Strategicon event — Orccon

This past weekend I attended the local thrice annual Strategicon convention, Orccon. Along with the founding member of Miracle Mile Gamers (MMG), Sacha, we ran a Mein Panzer event on Sunday morning and afternoon. The scenario was largish, and we scaled it down to allow for fewer players than originally intended. The overall result was a German victory, as the Canadians bashed their heads against the defense by elite Fallschirmjaegers.  A lot of casualties on the Canadian side, but few on the German.  Chalked up as a learning exercise by the San Diego group for whom we presented the scenario. Notably, only friends played in this scenario, so it was not a success from the standpoint of introducing new players to the game.

Saturday, I played in my usual Guns at Gettysburg game, and had a good time losing my entire brigade in near record fashion, due to some spectacularly bad die rolling.  Then off to hear a lecture by Lonnie Gill, designer of General Quarters III, on pre-WWII naval and aviation subjects.

As usual, dinner Saturday night was at the Versailles, a Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles, that serves a lot of food, heavy with garlic, inexpensively.  Chowed down on a great pork roast dinner.  Spent Saturday night observing a Fear God & Dreadnought game, run by the San Diego crew.  Still cannot bring myself to again play the Command at Sea-system, on which I cut my teeth as a naval gamer some twelve or thirteen years ago, when it was first released.  It is a worthy system, which is well-supported by its publisher, Clash of Arms games.  Just not my cup o' tea.

Also was introduced to the Glory-series of board games from GMT.  Jury still out on these.  Relatively simple to play, but at a level that I do not particularly like, i.e., brigades.  I prefer their regimental games in the Great Battles of the ACW series.  But will play the game again.

The dealer room was a bit sparse this time round.  Nothing and no one really new.

Overall, Strategicon is what you make of it.  Have to bring your own game in order to have a good time.  There were other historical games, including a General Quarters III game, which is at least some smattering of continued interest in the non-fantasy end of the hobby.

MMG and Hidden Movement

The most complicated spotting method you are likely to see is the one used by the Miracle Mile Gamers, who value subterfuge over everything.  Even though it slows down the game, they are willing to have the referee make judgment calls over every line of sight and hidden unit than to put dummy and real counters on the board.  I am going to try and overturn this convention when next I run a game for the MMG dudes.  I think there will be howls of protest. But I am looking at anything that will speed up the game, and this most certainly will.

MMG and infantry

Here are pictures of our 6mm infantry, based and ready for play.  With these we fight out both pure infantry actions and combined arms battles.  We also have French, British, and U.S. troops.  The figures on the left are Heroics & Ros, while the Germans are GHQ figures.  The Germans were based better than the H&R, which could use flocking on their bases — something I will rectify some day.

Miracle Mile Gamers

My group of gamers is called the Miracle Mile Gamers (MMG) for its location in Los Angeles.

Despite calling itself a "playtest" group, the players are notoriously resistant to rules changes.  They like the consistency of one set.  We play a full bore version of Mein Panzer exclusively — only WWII, and only 6mm.  The ODGW Lounge on the website has many of our AAR's (after action reports).  Sacha, our host for our battles, is an architect by trade and does a superior job at creating scenery for our tables.  His excellent set-ups create believable villages and terrain for us to fight over.  Fortunately, he has a large amount of Geo-hex 12" terrain that he obtained before the company disappeared and the stuff became terribly overpriced merchandise.

The Meine Truppen rules have been extensively tested by our group, and are literally the only version of the game we play, although we use squads rather than sections.  1" = 25yds is our preferred scale, and lends itself to great infantry actions.  Even without the MT improvements, Mein Panzer is a great infantry game.

SoCal gaming

It may always be hard to put together a group and keep it together, no matter where you are, but in southern California, in Los Angeles, it has proven nigh impossible. Despite repeated attempts, and the best gaming terrain around, the Miracle Mile Gamers (MMG) have not been able to maintain a steady group of gamers. Some have moved away, some have drifted away, but it is always a struggle to stock four gamers plus a referee. So when we do, it is an event. I just wish it were more often.