Pre-Historicon: A Visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center (Air and Space Museum Annex)

Still playing catch up, here are some snaps from our all day visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, part of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  It is a huge facility where they keep the big stuff that won't fit in the building on the mall and is packed with amazing aircraft,

I HIGHLY recommend this, in fact if you have to choose between the main museum on the mall and this one, I recommend skipping the mall.  The Udvar-Hazy Center is less crowded and has many more aircraft.  We spent the entire day there and could have stayed longer.

Here is a small sample of what you can see: (Click to enlarge)

A Sparrowhak that flew from US Navy Dirigibles

A Stearman Trainer used by the Tuskegee Airmen

A Gyrocopter for you Pulp fan out there.

A Hawker Hurricane

The original Enola Gay

P-47 Thunderbolt

A Do-17 Jet Bomber (I think).  They have an amazing collection of German WW2 Jet and Rocket planes

You can look down into the hanger wheer they do restorations

And of course the Space Shuttle Discovery

The SR-71!

Mrs. Tin Man and I enjoying ourselves

This is just a tiny sample of what they have. Ok, next time I will finally get my actual Historicon pictures up. Until then, good gaming!

Pre-Historicon, Game 2

Got a second game in with the nephew before we went on vacation before Historicon.  This time, we played "Last Stand of the Zulus" from Nordic Weasel's Battle Pack #3.  The basic scenario is a group of special forces types are holding on to a hill against pursuing forces while waiting for extraction.

I adapted the scenario for 5Core, and added some skill cards to get the flavor and add some complexity for the boy.  We rolled a d6 at the end of each turn, and when the count reached 30, the extraction ship arrives, ending the game.

As you can see, I have a mix of SF troops, these are AT-43 troops versus Starship Troopers mobile infantry.

Here we see the pursing forces, 8 troops with body armor, one with machine gun and one with rocket launcher (treating a grenade launcher for this game)

And here we see the extra for the 4 SF operators, I gave them several skill cards to reflect thier ability and even the odds.  They had 3 assault rifles and one grenade launcher.

The pursuers start to move in.

SF trooper on the lookout.

Repositioning

The extraction ship lands... (A Finger and Toe model Tactical Bumble Bee)

A really fun game, the SF operators made it out with only 1 casualty, a good game for replay as well. 

Next time, one more game, then I will start posting vacation / Historicon pictures.

Pre-Historicon, Game 1

I am about a month or so behind in updates, wen on family vacation that morphed into Historicon.  Also had my wife's nephew with us again and we got a few games in.

I ginned up some stat cards for 5 Core Skirmish for Sci-Fi games and we got 4 games in before we left.  The vacation itself was great and I will be posting pictures from James Town as well as pictures and my thoughts on the Air and Space annex in Virginia.  Finally, hopefully in the next few days, I will give my take on Historicon 2015.

Meanwhile, here is a quick game we played, Karmans versus Humans.  The Karmans have dropped in with the mission of destroying a power generator, the humans mercenaries are tasked to guard it.  my nephew had the Karmans, and they managed the vitory, but lost 50% of their strength.  The cards are working out well.

Next time, more 5 Core action! Click pictures to enlarge.

The apes were all in Power Armor and armed with machine guns

There were 6 mercs, armed with assault rifles and 1 grenade launcher.

Here is the table setup

Here is your narrator with his opponent.

The big apes move in!

The end of the game had 4 out of 6 mercs down and headed for the rear, with 2 apes down.