Carronade 2024

 Introduction

It's the start of the show season, at least for me in Scotland.  Last weekend was the wonderful Carronade show in Falkirk - probably my favourite Scottish games show.

So, I and my younger son had risen early, planning to take the train from Helensburgh to Falkirk.  Just before leaving I checked the rail network status, only to find that there was major disruption on my local line (due to a signals failure at Partick, I believe).  This meant that at best the trains would be very unreliable and at worst they wouldn't travel at all - not good!

OK, plan B: take the car and drive.  It's a fair way to go and normally quite tiring, although on this occasion the weather was mild and the roads were relatively clear.  Not too bad after all.

We arrived just about on the show's official opening time of 10:00am, expecting to find a queue of visitors waiting to be let in.  However, there was almost nobody outside, the doors were already open and we could just walk right in.  Initially the show seemed quite empty, although I suspect this was just our imagination as there were plenty of visitors later on.

So what did we do on our day at the show?  We played some games  We met with a number of people I know, both from our home town and long-standing friends.  We did some shopping.  That's about it, really!

Game 1: Peter Pan

The first participation game we encountered was set in Neverland.  The plot was simple: Captain Hook has tied the Darling children to the mast of his ship, has imprisoned all the Lost Boys in a stockade and is making them walk the plank, one by one (boo!  hiss!).  It's up to Peter Pan and his allies (Tiger Lily and her tribe of Red Indians) to rescue them.

Captain Hook prepares to throw another Lost Boy overboard!

The Indians charge straight for the pirates, whilst Peter Pan (top, right) flies towards the stockade to rescue the Lost Boys.

The Indians make short work of the pirates, despite losing one of their number to some wild beasts which were tailing them.  Note that the crocodile is only interested in Hook; it just ignored the rest of us.

Having opened the stockade and dispatched the last pirates, Peter Pan duels with Captain Hook on the deck of the ship.  Everyone else (including the crocodile) stops to watch the fight.  Both of the protagonists are down to their last wound before Peter lands a final blow and fells the pirate chief.  Hurrah!

When we looked up the victory conditions, Peter had won a handsome victory.  However, looking at the setup and the rules for the game, such an outcome was pretty much inevitable.  Still, it was a fun little filler with a relatively unusual subject matter.

[Aside: Tinkerbell didn't appear in this game.  I believe that she could have made an appearance if the Darling children had managed to free themselves from their bonds, but would then have hounded them.  In the book, she's really not a very nice fairy, you know...]

Game 2: After Casablanca

Our second game of the day was a wonderful, star-studded, cast-of-thousands game with an extremely pulp theme.  The premise is this: after the final scene in 'Casablanca' (the movie, of course!), Rick and Louis have joined the Free French.  They've been spying on the Italians in North Africa (Libya) and must now return to the French lines.  As players, our job was to assist them to escape.

Each turn, one of the allied/French players would choose an "event" from a selection of cards.  These all had suggestive names such as "Boom Boom", "Todt" &c but we didn't know what they meant beyond that.  We did know the "difficulty level" for each event - that indicated how far Rick & Louis could move as well as (roughly!) how bad the event would be for us.

There were 5 players; each controlled a couple of heroes.  I had a Telly Savalas character with a Lewis gun (I'm not familiar with this role) and a female sidekick.  Someone else had Sid James (from the Carry On... films) and there were a number of others.

As well as the player characters, there were various forces we could command: French native troops, colonial police, Foreign Legion, Arabs &c.  Between them these gave us some numbers with which we could counter the Italian troops who were holed up in the buildings and trenches at the far end of the table.

At the beginning, everything looked quiet, so I chose to advance the French colonial troops along the open ground in the middle of the table.

Here we go - a bald American with a light machine gun and his blue-clad assistant leads local troops straight towards the Italian lines.  The Foreign Legionnaires (centre right) decided to stick to a bit more cover. 

