Catching Up: Late Summer 2016

Sur Dynasty forces sweep towards the Mughal army. (Author)

Nearly two months later and while the summer feels like it's dragged on forever, the end is in sight!

I was able to got to Historicon this year for the first time in forever. I had a blast, playing a Carnage & Glory scenario of the battle of Camden run by David Bonk and Bob McCaskill, an Et Sans Resultat scenario of the battle of Vitebsk run by the author, David Ensteness, and a Pike & Shotte game (Providence at Panipat, a battle in 16th century India) run by John Shirey.

Punic War battle in Triumph! WAR. (Author)

I also played in two mini-tournaments of Triumph! WAR, the new ancient/medieval wargame from the Washington Grand Company. One campaign was set in the First Crusade, the other in the Punic Wars.

I did a good deal of shopping, met up with a few old (and new) friends, and generally had a good time. Now that I know it's not as hard to get to or as difficult to navigate as I thought, I will be back more often.

I've made it to two more game days with the DC Conscripts, the local ASL club. In one I got in a couple of scenarios from the late Ian Daglish's Scotland the Brave scenario pack (StB8 The Lost Platoon, StB3 Seaforth Objective, and StB2 Cameronian Crossing). At the other, Stephen Frum gently and politely hammered me into the ground as we played BoF4 About his Shadowy Sides.

Americans (left) advance toward the British (right). (Author)

And I did get a little Rev War miniature gaming in; Mr Invisible and I made it up to Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie to meet some of the local Marines (British Rev War, not modern USMC :-) for a playing of the battle of Bemis Heights with British Grenadier. Mr I. faced off more or less opposite me, he commanding the American right and center and me the British center and left. I bloodied the nose of one of his militia brigades as it thrust forward, but we Brits had to give up a great deal of the ground to find a position safe enough to defend, and I'm not sure we would have been able to hold on, as the American left was setting up to give us a walloping blow on our weak right side.

In other Rev War news, I've been reading away and taking copious notes, and I hope to have another couple of posts on Project 1777 available shortly. One of the surprises at Historicon for me was picking up the range of Rick Priestley's new games (Black Powder, Pike & Shotte, and Hail Caesar) after, I admit, poo-pooing them for some time. They're not the most simulation-y or period-tailored sets of rules in the world, but they are fairly easy to learn and provide both a simple framework and enough widgets to hang on it that I'm impressed by what I have seen of the period supplements. I enjoyed the one P&S game that I played, and I look forward to trying out several more scenarios with these rule sets. I think their breadth of scope and shallow learning curve will make them popular among my friends who like military history and enjoy playing games but who are not rules junkies or interested in/prepared to learn more complex games with many more moving parts and details to keep track of and consider.