PolderCon Encore

I did a PolderCon post earlier this week to get my most pressing thoughts out. But there was so much more to see with some 45 different events on 35 tables.

Small scale historical wargaming is underrepresented in my opinion. Not putting it on makes players feel it isn't an option and that there are no opponents out there.

I guess it's a reflection of supply by miniature producers/game designers, but it won't change if there's no demand. Although I enjoy the skirmish type games, the offer different challenges than games at divisional or corps level and I miss that myself. So that's something I'm thinking about bringing more into the spotlight for next year.

Blitzkrieg Commander

Tercios

By Fire & Sword

Quite a lot of 28mm historical stuff

Chain of Command

I Ain't Been Shot Mum

Sharp Practice 2

There was a lot of fantasy gaming.

9th Age

Kings of War Vanguard

A Song of Ice and Fire

And a lot of sci fi/Post-apocalyptic

Necromunda

Fall Out

Walking Dead

Last Days

Looking over all these pictures as I go through them today I am so happy seeing so many of them including the hosts explaining the game to players. That is exactly what PolderCon is about!

PolderCon happened

This weekend, PolderCon happened and good fun it was. The idea behind the convention is that a number of people host games and others come to play (a fair number switches during the day to do both). It's not a buying convention, although we had a few traders.

Tank painting workshop Mitchell Basran

After cajoling people since August I was glad to have as many games on as we did. We averaged around a 100 slots in 30+ games in each session. There was a workshop in advanced tank painting and a presentation on modern tactics by a former senior officer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Blood & Plunder

Gaslands

Cruel Seas

Star Wars Legion

You can't always predict what will work and what won't. Recently published games always do well, with most of those slots filled up.

Assassino

Assassino

Barsaman

Sometimes, self made games do well on the reputation of their designer or the appeal of their terrain and miniatures.

Zierikzee 1304

Defcon

Redders van Erda

Generally, I think that self made games deserve more love. They may not be as smooth as the best commercial sets, but they often are more true to the theme, off the beaten path and prepared with more love.

Mythic Battles

Memoir 44 Overlord

The experience with board games is mixed. It could be that the skrimishy, miniature heavy ones (you know, the ones that get kickstartered with multiple boxes of plastic) do better than the more abstract ones in this miniature friendly environment.

Anyway, see you next year!

Non Star Trek Space Battles

 

Gaming goals - January update

[Skips obligatory excuses for not blogging enough]

So there was a challenge for playing boardgames at Therewillbe.games and although it was silly to expect me to play 10 games 5 times, I thought I should manage to at least once play 10 games that I received/bought over the past few years and were gathering dust on my shelf.

I selected Secret Weapons of the Third Reich, Gothic Invasion, Bioshock Infinite, Mighty Empires, Quarantine, Bemused, Blood Bowl Team Manager expansions, Who's She? (a kickstarter then still to arrive), Mission Red Planet, and U-Boot (another kickstarter yet to arrive). Secret Satan then gifted me 5 Cucumbers, Dairyman, CIA vs KGB and Nyctophobia, which I added to the challenge.


And in that kind of coincidence that isn't really coincidence, I already had a shortlist of painting projects lying around, which I then included into a range of wider gaming goals. So I added a number of miniature games that I wanted to concentrate on playing this year (you'll notice some resemblance with the painting projects):

• a Flames of War 15mm desert campaign with my colleague and his friends
• Dux Brittanniarum AD 789 (Anglo Saxons vs Vikings) at the club
• For Reign or Ruin (15mm fantasy rules) at the club
• Muskets & Tomahawks, French and Indian Wars or American War of Independence at the club
• What a Tanker with friends at home.

In terms of painting I had a few units for my middle war desert Italians for Flames of War that I bought at Crisis last November and wanted to add to my small army while we are still playing.

Late last year I also had bought a bunch of Footsore's nice Anglo Saxon levies to build up proper fyrd units for Dux Brittaniarum. The Gripping Beast Frankish warriors that I have used so far are fine, but not based very practically for Dux.

The Prussians are a small lot that would finish a Fusilier unit that I have sold to a friend participating in the Great Game: Waterloo Replayed charity multiplayer event in Glasgow next June.


The French and Indian War French regulars are to round off my small French force that I could use for Muskets & Tomahawks. And the 40K Harlequins are supposed make a basic team for Necromunda or a similar sci fi skirmish game that I have started on but not finished. These three should not take much time to finish.

Then there's three kickstarters that I supported lately: 7TV: Apocalypse which would combine well with postapocalyptic stuff I already have, the wonderful Killer Rabbits by the same guy who did the brilliant Triumph of Death Pieter Bruegel skeletons (shown above) and Galloping Major's Allies on the Frontier provincials for the French and Indian Wars. All should arrive this year.

And finally there's a bunch of projects that I might take up as I please. Stuff for What a Tanker would expand the possibilities of what I already have (like some 15mm British tanks to face my Italians). Overall way too many plans to actually finish it all.

I also decided to include my larger gaming projects. First the PolderCon convention I help organising, and second elusive idea that I have which would become an eclectic MODOSG (Multiplayer One Day Offline Skirmish Game) blend of Frostgrave and Warhammer Fantasy Battles. But that's still very vague and will take shape in the second half of the year.

And finally there's the ongoing projects of decluttering (or rather, making room).


Results in January:

Painting

I managed to finish my Autoblindas for the Flames of War desert campaign with my colleague and his friends. They have already seen the elephant as well! My Anglo Saxon fyrd for Dux Brittanniarum AD 789 are almost done as well, in time for the next game.

