Enfilade 2015 Recap: Part 1 - Other People's Games

Another Enfilade is history. 2015 was another fun convention with high attendance (well over 300) and the gaming tables were full for the Friday night and most of Saturday sessions. I saw a lot of new people, including several that ran games, and younger gamers this year. I didn't hear of any major complaints or problems, so overall I would say it was another good year.

The theme for 2015 was Raids, so there are a lot of games with "raid" in the title and on the table.

As per my usual Enfilade recap, I’m doing two Enfilade posts; one on the general convention and other people's games 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 Games 
I spent a lot of time talking with old friends and catching up, so I mostly watched (and took pictures) of the games on Friday. There were a lot of interesting games on Friday, including the big 28mm Ligny game by the Canadians. It seems like more gamers are showing up early on Friday to get the gaming started.

Actium galley battle using a system based on Hail Caesar

Agincourt

Get the Monkey - King Kong scenario using Wings of War

Ligny using several large tables and the Shako rules

A wider view of the Ligny table

Martian airship fight with 28mm airships and figures

The Rat Patrol attacks a German desert airfield

Waterloo - A Better Plan 28mm Brigade level Napoleonics

A Wounded Raider had Graf Spee trying to leave port and escape the Royal Navy (I have it on good authority that Graf Spee did not escape)

The perennial Friday afternoon favorite Viking Run game

Friday Evening included some Circus Maximus chariot racing

A British attack on an Italian fort in North Africa

The Klingons and Federation square off

The Battle of Kolin

Iroquois and Huron fight out a raid battle

The new Heroes of the Colosseum game

Headshot Z zombie vs. survivor game

Another view of the 28mm Ligny game

A smaller version of Ligny using the Blucher rules

Night Witches using the Bag the Hun rules

A pre-dreadnought action that was a last minute addition to the list

The raid on Agen with English, French, and serfs all facing off against each other (the serfs won by 1 point)

The Retreat from Moscow

The Curse of the Mummy layout (the figures are still off map), this uses the Osprey In Her Majesty's Name rules

Over the Top WWI tank attack

Attack on the Stalingrad airfield

Saturday Morning
Friday set the tone for the convention, with some really great looking games. In the morning I played in an armor game using Two Hour Wargames "Hell Hath No Fury" tank rules. It is a quick and fun set of rules that has the ability to be played solitaire, so I picked up a copy. Unfortunately, only one photo from that game turned out. Here it is, along with pictures from the other games in the period.

My Shermans crossing a river to get into contact with the Germans (which turned out to be a bad idea)

CY6 - Jet Age battle over Korea with F-84s taking on MiG-15s

The Battle of Aachen with some nice terrain

Raid on Dong Hoi with MiG-17s attacking a U.S. bombardment force off North Vietnam

Galactic Knights - Raid on Midway Station

The Games for Young Warriors event ran several game with toy soldiers for the younger attendees (it seemed quite popular)

The 7th Cavalry from the Killing Custer game

Learning to Row and Ram galley game

A large WWII Russian tank attack

Salems Church American Civil War battle

The 28mm Waterloo game from the White Rock Gamers

Hougoumont from the 28mm Waterloo game

One more view of the Waterloo game

The Battle of Zama using Fields of Glory

Saturday Afternoon
I ran my Channel Clash game in the afternoon (covered in this post), but did manage to get around to snap a few pictures of the other games.

A Napoleonic battle from the 100 Days

Raid in the Congo

Panzer Lehr attacks using the Fireball Forward rules

Napoleon in Egypt

A Sails of Glory game to prep players for the big Sunday battle

Space 1889 battle for the pyramids on Venus

John McEwan's Terrors of the Deep Steam Punk submarine game

Saturday Evening
After finishing up my Channel Clash game, I went to get a little dinner and missed the start of the evening game period (and a chance to get into a game), but I did get the photos.

A large (10 player) All Quiet on the Martian Front river crossing game

Battle at the Galaxy Star Casino game, just before the real action started

A quick and easy Gladiator game

Plotting and planning during a Persian Gulf Harpoon game

He-Man and the Battle of Grayskull Castle

A large scale Samurai battle

Sharpe's Raid using the Two Fat Lardies rules

Smoked Boulogne - 100 Years War English raid on a French port game

Sioux Raids - attacking a wagon train

Sioux Raids - cavalry protecting the stagecoach

A Napoleonic battle in Germany using the new Two Hour Wargames Morale Napoleon rules

The War of the Worlds

Sunday Games
On Sunday Kevin and I were running our big Raid on St Nazaire game (see my other post for details) and I only managed to get a few pictures of the other games.

CY6 Floatplane Hell air game

The setup for The Glorious First of June battle using Sails of Glory, they even have the frigates on the outside of the main battleline

Raid on a Harbor galley warfare game

That is all the pictures for this year. Again I thought it was a really good convention with lots of interesting and visually appealing games. The gamers here really go all out for Enfilade and the games show it.

Enfilade 2015 Preparations

I’ve been getting ready for my Enfilade 2015 games. This year I’m only running a couple games, one Coastal Forces scenario and the raid on St Nazaire game. I got some new ships for use with both games and I did a lot of work on the St Nazaire terrain.

Starting off with the new ships, earlier this year I made a big order to The PT Dockyard. It was mainly for some German ships for both my Enfilade scenarios, but there were also a few British ships in the order, which I will assemble later.

Here is a group photo of the ships.

My new German ships

First up, I got a pair of M40 Minesweepers. There were over 100 of these ships built and they were used in a lot of different functions during the war, so they will be a generally useful model.

M40 class minesweepers

I also got a pair of Vorpostenboote Trawlers and a Vorpostenboote Whaler, which will be good for convoy escorts.

