Southern Front Report 2019

We are back from vacation and I finally have time to report on my visit to the Southern Front Wargaming Convention in Raliegh, North Carolina.


First off, I cannot praise the organizers enough.  It is a small but very well run event.  I vastly prefer attending small conventions as compared to my last visit to Historicon a few years ago.  I suspect I am getting cranky in my old age, but crowds and noise are not my favorites anymore!

There were only 8 games running at once, in a single room, but they were all high quality and the ratios of games to players were good.  There were plenty of vendors (I will show off my loot in another post)

Saturday morning, I played in a game that was one of the peak wargaming experiences of my career (tm) and Saturday evening I ran a game of Astounding Tales 2!  Here is a summary:

Random Shots

Here are a few random pics of other games going on, it is NOT representative.  There were some really great looking games.  I missed Saturday afternoon (the missus and I went to lunch), but here are some from the other 2 Saturday slots.

Chain of Command.  There were many games run in various theaters, I wish I had been able to work it in.  Looked great! 

Wings of War, with honking great German Bombers

Little Round Top

A really nice Napoleonics game in 28mm.  I love the ground cloth and I think they were using the Blucher computer moderated rules. 

WW2 Double-Blind Crossfire

I may exaggerate occasionally, but this was one of the peak gaming experiences of my tabletop career!  It was a double-blind game of Crossfire run by Mike Tyson (Thank you Mike, if you read this!) 

He had two identical tables set up next to each other divided by a clever curtain on a PVC pipe frame.

This is all I saw of the opposition...

The scenario was early war Eastern Front, and I draw the Russian straw.  As I was the only player who had and Crossfire experience, I was nominated to be the COmpany commander.  Or else, per the Commisar.

Each side had a company plus some armor support in a meeting engagement.  I cannot give a blow by blow as I was completely engaged in the game, but a few observations:

• The rules worked well.  Mike also had an assistant umpire on each table, which helped greatly.  Crossfire was a great choice of rules as it flowed well, he kept the tables roughly in synch.  The rules are simple enough that they were almost transparent to the experience of "where the heck is he? Should I try to cross that open ground? Where the hell did those guys come from ?!?!?!"  He made some mods to allow continuous fire until you failed, and I have to say they worked well.  We came to a decision in 2 hours and even the guys who had their platoons wiped out enjoyed it.
• We lost, but barely.  each player took a platoon, and I also had the company commander and a T-26's and SU-76. But my master plan of ordering one of the platoon leaders to retreat across an open field to "draw in" the Panzer 38T to the muzzle of my SU-76 ended in lots of dead Russians shot in the back in the above-mentioned field.
• I spent 4 turns firing into what turned out to be an empty wood because I thought Germans might be in there and ammo is cheaper than bodies, even for Russians.  When does that happen in a normal game? 

It really is the best way to wargame, suddenly recon becomes vital as it is in real life and fire and movement really becomes viable and overwatch comes into its own at the tactical level.  The fog of war was heavy too, with a lot of command friction and uncertainty. 

I am so inspired, I am working on my own double-blind game, but on a different scale. Stay tuned for details.

I will leave you with this quote of the game:"Umpire: You just got shot at by a machine gun.  Player: Crap, what machine gun ?!?!?!"

Here are some snaps.

My fellow Soviet players

Movement to contact, Two Russian platoons advance in line at the top, my guys are at the bottom

My Comrade's platoon in the center, getting ready to peek through the hedge...

The endgame, where my SU-76 waited in ambush for a target that never showed up.  I did not know that he had spotted me and knew I was there.  That is an important thing about double-blind, you not only don't know where the other guys are all the time, but you don't know what he knows about you!

Kudos to John Acar, the German player opposite me, who also played it slow and used lots of recon and bounding overwatch.  As a result, he easily avoided my ambush It was good to roll dice with you again.

Astounding Tales 2!

Saturday Evening, I ran my Death Temple of Sarnath game, with a full crew of 8 players! Here is the background information and the last couple of times I ran the game:

• Canadian Heiress Kidnapped!!!!
• Battle report from Southern Front 2017, Game 2
• Battle Report from Siege of Augusta 2018
• Scenario and player aids

I was busy running around GM-ing the game but, fun was had by all!  It ended with the Nazis winning and making off with the Eye of Azathoth, the Gangsters recapturing Shirley Uoff after she had been rescued by the RCMP just before she could get on the plane, and the Zanzibar Slavers deciding the kidnapping Miss Lemon would do and hauling her off for shipment to the slave markets of Istanbul.

Here are a few snaps from the game.

Everyone fully engaged!

Hercule Poirot ponders his next move

Doc Savage prepares to punch out a few robots.  Supreme Subjicator Zenobia of the Radon Zombies of the Ionosphere had also crash-landed in the jungle.

That is all for now, next time I will recap our vacation, which does almost have some wargaming content!

Siege of Augusta Part 2: Scenario, Player Aids, and After Action Review

Here is a link to my Google drive folder with the scenario and all the player aids I used!


If you played or observed my game, or just have an opinion, please leave a comment below.

