Raygun Rayborn and the Red Planet: Factions

 As promised, here are photos of the factions I mentioned in my previous post about the Raygun Rayborn game from Recon 2022. My son will playing in the Raygun game at the upcoming Hurricon 2022 convention. I told him to take plenty of photos. :-)

Raygun Rayborn and the Red Planet: Pulp Sci-Fi Goodness

Alex Paul ran a 10-player, 28mm Barsoom-themed game at Recon 2022, using a lot of custom terrain. Most of the Barsoom miniatures are from Tin Man Miniatures and Bronze Age Miniatures. You might also see some re-purposed miniatures from games like Star Wars.

Alex used his homebrew rules he calls "Stunning Stories." I didn't get to play in the game because it took place at the same time I was playing "To the Strongest," which I wrote about in the previous post. Since I was near this game, I did get to watch everyone having fun. It was a centerpiece game that afternoon, and probably the most elaborate setup of the con. I love pulp sci-fi. Hats off the Alex!

Today, I'm posting photos of the game table before the game began. I tried moving around the table in a logical fashion. Later this week, I've scheduled photos of eight of the ten factions and their objective sheets.

 

Where Have I Been?

BTW sorry for the long delay in posting. Back in May I began having pain in my left shoulder. By the end of the month, it was crazy painful to move it much, so off to the ortho. After X-rays and MRI, looks like I tore one of the tendons a bit and inflamed the you-know-what out of the rest of the shoulder. I haven't slept much in three months! I think I'm going to change my address to the physical therapy office,where I go twice a week. I'm improving a lot, but just typing this post has bothered me. It's been a rough summer. (I did get a new tablet, which has helped me get away from the desk.) Thank goodness Hurricon is coming in a few weeks--I need some good fun! Next Recon I will be running at least one game--more on those thoughts later. I'll do some photo dumps to get the rest of Recon 2022 posted. On to the pics of the game. I hope you like them!

To the Strongest: War of the Roses in 15mm

On Saturday afternoon April 23 at HMGS-South's Recon 2022, I sat down for a "Learn to play To the Strongest" game hosted by Daniel Moreno and Curt. (Sorry, Curt, but I can't your last name!) The scenario was a generic version of Bosworth Field during the War of the Roses, using the army lists in the Medieval Army List supplement and 15mm Peter Pig miniatures.

Before the Battle
Below are a couple photos taken before the game began. I took the first photo while checking out the tables for the 2pm games. I didn't expect to play To the Strongest that day. For a while now, I've owned the base rules and supplements. I looked over them but had never played them.

On the left is the Tudor army led by Henry Tudor. On the right is the York army led by Richard III. This is the pre-game setup.

It looked like I was the only player for the game, so Curt was going to play Henry Tudor. I played York. We used the card deck to decide who would go first. After that, we used the chits Simon sells for the game.

The Miniatures
All the miniatures are from Peter Pig's War of the Roses line. These were Curt's figures. I only have Peter Pig's WWII figures. For years, I have looked at the WoR range online but had never seen them in person. I love them. BTW this Recon had a wide variety of miniature sizes: 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 1/72, 28mm, 40mm, and 54mm. Wow! The mat is from Simon's BigRedBat web store.

The York Army
Below are some photos and stats for the York army. I took close-up photos of the York army lists that Curt made, but forgot to take photos of the Tudor army lists. These armies played nicely against each other and were easy to command. Jeremy and I took shots of Richard's army, but I forgot to take close-up photos of Hastings and Norfolk.

A close-up of Richard III's battle on the right wing. (Taken by Jeremy.)

Here is the entire Richard III army. These PP figs look awesome!

Sorry these are out of order.  Lord Norfolk's army list in the Center.

King Richard III's army list on the Right.

Lord Hastings' army list on the Left.

The Tudor Army
Below are photos of the Tudor army. Another fellow joined the game. Since he had played TtS before, Curt came over to my side. Below are some close-up photos.

Henry's army, which sat directly across from my Richard III. It would be a close run thing between these two armies!

