Noob Commander and Roving Reporter Joe Mezz reporting in. As you all are aware by now, the WWPD crew made the trek north for the HMGS convention Fall In. Luke, Jon, Steve and I debarked from the secret bunker Thursday afternoon and made some great time towards PA. On the way we were treated to numerous sites of Amish buggies and back roads thanks to Luke's Astromech Droid (iPhone). It made for an enjoyable ride indeed!
We got in Thursday evening and settled in for the weekend. WWPDers Chris Hecht and Chris Miller met up with us as well. The evening's event was Fantasy Flight's X-Wing board game. The first sortie was a trial run for the new pilots to grasp and learn the game.
The above photo of TIE #19 and TIE Advance #17 were my first squadron in the trial run game. TIE 19 did not last long as the opposing rebel forces swarmed Dirty Jon and I. My TIE advanced held out but not much longer. It was a rout and the rebels seized the day.
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| DJ and I moving forward |
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| Rebel's left flank crashing into our Imperials Right flank. Ugly. |
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| TIE #19 ... GONE in a blaze of no glory |
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| No mission = trouble and targets |
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| Forces square off ... |
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| Y-Wing and X-Wings protecting Shuttle 2 |
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| Dance my pretties, dance! |
It was a hard task at hand for the Rebels. TIEs swarmed in from everywhere. Luckily, our shuttles had some serious shields and hull points to absorb the incoming green laser fire. We were using the ion cannons on the Y-Wings to slow down TIEs as we patiently waited for the sluggish shuttles to move to jump points.
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| X-Wings running interference |
Our shuttle on the left flank had Dirty Jon's forces to contend with. Y-Wings dealt decent ion fire along with X-Wings in support to allow the shuttle to make it to the jump point! One shuttle is away!
The right flank was a slug fest. Our rebel fighters were dodging and weaving in front of TIEs to prevent the shuttle from absorbing any more fire. A cunning plan by Chris Hecht was set forth and allowed a TIE to deploy to our front. He used the force and rammed it into an asteroid thus allowing the reinforcement to come in front of the shuttle. Needless to say, our political envoy shuttle went up in a blaze. TIE achieved, no pun intended. A blast of a game and all were extremely happy.
Friday, 52 FOW players assembled for the doubles tournament and had a blast. The I95 guys once again had beautiful terrain to wage war on. Not only that, every game was a red vs blue! A first from my experience (Granted, I am the Noob Commander!)
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| Dirty Jon's Germans |
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| Luke & Dirty Jon's other Germans |
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| Steven's TDs |
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| Steve and Bill face Luke and Jon in round 1 |
I was able to get into a game of Dystopian Wars, after attempting to get into 3 other games! Mental note 504, preregister to get that elusive Force on Force rule set I have been wanting to try! Well I did want to try these rules as well so its a win. Unfortunately, the rule set was not my cup of tea. I moved my naval forces 37 inches in about 2 hours and 30 minutes. So by the end of the game my heart was not in it. I will say I love the miniatures! The game host was excellent and did a great job quick teaching the game as well.
Battlestar Galactica the board game. WWPD gamed it up and it was AWESOME. By far one of the best boardgames I have played in a long time. I won't try to recap the game but you should tune into Live from Fall In episode to get the scoop. Too much fun ! Needless to say, frakking toasters !
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| If you could have seen Dirty Jon's face ! |
Saga tournament was a happening place on Saturday. It allowed players to play as little or as much they wanted. It is an awesome, simple yet crunchy battle-board rule set. I am hooked and won my first game running Steve's Normans in saga fashion. Warlord style! My vikings are forming up for a raid as we speak.
Vendor hall was the usual collection point of the mad hobbyists, me being one of them! Some vendors were not able to make it due to the recent storm events but overall it was a good turn out. I was able to pick up the Saga rules, Gale Force 9 30mm bases, a box of Warlord's American Infantry for Bolt Action and Battlefront's plastic rubble bases. The flea market was just as fun. Good deals scored for American Paratroopers.
Saturday evening was the live podcast! We had a great turnout and everyone received giveaway prizes via the raffle. After the podcast we were able to get games going for the crowd. Games included Battlestar Galactica, Spartacus, X-Wing and Bolt Action !
I had a great time! It was great hanging with my fellow WWPDers as well as meeting all our readers and listeners. By far one of the best I have attended! Enjoy the pictures and get ready for our next convention arrival!
Joe ... aka Mezz