Progress was made, but very slowly.  The French forces caused some casualties to the enemy, but mostly melted away under a hail of Italian gunfire.  Then some Nazis appeared in the nearby ruins, scaring off the local archaeologists.

One of my son's heroes had a satchel of dynamite.  He managed to sprint along the dried-up stream bed and tossed one stick into the Italian armoured car, destroying it.  Too bad for him that he dropped another stick at his feet.  This didn't kill him (just wounded), but a rescue was going to be tricky so close to the enemy lines.

Another of our heroes made a potentially game-saving dash (under fire from the Nazis) to negotiate with the local Bedouin.  Although he was gasping for breath and could only stutter a few words, they were wildly impressed with his bravery and joined our side immediately.  Between them, the Foreign Legion's automatic weapons and a handily-placed rifle grenade, the Nazis were exterminated.

At the end of the game, Rick and Louis made it back to safety, although they did have a few near misses on the way (losing the tip of a cigar, a tumbler of brandy and something else, I think)  So we won, even though there weren't many French troops on the table at the end of the game!

I haven't mentioned several other events which took place, mainly because I wasn't directly involved and don't have pictures:

• We gained an ancient, Austro-Hungarian armoured car, which was promptly crewed by several of our heroes.  After one round exchanging shots with one of the Italian's heavier weapons it couldn't move - so it spent most of the game sitting in place and shooting up the Italian lines.
• A French cavalry officer appeared behind enemy lines, riding a dinosaur (and with another one in tow)!  This caused mayhem to the nearest Italian troops - it seems that the feathers in their helmets didn't make them elite enough to counter such a creature.
• The Italians gained some reinforcements in the shape of a tankette (I think it was equipped with a flamethrower).  I can't remember if this was immobilised early on, but it didn't seem to do much.

I am hard pressed to think of a game I've played at a show that I enjoyed more than this one.  The (lone) games master had put on a wonderfully exotic and adventurous event and the players all were thoroughly caught in the spirit of it.  Extremely enjoyable - bravo!

Game 3: What a Tanker

What a Tanker seems to be popular at shows these days.  This hardly surprising as the rules could almost have been made with public participation games in mind.  This isn't the first time I've played WaT, but I think it was for my friend Steve.  Anyway...

Two British tanks in the foreground (a Cromwell and a Sherman) vs a couple of Germans somewhere in the distance (both Mk IVs, I think).

One of the Germans tried to flank us.  Both British tanks took minor suspension damage and things didn't look particularly good.

...but then my Sherman got a lucky hit on the Mk IV's side armour and blew it to bits!

The other German then charged over the hill which separated us.  Although he got the first shot, it was a lousy one and missed.  My return shot was a critical; another German tank destroyed!  Go me!

Loot

Finally, the traditional picture of my acquisitions for the day

So, in no particular order:

• The final expansion for the Firefly game: Kalidasa!  I've been wanting this for quite a while and a copy was available at the Bring-and-buy, barely used.  Mind you, it was my son that noticed it; I would have passed by that seller without spotting anything if it wasn't for him.
• A selection of Army Painter paints, slightly cheaper than normal.  I wasn't in particular need of anything; I just felt that these were interesting colours (and cheap).
• Bases: round, square, clear.
• Some 28mm figures: Japanese cart drivers and English Civil War civilians.  Just a measure of my eclectic tastes!
• Another Japanese village house from Sarissa Precision.
• The Gangs of Rome rulebook.  I've already read through it and it has some really good ideas.  Also lots of pretty pictures, excellent background information, model-making tips and lots more.
• Our MDF "tickets" for the show, which can be repurposed as bases.  An excellent idea that is always done at Carronade, though I've not heard of anywhere else taking it up.

Conclusion

Carronade is definitely one of my favourite shows.  It's relatively easy to get to from my part of Scotland, has a good number and variety of traders and a decent quantity of games.  I recommend it most highly!

