Making Terrain

I've been playing some Necromunda lately, and we decided we would all make a one foot square piece of terrain to represent one of our territories. I decided to do Vents, and here are some in-progress shots.

Barker Does Modern Rules

Phil Barker has a set of modern rules, the Sharp End, up on his website. It's ultra-modern, for regular vs. irregular forces at company scale.

The Best Looking Games at Historicon

Here are pictures of what I thought were some the best looking games at Historicon. There were a lot of really impressive games, but these really stuck out for me.

Eat Hitler!

Eat Hitler: The Nazi Taste Treat! was Howard Whitehouse's fun little game. Hitler and his insiders have built a time machine in '45. They're going back to '33 to do it all over again, but right this time. Only the time machine malfunctions, and sends the Nazis back to the Mesozoic Era! The dinosaurs instinctively know that these Nazis must be eaten! Players got points based on the seniority of the Nazi they ate, from goon to Hitler and in between.

Chain Reaction

On Saturday, I also played in a intro Chain Reaction game. I've got the rules and could tell that there was some value in them, but frankly they are so poorly written that learning from the book is too much trouble to deal with. Bob, the guy running this event, seemed to have pretty much the same idea, and was running two simultaneous teaching games. I totally forgot to take pictures of the game, but I ran a squad of inter-war US Marines against some Central American militia. I guess I got so into learning the rules, and really having a blast playing them, that I didn't even think to snap pictures. I did take one of his groovy dice tower. Anybody have one of these for sale?

AK-47 with Peter Pig

First thing Saturday morning, I made for an AK-47 game with Martin and his wife from Peter Pig. I've got a ton of figures from Peter Pig and really like them. I never really got into the AK-47 rules. I got them and read them years ago, and pretty much dropped them, although I thought the political flow chart system was genius, and have used the rules for bringing on troops in other games. Anyway, I didn't want to pass up a chance to learn from the master, so to speak, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game and anticipate running it locally.

The Updates Will Now Continue

I ran pretty much around the clock on Saturday. I took a lot of pictures, but I never got a chance to upload them or update the website. I drove home yesterday, and am just now loading the pictures. Stay tuned.

Charles Not In Charge

I played Piquet: Field of Battle 1809 game last night. I commanded the Austrian right, attempting to stop the French from crossing a stream. I performed adequately, having three poorer units routed, but my better three stuck around and defended a battery that continually pounded the French when the reached the banks. All was for naught as a cavalry division full of Cuirassiers crushed our left flank. Anyway, I really liked FoB. It's still Piquet, but much simpler, and with a mechanism of ensuring even play while still allowing a better force to out-maneuver its opponents. Updated with pictures.

Super games at Historicon

So, I've bought the dickens out of the Superfigs range, and built my own skyscraper rooftoop terrain, have the rules but have yet to actually play a game. So...guess what I did today?

The Games People Play...at Historicon!

I'm off to my usual start, dying miserably on the shores around Mount Suribachi with TAC: Arc of Fire, and having my French and mercenaries driven from the field by a Hapsburg tercio with Piquet: Band of Brothers 2. All the vendors say I'm a true hero, though! Fun stuff!!

Before the Con

Nothing really turns on at Historicon until Noon on Thursday, so I jumped out of bed early and tried to get some things done away from the hotel.

See ya!

I was going to write about this morning, but uploading pictures is taking longer than I thought, and the dealer's room opens in 20 minutes, so I'm heading that way. If you don't hear from me again, I was crushed under the throng of gamers stampeding to blow their money. I regret nothing!

Arrived at Historicon

Left Knoxville at 8:30 AM and arrived in Lancaster, PA at 6:30 PM. VROOM! That's even stopping for a 30 minute lunch at Shoney's. Not my favorite place to eat, but the guys I'm travelling with selected it. We ate dinner at Applebee's, got our registration materials, then sat on the deck overlooking the pool, drank bourbon and beer, planned games and talked a little history and politics.

Fallujah Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned: Infantry Squad Tactics in Military Operations in Urban Terrain During Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq [PDF] from the Marine Corps Times is a very interesting article about MOUT in Iraq.

Not a Spammer

I saw a few bounced messages in my e-mail box this morning indicating some spammer is forging the littleleadheroes.com domain as a source address for spam. If you're visiting, rest assured, I'm not a spammer.

Taskforce Productions Blog

Taskforce Productions, makers of We Can Be Heroes and Baptism of Fire, is keeping an online diary.

I am moved.

I am in the new house. Unfortunately, my stuff gets unpacked last, so I am still about half in boxes. I wanted to smoke a pipe while we celebrated the 4th, but couldn't find them. My original Zulu movie poster that I've had for years without any place to hang it hasn't been located, either. I couldn't keep track of things in the old house even after living there for ten years, now we're in a bigger house and everything is in a new place anyway. It's going to be a long few weeks getting the place comfortable.