We’re back, baby! Several years ago, I made it to the Barrage gaming convention hosted by the HAWKS wargaming club in Havre de Grace Maryland. This was actually the first place I ran a full convention game, my Viking raid game (Viking Raid on Iona Abbey- Scenario Rules).
The last couple of years fall has been too busy and I’ve lost track of time- but this year having missed Historicon and not hosting any public games yet this year, I wanted to break out one of the convention games and run it for some people! So deadchannelstatic, angerworm, the mysterious broheim, and myself all made the trek north.
Barrage
So they’ve been hosting this two-day convention in the Havre de Grace community center, which is a low-key, functional hall right outside of town. It’s got a big main room, and a side room used for the Art de la Guerre Tournament. Food trucks and snacks are available, the logistics are easy, and downtown Havre de Grace and the water is 5 minutes away. Very laid back and very easy!
The main focus, as with the HMGS events, is hosted games- there are a few tables for a Flames/Bolt action tournament but the rest is GM hosted games, with vendor booths around the side.
The Games
There are a lot of boards, with 10 or so games running at the same time on Friday/Saturday. The games tend to fall into the ‘historical and wierdo’ camp, so lots of different eras of history but also battles in the land of Oz, time traveling nazis fighting dinosaurs, pulp adventures, that kind of thing. Some GMs use name brand rules, some more indie rulesets- whatever they want to do!
The gentleman who makes the incredible bead-based miniatures for star wars, conan and such was back, but sadly without beads this time! Instead he had a set of 54mm LOTR minis painted up for some RPG action.
I got to play Saturday in Dr. Jenn’s Famous Pirate Tavern Brawl! This was a fantastic game where our pirate crews erupted in a big free for all in a tavern! Rules-light and RPG heavy, the pirates threw beer steins at each other, fired pistols, and yanked out rugs from under each other. Trays were hurled, cutlasses clashed and many a ‘yarr matey’ was issued. Dr. Jenn was a fabulous GM keeping the mayhem moving, and had a lovely dollhouse-like board for us to play on. My crew was mauled- three dead and we grabbed no loot. But much fun was had! I am inspired to run this system but with a big Viking brawl after a raid- I think that would be fun!
Raiders of the Malta Convoys
So I signed up for a Friday afternoon GM slot, as I wasn’t sure what my schedule was and I knew that time was free! There were still a good number of tables going on Friday, and plenty of gamers. I was a bit nervous as noone had signed up for my event on tabletop events, so I wasn’t sure if I would have players!
However, I have a good sense of the vibe for this kind of event- a big hall with loads of gamers. I had confidence that people were showing up, hanging out, talking, and joining in games that vibed with them. So I got there a bit early to set up and get all the stuff out. And indeed, three folks game around and saw all the ships and the big map and were suitably intrigued and joined in! So if you commit to a community and get to know the people and the culture, have some confidence that you understand how things work and what people are into! It helps if you are engaging, smile, and invite people to join! In the future though, I hope to be a little more active and do some advertising- I only need to reach a few people to help fill a game! Gotta use the community connections.
At the strategic level, the game started out with a bang for the Regia Marina. With a bit of luck their subs and airstrikes were able to find and hit a British task force, sinking the town-class cruiser London lurking in one of the small task forces. They then concentrated on the main fleet. While their subs and planes took losses, they were able to hit and sink a critical convoy ship! Their heavy cruiser Pompeo Magno made a daring raid on the escorts of the main fleet as well rather than joining the main battle, nearly crippling the Southhampton.
The Royal Navy struggled to respond. While their fighters flew effective cover and shot down Italian aircraft, they were only able to sink a few Regia Marina Destroyers, leaving the main fleet untouched. Luckily the Pompeo Magno was out of position for the final battle.
With the strategic situation set, the Italians had secured 40 VPs and a +2 initiative bonus- a solid but not runaway victory.
Zooming into the final engagement, the Italian battleship force closed with the convoy. Aggressive maneuvering by the line of three Italian battleships positioned them to sink another convoy ship. The Italians slingshotted around the Island, and caught the last convoy ship on the final turn with a destroyer and cruiser. The convoy was destroyed!
But the Royal Navy was, of course, not taking this lightly. Several destroyers went down and their cruiser was crippled. But most spectacularly, the Cavour class Battleship Duilio was hit in the magazine and exploded!
So the convoy was destroyed and victory went to the Regia Marina! But with the loss of the Duilio it was not a clean win- the navy would need to think carefully before its next outing…
The Flea Market
So a number of vendors, resellers, and individual set up little booths around the hall. There are no big names, but a chance to dive in and find some treasures and things you might not expect!
Angerworm immediately went to big Warhammer reseller and picked up half a trunkload of old GW stuff, including a dozen plastic multipart regiments boxes! He’s got like 600 goblins now.
I managed to find a couple things I was looking for (slottabases and a pistollier musician for the Tale of Four-ish Gamers). As well as some things I didnt need per-se but were cool. 10mm terrain for ACW/warmaster stuff, some barbed wire for the TC campaign. Then much more random was a 1/12 scale Armor kit which might make a fun diorama and a set of 3mm Empire and Orc miniatures! I got these little guys for a song, and will think about some cool ‘pocket wargame’ to do with them!
This was a lot of fun- hopefully I’ll be back running something next year!
-BS