Carronade 2023: We Came, We Saw, We Played Games

 Introduction

My son (A.) and I have been going to the Carronade show in Falkirk every year since 2015 - at least, in years when the show wasn't cancelled due to Covid lockdowns and the like.  It's always been a good day for me; this year was no exception.  As always on my blog, this is a personal account of our experiences rather than any attempt to describe the entire event.  It's mainly for my own memories, though if others find my writing entertaining then that's good too!

My preferred mode of transport to Falkirk is by train.  It takes longer than driving from home (Helensburgh) once the walks to and from various stations are taken into account, but it's so much more relaxing.  The exercise is also better for me!  This Saturday was a beautiful day for walking - warm and dry.

The Venue

Carronade is a big show (not huge, but definitely big enough for a day out).  It's held in a school building, where the show is spread over 5 different halls.  One of these is reserved for the flea market (bring & buy) and another is mainly for the painting competition.

The other three halls (pictured below) are full of games and traders:

We spent time wandering around looking at the demonstration games, joining in various participation games, browsing trade stands and meeting various friends.

Also, we sampled some of the various participation games that were on offer.

Game 1: Xtreme G Racing (Glasgow Games Group)

Glasgow Games Group put on a home brew sci-fi racing game involving various jet bikes.  Apparently, the main design principle was to make a miniature game which felt somewhat like playing Mario Kart.

I'm not really able to judge how well that objective may have been achieved (I've heard of the console game, but I've never played it).  However, the Xtreme G Racing game was a good game in itself, with simple rules that still managed to offer tactical choices to the players.  Silly but fun!

So, here's how our race went:

I didn't have a jet bike, but rather drove a yellow mono-wheel.  They all have the same abilities anyway...

After the first lap (of two), I was well in the lead 😀

...but when the leaders crossed the finish line (a tie between blue and red), I was nowhere to be seen.  What happened?

There was a massive pile up on the last lap; most of us were thoroughly caught up in it.  I misjudged the distance remaining and thought I had time to go into the pits.  This was a big mistake and I came in a distant last 😖.  Oh, well...

Game 2: Moonstone

Now this is something unusual!  I thought I knew a bit about gaming and had at least heard about most games.  However, Moonstone has passed me by - until now.

So, it's a "whimsical fantasy" skirmish game.  Bands of creatures (goblins, humans, gnomes, other...) search for buried treasure (moonstones) and have to finish before dawn (i.e. there's a time limit).  The models are definitely whimsical, the abilities are interesting and the combat system is done via cards that depict fencing moves.  So far, so good.

Here's what happened in our game:

• A's (human) sniper tried to shoot at me.  He misjudged badly and his musket blew up.  Injured, he decided to retreat.
• One of my characters ("Grubb"?  Not pictured) found and dug up a shallow moonstone.  He then ran off the board with it, thus securing me one victory point.
• My goblin-mounted-on-a-pug found two moonstones that were fairly well buried.  However, it turns out that the dog was an enthusiastic digger, so I retrieved both items quite easily.

• However, A's knight ("Baron something von Fancyhat") saw this and decided that stealing my finds would be easier than discovering his own.  My pug+goblin was no match for this human in a fight and was slaughtered.
• In revenge, my vicious midget then appeared out of nowhere and did some real damage to the Baron with his signature attack (hint: it involves stabbing upwards).  This left the Baron barely alive - but he counter-attacked and obliterated my little creature.  At this point I was beginning to really dislike the man...

• In an ignominious move, my beaky goblin wizard approached Baron von Fancyhat and slew him with a noxious fart (yes, you read that right!  Whimsical fantasy?  You decide...).
• This last goblin then grabbed one of the dropped moonstones and legged it before daybreak.

Final score: 2 moonstones to the goblins, 1 to the humans (I can't remember which human character had picked this up).  This was definitely a most interesting and unusual game, both for the subject matter and also for some of the game mechanisms.