Playing

I've now played Bemused, Who's She? and Mission Red Planet. All three fun games to play in friendly setting. Had interesting conversation on the ladies in Who's She? with my girl so that's doing what it is supposed to. My friends loved the premise of Bemused that to take your adopted virtuoso to eternal fame it is better to get his competitors to succumb to doubt and dread.

So 3/14 after the first month on this track.

Managed two games of Dux on one Saturday at the club, 3 games of What a Tanker and one Italians vs Brits in Flames of War. That's also gotten me some way towards my goals (which I may have set rather unambitiously, forgetting that you sometimes can get multiple games in a day).

Projects

PolderCon is almost upon us (Sunday Feb 3rd) and it's been a real handful. Some last minute drop outs and the long run up (I've been cajoling hosts since September) leave me a bit deflated, but at least I've got my stuff done. Let's hope it all turns out well.

Decluttering

No real movement on shedding another games, books or miniatures, although I've lent out King of Tokyo to a friend who has been playing it with his daughters to great success. So I won't mind if it stays there.

The Master of Secrets Reveals

It's that time of the year again! Somewhere early January, packages start arriving across the world with over aged games and possible other turds sent to complete strangers. Yup, it's Secret Satan and this proud tradition started almost a decade ago at Fortress Ameritrash, now better known as There Will Be Games.

Of course the delays in delivery are all intented by Satan, including days waiting for neighbours to be home at the same time to finally get your hands on the stuff.

And then at last!

At last you hold the diminutive package in your hands and rip it open. Casting caution to the wind in case there might be anthrax in there. It seems not to actually be that bad....

And there's a message...

Well... you spot the fruitcake for me...

Guess these games will be added to my to do list for 2019. 

Milch und Gherkins is a famed game design by a secretive movie/board/computer games reviewer. I never understood that it was actually a composite game made out of two others! The genius had escaped me, but no more!

It will get an outing with friends and family, if only I can get hold off the rules....

I will seek a victim for some Cold War. How appropriate these days!

But my fear of the dark might prevent me from ever playing Nyctophobia. Perhaps some friends can hold my hand during the game, which is apparently played with sunglasses on...


Many thanks again to Satan for hitting me where it hurts!


The package I sent out seems to have arrived as well, but the receiver has not posted his ill gotten gains yet. Dommage!



Have a look at some previous Secret Satan gifts

Some of my recent reading: dark ages Frisia

Another couple of books I read the past moths were triggered by plans for some medieval wargaming. Somebody suggested that we should try the Battle of Vlaardingen in 1018, a smallish affair by today's standards. It was pretty momentous however, as it established the independence of the counts of Frisia against the Holy Roman Emperor.

Sadly the execution wasn't compatible with stuff I already had lying, waiting to be used, so my project will deal with the Battle of Hastings. But I read the stuff on Frisia anyway...

And the most amazing I learned is that the Dutch coast was mostly deserted in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Apparently rising water levels, combined with moving sand dunes made life extremely hard so it essentially depopulated. The people that came to inhabit the area afterwards were not the original Frisians of Roman times, but migrants from present day Northern Germany and Scandinavia, with a different material culture and different language. However, they were named after the area and for a long time people assumed there was a continuous link of Frisian inhabitation.

Some of my recent reading: military innovation

So I'm on for a new adventure, starting in October. I'll be cooperating on a part of a larger series of handbooks about Dutch military history. Personally, it looks like I will mostly be writing on the 1813-1870 period.

Of course there'll be several themes discussed in this book, but I have taken a special interest in the development of technology and how it's integrated into military practice. It's become an interesting field in this century, since the military revolutions / revolutions in military affairs discussion blossomed up. Mostly this is a discussion about how you can foster innovation and draw the right lessons from the past to guide technological development towards succes while avoiding the pitfalls.

Part of that discussion focusses on where in the military organisation this innovation takes place? Is it top down (reforms of Prince Maurice or Gustavus Adolphus), is it bottom up (battlefield adaptation in WWI)? Or is it perhaps a complex interaction of military entrepreneurs in the military hierarchy that may or may not succeed in catching the ear of those with decision making power. And perhaps, I add as an historian, this changes based on social structures over time and space?

So I'm diving into some old and new literature...

Mostly on the 19th century, but if a valid theoretical point seems to be made, I'm happy to look beyond.

Let's say I'm pretty psyched about this project

And it don't stop!

Having cleaned up and dined, I returned to Satan's gifts, mulling the evil intentions by gifting me a euro game about hospital managament. So I lifted the top expecting cardboard and wooden blocks...

Mark my surprise as I peered inside and found not just that but infact a buttload of cool stuff!

Exhibit A:

1920s furniture: perfect for some Pulp or Lovecraftian roleplaying! Diederik, can we have another go at your campaign?

Exhibit B:

A game of doubt and dread. That certainly fits my current state of mind and the above gift!

Exhibit C:

A suspicious looking compact disc that triggered my interest. Will have a listen sometime later this evening (with the candles burning low and the Cramps on the stereo)

Exhibit D:

Spock's Socks that I'm wearing right now! Good fit! Satan knows these things

Exhibit E:

Some weird looking chap, I suspect of representing broccoli. I think I have a solution for that...

Exhibit F:

And the Quarantine game itself. Not a lot of stuff for such a big box, but for once I'm not complaining!

So many more thanks Satan!

Not sure what I've done to deserve to be heaped in gifts twice in a row. I guess I must have signed over my soul while accepting the terms of service on some piece of software...