier fighters. But it gave me a chance to unload my stuff in my room and wander around the other games too.
Agincourt using the Hail Caesar rules
Austria vs. France in pre-Dreadnought action
Silent Death
Viking Run being set up
Guy Bowers' (from Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy magazine) Wrath of Heaven game

Friday Evening 
Wings of War floatplanes try to Sink the Emden
Battle of Dennewitz using Shako rules
Wildcats fight off Zeros and Bettys
Setting up for Circus Maximus
French ships get ready to battle it out with...
German ships
The Gangs of New York
Golden Age Air Racing
Massacre at Fort William Henry (from Last of the Mohicans)
Rapid Fire in the desert
WWII Pacific scenarios (I never did find out what the tiger was for)
Row Well and Live galley combat
Stargate SG-1 game
Zombies!
Saturday Morning and Afternoon 
I was pretty busy running my own games on Saturday morning and afternoon (see my next post for more about those), but I managed to get a few photos of those games (mainly as they were being set up).
Setting up for Assault on Crete (using Bolt Action rules)
Battle of Hanau
Bjork's Drift (VSF on Mars)
France 1940 in 6mm
Wings of War Bombers
1940 French bombers attacked by Me-109s using CY6!
An American Civil War action
Battle of Peleliu
A close view of Peleliu
Desperado game with a train

Saturday Evening 
I played in Mark and Joe Waddington's Vietnam game on Saturday evening, which was visually stunning and a lot of fun to play. I was on the Vietnamese side and we were trying to find the crew of a downed chopper (which included a high-ranking officer), while trying to delay the American rescue effort. Although we didn't really know that was the mission at the start of the game. My squads were able to delay the Americans for long enough to allow the other Vietnamese time to capture the downed crew and march them off the table, but I did lose most of my troops in the effort.

American main force arrives
American airmobile troops land in a village
The downed chopper the played an important part in the game
The Americans prepare to advance on my position
And they spot my dug-in troops a little earlier than I was hoping
Over on the other side of the board, the airmobile troops advanced out of the village into the Rice Paddies
My second squad attacks (ineffectively) the American flank
More American troops arrive
The Americans reach the downed chopper, but a little too late
NVA forces block the Americans, allowing other forces to get the captured general off the board
I was a little too focused on my game and missed out on taking pictures of most of the other games, but here are a few.
The Sword and Flame on Mars
Time traveling Nazis with dinosaurs
a smaller portion of Trafalgar
Sunday 
Sunday morning was the annual member's meeting. It was well attended this year (another surprise for me, since most gamers find it difficult to drag themselves out of bed at 8:30 on Sunday morning). With all the extra people, I was wondering if there was going to be a lot of complaints about the convention. But, for the most part, everyone was complementary of how things went. There were some comments about communications issues (NHMGS did have some website problems this year) and some other minor items, but overall everyone seemed pretty happy with things. The NHMGS President and Treasurer did say that in addition to helping support other region conventions, they are looking to help support some regional game days in Seattle, Portland, and other locations. NHMGS isn't really looking to run the game days, but is looking for local people to organize things and NHMGS will be willing to provide some seed money. It is nice to see that we are getting back into a position to support the hobby in areas outside of Puget Sound. With the meeting over, it was time for some more games.
Sails of Glory demo game
American forces for the Battle of Cryslers Farm
British forces for Battle of Cryslers Farm
Battle of Hastenbeck
Sea Harriers pursue Skyhawks and Daggers over San Carlos
Galley Quest (think Jaaon and the Argonauts)
Martian War machines from War of the Worlds
WWI North Sea Rumble
Siege of Castle Mire (using Tactica Siege rules)
A Spanish Civil War action

Finally, here is a list of the games that won "Best of" for the different gaming periods.

Friday afternoon-Viking Run by Lloyd Bowler and David Mebust. The only game with spectators. The runner up for best of show overall

Friday Evening-Massacre at Fort William Henry by Darryl Nichols. If you've seen Last of the Mohicans, you've seen this game. Darryl also won the best game that reflected our "At the Movies" theme.

Saturday morning-Assault on Crete 1941 by Mark Sieber

Saturday Afternoon-Liberia 1920 by Bruce Smith

Saturday Evening-Vietnam 1968 by Mark and Joe Waddington

Sunday Morning-Galley Quest: Jason and the Argonauts by Tom Condon

The overall Best of Show winner was Vietnam 1968 by Mark and Joe Waddington.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks again to everyone that helped out with the convention and put on games.

4 comments:

  1. Good to see so many naval and air games wish we had more of that at our shows over the pond

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    1. I've been pretty happy with the diversity of game types at Enfilade that past few years. I do think doing naval and air games can be difficult at times. Not to mention that there are so many more land battles (and rules) from which people running the games can choose.

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    2. I definitely see what you mean, also naval and air games dont realy have the mass appeal rule sets that a lot of people are already familiar with the macanics of. thats not to say there aren't lots of good rule sets out there.

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  2. Nice write-up of the entire convention. I only had time to swing by the Saturday afternoon period.

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