Game 3: 02:00

Now here's a game that seems to be everywhere at the moment!  02:00 is a game pitting British commandos against German garrisons in night-time raids (I imagine that other forces can be used as well).  As such, it places a high emphasis on stealth and spotting; I was very curious to see what mechanisms were used for these aspects and how well they worked.

In our game, a small band of British special forces had to cross the board and escape off the other side.  We would win if at least two of our men achieved this.  That didn't sound too hard!

To this end, we crept along the hedgerows, ignoring the sleepy cattle.

However, I hadn't reckoned with the German officer.  He was a bit keen, to put it mildly!  This jackbooted thug personally spotted and shot 3 of my 4 troopers - my last squaddie was traumatised to the point where he couldn't resist a sentry and was (probably) taken prisoner.

In this last picture, you can just see my British officer running off the board (top left), fully expecting that his men were right behind him!  At least he escaped, though to be honest I think he deserved to be cashiered for his exceptionally poor leadership.

What of the rules, then?  Well, although the game looked fantastic, the assistant on my side of the table wasn't really comfortable or familiar with them.  The game host (on the other side of the table) was hoarse from having talked most of the game - and was overloaded with questions from both sides and from passers by.  Overall, I came away feeling that I still don't really know how the rules work.  A missed opportunity?

Game 4: Dead Man's Hand

Dead Man's Hand is a set of rules that seems to be very popular, possibly even to the point of dominating the "Old West" style of games.  Since I play such games myself - if only occasionally - I was interested to see what this rule set could offer.

As might be expected from the name, playing cards are an integral part of the game.  In this case, these serve two functions: determining the order in which models activate and also providing a hand of "event" cards that each player can use at an appropriate moment.

Here's the game we played:

I took a large group of desperadoes (Mexican bandit types), whilst my son commanded a similar number of outlaws or cowboys.

My leader was cut down (almost my only casualty), but in return my desperadoes incapacitated over half of the opposition in only two or three turns.  At that point, the enemy leader rolled really low on a nerve test and all his remaining figures ran away.

My thoughts on this game: the figures and scenery were perfectly good and set the scene nicely.  I'm not so sure about the rules, though:

1. The cards used for activation order were almost entirely random, so there wasn't much decision-making around them (unlike, for example, the way that cards are used in A Fistful of Lead).
2. The "event cards" didn't make much difference.  Maybe that was because we were unfamiliar with them (the text was very small and quite dense) and we didn't use many.
3. I'm really not that keen on shots essentially taking "hit points" off models.  A single shot does (usually) 1 point or (occasionally) 2 points.  For reference, an average gunman can take 4 hits; a leader can take 5.  So it's not possible to kill an opponent with a single shot.
   This seems so odd that I'm wondering if I've understood the rules at all.

In summary, I was left cold by the game we played.  Is this because we didn't really understand the rules?  Or is it because Dead Man's Hand just isn't my kind of game?  Perhaps this was another missed opportunity to learn about a set of rules which sound very interesting.

Loot

Yes, there was some shopping - both small pre-orders and some impulse buying.  Here goes:

In no particular order:

• Dodos.  Just because.
• Centaurs - more Greek Myth classics.
• Japanese cart crew, to flesh out my "samurai" village scenes.
• What a Tanker - seems like a fun set of rules and I wanted to take a proper look.
• Sarissa's "Guide to Laser Cut MDF Kits".  Should be an interesting read.
• An Old West building.  Actually I wanted the saloon, but Warbases didn't have the extra floors (with balcony) at the show - so I treated myself to a different model instead.
• Dice, paint brushes, bases.

Summary

This was a really good day.  The weather was nice for walking to the venue, the traders had (mostly) what I wanted and there were plenty of participation games (too many for us to play in all of them!).  I'm not sure what else I could have wanted!

Carronade 2021: At Last

 Introduction

So, there haven't been any wargames shows in my part of the world since the coronavirus pandemic struck here in March 2020, some 18 months ago.  Indeed, I suspect that the last show I attended was Edinburgh's Claymore in August 2019; that's more than 2 years ago!  I've really been missing such events.

