Rock-Con 2017 Oct. 20-22

After a short time being known as What-Khan the original Rock-Con was back in 2017 at a new location.  The Tebala Shriner Hall in Rockford, IL was the host, providing affordable food all day.  The fully carpeted floors were a welcome addition and the two levels seemed to provide adequate space for all, even if there was some bumping among the well-attended games.  There were several vendors there, ranging from line reps to flea market types (my favorite).

I go to cons to try out new rules and get a game or two with old favorites.  In that respect Rock-Con did not disappoint.  In five games I got to sample four new (to me) rule sets.  I'm not going to go into game reports but instead give you extensive eye candy with as many as possible identified.  A big mistake in the program IMHO was listing games alphabetically rather than by slot.  So figuring out after the fact which game is which is a bit tough.  I think I got most of them.  Enjoy.

Battle of Huppy using Jagdpanzer 3rd edition

Rorke's Drift pre-game with Black Powder

Kings of War on the Chinese Frontier in 250BC

Test of Honor - my Samurai died

Briar's Run, War of 1812 using Black Powder

Battle of Auerstadt using Age of Eagles

First Day Gettysburg using Brigade level Fire and Fury

Battle of the Wonder Weapons with Rivet Wars

Battle of Trafalgar Yatzy using... something

Later in the Auerstadt battle.

My wife, satisfied after torpedoing the USS Arizona using Savage Skies

Close Action in 1780, a "what if" game

Close Action again, ending up a marginal French victory

Maybe Chain of Command: Ostfront

?Big Trouble in Little Chicago with Desperado?

Royal Slaughter or Better Than Lionheart

More Close Action

1914 using Bloody Big Battles

More 1914 action

B Movie Madness with home rules, always a big hit

"The World Wonders" using Naval Thunder

TF 34 appears and the world wonders no more

A gorgeous set up using quilting fabric.  Really captured the look.
Maybe the Undeaderod.

55 Days at Peking with house rules

Invasion of the Wainriders using Chainmail

Amazing looking table and figures

Another view of the Wainriders game

Here come the American fleet to the rescue of Taffy 3

One thing that really struck me was that between the professional mats and terrain boards the quality of the table has really risen in the last 10 years.  The team running the event with their minions are professional and reasonable to work with and always have great giveaways.  I didn't partake in the silent auction this year but there is always a wide range of items available.  I've gone five or six times now and never been disappointed.  Give it a try.

Wind on the Wadi

We continue to test "1916" by War Times Journal.  In this attacker-defender game we gave the former a near 2:1 advantage in units.  However, in the variable dice rolls the Commonwealth side got wire, trenches, mines and four on-table field pieces.  So big chunk of the numeric advantage was negated.  The German/Turkish force got a pre-game bombardment and both sides got three pre-registered call-fire spots.  Here's the table:

Commonwealth view of the left.  Some troops entrenched, some prone.

The pre-game bombardment took out a machine-gun nest on our left flank, which apparently was to be the main focus of their attack.

The far right.  The Central Powers could be no closer than 400
yards, or 20".

The left again.  Note the entrenched unit and mines in front.

One turn two the Turkish cavalry unit was unleashed.  We all expected them to be shot to pieces but inexplicably passed morale and savaged the first British unit defending.

The rampaging Turkish uhlans take huge losses but sweep on.

The enemy tried advancing by rushes, crawling prone, and just walking.

Having swept over the infantry, the uhlans hit the 75mm guns
and engineers attempting to dig them in.

Hitting two units were weren't sure how to resolved the assault.  After discussion we made the not universal decision to roll for each unit in contact.  The uhlans still won but narrowly and were wiped on in the subsequent fire phase.  Being so rare for cavalry to do anything, it's not surprising that the rules were vague.  But since we plan to stage most of our games in the Middle East, we'll need to pin it down.

The Indian troops in the palm trees are driven off, so the Highlanders
redeploy to the right from reserve.

1916 is a d6 game with a half-dozen possible modifiers, most of them hurting your "to hit" chances.  Unmodified, a roll of "one" gives no hits while a "six" kills three stands.  Quite a range of results on a d6.

Things are mighty thin for both sides on the left.  The mines
were effective though.

We are down three infantry units on the left and one 75.

Down one unit here, but heaps of Germans are out there, including
the feared flamethrowers.

After about eight turns the Germans and Turks had shot their bolt and called off the attack, the surviving Commonwealth forces were only too happy to see them go.  But more games are in our future.

Sand Gets in Everything!

We got together for a Flames of War 4th Edition game.  The mission was Annihilation and for the four (eventually five) of us we fielded roughly 200 points per side.  Fabric is really two tones of tan and brown but for some reason in my photography it comes out looking like snow.  Something about the artificial lighting I suppose. 

The British were tank-heavy with Grants, Crusaders and Honeys in abundance.  They/we also had two four-gun batteries of 25pdrs, mortars, 6pdrs, 17pdrs, Bofors, Universal Carriers and a little infantry with sticky bombs.  The Germans had one Tiger, long-barreled MkIVs, MkIIIs, MkIIs, a pair of 88s, Marders, Bisons, a pair of 105s, self-propelled AA and infantry.  Hurricanes and Stukas were available for the game as well.

Now that is an intimidating sight.

Honeys, Cruisers and Grants, with a pair of 17pdrs in the foreground.

On my side, two Grants were quickly lost and the third failed
the "Last Stand" test.

The Tiger drew a lot of attention and died quickly.  A trio of Stukas arrived but the Bofors shot down two.  British artillery ranged in quickly but hardly did anything all game. 

Outnumbered in armour and out-classed, the Germans suffer
on our left.

Lots of burners, though the 88s take a toll.

Time to get out of the bombardment and advance the reserves.

The aftermath of a pair of cannon armed Hurricanes air attack.

Elsewhere we can both hit (sometimes) but can't finish off the tanks.

The German self-propelled AA banzai charge and eliminate the
17pdrs. in a statistically unlikely result.  But the 25pdrs put an
end to them firing over open sights.

Infantry is pretty hapless/helpless against armour, so when they
assault the results are predictable.

We finally get the upper hand on British right.

With the Germans down to one tank, one 88 and some beat up infantry we quit.  No need to actually annihilate the enemy.  Though it ended rather lop-sided it really was a close game.  British got aircraft once in six tries and the Germans only twice.  Had either side gotten hot with firepower rolls it could have been over much sooner and differently.  I think we're starting to get the hang of the new edition.