As I started running convention games again after my experience at Historicon last year, I try to do a short after action review after each convention to make my games better.  My old Section Chief would be proud...

I hope anything running a game of any sort will find this useful.

Here are some good things that I think I want to SUSTAIN:

1. Under advice from the players I had at Southern Front, I reduced the table size, getting everyone into the action faster.  Plus it was easier for kids playing to reach and adults could sit down and play.
2. I had a sign in sheet at my table, that included a sign saying "Returning at [X] PM" whenever we went to eat.  This really reassured players that we were coming back and would start on time, so they did not go looking for another game for fear this one would not happen. ()This was my wife's idea!)
3. Started at 9:30 on Saturday morning and not at 89am sharp, this let me pick up a lot of players that got in a little later.
4. Be Welcoming!  I had walk-on parts available and was able to handle folks who just walked by and wanted to join in or got there a little late. Partially because...
5. PULP = FUN, the genre is good for that,  Maybe not so much if you are doing Wagram, but pulp style games are perfect for that.
6. Games were FAST, between 1 1/2 and 2 hours playing time.  This meant no one got bored and everyone has time to shop the vendors and look at other games too.
7. I used director's judgment on when to stop the game.  Otherwise, folks will fight to the last man.  Once it became apparent that folks were going to get away, I pulled the plug.  Nothing ends a game like having a Great Old one show up!

Some things I still want to sustain that I did time before last as well are:

• Pack ahead of time
• Range Sticks and quick play sheets still worked well.
• Have a defined goal in mind.  Mine was a fast fun, engaging game that lasted no longer than 2 hours.

Here are a few areas of improvement I think I want to tweak for next time.

1. Maybe a small headset and speaker.  My wife is a teacher and has one, it would allow me to stay out of the way more and everyone can hear me as I walk around the perimeter.
2. I had a 3rd table that I gave up for another GM.  It was the right thing to do, but if possible it would have made managing extra stuff easier such as...
3. Staging props and figures that can show up on the table at any time.  I spent too much time rummaging under the table for dinosaurs and quicksand traps.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience, I am thinking about my next scenario and am feeling Rocket Men and ships.  Lots of ships.

Until then, good gaming!

Siege of Augusta, Part 1: The games

Thanks to everyone who played in my games at Siege of Augusta Saturday, and especially thanks to my lovely and talented wife, without whom it would not have been possible.   She did all of the terrain set up and without her support, there is no way I could have done this three times in one day!

Here is some promised info:

• The background briefing
• Astounding Tales is available here at Wargames Vault
• Most of my figures come from Pulp Figures 

I'll be posting my Siege report in 3 parts:

1. Recaps and pictures of the games (I ran 3 on Saturday)
2. An After Action Review of how they went from a GM point of view
3. Some observations about the con.

Game 1: The world was saved, the girl was saved, and Fu Manchu made off with the artifact

Game 2: The girl was saved, the cultists stopped, but Fu Manchu summoned the Old Ones for his own nefarious schemes!

Game 3: The world was saved, the girl was saved, Doc Savage Gunned down, the slavers summoned a dinosaur, and Fu Manchu hypnotized it!

I hope everyone who played had a good time.  It was a lot of fun to run and every game someone came up with something new to try.  Thanks once again to my wife and until next time, good gaming!

Death Temple of Sarnath, Southern Front Game 2

Just a few quick pictures from the weekend before last. Highlights of the game included:

• Multiple non-aggression pacts between the Gangsters and British Colonial Troops, that conveniently expired on the British payer's turn!
• Doc Savage's inability to punch out a cultist for 3 turns in a row!
• Nazi Sergeant Shutlz runs up and grabs the Eye of Azathoth...
• ... and then is immediately mesmerized by Shay Lee's feminine wiles and gives the eye to her...
• ... until Doc Savage quickly builds a magnetic resonator to seize the eye from her!

A close run game, Doc Savage barely made it off the table, but the aircraft he was in was shot down!  We'll play the scenario next year.  Thanks to everyone who participated, you were awesome!

Doctor Fu Manchu's party was attacked by cannibals, but several immediately joined up with him under the influence of his hypnotic powers.

Things heat up at the old temple...

Tom prepares to use his feminine wiles again to seduce more unsuspecting cannibals and nazis.

Doc savage seizes the Mcguffin, err I mean Eye of Azathoth using the power of SCIENCE!!!!

Death Temple of Sarnath: Southern Front Game 1

I traveled to Raleigh, NC last weekend for Southern Front put on by the Triangle Simulation Society. I must say it was a blast, I had the opportunity to meet many fellow gamers and the best part was just sitting around shooting the breeze about military history with like minded fellows.  In particular, I got to meet and talk rules with John of John's Wargaming page. It was a pleasure!  

I encourage anyone who can to attend next year, it is a small but cozy convention, I think they had about 70 participants and all of the people were friendly and the games looked great.  And it was much quieter than Historicon. 

Here are the files I used for the scenario, please feel free to use them.  I will be putting up a Pulp specific page on my website, but this will give you access until then. 