Normally, Falkirk's Carronade show would be held in May, but this year (2021) it was postponed until the end of September.  For much of the summer I - and, I imagine, others - were waiting to see if there would be further restrictions which might cancel the show.  Well, there weren't, the show did go ahead and we did attend.  Here's how my day went.

Travel

Unusually, my son and I drove to Falkirk rather than taking a train.  This was because my wife and daughter were due to attend a dance competition only a few minutes drive away from Falkirk (the first time they had done such an event in almost 2 years as well).  I'm a bit rusty with driving long distances, not having done much of that for a while, but it was uneventful.  Neither weather nor other human beings caused us any difficulties.

The Show

One of the 3 (4?) halls in use for Carronade 2021

Carronade 2021 did feel a bit different to previous such events.  For starters, there was the distancing within the entrance queue and the collection of contact details by the show organisers.  Mask-wearing was compulsory, at least whilst moving around (there's some debate about whether it is really permitted to remove masks when sitting at a table indoors for any purpose other than eating).  Adherence to this regime seemed pretty much universal and uncontroversial.

Other than masks, the main effect of virus precautions on the show seemed to be fewer public participation games than I would normally expect.  I haven't compared the advertised numbers from various years; it just felt to me that these were more sparse than usual.

Sink the Prinz Eugen

Norfolk and Suffolk (left) open fire on Prinz Eugen (right)

My son and I did play in one participation game: we took part in an alternative version of the Battle of the Denmark Strait.  In this entirely plausible scenario, while the capital ships HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales were engaging the German battleship Bismark, the shadowing cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Suffolk engaged her consort, the Prinz Eugen.

So, it's 2 Royal Navy heavy cruisers against one slightly larger German heavy cruiser.  This isn't really a battle that the Prinz Eugen can afford to take part in, let alone have much hope of winning - so the German's victory condition is simply to escape.

My son and I each took one of the British cruisers.  We were using (I think) Warlord's "Victory at Sea" rules.  It soon became apparent that winning initiative for the turn made a big difference; my son won the roll-off every time.  While the German cruiser did land some hits  on the Royal Navy ships, the game ended abruptly when HMS Suffolk landed a crashing salvo of 8" shells on the enemy ship, followed up with 2 torpedo hits (despite the Prinz Eugen only presenting a small stern target).  This blew the German to pieces, so we went away victorious!

I'm a bit dubious about these rules, mind: it felt a bit as if we were dog-fighting with heavy cruisers and I don't think that's really how it would have happened.  Still, our experience of the game was only 20 minutes or so.

Demonstration Tables

A few large tables caught my eye and we spent some time examining all the details.  Unfortunately, I was carrying a new camera and it seems either highly sensitive to shaking hands or else its automatic focus isn't so good.  A number of the pictures I took are heavily blurred and unusable.  Hmm.

Still, here are some images...

At first, I thought this was some form of Pulp setup, mainly because of the jungle ruins and the smoking volcano.  But no - it seems to have been a WW2 amphibious landing.  Still, it was pretty and had a lot of nice details.

The table had some impressively large, overgrown temples & statues in the jungle...

...as well as a decent set of rice fields.  These are very similar in style to my own versions, though larger, deeper and more numerous.  Note to self: I need more paddy fields!

The other table that really caught my attention was the Congo Bill adventure.  I understood that this was more than a standard game of Congo.  It had many pulp features such as a maiden sacrifice and giant gorilla, but in addition to this the organisers were gleeful in telling us about the Cthulu-esque monstrosities that they had planned!

I didn't manage a really good shot of the whole table, but this slightly blurred version will have to do.  As well as all the explorers, there was a group of nuns/missionaries, large amounts of wildlife and (of course) copious natives.  This was all very much to my taste.

