Historicon 2010 Day 0

It's late(almost 2am) and everyone is asleep, but me. I thought I'd share some of Day 0, (convention starts tomorrow, Thursday).

First Impression:
The Radisson is ok. Some would say a step up from the host, but not a big step, but up, none the less. Waiting for the elevators is annoying, 1 of the 3 seems out of order.

Parking I think will be an issue as the lot doesn't seem big. Maybe there is a side lot I haven't seen yet.

The pool, while nice, is not as good as the Host. It is sort of in the middle of a parking lot. It has a fence around it, but not as integral to the hotel as the host is.

The other hotel is the Scanticon(odd name) and I haven't seen a room but was told they were decent.

In both hotels/convention center. the A/C is struggling to compete with the heat. If you were looking for better A/C than the host, I haven't seen it. But I free admit it is hot as hell outside and any A/C would be hard pressed to keep up. In my room I have it cranked and its nice, but I will not be spending much time here.

Food, expensive hotel food only so far. I assume there will be food vendors about, but not sure. Went to Chili's, not cheap either.

The convention center is under the Scanticon, 1st floor down is a cavernous open area where there will be tournament and regular gaming. It's a really big room.

Registration was a pain in the ass. I did not pre-register but am scheduled to run a game. At 7pm they had Pre-Reg/ GameMasters/ Walkup Registration windows open. Kudos to them for that. Lots of people on these lines very crowded for a "night before". That's when the party ends.

I asked 2 different "staff" before I got on line at the GameMasters Desk, could I get a flea market table, and badges for my kids at the GM desk. Both said yes. Waited in line, and when I got to the counter, of course they couldn't do that. I would have to go back on line to the Walk up window. Very annoying, I could have been on that line already. If your standing there to direct people, know what you are talking about or don't guess.

So I get on that line and it took about an hour to process the 12 people in front of me. Unacceptable. I don't fault the workers, it was their system. Why do they have computers if it slows the process down. It was maddening. Their registration system has to go. It is un-usable in it's current state if it takes 10-15 minutes to process one person.

All in all, it was a very unpleasant experience. I really can't say enough bad things about the whole process. They need to fix this.

Ok, enough about that, how about some pictures. Click on pictures for bigger views.

The Radisson

The Scanticon and convention center.

Right side of main hall, I think Flames of War tables.
Back Right of main hall. Ancients I think.
Back left of hall. There seems to be regulare event tables to the front of the hall and front right side.View towards the front. Registration is on the otherside of that white wall/flag. Below the flag is stairs going down the the Vendor level.

Board game Warlords of Europe, our pre-convention entertainment. Great game, bad choice for a wed night. Takes way too long to play. Was fun though.
I hope this shed some light on Historicon for those of you who could not make it. I am optimistic about this been a good convention.

Cheers, Xin

Hunter Killer Pics

There was a request on TMP for a pic of the Hunter Killer with other figures for scale. Here ya go. Click on pics for larger images.

Left to right: New Revell Republic Gunship, Hunter Killer, GW Valkyrie.
Figures are Star Wars Prepaints, New Space Hulk Termmie, Wargames Factory Germans(thank you free Fall In give aways) and SST Mobile Infantry.
Same figures, lower angle.

My Pirate ships have been pirated.

I was kit bashing some toy pirate ships for gaming use awhile back. I took a break and was letting the glue set on some parts when I came back my ships were gone. Then over in the gaming area I find my little 12 year old pirates had nicked my ships and taken on a new crew.
Not only had they found my ships, they found my recent ebay purchase of about 100 clone troopers. Pirate ships and clone troopers, what could be better together?
The good guys lead by Ahsano and Lando against...
Ventress and Mara Jade. They had a lot of fun. I'm not sure who won as usually when they play together it's more of a story than a wargame. But they do like to gang up on Daddy.

Cheers, Xin

Undead Warband for SBH, Part 1

This is the start of my undead Warband for playing Song of Blades and Heroes. I picked up an Undead Giant at Fall In 08 from Iron Wind Metals. He was in their "junk" bin I guess you would call it. Only saw one and he's been on my painting table for over a year. I finally got around to finishing him off.

He is supposed to have a sword in his lower hand but when I bought it I didn't know that. He just had empty hands. I was going to paint him as is, but my wife suggested giving him a weapon of some sort. So I came up with a stone ball on a chain.


The ball is Green Stuff. And the chain was I think from a hobby store, ship building supplies. Also this is the first time I tried using static grass. I had know idea how to use it but I found this site: Easy Static Grass. It worked very well.

Not Golden Demon standard, but I think he came out well, and look forward to giving him some mates to play with. My daughters have been painting their own warbands, I will have to get pics up of the Ice Witch Warband and the Pumpkin Witch Warband.

Cheers, Xin

One book to Bind them

I am planning to play some more Song of Blades and Heroes with my kids soon, so I thought I'd get a couple of supplements. I bought the PDF's of Song of Gold & Darkness and Song of Wind & Water. Since I needed to print out copies I had the idea to make one big rule book.

Staples has a Printing Service (Link: HERE) that is very reasonably priced. You can email them your documents and pick up the printed rule book in a day or so. I didn't know if they could combine the different PDF's but it turns out they can.

So I had SBH/SGD/SWW printed in that order in one book along with a color cover for $13. I think that is a good deal. I got the the coil binding which I think works best for wargames rules.

I should have bought Song of Arthur and Merlin as well, but I forgot. But the 3 I have are more than enough for my kids and I. Here are some pics of the printed book.