The Game Begins
After some basic rules teaching, we began the game. Daniel Moreno handled the rules, which he loves doing. Curt provided strategy tips to me and controlled Richard's army. Instead of cards, both sides used the Chits of War official chits from the BigRedBat store. At the request of the new player (sorry, can't recall his name!), we used alternating activation instead of I-go-you-go. Being my first game, I'm uncertain if this was good or bad. Curt and Dan felt it worked well.

We're getting stuck in now!

What a Slog!
All the armies got off to a decent start--kind of. All six armies (or whatever they are called) had no problem activating. Sadly, my Hastings army, which held the center, just sat in place for at least three turns, blowing its activation every time. Sigh. Eventually, the game got going. After two hours, we ended it. It was close. I lost by a squeak. Sorry, Richard!

My Thoughts
I like rolling dice and missed doing that. Dice feel dramatic to me. That being said, I liked To the Strongest overall. We did a game in two hours. That was nice. I did have a problem with the chit pulling (or card flipping). I found myself card counting. It drove me nuts. But I'm sure I can overcome that.

I think using alternating army/battle activation messed with the chit pulling odds as a turn progressed. I have to see what others think about this.

In the end, I didn't come away wanting to play To the Strongest again as soon as possible. I was just glad to end the game. It was a slog, with lots of sound and fury from the players but signifying not much happening due to constant bad chit pulls. I need to study the rules. We knew we accidentally played some important rules wrong. It always happens. I have to wrap my head around the grid system more. Would I turn down a game of TtS? No. Would I seek out a game of TtS? Not sure.

Oh yeah, and now I'm hooked on the War of the Roses, which has been a favorite of mine since middle school. Look out!

Had a Blast at Recon 2022 in Orlando

Just when everyone thought the blog was dead, it rises again!

This year, I decided to re-join HMGS and attend Recon 2022 here in Orlando, which happened two weeks ago. I also got my son to come along. He's 31 now, has his own life, but had the time free. Over the years, he's really gotten into board wargaming along with his regular board gaming hobby.

I really didn't know what to expect at the con. It had been 7 years since we last went to an HMGS South con. It just wasn't my scene. (I've also been away from miniature gaming for a long time--curse you Magic the Gathering!) Seems like a lot has changed in 7 years! We had a blast. So many different games to play. Everyone was great. This post will be a quick glance. More to come later.

Friday 1pm We Arrive

We arrived at the con on Friday at 1pm, so it was just getting ready to start ramping up. Jeremy snapped a quick photo of the floor. Jerry Boles is off to the right, playing a large Luftwaffe 1946 game. Seems like he has dropped Black Cross/Blue Skies, which I still own. I decided not to play one of those games this con. I wanted to play different things.

AWI With Pete Panzeri

Jeremy and I both got into a 25mm AWI game run by Pete Panzeri using his own rules. It had been many years since we last played a game together! Pete is a laid back guy and just fun to game with. The set up was huge, using Old Glory figures. I loved playing with those figures. So much character and a trip down memory lane.

Jeremy snapped this photo of me jawboning with two other players. I'm in the center. My gaming partner is to my left, seriously thinking about our strategy. We played British heading toward Yorktown on what was to be a suicide mission in real life. Sam on my right was playing the Rebels trying to delay us bringing up the artillery. I'm going on about "The Rock of Gibraltar" on the table and how did that Rebel artillery get up it? Sam and I kept cracking up. Pete claimed it was just a low hill in the game. Sure it was. :-)

Cruel Seas is My New Thing

On Saturday, Jeremy got into a large Cruel Seas game and loved it. He snapped this quick photo of it. I got into a 15mm War of the Roses game using To The Strongest, run by Daniel Moreno. I'll hit my thoughts on the rules in a future post. Anyway, Jeremy liked CS so much I picked up an Amazon Warehouse deal on the starter box for $40 after tax. I've begun researching coastal actions and painting, so look for those shortly.

Random Dude With Awesome Shirt

Jeremy loved taking photos of people with awesome shirts. This was one he snapped Saturday.

I hope you liked this quick peek at Recon 2022. Much more to come...