Painting Competition

I always take a look at the entries to the painting competition at a show, but I don't think I've ever mentioned this in a report before.  This time, the model above caught my eye.  I don't remember seeing it ever before, though my son wondered if it was a 3D printed piece rather than a "regular" commercial model.  Either way, I thought it was beautifully done!

Loot

I hadn't expected to buy much at the show (I'm trying to cut down on new projects, for a start!), so I was surprised at just how much I found when I opened my bag on my return home.  From bottom left, going roughly clockwise:

• A pack of My Little Pony stickers/posters/whatever, for my daughter.  No, really.
• 2 3D-printed Short Sunderland flying boats (given free for taking part in the Sink the Prinz Eugen game).
• A Kings of War sea serpent (I think) for my son.
• A couple of prehistoric terrain pieces (some snares and a tannery) from Iron Gate Scenery.  This is a relatively new company, but one which I will be watching with interest, I think.
  Sadly they didn't bring any of their mammoths to the show, though the painted examples looked a little smaller than the other mammoths in my collection.
• Perry Miniatures Sohei musketmen: after a recent game of Test of Honour, we realised that my Japanese warrior monks need more firepower.
• A Reaper Bones frost giant, destined to be used for Frostgrave.
• Some dark blue paint
• 20x40mm MDF bases for more 6mm Napoleonics.
• A packet of Scheltrum Miniatures' Wako (i.e. Japanese pirates).  More on these another time, I think.
• Another addition to my Nightfolk warband (also for Frostgrave, though I don't believe I've ever described them in public).
• Finally, a couple of the now-standard MDF entrance tickets.  Interestingly, these are labelled as "Carronade 2020", even though the show was held in late 2021.

Conclusion

It's good to be back at shows!  We (or at least, I) caught up with friends and bought more than perhaps I should.  We played a game (more would have been nice) and even the drive home again wasn't particularly difficult or stressful.  More, please!

Carronade 2019 - Everyone's a winner!

Introduction

It's the start of the show season, at least for me!  In early May the Carronade show occurs, run by the Falkirk and District Wargames Club (FWDC).

This year, as last year (see here for 2018), it was a fine spring day.  My son A. and I caught an early train from Helensburgh to Falkirk and walked from the destination station to the high school where the show is held.  There we met up with my friend Steve and waited outside with many others until the doors were opened at about 10:00.

As always with my show reports, this article is not an attempt to document everything that was happening, but rather it is a personal account of what we did on the day.  I'll leave it for others to provide a full photo dump.

Here's the bottom line: it's a large show which was very busy in the morning and rather quieter in the afternoon.  We were there from the first opening until packing up time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  So, what did we do?  We played some games, did some (well, quite a lot of) shopping and marvelled at some boards, all mixed up throughout the day.

The Huge Diorama

Pretty much the first thing that we encountered was a gigantic fantasy pirate setup.  From memory, the table was 18 feet by 6 feet (!) and it was an incredible display.  There were many, many little details; we kept coming back to see how many more we could spot.  For example, my son noticed a woman taking a bath in the upstairs of one of the buildings; he told me not to look.

It would be impossible to remember everything about this display, but here are some of the things I remember:

• a native fleet of outrigger canoes
• sea monsters
• a volcano
• a colonial fort
• cursed pirate ships
• poison jungle frogs
• dinosaurs
• a torture room
• a flying ship (!)
• the ruins of lost cities
• ...

Here are a few of the better pictures I took of this display:

Game 1:

After our encounter with the pirate table, we found ourselves playing a quick-n-simple Monty Python and the Holy Grail game using the range of figures from Studio Miniatures.  There was relatively little to this game - just a series of branching paths which led to different encounters - and the only player choice was to go forwards (in a random direction) or to retreat to a previous junction, but it was fun!  Anyone who knows and loves the film will instantly recognise all of the events.

I chose to play the brave Sir Robin, while A. played Sir Lancelot and Steve (who joined in slightly later, having been caught up in a discussion at another table) took Sir Bors (?).  Each of us progressed through various encounters, usually moving forwards but occasionally having to go back to the start.

