Huzzah 2018

Yesterday, I spent the day at the annual gaming convention put on by the Maine Historical Wargaming Convention in Portland, Maine. I believe this is the biggest gaming event in the northeast and appeared to be well attended. Clearly a lot of work was put into the event and there was some very nice layouts. There were quite a few vendors but maybe less then the last time I was there 2 years ago.

I was late to register, I actually thought I would be working the weekend, but as it happened I was not. Unfortunately most of the TFL games that I would be interested in playing were already full and I was limited in my attendance to just one day of this 3 day event. I was able to register for a Big CoC game Saturday morning and a regular CoC game Saturday evening. 

I got up early, it is about a 90 minute drive from where I live and arrived just in time to find out the morning game was cancelled! I was not able to find an alternate game to play so watched a Sharp Practice game set during the Great Northern War. The gamesmaster Greg Symko did a great job of explaining the ruleset and was able to play it to conclusion in under 2 hours with 6 players and I think around 7-8 leaders per side. An accomplishment for sure.

In the afternoon, I was able to get in on a WWI skirmish game, using the Operation Squad ruleset on a very impressive terrain with Greyscale figures. Fun game, although I found the ruleset somewhat challenging, again the gamemasters did a great job moving things along.

I finally got to play a CoC game put on by Tom Ballou set during the Battle of Hürtgen Forrest. Again a great job was done on terrific terrain using a blend of CoC and At a Sharp End. I really enjoyed playing and got a chance to re-connect with Tom who first introduced me to CoC some years ago.

Anyway some photos to follow. There was a couple of other TFL games, one a Sharp Practice game set in the Napoleonic War by my friend Mike and another CoC game by Dick Bryant set during Normandy. Unfortunately no photos were taken.

Great Northern War with Sharp Practice 

The Bolt Action League of Maine had an absolutely fantastic group of 28mm tables set up for scheduled and pickup games. Not my cup of tea, but it is no wonder BA is so popular here.

An ACW game using Fire and Fury

Another ACW game using The Devil to Pay ruleset

Some Test of Honour tables. I probably would have liked to give this a try if there were openings

Operation Squad WWI game in greyscale, really amazing terrain and figures

An great looking Age of Sigmar game

Chain of Command: When Trumpets Fade, I wish I had taken more photos but I was pretty engrossed in the game