Color Cover

Song of Gold and Darkness
Song of Wind and Water


Cheers, Xin

Space Hulk Arrived~

There was a package for me when I got home from work today. I knew exactly what it was. It seems, Games Workshop, was not supposed to ship them til Sept 5th, but the gobbos in the shipping dept didn't get the memo, or ate the memo. Either way, my box slipped out the door before the gate slammed shut.


So risking the wrath of the wife, I ignored the call "dinner's ready". And dove into exploring the box. The box is heavy and jam packed. Five large sprues and one small sprue, terrain tiles, markers, doors, dice, empty plastic bags(storage?), egg timer, rulebook and Mission book.


It was I think $107 after taxes. That's a lot for a game, but I think there is a lot of value here. The figures are gorgeous and the terrain tiles are very solid. Like I said in another post, easily twice as thick as previous editions. They also are "embossed" I think was the term. It gives them a little texture.


I would have loved to started a game tonight, but figures will need work. They are such nice figures it would be a shame not to paint them. I never did finish my Gene Stealers from 1st edition, which sadly got sold in a period of low finances. All my other projects just got pushed to the back burner and I will start on these ASAP.


Here's a link to all the pictures of whats in the box.

Space Hulk Photobucket

Cheers, Xin

First game of Forge of War

I saw this game mentioned on TMP so I joined this Yahoo Group and downloaded the rules. After a read through they seemed worth a playtest.

I threw together a quick scenario just to get a feel for the rules and invited my friend over for a battle.

The Setup: Rebels seize a relay station on a small backwater colony,and were filling the air with their brand of propaganda, as opposed to the official brand of propaganda. A unit of Presidential Guard was sent to recapture the station. The forces:
Rebels: 1 Command Squad, 1 Mortar team(both ex-military) and 3 squads of Militia
Presidential Guard:1 Command Squad(special forces), 3 squads and a mortar team(veteran commandos)

The number of troops was equal, but since the rebels were defending, I made the PG better trained.

Scenario rule: The rebels deployed around the Relay Station with hidden counters. The rebs put down 10 counters, and only 5 were real squads.

The Battle:
The PG Squads surrounded the station. I brought in a squad from each corner of the table the mortar section just to get the whole station in range. The rebs didn't move since they didn't want to give away their positions.

So I advanced again till my command squad moved up to the building with the Radar Dish. The reb command squad popped up(reaction fire to nearby enemy) and fired on my squad, but the hasty shot missed. At this point the reb mortar team on the 2 story building opened up and dropped a shell right on my command squad. He got 2 kills or D-Markers. I took the d-markers on my command squad. I returned fire but missed.

Now in FoW D-Markers represent disorder, damage, demoralization. You can choose to take D-markers instead of casualties, but each d-marker is a minus in morale, shooting, and fighting. You can also take d-markers from terrain effects like moving full speed through difficult terrain. If you spend a turn resting, you can try to roll off your D-markers.

The rest of the turn I moved my other squads closer and my mortar section started some counter-battery fire but I missed. The rebs had my command squad out in the open, so they fired again, missing. He also revealed another squad and sent it into the woods to get my mortar. My command squad pulled back and to the side to cut off this attack


On the other side of the field I advanced towards the station, using what cover I could find. Eventually revealing another roof top emplacement. They engaged my squad and caused 2 hits, but I took the d-markers. I returned fire, but with the d-markers and the cover the rebs had, I missed.



The 5th and final reb squad appeared over by the radar dish, and moved into a covering position for the squad advancing into the woods. My command squad came out of the woods took the reaction fire (cover+ armor, no hits) and put 2 hits on the squad in the open. The rebs then dropped a morter round on my mortar, giving it 2 d-markers.

Here is where I think the game turned against the rebs. He had 3 squads and the mortar focusing on my one command squad and mortar team. That left one squad to cover the rest of the station and defend against 3 of my squads.

I had 2 squads fire on the remaining roof top reb emplacement Causing 3 hits(2 d-markers and one kill). My 3rd squad slipped into the base and starting shooting at the rear(no cover) of the rebs across the compound causing more hits and kills.







At this point the rebel commander realized he could not hold out any longer and detonated the demo charges on the radar dish killing himself and his command squad. Tactical victory for the Presidential Guard, Moral victory for the rebels. I will point out, that my troop quality was a big factor in the win. The quality was more inportant than the defending positions the rebs had.

In summary the game flowed pretty well and most of the rules and game play were easy to follow after only one read through of the rules. There are 2 things I really like about the rules. The first is the D-marker concept. It simulates fatigue, ammo loss, non lethal injuries and stress, all rolled into one. Most game systems at this level only deal with kill/no kill situations. I really feel this is the heart of the system. One thing I failed to mention, units based on their training have a maximum level of d-markers they can take before guys are just killed outright. So kills do happen.

The 2nd thing I liked was unit activation. I didn't mention it above, but each unit has to activate based on it's training and tactical situation. D-Markers play a factor here. We did have some stuff not activate, and when you fail to activate, the initiative passes to your opponent. It creates an ebb and flo, a lot like Song of Blades and Heroes.

As for things I didn't like, not many there. One thing I and my opponent had trouble wrapping my head around was the "no save" roll. The math for shooting at and killing someone is all wrapped together. My mind knows that having a "save" or lower chance on a single shoot/kill roll can be the equal, but the gamer in me missed the "save roll".

The only other thing I felt needed work was the rules layout, one or two things need a little better explaining.

All and all, a decent set of rules, well worth the cost(free) and worth a 2nd playtest. In case anyone was wondering the buildings were inspired by Inari7 from TMP and his post here.

Cheers, Xin