Drumbeat 2011 Recap

Drumbeat was held on Saturday and turnout was good enough that the event basically broke even. The space was a good size, with lots of tables, and there was plenty of food within walking distance.

There was a morning and afternoon game period with about six games per period, along with DBA all day. Kevin and I ran the Taiwan Strait game in the morning and in the afternoon I played in Kevin's 'Arrest Lewis and Clark' game. I did grab a few pictures of some of the other games at Drumbeat, which are posted after my battle reports.

The Taiwan Strait game was basically a repeat of the playtest game Kevin and I ran a few weeks ago. The PLAAF had the choice of taking six J-8II fighters or a pair of Su-27s as the escort for their six Q-5 Fantan bombers. The PLAAF mission was to sink the Taiwanese frigate. The PLAAF players opted for the J-8IIs, although I almost had them talked into taking the Su-27s. On the Taiwanese side, a pair of Mirage 2000s started on the map near the frigate and a pair of indigenous Ching Kuo fighters would arrive on turn 3.


The PLAAF planning its attack.



A pair of Q-5s with the J-8II escorts.

There were several early missile shots by the Mirages that missed or only did minor damage. Things started to change when the Ching Kuo fighters arrived.

The Ching Kuos arrive.

They quickly knocked down two Q-5s and became the center of the PLAAF's attention. The J-8II's fired off a majority of their radar missiles at the two fighters, knocking down one of the
Ching Kuos. A close gun attack hit the other, starting a fire on the fighter.

Ready for a head on gun shot.

Ching Kuo on fire.

But the Ching Kuo had gotten off another missile shot that took out another Q-5. The remaining bombers continued to close with the frigate. They were able to get within one move of the frigate before missiles from the frigate and returning Mirages knocked them down. In a final attempt to do something to the frigate, a J-8II fighter dove down to strafe the frigate, hitting and doing light damage to the ship. But the pilot's happiness was short lived as the 76mm and 40mm guns on the ship blew his plane out of the sky.

In the end it was another Taiwanese victory, but the PLAAF did get close and the strafing actually did a little damage to frigate (which is a first for this scenario).

The 'Arrest Lewis & Clark' game was a hypothetical game based on attempts by the Spanish to intercept the Lewis & Clark expedition. In this case, a group of Spanish regulars, militia, and Indian allies caught up with the American encampment along the Missouri River. I was playing the Spanish Regulars and wasn't really very confident in the ability of my troops to get the Americans.

The American encampment with the beached keel boat.

The Spanish militia, which included a group of mounted lancers, and Indians were able to catch a couple groups of American out foraging and inflict a bunch of casualties on them. I took the regulars toward the encampment and boats. I did shoot up a couple groups of Americans with only a few losses (one of which was the overall commander). But bad American die rolls and good Spanish ones decided the game in favor of the Spanish. Kevin used the Brother Against Brother rules for this game. They played fast and easy, without too many questions.

Here are a few photos from some of the other games from Saturday.

There was a game of Ambush Alley on the table next to ours. It looked like the players had a pretty good time and the system seems to play pretty well.

There was a Napoleonics game using the Black Powder rules. It was Austrians vs. French and I think that the French ended up winning both times it was played.

In addition to the DBA ancients games, there was a game of Tactica II, but I didn't hear how that one turned out.

There was also a Mexican-American War game that used the Fire & Fury Regimental rules. this looked like a fun game and the Eureka figures looked great.

There were several other games that I didn't get pictures of or the pictures just didn't turn out (sorry about that).

Overall, it was a good day of gaming and it seemed like everyone had a good time.