Sunday, November 24, 2019

2019 NHMGS Game Day at the Museum of Flight

On Saturday, November 23, the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society (NHMGS) joined the Northwest Scale Modelers and Lake Sawyer Hawks Radio Control Club at the Museum of Flight for the annual Hobby Day.
A view from the NHMGS gaming tables at the museum
The event was well attended and many museum goers stopped off to look at the displays and ask questions. We even had several that joined in some of our games during the day.

The Northwest Scale Modelers had tables under the SR-71.
One of the Northwest Scale Modeler tables
The Radio Control Club was in the side gallery, mainly due to the size of their planes.
A radio-controlled P-40 and Spitfire
Our information tables were set up in front of the gaming tables, with figures, rules, and reference materials.
One of the NHMGS information tables
We four gaming tables and two gaming sessions. The morning session had a 6mm Vietnam War game with the Vietnamese trying to take out an American helicopter LZ, a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter game, World War I naval - prelude to Jutland game, and a British attack on an Italian convoy.
The American LZ in the center of the table
X-Wing fighters on the attack
Cruisers getting into action before Jutland
Since Kevin and I were running the convoy attack game, I have more photos and a better description of the action. We used David Manley's unpublished Air War 1940 rules for the game. We had 4 British players (flying Blenheims IVs, Beauforts, and Swordfish out of Malta) up against 4 Italians (flying CANT 1007 patrol bombers, CR.42s, and MC200s). The Italians had a lot of ships and area to cover, but the British didn't have a lot of weapons (bombs and torpedoes) to take out the ships.
View before the British entered the map
Beauforts on the starboard side of the convoy taking on the CANT bombers and heading for the ships
Blenheim IVs attacking the front of the convoy
Beauforts on the port side of the convoy make it to the ship before the CR.42s can attack, but their bombs missed
The Blenheims from the front both hit the lead merchant and sink it
The Beaufort coming from the starboard side gets lucky with a bomb hit that takes out another merchant
The Swordfish were able to drop their torpedoes just before the MC.200s reached them, sinking another merchant
The British sank three merchants with only one plane lost and several damaged. Overall a victory for the British.

The afternoon session had a Black Seas game, a Wings of Glory WWI game, and repeats of the Jutland and Convoy games.
Black Seas game in progress
Wings of Glory fighters make a pass
The afternoon convoy game was joined by a few museum visitors (2 British and 1 Italian). None of them had every played this type of game before. But after a couple turns, they were flying and fighting on their own without any troubles (at least from the rules). Which is a good testament to how easy David Manley's rules are to pick up.
Second Convoy game in action (the Sopwith Camel wasn't part of the game, but a kit that museum goers could purchase and put together with some modeler assistance)
Blenheims only do minor damage as the CANT blasts away at them
The Swordfish get a tanker, but the MC.200s tailing them knock down both torpedo bombers
The British didn't do as well in the afternoon game, losing 3 aircraft while sinking a tanker and damaging two other merchants.

Overall, everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time and we were able to get some information about gaming out to the general public. The annual event is (almost) always a good time and it is fun to share the hobby with people that have never seen miniatures.
The museum had a space-animal themed Christmas tree at the entrance

4 comments:

  1. Nice images from another fun MoF game day, Dave. Got to play in the LZ X-Ray game and commiserate with a lot of folks in a fantastic venue.

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    1. I think we had a really good turn out for the day. The Museum of Flight is always an interesting place for gaming.

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  2. What a great venue and some splendid games. Which Dave Manley rules were you using for the convoy game?

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    1. The Museum of Flight is really a great venue. We were using Air War 1940, which is World War II version of the Air War C21 rules.

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