Enfilade 2014 Recap Part 2 – My Games

This year I ran two games for Enfilade, one on Friday evening and the other on Saturday afternoon. The Friday game was Slow Boat from China modern missile boats game using the Bulldogs Away rules. The Saturday game was Sandy One to the Rescue a Vietnam War air game using the AirWar C21 rules.

Slow Boat from China 

This was a five player game representing a Chinese Navy attempt to escort a resupply ship to one of their island bases in the Spratly Islands. The Chinese Navy (PLAN) started out with a corvette (Weihei) escorting the cargo ship and three Type 022 missile boats. The Littoral Alliance side was made up of force from the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan. The Littoral Alliance started out with two Philippine gunboats (one an old South Korean Sea Dolphin and the other an ex-US Cyclone class patrol boat, with some Hellfire missiles) and the other two players selected a Vietnamese force with a Tarantul I and Osa II, and a Taiwanese force with two Kuang Hua VI missile boats. The game started out with the two Philippine boats sitting on either side of the PLAN cargo ship, while the Weihei and three missile boats trailed behind.

Philippine patrol boats on both sides of the cargo ship, while the Chinese corvette watches their every move

Vietnamese ships move slowly toward the cargo ship

Both sides were told to avoid shooting at the other side, although the PLAN players were told that there probably wouldn’t be any repercussions for firing if they felt in danger. However, both sides were also told they were free to use non-lethal methods to slow down the other side. In the beginning both sides tried to use fire hoses to slow down or force the other guys too turn away. This caused there to be a lot of wet sailors, but also slowed down the cargo ship by shooting water into the engine air intakes.

The cargo ship slows down to clear out some water, while the PLAN missile boats move up

Not long after, the Philippine player got the word he could open fire as needed to stop the cargo ship. He turned the ex-Cyclone away from the cargo ship to open range for his missiles. Suspecting something was up due to the radio chatter, the PLAN players fired missiles and guns at both Philippine ships.

Missiles fired at the Philippine ship

The Philippine Sea Dolphin was taken out right away by close range 76mm gun shots, but the ex-Cyclone was able to get off a Hellfire shot before the PLAN missiles hit. Due to the distances (and rules), the Hellfire hit and started a fire on the cargo ship before the PLAN missiles caught the ex-Cyclone. The ex-Cyclone did take heavy damage from the missile hits, but was able to stay afloat and continue to fire off its remaining Hellfire missiles.

Cargo ship on fire as missiles head for the Philippine ship

The rest of the Littoral Alliance ships had not gotten the weapons free order, but that didn’t matter to the PLAN and they started shooting at the Vietnamese.

Missile fired at the Vietnamese

Vietnamese Osa under attack

At this point the Vietnamese and Taiwanese decided that there was no reason to hold back and began shooting at the PLAN, causing a big missile scrum in the middle of the board.

Missiles flying everywhere

The three PLAN Type 022 missile boats and the cargo ship did not survive the exchange. But Weihei tried to salvage the situation by attacking the Taiwanese, who promptly return fire.

PLAN and Taiwanese Navy exchange shots while other ships burn in the background

A couple more missiles finish off the corvette

In the end, all of the PLAN ships were sunk and each of the Littoral Alliance players got away with at least one ship (although most were damaged). The scenario seemed to work out okay and the players seemed to have a good time. If I do this again, I will probably make some minor changes to the rules of engagement to try and lengthen the amount of time before the missiles start flying.

Sandy One to the Rescue
This was a seven player game covering the rescue attempt of a downed pilot after a bomb raid over North Vietnam. There we four US Air Force players flying two each flying a pair of F-4 Phantoms (with limited fuel), while the other two flew four A-1 Skyraiders (the Sandys of the scenario name) and a CH-53 helicopter. The North Vietnamese brought in four MiG-17s and a pair of MiG-19s. They also had some 57mm AAA sites and trucks on the ground. The trucks did have a chance to move, but not very fast (they were actually moving at about 50 MPH, I wanted to give them a chance to try to get close to the downed pilot).
After setting up the Phantoms, we waited for the MiGs to appear.

