Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

This is long-winded blather, kind of like a Pittsburgh-based science fiction
fanzine. You have been warned.

Historicon started for me on Wednesday. I had to get a new clothes dryer.
Bear with me. This meant that I had to clean off my Ping Pong table to make
room for the delivery, so next week, I can play games on it again! That
afternoon, I drove Conan and Natasha to the boarding Kennel. They are each
an un-holy mixture of all that is bad in dogs, but Jack and I love them
anyway.
Wednesday night I was finishing on the figures I promised Jim Bisignani and
Mark Cribbs I would have for them for Historicon. I was varnishing the final
Eureka 4-horse Assyrian chariot for Jim, and the Mycenaean spearmen for
Mark's NKE. They had been sprayed twice with Krylon Satin-Cote, and I was
getting ready to do the Dull-Cote. I was shaking the can when it slipped
from my hand, knocking an element of Mycenaeans onto my concrete floor.
Luckily the spears broke their fall. >Sigh< As it happens, the pack of
Foundry Mycenaean command I broke open for the Redoubt spearmen had the
fixins for 2 command stands, so Mark got an extra command element for his
Greeks. Apparently, it helped.
So, Thursday morning, Jim picked up his loaners ("And it's about damn time!"
He growled.). Jack (Oh, he's my 13-tear-old son.) and I set out shortly
later. Nice pleasant drive down I-81 and PA72, and this time I didn't miss
the US30 turnoff!
Got there at the Host. Went shopping. Found out that the Convention program
had all the vendors helpfully numbered, and about 10% of the areas on the
Tennis Barn map numbered, the rest replaced with #'s. Doubtfully helpful.
Anyway, I eventually found Castaway Arts, but not before meeting Tony
Schifani. Unfortunately, I was in a Keeper Frenzy at The London War Room,
plundering the Newline Carthaginians. I heard an un-familiar, yet friendly
voice calling "John!" It was Tony trying to get my attention. Tall dude,
seems like a real nice guy, but I had only found 5 of the 6 4-horse
Carthaginian chariots I needed, so I was distracted. It seems someone had
pointed out the OFM to him. My cover is blown. I had hoped to talk to him
later, but he was busy, too, and, maybe next time.
Vince at the TLWR then pointed me in the right direction to Gerry at Castaway
Arts. Again, another nice guy (Vince, and Gerry both, that is). Gerry
brought along my ton or so of Hebrews, which found their way into my gym bag.
I also bought a few of his brand-spanking new Philistine chariots, which I
take some credit for inspiring him to make. Nice roomy chariots, with room
for a driver, and two superbly cast armored Philistine spearmen. Well done.
Gerry also tole me he is making some more Philistines, some Sherden, and Nazi
crew for the Castaway Arts Ark of the Covenant.
On to Old Glory! New stuff: Han Chinese, with 16 packs..... New Gladiator
rules, and figures. Schedule calls for 4 different Circus Maximus chariots,
but not until Fall-in. Darn. New High Command packs for Hellenistic,
Carthaginian, Eastern Horse Peoples (Sassanid and Parthian), Imperial Romans
and Late Romans. Don't ask me for reviews. I already have gladiators up the
wazoo, and wasn't interested in the others. Sorry. I talked with Russ, the
Grand Panjandrum of Old Glory. He said the the next army is definitely going
to be Belisarian Byzantines, then Mycenaeans/Trojan Wars. The Gods be
praised! I suggested both historical figures, and a special set with gods,
etc. Fantasy rules for mythology, that kind of thing. He told me that was a
good idea. "Of course it's a Good Idea!" One thing they did, which is so
obvious I'm surprised no one ever did it before, was a range of "Cowboy Wars"
figures with identical mounted and dismounted figures in the same pack. I
could never get the figures to match for my Dixon Long Riders. Well,
"Duuuh!" But well done.
So, then we went to dinner, and Jack and I headed for our 7:00 PM game. It
had been re-scheduled to 2:00 PM. Phooey. We wandered around, looking for a
pickup game, and found a "Mein Panzer Junior" demo. My Tigers hit and killed
on on a "7". Jack's T34's hit on a "1". What fun. We both agreed not to
count that towards our "Games Played" total.
Friday, Jack picked up an "Enemy at the Gates" game, and I headed for "Le
Grand Cirque des Pyramides". I solved _my_ Riddle of the Sphinx, but when
asked who wrote it, based on the atrocious rhyme scheme, I guessed either
William Blake or Allen Jackson. Wrong. Never did find out who. I came in
3rd, behind local gamer Lou Zack, whose locomotive teetered precariously on
the middle of the Leap of Doom for the longest time. Stupid git tried to run
