Tag Archives: 2012

Even Whites Bleed Red, A RCW Encounter

The Trumpeter Salute convention last weekend saw the first full outing of my Russian Civil War forces, in a scenario I called Even Whites Bleed Red. I’m a pulp gamer at heart, so a punchy, interesting scenario title appeals, what can I say?

The scenario is set “somewhere south of Moscow, sometime early in the Russian Civil War” and has a disorganized scratch platoon of Red Guard defending a hamlet from a composite company of White forces, composed of a shorthanded platoon of White riflemen and a plaston (infantry platoon) of Cossacks, lead by an energetic and capable group of Cossack officers.

I threw in my White Russian SPAD, for additional “Ooo shiny” factor and because I had the thing painted, and off we went, with two players on each side and me GMing.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Even Whites Bleed Red I

The SPAD appeared very early in the game, although never had much impact, neither strafing run doing much. Above, the plane machine-guns the Reds in the churchyard,

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Even Whites Bleed Red II

This game, the Reds got themselves shaken out and in position fairly quickly. They were able to get most of the Whites pinned down well outside the hamlet, and the Whites never got into position to launch more than a token assault on the place.

Trumpeter Salute 2012:  Even Whites Bleed Red III

Above, the White rifle platoon advances, one section in the foreground on the crest of the ridge, the other two behind it. In the far background, one of the Cossack sections can be seen advancing. The Cossacks had far less cover than the rifles, and the White players might have been better off funnelling their entire advance up the near edge of the board, sacrificing one section to hold the flank while the rest of the composite company pressed in toward the hamlet.

Trumpeter Salute 2012:  Even Whites Bleed Red IV

Above was the high point of the White advance, with one rifle section thrown back after attempting to storm across the railway embankment and attack the Reds along the stone wall. The Red reinforcements, one section of Red sailors and another section of Red Guard, also appeared just after this assault was thrown back, and the White players conceded the game at this point.

I’ve got some thoughts on why this game went so differently for the Whites when compared to our squirrel-obsessed playtest version, but I’ll save those for a longer followup post. Suffice to say that all four players enjoyed themselves, I enjoyed running the game, and we actually got done surprisingly quickly. Start to finish, including introducing the game to four players who’d never played it before, we were done in under three hours. Near-perfect convention game length, in other words. We could even have gone a bit longer and still had plenty of time for cleanup.

As it was, I had time to run a little demo session with a “stacked” deck to give two interested bystanders a chance to see how the Mud & Blood system worked, and get everything put away in good order!

Trumpeter Salute 2012 After-Action Report

So, Corey and I spent the weekend over in Vancouver at the always-excellent Trumpeter Salute 2012 gaming convention. We saw a lot of people we really only see at Trumpeter, played a bunch of good games and got to spectate at many more!

Corey is suffering from computer issues and hasn’t gotten his photos processed or online yet, but I finally sorted mine out this evening. You can go check out all of them on my Trumpeter Salute 2012 set on Flickr. Or you can read on for some of my favourite photos, and favourite games from this year’s version of Trumpeter Salute.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: WW1 Air I

Canvas Eagles is an old standby, a great World War One air game. Rene runs pretty it much constantly at Trumpeter, and Corey and I both got into it Friday night. On opposite sides, of course. We have a firm convention rule that if/when we find ourselves in the same game at a convention, it has to be on opposite sides. That’s my Fokker Eindeker at the centre of this photo, which spent most of the game locked in a swirling, inconclusive dogfight with the very similar French Moraine-Saultier to the left. Both aircraft are very agile but not terribly fast, so we could neither outmaneuver nor outrun the other!

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Darkest Africa II

Colin is another Trumpeter regular, and has run a spectacular Darkest Africa game several yaears in a row now. I didn’t play this, just got a few snapshots.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Legends of the Old West I

Our Saturday morning entertainment, with a friend and I attempting lead our outlaw gang into town to rescue a gang member from the gallows, while Corey and another gamer ran the Law to try (and succeed, worse luck!) in halting our attempt. Legends of the Old West has the virtue of being an uncomplicated set of rules that get out of the way and let you get on with the game. Neat scratchbuilt Old West buildings, too.

Saturday afternoon and evening are most convention’s “prime time” and Trumpeter is no exception. Lots and lots of great stuff all at once on Saturday afternoon!

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Even Whites Bleed Red II

My own “Even Whites Bleed Red” Russian Civil War scenario I’ll give the full AAR treatment in another post, but it went well.

ITrumpeter Salute 2012: WW2 Fall of France II

Spectacular scenery in this early World War Two Fall of France game, French vs Germans in 15mm.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Boys Own Waterloo I

Malcolm is another Victoria gamer and friend, but this iwas my first chance to see his full, spectacular “Boy’s Own Waterloo” setup. The British even won this time, apparently.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Roman Seas

Saturday evening Eric Hotz ran his Roman Seas game, with our convoy set upon and seized by the merciless Pompey.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: WW2 Eastern Front

Also on Saturday evening, this elegant World War Two Eastern Front game in 15mm, showcasing new rules and some awesomely painted figures.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Battle of Queenstown Heights, War of 1812 II

Sunday was a bit quieter, but Colin put on the appropriately timed War of 1812 Battle of Queenstown Heights, in which the British/Canadian forces held the Americans to a bloody but marginal victory.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Isle of Pulp Insanity I

Also running Sunday was this spectacular pulp game set in the South China Sea, with various factions vying to discover the secrets of this volcanic island.

