Warhorse-Con III at Warhorse Farm in Gettysburg, PA

This past Saturday, 8.24.13, Buck Surdu and his daughter Sammy, Dave Wood, and myself made the trip up to our friend Sam Fuson's Warhorse Farm in Gettysburg, PA to run some GASLIGHT and "Look, Sarge, No Charts" games for him and his friends.  We began the day with my "Victoria Hawkes Saves the Queen" GASLIGHT game, and Buck running a "Battle of LaRothier" Napoleonic scenario using Fate of Battle rules. 
   This is the sixth time I've run my V.H. Saves the Queen scenario, and the players as usual had a great time.  The game pits an allied force of U.S. Marines, British Guards, and Cowboys, against a group of Prussians and their mercenary gunslingers. The Prussians have kidnapped the Queen of England while she was on a goodwill trip to the U.S., and have whisked Her Majesty away to a deserted Texas town where they await a zeppelin flying in from Mexico to transport the Queen out of the country.  The 'Good Guys' have 12 turns to rescue the Queen before the zeppelin arrives.

Victoria Hawkes Saves the Queen

The game got off to a good start with both sides trading shots, but unfortunately, the Prussian side lost most of their Main Characters early in the game to failed Save rolls, leaving the 'Good Guy' Heroes, particularly Jasper Flint, the U.S. Marshal  to seriously damage the Prussian forces.  It took the whole game for the Allies to find the Queen, but in the end the Prussians just didn't have enough to stop them from taking her back.  This tied up the score for this scenario with 3 Prussian wins, and 3 Allied wins overall.

U.S. Marshal Jasper Flint, cuts his way through the Prussian defenders.

While I was running this, Buck and Dave were running their Battle of LaRothier in the next room.  This is a winter battle from the 1814 campaign.  The game turned out to be a close fought afair.

The Battle of LaRothier. Photo by Buck Surdu

After a late lunch of pizza we set up and began our afternoon games.  I ran a "Look, Sarge, No Charts:WWII" game which was a Battle of Njimegan scenario.  The battle started off with the Germans in control of the town and it looked like the Allies would have their work cut out for them trying to dislodge the defenders. 

The Battle of Njimegan

I was called to command the Germans on the right, as we were short a player, and I ended up facing the brunt of the allied armor.  A lucky activation sequence, where the tanks got to activate twice with no reply from me, allowed them to create and exploit a breakthrough before I could suitably react.  This sealed our fate, and as the hour was getting late, we decided to call it a day.

Allied armor breaks through.

While I was running Njimegan, Buck was doing a GASLIGHT undersea game, with  a lot of his cool underwater figures.  It was a multi-sided affair, with several different opposing groups trying to recover valuables from the downed Nautilus submarine, while Captain Nemo attempted to foil them.

Buck's undersea GASLIGHT game.

All in all it was a really fun day, and we are already looking forward to Warhorse-Con IV.

Fun Time at Fuson-Con I

Last Saturday a couple of us drove up to Sam Fuson's Warhorse Farm, near Gettysburg, PA, to take part in a game day we christened, "Fuson-Con".  Sam invited some of the folks from where he works, and some friends, all of whom had little to no experience with miniature wargames, and Buck Surdu and I provided the games.
   We started the day with a "Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII" game that I ran as a playtest for Historicon. The scenario was set in Russia 1941, during Barbarossa, and featured a German force consisting of two infantry battalions, an armored battalion, and a recon battalion, attacking a small Russian town located across a river.  The German infantry has to use rafts to cross the river, as the armor is using the only bridge to cross, and the recon is using the only ford.  Meanwhile, the Russians start with only one infantry battalion on the table, with armor and infantry reinforcements trickling in each turn.
    The game was closely fought throughout, and we had to call it due to time constraints just as the Germans were attacking the outskirts of the town.  It was deemed a narrow Russian victory, though with another half hour of play, it could have gone either way.

Some of the German commanders move their forces, as Buck (in red shirt, who assisted me with the GM-ing) looks on. The Russian town is in the foreground, and the Germans are attacking from the far table edge.

Ed (commanding a Russian infantry battalion) and Greg (commanding a German one) face off south east of the town.

Near the end of the game. The German panzers attack the Russian armor defending the town.

After the WWII game, Buck set up a "To Be Continued...by GASLIGHT" game.  This scenario was episode 4 in a continuing story arc Buck is doing featuring the pulp hero, Duke Morrison.  In the last 'episode' the evil Venusians and their hired human thugs,  kidnapped a scientist's daughter and stolen the machinery from his lab, and in this 'episode' they have taken the girl and scientific equipment to the middle east, where Duke Morrison and his fiends have tracked them down and are now trying to rescue the girl and get the scientific equipment back or destroy it.

The small middle eastern town where the Venusians are located.

After entering the town, Duke Morrison happens upon the Venusian queen, and fights her hand to hand.

Some of the Venusian's thug allies crash a fuel truck into a building in an attempt to 'discourage' some of the local Turkish authorities who have happened by.

In the end, Crash Corrigan and his rocket men were able to destroy the scientific equipment, but the scientist's daughter remained hidden.  And worst of all, our hero, Duke Morrison, had fallen captive to the Venusians.  Who knows what evil plans they have in store for him!  To be continued....:-)
    After the Pulp GASLIGHT game, Buck set up his pirate tavern as a finale for the day, using his "Blood & Swash" rules.  Mayhem ensued as opposing bands of pirates fought to capture and remove the tavern's treasure chest, and the tavern keeper's daughter.  In the end, Greg was able to get the treasure chest out of the tavern, but in an unfortunate mishap, Sam accidentally shot the tavern keeper's daughter as I was trying to carry her from the tavern.  Every one had a good time with this free-for-all game.

A view of the table.

The scene inside the Ruptured Swordfish tavern.

A battle over the treasure chest developed near the doorway.

The event was a huge success, and everyone said they were looking forward to when we could get together and do it again.  May thanks to Sam for hosting this fun day.