German VP boats

I painted all the ships up in disruptive camouflage patterns that I tried to match from photos and descriptions. I still need to mount them on a base and do a little weathering, but overall I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.


The work the St Nazaire terrain is pretty much done. In my last post I showed the bare-bones of the layout. Now things are more filled in and finished, including additional warehouses, bridges, and more. Here are a few shots of the updated terrain.

Overview of the terrain

An overhead view of old town and the old mole, it is more filled in that my last photo shoot

The warehouse area

A view of my scratchbuilt lift bridge

The drydock area, I need to finish the cranes for this section

Kevin and I also did a walkthrough of the game. Hopefully the real game goes as well as our walkthrough.

Campbeltown rams the caisson 

The commandos move to land at the old mole

An MGB covers the landing at the old mole

Not Built in a Day

I’ve been continuing to work on terrain for the Raid on St Nazaire game, which is taking longer than I had hoped. With most of the buildings done, it was time to actually work on the ground for the town.

I’m really experimenting with the ground. I didn’t want to have a large piece of board for the town and, originally, I was planning on just using cut gray felt to represent the area of the town. I thought that the gray color would represent the concrete of the dock are pretty well. However, Kevin thought that the single layer of felt would not give enough of a height difference between the water (which will be a large felt cloth) and the land. After talking it over, I decided to try mounting the felt on foamcore board.

Looking at the city layout, I decided I could break my terrain into three pieces; the south side of the Normandie dock, the north side of the Normandie dock, and the warehouse/old town area. Here you can see the area I’m trying to represent, with the area in red being the main game area. 

St Nazaire Raid area

After drawing up some patterns, I added few more pieces for the old mole, the east jetty, and the land on the west side of the area. Next I cut out all these pieces in gray felt and spray painted some green and brown onto the pieces. Finally, I cut out the foamcore and glued the felt to it. With that done, I laid out different pieces to see how it looked.

Here is the east jetty, going to Old Town, and then to the warehouse area

Overhead view of Old Town and the old mole

Overhead view of the warehouse area

A closer view of Old Town

Normandie dock area with the drydock in the center

The Normandie dock with the battleship Tirpitz in the dock (which was what the British feared)

Overall, I think it is looking pretty good. I do need to add more buildings and trees; I didn't have the buildings Kevin painted up so things look a little sparse. One thing I worry about is that it looks a little too clean. I think that based on the scale/distance, you probably wouldn't see how dirty/grungy stuff is. But I will try to figure out a way to break up the gray some.

Next up is working on the swing bridges and caissons for the drydock. 

A Quick Update

While I've been telling myself that I should be putting up more blog posts, so far 2015 has not produced much. While I didn’t post updates in February, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing any hobby related stuff. Here is a quick update on what I’ve been doing since my last post.

First up, I’ve been working on the terrain for the “Raid on St Nazaire”game that Kevin and I are going to run at Enfilade. Kevin has been working on the British ships and some terrain, while I’ve been working on terrain and Germans ships.

Here are a couple photos of the buildings and warehouses I’ve been painting up. The buildings will form the majority of the old town of St Nazaire and the warehouses will be placed near the old harbor entrance and the Normandie drydock.

Buildings for St Nazaire Old Town

Warehouses

All of the buildings are from Skywave 1/600 kits. We will probably need to scratchbuild a few more buildings and the bridges, but overall the terrain is coming together nicely.

I’ve also been thinking more about the modern submarine game. Based my previous success with Shapeways models, I decided to order a 1/700 scale Chinese Type 092 Xia class ballistic missile submarine from the Kokoda Trail Models shop. Unlike the previous order, this was the common White Strong & Flexible material and the final model feels a little grainy. Overall, I think it will paint up well and look good.

The starboard 3/4 view of the Type 092 Xia SSBN

Port side view

And it should fit in nicely with the Chinese Type 091 Han and the Kilo subs I already have.

Type 091 Han SSN (top) and a Kilo class SS (bottom)

The Kokoda Trail Models shop has several other 1/700 scale submarines that I’m thinking about too. Addtionally, it has several 1/700 scale after-market parts for warships, including sails for American Guppy submarines. One of my on-and-off side projects has been to make 1/700 scale models of American submarines, but no one makes any Guppy subs in that scale. So I ordered one of the sails and I’m going to try to add it to a modified Hobby Boss Balao class sub. The sails only come in Frosted Ultra Detail material, so the cost of one sail was almost as much as the whole Xia SSBN. But the smoother material should fit right in with the plastic kit. If it looks good once it is painted up, I will probably look into getting the other two sails so that I can show all the basic Guppy looks.

Sail for USS Cubera

I also took a little time to play a couple boardgames. On President’s Day (in February) Dave C. and I had a chance to play the Nightfigher boardgame. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the game, it is a tactical level game about nightfighters during World War II. It is a little different in that it is semi-blind game where one player acts as an umpire and controls the bombers, while the other is the nightfighter and only “sees” what the umpire places on his map. The game plays really quick (only about 30 – 45 minutes per scenario) and we played several games in a few hours. We liked it enough that we are planning on starting a campaign (rules included in the game) and will play by email using VASSAL.

Cover of the Nightfighter game

I also had a chance to play September’s Eagles with Kevin and Casey. I talked about this game in my last post and I’ve been looking forward to trying out. While the game could use a summary sheet to remind us of some of the rules, once we got into the flow of the race it moved along nicely. Casey was the winner for the game we played and we all agreed we want to try it again.

The Gee Bee Z, Wedell Williams, and Laird Super Solution lead the pack around the first pylon.

With the update out of the way, it is back to working on the St Nazaire project.