A Gaming Convention of My Own

While it may have paled in comparison to GenCon, this past weekend, I managed to get in a bit more gaming activity than usual and without any travel or entry fees. Hence the title of this post.

As a result of a conversation with my 7-year old about my intent to play an RPG at DragonCon (our biggest local nerd event) this year, I ended up running two short "5-Room Dungeon" sessions of Dungeons & Dragons for him, using Moldvay's Basic / Expert set from 1983 or thereabouts (and by far my favorite edition of the game).

We kept close to the rules for mechanics, but played fast and loose with setting and such. There was a  "phase sword", pseudo-science, magic, knights, and a telepathic pet rhinoceros. It was a mash up of a traditional pseudo-medieval setting / Gamma World style post-apocalypse, and Star Wars with heavy emphasis on emergent player-driven setting details, i.e. if he came up with something about the game world, I said either "Yes, and" or "Yes, but".

Both sessions were quite enjoyable - it was refreshing to hear his ideas about what will happen or what things mean, as he is not saddled with decades of the standard D&D tropes. The next session is planned for Tuesday night, which gives me a little time to come up with the next adventure hook.

On the wargaming front, in addition to rounding the corners on all of the counters for the ASL Starter Kit #1 (a tedious process that really does make the counters that much nicer), I put figures on the table on Friday night, playing the One Hour Wargames scenario "An Unfortunate Oversight".

I used the OHW force generation and setup, but played using my preferred rules for these scenarios: a slightly modified Morschauser's Moderns with roster system (which I track with a die).  I also set 50% units lost as the automatic break point for the armies. As the game played quickly, I had time to play the scenario twice.

The setup was more or less the same for both games:

Germans are within 12" of the village, Soviets are South of the river - placed by die roll.

Game one:

The Soviets crossedd the river at a ford and come under fire from German infantry on the hill and the German armor.

With the Soviet armor moving perpendicular the German Panzers it wasn't going to end well for the Soviets.

The unit of T-34s was stopped dead in its tracks. No pun intended.

But the Soviet armor outnumbered what the Germans had brought to bear.

In the end though, the Soviet infantry proved to be the deciding factor and the Germans were forced to retreat.

I had thought at this scale, with the battle more or less joined from the start, allowing the ATG to move didn't make sense, but in the end it really wasn't fair that it was stuck in one place. So, for the second game,  I opted to let the ATG move (pretending it had some kind of transport). Again, the setup was basically the same as the first game.

Game two:

The Soviets crossed the ford again, but sent a unit of T-34s around through the village to put pressure on the Germans.

Would the patriots of Mother Russia make it across the river to aid their comrades on the hill?

The combined Soviet infantry anti-tank grenades and fire from the T-34 platoon, which had moved behind the hill, made fast work of the German armor.

The Soviet ATG unit fired a continuous barrage of anti-personnel rounds.

The German ATG unit tackled the Soviet armor advancing through the village and bravely continued firing in the face of aggressive counter-fire.  Both sides proved incapable of delivering a decisive blow, and the Red armor inched closer and closer.

On the hill the burning wreckage left little room for German infantry to stake a claim, while the Soviet infantry swarmed towards the hill, encircling the Germans. Off-camera, the Soviet armor overran the German ATG position sealing the Soviet victory.