F-4 Phantoms passing over some trucks and flak

The MiGs held off coming in, trying to get the Phantoms to waste some fuel, but finally moved in as the Sandy moved on to the board.

MiGs enter the game

The first bit of bad luck for the US players was that an AAA site found the range on a Phantom and knocked it out of the sky, while the other Phantom of that pair found himself being followed by a bunch of MiGs.

A MiG-19 chasing a Phantom

The first of many missile misses as an F-4 goes down from a flak hit

The Phantoms tried to keep the MiGs away from the Sandys, but they were not having much luck with their missiles.

Another missile miss

And another (but at least the A-1 did some damage)

Although, to be fair, they were forcing the MiGs to make evasive maneuvers keeping them from taking a direct path to the slow moving A-1s. The A-1s had a chance to do a little damage of their own by taking out a couple AAA sites and some of the trucks.

Sandy takes down a AAA site

A-1s destroy some trucks and another Flak site as the downed pilot puts up some smoke

The rescue helicopter slowly made its way to the downed pilot, but was constantly harassed by MiGs.

The CH-53 survives a head-on attack

And dodges a few more MiGs

In the end the MiGs couldn’t do enough damage to down the chopper and with ammo running low (or completely gone) they decided to break off the action.

The US made it out with a heavily damaged helicopter, the downed pilot, three F-4s (although one ran out of gas on the way home) and the four A-1s. The North Vietnamese had some damaged planes, but only lost one MiG-17 to an A-1.

Overall, it seemed like things went pretty well and the players seemed to have fun. I think the speed differences between the A-1s/helicopter and all the other planes might have made it not as fun for the A-1 players, so I’ll have to watch that in the future.

Enfilade 2014 Recap Part 1 – Other People’s Games

Enfilade 2014 is done and, as usual, it was a fun convention. Enfilade 2014 had record attendance (over 360, including vendors) and the gaming tables were full for the Friday night and almost all Saturday sessions. It seemed like there were a younger gamers in attendance this year. This is the second year Enfilade has had a theme and this year’s theme was obscure theaters, which led to a lot of different games, game types, and places. Overall it was another good year.

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. As always, just click on a photo to get a closer view.

Friday Afternoon 
The first gaming period started at 2:00 on Friday afternoon. I took some time to get checked in and move my stuff into my room before going to check out the games.

The 29th Infantry at St. Lo using the Battleground Normandy rules

Battle of Texel (versions of which went on most of the weekend) WWI naval

The Martians land at Five Points as the Gangs of New York face-off against the warriors of old Mars

Guards Counterattack - the old Squad Leader scenario using Crossfire rules on scratch-built terrain

The Siege of of Haengju from the Imjin War (this went on to win Best of Show)

Sails of Glory game (this also went on most of the weekend)

Snakes and Zeros - A Japanese air attack on Port Moresby

Thunderboats - an old favorite

Friday Evening
I was running my Bulldogs Away game on Friday evening, but managed to sneak away while the missiles were flying to get a few photos from other events.

The Battle of Ligny - 28mm Napoleonics with home-brew rules

The Almost Fallout pulp game (I really like the terrain on this one)

Battle of Campaldino 1289

Battle of Montmirail - 15mm Napoleonic game

Bronze Age Heroes (more of this tomorrow)

Over the Top - British trenches (another set of wonderful scratch-built terrain)

Over the Top - German trenches

Over the Top - British advance through No-Man's Land

Fall of Shanghai - WWII Japanese vs. Chinese

Feudal Japan Ikko-Ikki Wars

Wings over Tillamook - Japanese flying boats and floatplanes attack Oregon

Saturday Morning 
I played in the Bolt Action Waltzing Matilda game on Saturday morning. It was good to familiarize myself with the rules again and gave me a chance to think about some opponents for my Australian troops (you can see them here). First the other games in the period and then the photos from the Bolt Action game.

