Enfilade 2012 Recap: Part 1

Enfilade is done for another year. Overall, the convention went very well with good games and attendance. I had a good time with the games I ran and played in. However, it will be nice to kick back and relax for a little while, without having to worry about completing any projects.

As with last year, I’ve split my recap into two posts; one on the general convention and games I played in and a second covering the games I ran. This post will cover the general convention stuff and games I played in.

I arrived at the hotel early on Friday afternoon, checked in, and moved my stuff to my room. The first game periods started at 2:00 PM, but I had gotten into a few conversations with people around the convention hall and missed signing up for any games. Instead, I grabbed a few pictures and reviewed the information for the game I was running on Friday night.

Here are a few shots from around the game room on Friday afternoon.

Force on Force - African Bush Wars

Viking Run raid game.

Regimental Fire and Fury "Battle of Knapton's Spring"

Friday night, Kevin and I were running our Strait of Hormuz game. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to break away from the game to get of pictures of other games. So, you'll have to depend on some of the Enfilade picture posters to get those pictures.

I was running my second game on Saturday morning, but did manage to be a little better about getting pictures. The first game was covered the Spanish Armada with a homebrew set of rules. I've played this one at another convention and the Spanish are pretty hopeless. But the game is quick and the players swap sides, play again, and total up points with the winners being the group that did best for each side. It is a fun little game and the figures came from some Dollar Store glass ornaments.

The Spanish Armada ready for sailing.

The English in pursuit of the Armada

The guys from Monday Knight Productions ran The Battle of Memphis using the Sail & Steam Navy rules. They also were selling copies of the rules and some ship models from Bay Area Yards. It was a nice looking game.

The Confederate Ram Fleet engages the Union ironclads at Memphis

There was also an ancient galley game using the "Man Your Oars" rules

Ramming speed

The other naval game in the period used Axis & Allies War at Sea ships for a pre-WWII action.

Axis & Allies "Battleship Diplomacy" game

There were a lot of other games happening too and I grabbed a few pictures of those, mostly while they were setting up.

A colorful Aztecs vs. Mayans game

The 1813 Battle of Saalheim

An interesting game with cavemen and dinosaurs

A really nice looking inland D-Day game

A game based on the "Fallout" series of computer games

A game based on the Kalvin of Otherwhen books

The Battle of Arras using Two-Page Tank rules

Saturday afternoon, I was playing in Kevin's Chickasaw Bluffs: Smoke on the Water game, using the "Brother Against Brother" ACW rules (modified for 1798). This was a hypothetical attack by the Americans on the Spanish forces (illegally) located on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. I was on the American side and our goal was to destroy the Spanish guns at the top of the bluff and take their redoubt. We had three groups of regulars and three groups of militia (two of which were armed with long rifles) to do the job.

American forces ready to move up Chickasaw Bluff

We were faced with a couple groups of Spanish regulars in the redoubt, along with some Spanish militia and cavalry as reinforcements. The cavalry turned out to be lancers, which are pretty nasty in this game.

Spanish redoubt and guns on the bluff

The game started out with the Americans slowly (and I mean slowly) moving up the hill to get to the redoubt.This gave the Spanish time to get one group of regulars out of the redoubt to meet us. After exchanging fire, the Spanish decided it was probably better to fall back to the redoubt to face us. This left the guns open and we were able to capture and spike the them.

Americans firing into the redoubt while spiking the Spanish guns

Just as the Americans got the upper hand and were assaulting the redoubt, the Spanish reinforcements arrived. We fell back from the redoubt (after decimating the Spanish regulars) to wait for the lancer's charge.

Spanish lancers hit the American line

Most of my units survived the lancer attack, taking down quite a few and forcing them back. The long rifles were able to pick off the final lancers at long range. This left the Spanish militia as the only remaining Spanish units. We offered them terms and they accepted, even though the had moved into the redoubt. Basically, we told them we were going to use the long rifles to pick off their men (staying out of the range of their muskets) until the remaining militia troops were few enough to assault and they decided that would probably work, since there was no time limit for the game.

Americans (finally) take the redoubt

I did manage to sneak away to get some photos of other games, including the General Quarters III Empress Augusta Bay game being run by Gregory Kuntz from Old Dominion Gameworks. In this game the Japanese were able to break through the American screening cruisers and attack the transports.

American and Japanese battlelines face off

There was also a really great looking "Boilers and Breach-loaders" game going on. It pitted an ad-hoc group of Germans and British against the junks of a Chinese warlord. I didn't get a battle report, but it looked great.

The Chinese fortress and junks

German and British ships

Another view of some of the German and British ships with a friendly Imperial War Junk

Here are some of the other Saturday afternoon games.

The 1973 Battle of El Al using Cold War Commander

An 'Old West' game using the Desperado rules

Rourke's Drift being set up

A British outpost in the Sudan 1885

German bombers for a Wings of War game

Saturday night didn't have any naval games, but there still some interesting games. Kevin ran the second part of his Chickasaw Bluffs action, when the Americans were taking on the Chickasaw Indians. From what I heard, the Americans did not do as well as they did against the Spanish.

Indians charging the Americans in the creek

Pike and Shotte Battle of Edgehill

There was a big Essling 1809 game using the Black Powder rules that looked great.

Essling 1809: A view from the Austrian left

Essling 1809: Attacking the town

1885 Nile Patrol game

A nice looking Galactic Knights game

Russian force hit "The Gap" in this Cold War Commander game

The view from the Union camp in a Shiloh game

The Turks attack British trenches

Sunday morning we had the annual member meeting (it is always hard to get people up for the game after a long night of gaming and other activities). After the meeting the morning game period started.

I was going to play in the Sail & Steam Navies game, but there were several other players that wanted to get into the game and had not played the rules before; so I just stood by and helped out some of the newer guys with the rules. The game was originally going to be at Charleston, but switched to Mobile Bay. The Union had a river monitor and a bunch of wooden ships (including USS Hartford) to start the game with a double-turret monitor coming in later. The Confederates had two strong and one weak ironclads. The Union ships had a hard time doing much damage to the heavy ironclads, but ended up shooting away the stacks (and paddle boxes) on the Confederate ships, which left them dead in the water and caused them to surrender. This seems to be a common theme in game that involve heavy Confederate ironclads. Here are some pictures from the game.

Confederate ironclads (top to bottom) Baltic, Tennessee II, and Nashville

USS Hartford (top) and Osage (bottom)

The Union wooden gunboats move toward the Nashville

Tennessee II rams the Osage, sinking the smaller river monitor

I grabbed a few pictures of the other Sunday morning games. Including a really nice looking Khyber Pass game where the British were trying to rescue hostages from a mountain fortress.

The Khan's mountain fortress from the Khyber Pass game

The British preparing to advance on the fortress

A Check Your Six Jets game recreating the final battle from the movie "Top Gun"

The traditional Sunday morning bar fight at the Luminous Toad Inn

Getting the beer through in the "Thunder Run" game using the "Charlie Don't Surf" rules

That's all of the pictures I took of other people's games. As you can see it was another good year. I am always impressed by the work people put into their Enfilade games.