Well here's what seems to be a quarterly post from me nowadays. I've been preoccupied with my other hobby (the guitar thing), but did manage to get up to the Boeing Museum of Flight for a game day. This was the first time since 2019 - the museum was closed for most of 2020 and 2021. Not only was it nice to see the museum again (free of charge thanks to our partnership with them on a hobby day there), but I also got into great games for the two periods. The first was an air race run by our good NHMGS president Kevin Smyth - who also is the liaison with the museum. He's run this game for years at many venues, including this one, but this was my first time playing in it. I had some very good die rolls in the beginning of the game which had me in first place for the first lap and part of the second. I flew a Gee Bee Model R1 and finished mid pack. In the second period, I played in a Napoleonic Austrian vs. Bavarian game using the new Valour & Fortitude rules. I was overall general for the Austrians' three brigades and ended the battle holding two of the three key positions but losing a good number of units. I tend to do not-so-sound things with units like Hussars. The game was a either a close draw or a minor victory for the Bavarians - depending on whose side you were on. I think we won due to some errors made by the GM only discovered after the battle. One being my Grenzers not being able to follow up an attack after the shooting phase. Quite a different set of rules from the usual ones. For instance, firing is before movement and you cannot make a normal movement if the unit fired. Otherwise a great way to spend the day with good gaming buddies and a wonderful venue. I've also included a few pics of some marvelous displays from the IPMS group co-located near us under the SR-71.
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| The "Great Hall" at the museum where we are located next to the SR-71. We used to be under it, but it's been taken over by the IPMS guys. There's actually darker and harder to see stuff under it anyway. Besides the this area, there are several other large rooms connected to it - included the WW1 and WW2 displays. Since I played in both periods I neglected to see those areas - although I've been to them several times in the past. |
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| That's our NHMGS group on the far side of the Blackbird. |
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| The start of the air race. That's my red and white Gee Bee R-1 in the pole position as I rolled the high number and got to start first. I rolled 11's on the D12 for full throttle most of the first lap - to the chagrin of my fellow racers. |
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| An historical scenario of a battle during the Puget Sound War between local indigenous tribes and US forces circa 1855. The rules used were Brother Against Brother. |
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| DBA tables. Since there were a lot of visitors to the museum a few folks got there first taste of gaming today. |
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| A Wings of War game. |
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| Fantasy Gnome Wars. |
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| A close up of US troops in the Puget Sound War battle. |
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| Start of lap 2 of the Air Race game - I've trailed to second place. |
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| The Bavarian vs. Austrian game using Valour & Fortitude. |
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| Pony Wars game. |
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| The Valour & Fortitude around turn 3. |
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| Some of the IPMS displays - putting our terrain to shame. |