I am going to post my recap of the event in parts, mostly because I am still trying to recover, I stayed up way past my bedtime.

I arrived late Friday night and immediately crashed after stacking up my stuff for my game.

I arose at 7, had a nice breakfast, and set up my table to be ready at 9.

But, I had no players!  I was set up in one of the side rooms and did not get a lot of foot traffic.  No worries, though, I was actually glad.  I needed the time to regroup from driving 5 hours the night before to get there after work.  So, I wandered about and took a few pictures, will share them in a future post. 

Meanwhile, here is what my setup looked like. 

Hercules Poirot and the RCMP ready for action 

 While Arab Slavers look for product for the slave markets of Oman

 The Bugsy and Bunny Gang arrive, seeing revenge on Alexander Crawley, who double crossed them and stole the heiress they kidnapped fair and square!

 Meanwhile, researchers from the German Institute for Theosophical Studies parachute in searching for artifacts...

Doc Savage and crew are intent on saving the world.

Alexander Crawley prepares for blasphemous rites 

Miss Shirley Uoff struggles at her bonds, hoping to avoid a fate worse than death!

Game 1

I had a full house for my 2pm game, 8 players! I did not record the action blow by blow, as I was running about keeping the ball rolling, but some highlights include:

• The player playing the Germans was actually German, so the accent was spot on!
• Lots of people sinking in quick sand
• Dinosaur attack on the RCMP
• Hercules Poirot cleverly using his telescope to figure things out from afar (this actually was quit clever)
• Fu Manchu versus the Cannibals
• Miss Lemon saving the world with a precise shot that shatters the EYE OF AZATHOTH, preventing who knows what evil from fully materializing into our world.
• Gangsters versus Feral Goats
• A cultist machine gun that literally could not hit targets 3 inches away while rolling 12 dice...
• The RCMP, Hercules Poirot, and the heiress taking off in the seaplane, only to have it blow up in a magnificent ball of fire after the Germans shoot it with a flare gun!
• In the end we voted and the Gangsters won, as they achieved their objective of murdering Crawley in revenge, with the artifact destroyed and the girl toast, everyone else was pretty much out of luck.

The game took right at 2 hours, so met my speed requirements.  Also, I asked for and got great feedback from the players on the scenario, specifically, some factions that had no fire arms needed to start closer in!  I did that for game 2, and I actually think for the next time i run this, I will go with a 4 x 4 table to get everyone in the action a little quicker.  All in all though, everyone seemed to have fun, which is the important part!

Here are some shots from the first game, next time, a recap of game 2!

 Here are my erstwhile players, you never met a finer bunch of near'do wells and lovable rouges.

 The RCMP immediately after the dino attack.  Being Canadian, I am sure there will be a LOT of paperwork for this one. 

 Fu Manchu and company struggle with Cannibals while the gangsters close in.  The colonial authorities can be seen at top, they are busy exchanging shots with slavers. 

An unspeakable horror began to materialize, but fortunately, Miss Lemon put an end to that nonsense!

Canadian Heiress Kidnapped!!!

This is a blatant attempt to drum up players for my game "Death Temple of Sarnath" at Southern Front in Raleigh, NC October 7th.

Here is a teaser I came up with, I will brief the players at the game.  Enjoy!

Built a fortified compound for Nyasaland

In between starting up a play by email matrix game and the rest of my life, I have been working on terrain for my upcoming convention games.

I built a small fortified compound I have built for Darkest Africa out of scraps I had laying around.  I did not want it to be too large, just big enough to hold maybe a dozen defenders comfortably and not dominate the table too much.  I originally wanted to make a traditional fortified tembe, but it would have had to have been larger than I wanted in order to hold defenders in each of the rooms.  So, I compromised on a small fortified compound that can serve as a mission or trading post.

This is an essential piece of terrain for my Nyasaland 1888 game I will be running and will serve as the centerpiece.  I will not provide a step by step, as there are many great tutorials on foam core terrain building, but hopefully you will see you can build decent terrain, on the cheap, with minimal skills.  I learned how to do this from the old Major General's website, visit it if you have never been before. Click photos to enlarge.

All the materials.  I based it on a scrap piece of peel and stick tile I had laying about.  The corners are joined using one of these, cheap but essential for foamboard buildings!  Door s made from stir sticks I found in a drawer.

And here we are after applying spackle with my fingers and a rubber glove. I paid extra attention to the exposed foam areas, as I intend to cheap and spray paint the thing.  Spray paint tends to each foam.

After the aforementioned spray painting with a can of tan paint I had in the garage (I bought nothing extra for this project) 

A little magic oven.... Next I dry brushed the walls, applied sand and gravel with watered down glue to the base, dry brushed it, added static grass, and made a roof from felt. 

Here you can see the garrison, ready to withstand attack, provisioned with plenty of water and supplies.  The Rev. Pimplebottom and his beautiful daughter Penelope are in the center.

Another angle

And a third angle with the roof removed, showing more defenders.  This was the last major thing I needed to do to prepare for running the games over the next few months, so now on to the details, where I hear the devil lives.

Until next time, good gaming!