Trumpeter Salute 2012: Isle of Pulp Insanity IV

Except that volcanic islands are, well, volcanic, and sometimes prone to slipping back beneath the waves and taking their secrets with them! No need to imagine that with this game, the lower half of the island really does vanish!

This is only about one third of my Trumpeter Salute photos, go check the rest out on Flickr.

Thanks again to Martin and his family for the hospitality over the weekend, Jon for transport to and from Vancouver, and the excellent organizers, GMs and other attendees at Trumpeter Salute for a great time. See you next year!

Russian Civil War at Trumpeter Salute 2012

Ran my RCW game Saturday afternoon at the convention. Short version: everyone had a good time, but unlike our playtest a few weeks ago, the Whites got splattered, despite having more support and forces than the playtest. The Reds go going faster at the beginning and the Whites never had a chance to develop the momentum they had during the previous game.

Anyway, longer update and photos in a few days when I’m not blogging from my phone…

Off to Trumpeter Salute 2012!

Off to Vancouver Friday morning for two and a half days of miniature gaming goodness at Trumpeter Salute 2012!

The Russian Civil War figures and scenery I needed for the game I’m running Saturday have all come together nicely, and I’ve got everything packed away for transport. Clothes, toothbrush, all that boring stuff too, with luck…

I’ve had a quick look at the convention schedule, but except for my own game, I don’t plan ahead too far at Trumpeter. There’s always good stuff running, with some reliable standbys like the near-constant 1:72nd Canvas Eagles WW1 air games to fall back on if nothing else grabs my eye. That said, I always go to conventions looking to try new gaming systems, new rules, new eras, new genres and to play with different people than the usual crowd I game with all the time!

I’ve got the WordPress Mobile app installed on my Android smartphone, so there might even be some short updates here over the weekend before the big post-Trumpeter posts sometime early next week. Hopefully I remember to take photos, even.

If you’re going to be at Trumpeter, say hi if you see me. I usually scribble “Wirelizard” on my nametag these days, because that’s become my default username online, and I even remembered to make a sticker version of my orange lizard logo (see the right-hand side of the banner up above this post) to stick to one edge of my nametag. Or just look for the Russian Civil War game in the Saturday afternoon slot and come join in! 2PM (1400) on Saturday afternoon!

The Russian Civil War at Trumpeter Salute

Sent off my request for a table to run a Russian Civil War game at Trumpeter Salute 2012 over in Vancouver (March 30, April 1 & 2, for those interested!), using the excellent Through The Mud & The Blood rules from TooFatLardies, of course.

I’ve got a pretty good handle on the painting of 50+ White Russians and nearly 70 Reds. The Whites have turned out to be more fun to paint than I thought, as they had some very individualistic units running around, and the habit of wearing items of dress uniform into the field where they could. Pygmy Wars has been a huge help in this regard; if you’re into RCW at all that site is a goldmine of information, and written by a wargamer so it’s far more focused on gamer-friendly information than other sources! I also have a couple of more colourful Red units, so not everything colourful on the table will be White!

As I’ve done in the past, because my mind can work in odd ways, I’ve started a poster (possibly a magazine cover?) for the game. I’m not entirely happy with the current version, although I think the basic idea (a map burnt through, basically) is sound enough. The Devil, as always, is in the details, and those aren’t right yet. Nevertheless:
easposter_draft

Belated GottaCon Report

Never did write that post-GottaCon post, did I?

Ran a very good game of .45 Adventures, lots of dinosaurs and mayhem. Four cars started the Jurassic Pulp race from the wrecked camp, and by the time they’d reached the safety of the river, all four cars were wrecked, one person had been stepped on by a T. Rex, another eaten by same, one had fallen off a bridge to certain doom, and other pulptastic mayhem had taken place.

I actually remembered to take my camera out of my bag during the game, but true to form, only got a couple of shots worth anything.

Here’s the best of those shots. The girl is the daughter of one of my pulp players; she was awesomely patient while the strange adults shot at each other, blew things up, got trampled by dinosaurs and generally acted silly.

Playing With Dinosaurs

The cliff on the left is Corey’s latest scenery extravaganza, and it proved awesomely lethal during the game, although nobody actually drove off the top of it, which I had hoped to see!

GottaCon reported record attendance and sales numbers, so Victoria’s “big” convention really is growing up. Now they just need to get better airflow in the sports hall the convention runs in, it gets hot, loud and airless. The non-tournament miniatures area was far better (and more flexibly) managed this year than in previous years, though, so that was a huge plus. Looking forward to GottaCon 2013!

GottaCon, Today!

… it’s past midnight, so yes, technically it is today as I write this.

Anyway, Victoria’s big gaming convention started last night (Friday) and runs through to Sunday afternoon.

Saturday (today!) I will be running Jurassic Pulp II: Rex Returns for, hopefully, a sellout crowd. I’ve got six teams of two characters each, and last year’s game got five players, so hopefully I equal or exceed last year’s player count.

I”ll even try to remember to get some in-game photos, although I have a lousy track record of remembering the camera even exists while in the middle of running a game! Still, there will be at least some photos. The game will feature some new terrain features that have never been photographed before, too!

Final prep, bed, up early for the convention tomorrow.

I’m getting up earlier, on a Saturday, for a gaming convention, than I usually have to for work. Sheesh. The things we do for our hobbies..