down my mad Scarlet Mandarin on JATO Penny Farthing, too! I was also the
only one who succeeded in knocking over an adversary with the Royal
Vegetarian Cow Toss. A great game! Kibbitzed some Ancient games. Vince's
Ark is great, with smoke coming out of it! You should also see the spectacle
of 7 18-figure units of Midianite Arab camels, also. It's awe-inspiring!
Back to the Vendors area! This time Nic and Gerry's wife were staffing the
Stand from Down Under. Nic is a Great Guy, too. (Gerry's wife is real nice,
also!) Unfortunately, everything I wanted, he didn't have with him, but we
had a great Flashman conversation. And, my 100 Club Barbary Pirates might be
15 different figures! Single Malted Figures (or aomething like that) have
acquired the rights to the Ral Partha Condottieri and Colonials range, which
are now available at shows for the same price as the RP Ancients, that is
$.50 for foot, $1.00 for horse, and $1.25 for camels. I was thus able to get
Midianite Arab 2 horse camels for $2.25, using colonial camels and Hyksos
Arab archers. I also assembled a stegosaurus from the Bitz Box, sold by the
ounce of metal. Bizarre, but fun. I left Iron Wind (Ral Partha), with more
Bronze Age riff-raff than you can shake a stick at.
An aside here. Jim and Mark spent the week bad-mouthing their armies for the
Warrior Biblical theme no end, using borrowed armies: Jim with Assyrian, and
Mark with NKE. I went to check on them. Both won their first games.
Pffffffth.
On to the next game, "Red River by Gaslight." Jack tried to get into Buck's
Nijmegen post "Hail Mary full of grace" game. Ticketed slots for 20, room
for 30. He still couldn't get in. Question: How can one man paint enough
figures for _30_ participants? Does he give out "A's" for painted figures?
("Class, I'm doing Nijmegen at Historicon. You know what to do.") But I
digress. Red River is one of those games that went totally against my
pre-conceptions of what it would be like. I was expecting goofy GASLIGHT
stuff duking it on a barren prarie, with a river in the middle. Instead, it
was a very well-designed pretty little river town, with beautiful terrain
boards, locks, boats, etc. The VSF stuff was at a minimum. The game was a
combination of the Raid on St. Nazaire and Bank's Red River campaign. Jack
showed up, and was given some re-inforcements of hilarious Mage-knigget
fireflies with Union cavalry mounted on them. The players were a great pair
of brothers (Rheim? Sorry, but don't remember) who brought their sons and
nephew with them Their kids played the Prussians, while the adults played
the Texans. Don't ask. I committed my usual blunder of not reading my
charts, and only hearing the GM say that my _initial_ speed was 7 inches,
when I could have been moving 12. Oh, well, my bad. Best unit overall was 4
(!) policemen (their lot was not a happy one) who caused casualties on just
about everyone before expiring. Lesson: Texas Rangers make poor sailors,
but great vandals. And I got to slay the dastardly Col von Essen with me
Bowie knife versus his saber, rescuing the Yellow Rose! Any, we kaboomed the
locks, but didn't do enough damage overall to win. Great sight: a Prussian
company lining the bridge over the locks when the boat blew up.
Saturday, played a really tense double blind WW2 skirmish game called Fog of
War. Smoke grenades really enhance Fog, to say the least. Jack succeeded in
blowing up the tank. His favorite game.
Later, we played "Matchlocks on the Warpath", the Cavaliers and Roundheads
and Indians game. Beautiful setup, nice rules, great game. Game ended at
9:00 PM or so. We wandered about aimlessly, and blundered into a demo of
Arena Games Gladiator rules. Warhammer fans should be familiar with the
tactical concepts: roll 6's. A deceptively simple game, but lots of fun.
Sunday, bought the Gladiator rules, and headed home. Jack and I went out to
get him some more CO2 for his paintball game, and pick up Conan and Natasha.
Just at the sporting goods store, my right rear wheel started to make
horrendous noises. Had to get a tow to the garage, and Jim gave Jack and I a
ride home. Conan and Natasha are still at the Kennel in Kunkle. (Yes,
that's the real name of the town.) I miss my doggies.
Well, we played 5 good games, and bought far too much stuff.
To all who could not attend Historicon, Nyaaaaah Nyaaaaah.

John the OFM

[Ewan McNay]

On Sun, 28 Jul 2002 johncarroll453@... wrote:

<a lot of stuff>

I hope that someone(s) of the Warrior crowd will post their tournament
experiences also.. those of us not there need to live vicariously! (On
the other hand, this coming week is the 'world' boardgaming championships,
so I'm not exactly in need of sympathy here.)

E