Eventually, Sir Robin met the white rabbit - but this was OK as the monks had previously given me the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and I defeated the little bugger.  Following this, Sir Robin drove off the taunting guards and was the first knight to reach the castle...

...where he found the Holy Grail (which I got to keep and take home.  It's very nice).  So, I won my very first game of the day!

The Factory Ruins

Another display caught my attention; this was a 28mm rendition of Stalingrad or some similar WWII battle.  My interest here was in the model-making, as I've been looking for inspiration on how to complete my own ruins (for Frostgrave, mind).  Well, this table certainly did have ruins!  Here are a couple of pictures, for reference:

Game 2: Pod Racing

A little while later, we came across a group who were hosting a pod-racing game.  This used the Gaslands rules (from Osprey).  As I understood it, there were no special adaptations for the Star Wars setting, other than the natives who would occasionally shoot at passing racers.

There were 5 players; the three of us and a couple of strangers.  Our hosts explained that the race was a (fairly) simple figure-of-eight, passing through 4 gates to mark our passage.  Oh - we were all armed and could shoot at each other as soon as we had passed the initial gate...

So, we all set off and quickly got the hang of the very nicely-made perspex movement templates.  Some of us chose to go one way around the central rock formation towards gate 2, whilst others chose a different route.

Shooting was generally savagely effective.  By the time the leader (Steve) reached Gate 2, two of us (me and another guy) had succumbed to gunfire.  I did at least reach the second gate, if only just!

Shortly after that, Steve was wiped out, leaving just the other stranger and A.  Even that didn't last long, as A. managed to swerve through gate 2 and shoot the remaining opponent out of the sky.  Our hosts gave us each a die to take away.  As victor A. got 2 dice and a small packet of Haribo sweets.

Weapons fire in Gaslands does seem enormously powerful; even the best of us barely made it around 1/3 of the track.  We were told that in Gaslands terms, the weapons being used in this particular scenario were actually quite middling in power.  Hmm...

Game 3: G.I. Joe

After lunch, we entered our 3rd game of the day.  This was a skirmish with the forces of Cobra versus G.I.Joe and friends, using the Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes rules.

My son and I took the bad guys, at least in part because I wanted to control the tank and the Cobra commander (who, in cloak and helmet, bore a passing resemblance to Darth Vader).  We had 2 vehicles, a few characters and many minions; opposing us were about half a dozen goody-goody heroes and a jeep/dune buggy.

Early on, A.'s white-clad ninja type scaled the walls of an office or warehouse to look for a minor objective (the red die).

Meanwhile, I sent my forces surging forwards, partly to attempt a major objective (the orange dice) and partly to try to pin down the Joes with my tank and my squad's firepower.  Unfortunately for me, my minions failed repeatedly to climb onto the gantry which held the nearest orange die - and my commander was lurking too far in the rear to be of much assistance.

For several turns, I had been needling the enemy dune buggy with rockets from my squad's missile launcher.  Suddenly it surged forward and ran down almost all of my troopers - not very sporting, I thought!  Considerably annoyed, I spent a couple of turns shooting it with my tank, finally finishing off the vehicle by ramming it.

Meanwhile, the sole trooper from my doomed squad who had managed to get near the orange die/objective was pinned down by fire from the heroes.

Here's a fun thing: one of the Cobra characters was an infiltrator whose disguises were so good that he could replace any enemy figure.  We chose the moment when 2 of the G.I.s were attempting to claim a major objective in one of the further buildings.  My man revealed himself to be one of the pair and caused consternation to the remaining enemy.  For several turns, they (and another G.I. who joined in from nearby) squabbled and fought until, sadly, my character was defeated.  However, he had delayed the opposition considerably in their pursuit of objectives.

We weren't prepared to let the good guys take the objective easily, though.  When they finished off our spy, A. opened fire on the building with his Stinger rocket truck.  He blew off the entire top floor, thoroughly destroying the objective in the process.  Sadly (for us), the 2 G.I. heroes in the building managed to leap clear at the last moment.

