Historicon 2014, Saturday

Last day of Historicon for me. Managed to play two games and check out a bunch of others. Also, have you guys heard of "All Quiet on the Martian Front"? You need to know about "All Quiet on the Martian Front". Jumbled thoughts and pics after the jump.

All Quiet on the Martian Front

Late breakfast, leisurely time checking out games and vendors and then it was time for my first game of the day, the massive Siege of Memphis by the Martians of "All Quiet on the Martian Front".

20 feet of steampunk/sci-fi/alternate history fun.

Wow. The terrain was stunning, featuring the reinforced outskirts of Memphis Tennessee. The Martian invaders needed to breach the wall and exit their special "scientist" tripod off the human board edge to deliver a new viral weapon that would end human resistance in the city.

The gold tripods are assigned the duty of delivering the virus

Human trenches protect the human right flank where the wall remains unfinished.

Land cruiser and steam tanks

Anti-tripod electrical wire defenses.

The human left flank, far from my side. Didn't get too much intel on them.

My martian scouts, drones and grenadiers were on the Martian left flank, staring down the barrels of the human land cruiser.

Drones and their overseer tripods.

The dreaded land cruiser

Martian assault tripods cresting a ridge, losing one to enemy fire.

Drones infiltrate a farm and sweep over human infantry hiding in the woods.

Tripods advancing on the Martian right.

The Martian center managed to breach the enemy walls and had nearly delivered the virus when a human "clamp tank" ambushed our Martian scientist tripod, immobilizing it only inches from victory.

Those guys in the lower right are lobotomized human slave troops of the tripods.

Martian scientists nearly to the human edge.

The Red Martian wreaking havoc in Memphis

Holy cow this game. Easy peezy to pick up (we received a 5 or 10 minute rules brief at the beginning but everyone was handling their own troops with ease by turn 2). Runs fast, intuitive, fun little special attacks and weapons, and lots of Hollywood style explosions.

One of my tripods suffered a catastrophic explosion aftering being nailed by the land cruiser. The resulting chain reaction of exploding martian fuel tanks knocked out three of my tripods and all of my drones.

I was all set to avoid "All Quiet". I have enough periods, my lead pile is high enough, and I really don't need to be starting a new game, but man... this game sunk it's tentacles into me. I picked up a starter set and rulebook after the game. It's a good thing Architects of War didn't have some of the more exotic vehicles in stock or I would have loaded up on twice as many toys. Great fun and wicked cool models. Can't wait to get crackin' on them.

More Games

Before and after my games I snapped more pics. Lots of great games today.

6mm Vietnam

So tiny! I always thought tiny scales worked best for armor, or huge armies with 10,000 infantry. Interesting seeing it used for Vietnam.

Battlegroup Kursk

I believe the GM said this was set in Poland.  Really great terrain.

Dogfight

Ha! I don't know what's going on here, but look at alla them planes.

Pacific World War II

Pretty certain they said this was Bolt Action. Flaming tanks were lit up, and I really dug the fighter plane. Looked like a great table set up with lots interesting little "zones" to fight over.

Various

Middle East. I think they lit some oil pipelines on fire.

GODZILLA! RAWR!

Tomorrow's War

Great set up. That big bug artillery caught my eye, but the whole table was well done. Lots of nice figures.

War of the Roses?

World War I

Looked great! Hordes of French, those clanky old tanks, and a really desolate tablescape.

X-wing in a crater. My son expected the Space Worm to come out and start gobbling ships.

Zulus

Monster Madness

Finally, I ended the evening with an impromptu game of Monster Madness. My son is finally old enough to stick with a wargame for the duration (as long as there are monsters to kill and not too much downtime) and he was begging me for a real game ("not a short game, Dad"). We joined GM's Kerry and Kathy's home brew game of fantasy monster killing. My son and I loved it. I'm sure the pics don't do the game justice, but playing was a blast. The rules were simple, buckets of dice were rolled, turns moved at rapid pace, and the hosts were a lot of fun. I love a good looking game, and I enjoy tinkering with the intricacies of rules, but sometimes the best fun comes from just rolling dice and killing monsters with a fun gang. A great way to end this year's Historicon (except for the inevitable dash to the dealer hall Sunday morning to buy more tripods!) See you at Fall In!