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.