Briscon 2024
May the Fourth be with you.
Went to Briscon today with my gaming buddy. Ostensibly on the hunt for minis for our Brisket & Bratwurst skirmish game. And just enjoy the day out mingling with other gamers and hobbyists. Keen on sighting the massive large historical battle exhibition. Some photos from the day out.
Demo game. Maustrian Wars of Succheesion. Napoleonic in style. Attractive minis.
Demo game. 6mm Team Yankee. Baltic port scenario circa 1985 (WW3)...I found the setup really appealing.
Historical demo game of the Battle of Wagram in 6mm. Guys travelled interstate to showcase their devotion with us. L-shape battleground. Highlight for me. Held in a small shed with Austrian and French empire flags signalling their presence to the visitors.
Bought an owl-bear, which should make a handy large beast addition to my growing B&B warband.
Sighted several games like the usual - X Wing, Warhammer, Team Yankee, and so on. Not as many as previous Briscons. And fewer participants. They also mingled the Traders in with the tabletop games. First venue we entered was the Boardgame section. Quickly exited that place however. They had medieval combat display happening next to the Dagwood stand which was interesting - meals in a combat setting. The demo participation section was sparsely patronised which was a bit disappointing. And no historical gaming apart from Bolt Action which I don't recall seeing.
The lengthy Bring & Buy queue put us off so we wandered about visiting the various games and trade stands before buying a Dagwood dog and departing.
Popped into Dice Spot (Wavell Heights) on the way home to purchase some items. Gaming buddy bought some dastardly mices for our late arvo skirmish game. I ended up with some flocking and a bunch of poly dice sets - percentage, d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4 - selling cheaply ($8 each).
Shout out to Rod Duke and Dave Cross, two gaming comrades whom we ran into at Briscon. Top blokes. Judging from our conversations, they're still involved with whatever is taking their fancy at the moment. Had to chuckle when Rod told us of his ongoing endeavours to rebase thousands of 15mm historicals he acquired some time ago. And I mean literally thousands!
Shout out also to a new trader - Nemesis 3D Studio - physical 3D prints. First time at Briscon. Always happy to support newcomers to the hobby. Here's hoping he establishes himself. And buy himself new pyjamas. Lol.
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Boogers & Blowhards
Finished off our day's outing with a couple of games of B&B.
Both warbands face off. My gaming buddy's new warband are facing off against my selection (foreground) - from left to right (background) one samurai mice (leader), one cat ranger, two mice rangers, and one mice druid. It's a start and they performed very well for their first run. Played the treasure hunt scenario twice on an improvised terrain setting.
Plonked some terrain down to create Rickyton hamlet. As mentioned, skirmishes involved the familiar treasure scenario from previous efforts. Objective the same: search through the hamlet buildings. Roll 2d6 to determine if treasure found (needing 11 or 12), any doubles rewards with a treasure map. All other rolls means area is searched but no treasure or map, and area cannot be re-searched. All searchable areas are marked in yellow stars (as shown below).
Areas affecting movement are marked in red crosses (roll die pertaining to movement attribute for each particular creature). Deployment zones indicated by blue arrows. The village of Rickyton, was the scene for both skirmish games. First game was quickly done when the various sites were all searched yielding only one treasure map. Gaming buddy victor.
For the second game we modified the objectives. Deployment was the same as Game 1. But this time only one objective, located on the side of your opponent (image above). So my warband had to make for the old stonehenge on the hill while my opponent had to search the manor house. First to reach their objective and search won.
My warband was hindered by the magic wielded by the opposing druid using the Dampener spell which, if successfully cast, would last for d4 turns. In the game, the first time it was cast, I could not cast any spells for four turns without a -3 penalty for casting. Second time it was used lasted for two turns. By that time, the samurai mouse leader had quietly entered and searched the building while my trio stationed there were busily occupied fighting off the other enemy. Gaming buddy victor twice.
Next meetup in a month or so will see us playtest the game using one of the scenarios. We are hoping to fulfil the requirements for fielding a warband from costing to equipment and spells.
And I am hoping to learn to cope better with the magic casting. Gaming buddy adapting faster to the game than I by the way.
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PS: We have since corrected our understanding (or interpretation) of the spell casting, such as the Transpose Spell. It IS the difference between roll-offs with the difference deciding the number of casualties inflicted. Apologies to anyone reading our Toad Hall adventures.
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World of Warships - review of the week of daily gaming
Only three more phases to go in the latest Dockyard Event before receiving Wisconsin (Big Whiskey). That should happen next week when they release the next mission series.
Next Naval Battles (a weekend event) is the never-ending hunt for BASE XP, an item that is hard to obtain unless one plays certain battle modes like Randoms (which I am not a fan) and Ranked (which I avoid although haven't played in a long long while). Wondering if I can complete this playing Asymmetric although I believe it doesn't count. It doesn't count in Operations while Co-Op has a very low cap, good enough for the first level of achievement but that's all; the higher levels you have to find other Battles modes such as Randoms or Ranked. Not sure about Brawls as I haven't played it in a long while. May suss that out this long weekend.
Rest of the time I just log in to collect the daily reward, read what's happening, maybe play a couple of games (like I did with my blue-camo'd Tier VII British battleship King George V the other day). Or play for Divisional stars with other clan members when invited.
KGV is its distinctive blue-black camo scheme.
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English Civil War - WIP
Slow progress. Very s-l-o-w... (some ongoing WIP pics below). Last night, I could not be bothered so just basecoated the various bases using burnt umber. In future endeavours I will apply sand, dry brush a lighter tone, and then spend time being "artistic" with the static grass and floral arrangements to make these figures eye-appealing.
Okey's dragoons in dismounted mode. Liking the arrangement I've come up with.
Vermuyden's Horse. Used the Burnt Umber to also paint the horses. For variety, I used burnt sienna for the lighter-coloured mounts. The other two will either be greys, blacks or whites.
Pickering's Foot command stand - officer, drummer, two standard bearers (ensigns).
Commanders and artillery crews on their basecoated bases.
Going to check out the situation of dissent amongst the Parliamentary forces over differences within the same religion (courtesy of the reading I am doing). Something about Levellers has been mentioned several times. And mutinies were common enough. Sounds interesting as a potential small game scenario. Will see where it leads.
Currently drafting up Orders Cards although I no longer require the full Show set so will be doing a small set for my own use. Will post image of the finished output soon. Cheers.
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