Despite our best efforts, the G.I. Joes managed to claim the last of the 3 minor objectives near their start line in the next turn, thus winning the game.  We (Cobra) had only claimed 1 minor objective, though it was almost certain that we would have scored the 2 remaining majors within one or two more turns.  Ah, well - it was a fun game, even if we lost (and I did kill that irritating Striker buggy).

Game 4: The Hunt for the White Stag

For our final game of the afternoon, we decided to go hunting.  The setting is somewhere in the British Isles, the time is around 800 AD, so it's the "Dark Ages".  Each hunting party (there were 5 players) consists of the main guy (or gal) plus an archer and either a spearman or a dog handler:

• The spearman gives an extra attack in melee
• The archer enables the group to make a ranged attack
• The dog gives a bonus when searching a rough area to flush out prey.

It's amazing how the hunters just vanished into the landscape after a turn or two!

Various wildlife was discovered; some of it was quite aggressive, though everyone other than myself did manage to kill at least something.  Even the bears and wild boars (which should have been quite dangerous) seemed tame; they all rolled really poorly and no hunters were injured.

This stag looked genuinely shocked when it was attacked by most of the hunters all at the same time.

I thought I'd found the motherlode when I came across this many deer - but they all escaped my attempts to slaughter them.  My guys really couldn't hit anything in this game!

Finally, I stumbled across a family of wild boar and managed to kill one of them.  This seemed to enrage the other adult; it gored two of my men in quick succession.  These were the only casualties suffered by any of the hunting parties, despite the other players encountering far more wildlife than I did!

Finally, the whole point of the game - the white stag - appeared.  Our host spent several minutes telling us that the player to kill this animal would win the game, or we would all lose if it escaped.  He also made a point of explaining how it was harder to kill than the other creatures, and more dangerous too.

On the turn that it appeared, Steve was the only player with any hunters in range.  His archer shot at the white stag and immediately threw the double-six required to slay it.  It was a very abrupt end, but none of us begrudged Steve his win; we'd all enjoyed both the premise and the mechanics of this game.

Loot

Finally, it's common to show pictures of loot acquired at a show - and who am I to go against this custom?  I went a bit overboard this time, I think.  Here's as much of it as I can remember:

• Perry Muslims (for my SAGA Saracens): mounted commanders and some Greek-fire-throwers.
• Muslim SAGA dice.
• The SAGA Age of Magic supplement.  I'm not necessarily planning a big venture in this direction, but the rules are full of interesting ideas.
• Some more Azanti warriors for my growing "African Kingdoms" column (for Congo).
• 3 undead/zombie cheerleaders
• A few more Nightfolk, from Northumbrian Tin Soldier.
• Some bargain-price Dice Masters; both a new starter set and an assortment of boosters.
• A couple of resin swamp/march pieces.  Nothing I couldn't make myself from MDF and filler, but they were relatively cheap and it will save me the time and effort.
• The Games Workshop Tau skimmers are for my son, A.
• Forbidden Sky.  I've enjoyed the earlier games in this series; we'll see if this one lives up to expectations.
• Spray varnish.  I always buy this at shows if I can; courier fees for home delivery are outrageous (and the regular postal service won't deliver aerosol cans any more).
• Our winnings from games: 3 dice from pod racing (2 for A. and 1 for me), plus my Holy Grail.

Too much?

Finally

Last thoughts?  This was a good show, with enough choice of public participation games (we didn't run out of things to try during the day) and some nice displays.  We were there from before opening time until the dying moments when exhibitors started to pack up.  Possibly I spent too much money, though I doubt that the traders at the show would agree with me!

The return journey on the train was straightforward and fairly quick, though we were hot from the walk to the station and this was less than ideal (not the train company's fault, of course).  I'm pretty sure I slept for at least some of the ride...