Pro or Con Convention report October 27th 2018

Pro or Con is one of two small conventions (or club events if you will) that my local club puts on. They put on Battlefields in March, and Pro or Con in October. We will draw anywhere between 75 to 120 people to our event. It's a one day convention divided into a morning session, afternoon session, and an evening session (which only the club and hardcore gamer's stay for).

The venue provides food on site, and a bar that opens at 2PM (it's an Elks Lodge). It's a great location, but I might be a little biased as I live three blocks away. Life can't get better than that! Well at least hobby-wise;)

I apologize to those games I didn't get a chance to include here, as my mind tends to wander when I have all this glorious gaming going on around me. Hopefully I got the pictures and names of hosts who ran them correct.

First up my eye caught the famous Battle of Hastings. One look at a distance and it was instantly recognizable by fans of the period. Looked really cool. It was run by Rodney Cain, using Triumph! miniature rules.

[below starting positions]

[below later in the game the Normans advance]

What convention could go without a game from the future, X-Wing 2nd edition being setup by Chad Marlett.

[below the Force be with you]

Next up the game I played in and one of the reasons that kept me from going and taking more pictures because I was having a blast. "The Cruel War in the Spanish Netherlands", using Pikeman's Lament rules and put on by John Thull, were modified for a better convention experience. For instance a player may have four units, and the first failed command check would keep him from activating the rest of his command. Instead only that unit would fail, the rest of the units still eligible to try and activate. When a player comes to play, let'em play!

The forces of Louis XIV's France and the Dutch Republic square off in the countryside of the Spanish Netherlands (today's Belgium) in 1690. 

[below is my command two French aggressive gallopers, and two units of command shot]

[below Dutch rear guard]

[Below my forces pushing the rear guard hard]

[below on my left flank more French pressure the Dutch]

[The Dutch rear guard hung on just enough, as I push in for the final confrontation, to do a little bit better than they did historically, which was getting completely wiped out]

Up next was the "Battle of Vienna 1683", run by Michael Zajchowski. The Holy League Armies of Austria and Poland engage the Ottoman Turks during the Turkish Siege of Vienna, using Field of Glory Rules. He had a nice setup and it looked like the players were having a lot of fun.

[pan of the battlefield]

[Below a view of the Turks]

[view of the Holy forces and you can just see the famous Polish Winged Hussars on either side of the infantry.]

Now our club members will bring games to setup just in case we don't have enough games put out to cover our player attendance.  I wanted to give a special hats off to club member Mark Magdowski for carting his stuff out and setting up the game, but not being needed, he stepped back so other game masters would be able to have players for their games. Mark setup Stephenson's Depot which was at the end of The Second Battle of Winchester was fought between June 13 and June 15, 1863 in the lower Shenandoah Valley. 

Now the next game up was really pretty looking, and I only caught it when they were starting to pack up, but it still deserves some photo's. The game was called "Charlie Don't Surf: Mekong Delta 1967", run by Michael Harris and using what I believe were home grown rules? Not sure but here are a couple of photos.

Last but not least, I got a chance to play in a "Gangs of Rome" game. It was called, Just "Roman" the streets (cool title), and run by Mike Broyles. His description of the game went... "Come and enjoy a day in a Roman forum (not THE Forum), shop, chat and make 'arrangements' for later.  Just be sure to bring your best knife and 'trusty' friends."

Since the release of this game I've been wanting to check it out, and I am glad I did. It was a lot of fun, and Mike made it so. Playing a one off is cool, but I can see where playing a campaign adds a lot to the game. I really liked that each player had a different agenda, yet they were intertwined with other players agenda's. The big multi stands full of figures are mobs, and they are really cool. They can help you move, but they can also panic and stampede and hurt you pretty bad as well. Any ways here are a few pictures.

Well that's it for now. I was supposed to do a pick up game of Blood Bowl, but unfortunately my opponent became ill and went home earlier (have no fear he is doing better). So my first Blood Bowl game as well as report will have to wait for another day.

If you've read this far, it's because your a hardcore hobby enthusiast and I thank you for your time.

Cheers

Kevin

Blood Bowl: Orcs: The Gouged Eye

Well I did it. 24 days from the post that said I was going to do this. This Saturday is my clubs local convention and I set down a little bit of time each day since the beginning of October to get this team ready to play a friend who is bringing one of his teams so we can throw down. With a day to spare I can't be happier. Well I could win the match Saturday and that would be even better!

I've always done Orcs in some fashion or form, whether fantasy or 40K, so how could I not pick this glorious team of smash mouth bad dudes, The Gouged Eye. The only thing left to do is try and learn the rules to play properly come this Saturday.

The box set comes with 12 Orc players, two Throwers, two Blitzers, two Black Orcs, and six lineman of three poses. So I will post a front and back of pair poses, and then the final picture will be of the whole team together.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

1st Lineman pose

2nd Lineman pose

3rd Lineman pose

Throwers

Blitzers

Bad ass Black Orcs

...and finally the whole team together

The only thing I wish is that they had made the kits so you could make more poses. The snap together parts make it harder (not impossible) to kit-bash. 

I have to add a couple of more Black Orcs and Blitzers, and then there is the cool Troll, and some goblins for him to toss. You gotta love a game were you have a Troll that can toss goblins around. I do!

Cheers

Kevin

No you did not!!!

One of my local buddies has talked to me about Blood Bowl in the past and said how he heard it was fun and might want to try it out. Of course it never happened. 

But that all changed last Friday when I met up online with a gaming buddy in UK and he wanted to play the computer game of said game (Blood Bowl). He said he had played it in a local shop and fooled around with game before trying it out with me and said there was no difference between computer game and miniature game. Well after playing the game I was wowed. It's pretty darn good. Lot's of decision making, dice rolling, etc. I won't go into great detail. Suffice it to say that Games Workshop made a good decision to update the figures etc. and has been bringing out teams since it's re release. If you wanna know all about the history of it click on the link here for the wiki site Blood Bowl

Well I had such a good time with it after we finished gaming I turned to my Wife and asked her if she'd like for me to take her out to dinner. She tilted her head and gave me that look that only a wife can give and said, "what's the catch?" I was like come on honey no catch, I just have to stop at the local hobby shop on the way, which she then rolled her eyes and said okay.

I happily took my Wife out to eat and on the way picked up a box of the Gouged Eye Orcs team pack to start painting up. Oh and it was the best tasting beer and hamburger I've had in a long time (probably because I was feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve).

 [Above all the figures cut off their sprues]

 [Being OCD I cut off all the parts belonging to figures and place them in separate bins to build once I've got them cleaned up (mold lines etc). The figures are snap together, but there is no way in heck I'm spending a lot of time painting these and have them come apart so I glued them in place.]

 [Figures mounted on my paint sticks and primed]

[The first few coats}

I have a local convention coming up October 27th, a small local thing. But I have a pal who has agreed to bring up his figures to play so my intent is to finish this starter team before I go off to buy more figures to add to it. You only need 11 to play, but I need a couple of other figures (Black Orcs, and Blitzers) to make it a competitive team.

Cheers for now

Kevin