Convention fun from the near past Dak Kon 17 : Zombie!

 The DakKon Convention was mostly about role-playing and card games (Magic mostly)

I had often attempted to bring in all sorts of other games to liven up the mix.

This time round was no different.

pre-game setup

The organizers had hoped to do a bunch of warhammer 40K, I think it was a tournament?
Sadly there were few entrants and a lot of time the upper floor was empty - made for a challenge to get new players to take a look at anything in such an empty space.

Understandable that the format changed in a year later the event had a new name and was all about costuming and sci-fi and fantasy fan fun.

this was to be the last Dak-Kon in 2012

The convention things went really quiet after a dud of a run, then more tries at it until the 2020 unpleasantness.

There have been a couple of fan events, mostly centered around costuming?  

Since the local tabletop minis games scene has been more interested in 40K I have not been involved.
Great that the Nanaimo crew (that we did the Leipzig game a couple of months ago) has some activity that interests me - considering it is a 90 minute drive one way, there must be some actual interest or I could not convince myself to use the resources to go.

Now there are two game stores in the city, each one has mostly a 40K minis focus, and some MTG, one has permitted the tabletop minis game (last November) and the other might be convinced ... though once I get my table done I can foresee less interest in any travel unless it is for a really good game.

backwards view 2005 :: Dak-Kon convention room

 For a number of years after I left the Comox Valley a group of gamers set up a local game-player run convention, called Dak-Kon.

when I came back it was still running, though in need of some new energy, which I gave along with bringing in some new game players.

I have very few still images from these events - as I was not doing much documentation of them at the time.

 I did find this 'pixaround' image that I did of a moment in time during the 2005 Dak-Kon X

The original file is a self-running 'postcard' that does a slow pan, or you can clik on it and control the speed or zoom in on a part of the image, of (in this case) the 360 degree circle around the room, that I built with images taken while slowly turning in a circle.

 

I was unable to get that 'postcard' file to enter into the blog, though I have been able to send it as an attachment in an email.

I did some freeze frames of the image so as to help capture that time here on the blog.

the empty table in the foreground was the game I was
running at the time

Some faces here will appear in other posts covering the time before the blog, and indeed there's a few that have changed over time in this blog over the past 20 years, at least a few are likely to make more appearances in the future.

Paperwork

 re-setting games activities from many decades is no straight forward task

I have been involved in the organization of my own little table group and a number of convention organizations from the Comox valley to Halifax and many places and sizes in-between

 I stumbled upon this character sheet today in the process of re-packing and preparing to move on items and it reminded me of the blog today

the TOON character sheet

 I did some TOON games back in the 1990s and ran a few at convention events, something quick and silly to find friends with active imaginations.

The boys did some TOON games at the library, in the 2010s, now I have moved on the paperwork and only have the main rule-book (I think) and plan to get this heavier weight paper sheet included with whatever remains of the game set.

Corunna AAR :: SHAKO 2 rules

 I love it when a plan comes together!

I was asked by an east coast group to support the virtual Huzzah convention with a tabletop game online.

I chose Corunna as a candidate as I had not done that one, and the event was happening over the anniversary of the battle.

the situation at Corunna

 A player from the convention list who had signed up for the game had a family emergency and ended up cancelling all his convention games.

It meant that I was going to have to fill in his spot for opponent as I had Chris ready to go.

I used a scenario from the Programmed War-gaming Scenario book that best 'fit' the general situation of Corunna.

Chris chose to be the British defenders, so he got this map for planning out his forces:

the 'left - center - right' of the table, with the top end being for
the defenders to set up - in this case British

This left the French, attackers, to me to plan out.  I have attempted flank attacks many times before and each time something did not go quite to 'plan' - still I know that the flank attack has worked out very well from history - so flank attack it would be again ...

the 'left - center - right' of the table, with the bottom end
for the defenders to set up - in this case French

overall table view and broadcast booth

troops deployed from French left view

troops deployed from British right view

right flank of British line

center and right of British line

French division on hill with HQ and artillery

marching French division on French right wing

only a little shift in turn 1 movement

the British horse was on the flank ...

view of the field at start of turn 3

British guns were firing consistently, hitting on the averages 30%

that British Light Dragoon force was intent on holding the flank

they had a view over the whole battlefield

British foot and guns lined the hill ...

French voltiguer were the first to get a clear view
of the horse on the flank ...

unknown at the time, yet suspected, turn 4 would be the pivotal moment
in this engagement

British horse would be hit hard ...

French at the center would start to move off

the French right flank ... scene of the action

British center, artillery continued to pound away ...

French Chasseur and Hussar engaged the British Light Dragoons
from front and rear!

surrounded in melee

The Light Dragoons did not survive

... and neither did General Paget!
(future Earl of Uxbridge)

We had some viewers in the twitch stream and one asked about the terrain pieces, so we took a moment to feature my 'weeble' trees:

overview at turn 5

the French right flank moved forward while the horse
'rested' to remove the 'blown' markers

British right flank realized the battle was all on the
left and was frantically maneuvering to get into the battle

by turn 6 it was almost too late as the French horse
now slammed into the flank - thankfully a 'hasty square' was formed

French horse guns press forward

placing the square at 'point blank' range for turn 7

the British square held ... for now

French columns were pressing forward ...

Turn 7 would be the final moment for this battle ...

a rush from the British right to left would not
make enough difference now ...

valiant though it was

French columns smash into the lines on the
British left

further on the left artillery pounded away

at point blank range!

while British artillery did do some damage, it was not enough

the French at the center held

firing back at the British center from in front of HQ
(Soult and staff in the foreground)

artillery fire (as seen online)

close range

cavalry charge into the flank of a line
which failed to make 'hasty square'

shattering the British line unit

pressing on into the first square - then failing in close combat
forced to retreat

British batteries were charged by French columns

both were hit

both were utterly destroyed

General Moore would not be able to hold the field this day ...

not boding well for the evacuation at the port either

French light horse reigned supreme on the field today

while the foot were doing the job of smashing artillery

leaving the British foot vulnerable ...

while not a rout, this was certainly a French victory

view online (see video at end of post)

thanking the viewers

our 'tech' section

my miniatures storage system
in mobile mode

All-in-all it was a great way to spend a day in study of Napoleonic tactics in a much more open field situation than I have used in a while.

Video of the final wrap up follows.

And a copy of the French 'planning map':