Battle of Crysler's Farm from the War of 1812

Attack on Riga - using the Wings of War rules

Battle of Texel - WWI naval action

Battle of Contlarf

Pieces of Eight - fantasy pirate game in 28mm (with huge ships!)

That's No Moon - X-wing fighter attack on the Deathstar

Falklands Furball - WWI naval action in the South Atlantic

Learning to Ram - gallery action

Cold War Jets - US Air Force jets fight it out with the North Vietnamese

Waltzing Matilda - I joined the fray on the Australian side

To my right were more Aussies with some native auxilaries

My force of 'Diggers' was advancing up the middle with support from a Bren carrier

Then a Japanese flamethrower team jumped out and torched my carrier. After that we stayed in cover and pinned down the Japanese as the Americans on the left flank pushed ahead

In the end, the Allies won the game and the natives enjoyed a little treat of their own

Saturday Afternoon 
It took a little longer to get lunch than I expected, so I had to rush to get my AirWar C21 game setup. Once the game was going, I didn’t really have time to wander around for photos, except for a couple pictures of the game table next to mine.

LZ X-Ray - Vietnam War chopper landing game in 1/300 scale

LZ X-Ray after the choppers have cleared out

Saturday Evening 
On Saturday evening I decided to have a more leisurely dinner and just watch a few games. I was happy to see that someone was running the Golden Age Air Racing game, with only slightly modified rules (the main change was getting rid of the need for hexes). It is always fun to see someone playing with your rules.

Golden Age Air Racing rules on action

The game presenter showing off how to move without hexes (he really came up with a nice way to free the game from the hex mat)

There were a lot of other games too.

Battle of Abensberg April 1809 - using the Black Powder

Battle of Yamazaki

Battle of La Rothiere

Blood and Beer in Pomerania

Chariot racers getting their instructions for Circus Maximus

Colonial action in the Sudan

DBA Treasures of the Nile tournament

Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Sutekh - yes, that's a TARDIS

Get the Message Through! Napoleonic courier game (a very interesting game system)

More Bronze Age Heroes

Cloudships of Mars - 28mm scratch-built ships

Sunday Morning 
The annual members meeting was Sunday morning at 8:30 and there were plenty of bleary-eyed gamers in attendance. My good friend Kevin stepped down as NHMGS President and Sven Luger was announced as the new President. Taking charge is a lot of work, but I’m sure Sven is up to the task.

After the meeting it was on to more gaming. I helped Kevin out with his “Emperor of Texas, the Aaron Burr Conspiracy” game. This game was a lot different than your typical miniatures game. There weren’t any real set sides in the game and we were relying on the players to use a little diplomacy (along with some brute force) to get their way. It turned out to be a lot of fun and went right up to the last turn, when Burr barely escaped with the Spanish and Americans on his tail.

Burr's men preparing to head into Spanish territory (maybe with the blessing of the Spanish?)

American force engage with the Spanish, just before attempting to arrest Burr

And here are the other games from Sunday.

Bomb Alley - Check Your 6 Jets Falklands game

Deadman's Hand - Old West game

War of the Worlds game with some nice scratch-built tripods

Siege of Castle Miser

The British advance during the Battle of Sackett's Harbor from the War of 1812

Singapore Standoff - Japanesebattleships

Teutoburg Revisited

Sunday Morning at the Luminous Toad tavern brawl

There were really a lot of great games at Enfilade this year. I am always amazed at what I see, from the great scratch-built items (like the ships from the 28mm Cloudships of Mars game or the trenchline from the Over the Top game) and beautifully painted figures to the innovative home-brew rules (like the Get the Message Through courier game) and great scenarios. It is a really great community we have here in the Pacific Northwest (or Southwest for the Canadians) where people really plan and prepare for their Enfilade games. I’m already looking forward to next year’s convention.