Enfilade 09 Report

Well it's been another year that I've been lucky enough to attend NHMGS's (Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society's) Enfilade! Convention.

Normally this event is held on Memorial Day Weekend, which this year was 22-24 May at the Red Lion Inn in Olympia, WA.

Opening day was Friday and I wanted to get there as early as possible. While the convention usually opens at 2 PM (1400 hours for us military-types), I've hardly ever been lucky enough to arrive that early. Travelling this past Friday was particularly frustrating.

I was invited to attend a job-fair orientation up in Seattle, an event that lasted until 1 PM. Since I was nearby, I took the opportunity to have lunch with one of my close friends who works nearby the job-fair site. I left Seattle at 2 PM hoping to get to Olympia by 4:00.

No such luck. Due to the holiday weekend, Friday afternoon traffic was worse than usual. Plus I tried returning an item to a store, but since it was passed the due-date on their return policy, I couldn't get my money back. So not only did I waste $25 but 30 minutes of my time. So I didn't arrive at Enfilade until 5:30 PM.

Despite my love of wargaming, I also like to keep in shape. So I usually don't stay long on the first night because I want to get up early and do a short workout before going back to the gaming tables.

I thought I'd arrive early enough for the pre-registered gaming sign-up on Saturday morning. I overshot that by 45 minutes. So I got involved in the DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) Tournament.

More on DBA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bellis_Antiquitatis

http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/index.html

This session was an 8-player tournament pitting 4 Roman Players against 4 Barbarian players. I placed 2nd among the Roman Players!

Um, and 6th overall.

I had my heart set on playing, "The Battle of Rhode Island," hosted by Wes Rogers. His set-up is pictured below:

Wes ran the Napoleonic game I played at last year's Enfilade. This was the game I turned into my first YouTube film The Road to Eggmuehl. He's a great gamemaster and runs fast-pace, balanced and exciting scenarios.

Getting back to DBA, pictured below is my Roman Army advancing against the Visigoths at Adrianople. My opponent was Rich from Canada. We fought to a draw, each of us eliminating one unit from each other's army. I won the next battle, but then lost my last two. I took 22 pictures of Adrianople and will make a short YouTube film.

After re-playing the various Roman military disasters, I spent the next gaming period as a wargame correspondent for Chris Ewick's Battle of Kursk, using Flames of War:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flames_of_War

Chris is the owner of The Game Matrix, our local gaming store. About a month ago he asked me if I would film his game and I promised him I would.

I spent this game session entirely on my feet. There were 13 players involved in this game! Seven Russian players, most pictured below and 6 German players, not to mention Chris as the gamemaster and your's truly crowding around the table. I ended up taking 280 pictures for this tank vs tank bash! However, this is just "raw footage." I probably won't be able to use about 1/3 of my photos due to 13 pairs of arms and hands getting in the way.

The game was fought to a tie. The Germans destroyed enough Russian tanks to cause the Russians to be shaken, however the Russian's kept the Germans out of the town they were holding.


Pictured below is Chris (on the left in the black shirt) briefing the Russian players. The German players or off-camera to the left.



The last game I played was an unexpected choice for me: "The Battle of Naktong" (Korean War):
The rules used were Cold War Commander:

http://www.blitzkrieg-commander.com/default.aspx?Area=CWC

I decided to play this when I found out that one of my wargaming buddies, Adrian was playing. We both ended up being the North Koreans determined to drive the Yanqui Devils from the People's Democratic Republic. The rules required unit commanders to "activate" the units under their command by rolling 2x6-sided dice. If the player rolls the commander's "activation rating" or less, then the unit can move, or shoot. A unit as often as it is activated. Once a commander blows his die roll then the unit stops.

My infantry couldn't even make it out of Naktong village! (This is partially seen at the bottom of the picture). I guess the People's Democratic Republic soldiers decided they preferred drinking decadent soju over fighting the Republic's enemies.

After taking 97 pictures of this battle, my camera's battery finally died when we were about 3/4th's of they way through the game. I took 97 pictures of this battle.

Adrian's infantry was seriously mauled on the hill of our left flank. My armored column (minus the drunken infantry) drive down the right-flank valley destroying 2 Yanqui Chaffee tanks. Unfortunately 2 of the white-devil's Pershing tanks showed up and destroyed one of my SU-76's which blocked the pass. Fortunately Adrian's armored column destroyed the Yanqui tanks in the left-flank valley.

The path to victory lay open to the glorious army of the People's Democratic Republic and it's Dear Leader!

Seriously, it was a fun convention and it was great seeing several of the guys I've gotten to know these past several years.

I'm looking forward to Enfilade 2010!