The yearly 'greatest tabletop wargaming event' held place on Sunday Dec 7. I went out in the morning at about 10am, took 5 stops with a bus to get there. In the last two years the entry fee has been more than before but it's still very cheap. Flea marketers have to pay double amount but I did not go with the intention of buying or selling anything.
Venue is still in a primary school's gym and at the time it was very crowded. This post is going to focus more on historical games and what I joined in and played.
By Fire&Sword in 15mm.
Epic 40k - most games were of the usual GW variety (LOTR, Mordheim and the mandatory 40k) of which I had little interest in.
I stopped by asking about the terrain at this Infinity table as I'd have liked some guidelines for my own Nova Hungaria project, then stayed for a session that didn't last very long - it's based on a d20 mechanic and has an interesting flow of orders-action-reaction, something I might get into someday.
My only casualty was this sniper killed in a rocket blast. I managed to roll consistently (rarely happens!) and with this model knocked out two enemies. My opponent (also a newbie) fudged almost all his rolls (which helped me a great deal). An enjoyable and quick game. The owners of the table, the guy I fought against and I had a great chat after the game.
15mm Flames of War.
Force on Force with 1/72 figures, a scenario based on Black Hawk Down. Played the two Delta Force guys coming to rescue the helicopter pilot. The game uses all sorts of dice from d6 to d12, representing unit quality, and also an action-reaction based turn.
The Somali reinforcements arrived at a varying rate but the Delta guys' superior firepower meant the game was pretty one-sided, the guys running the table said they were testing if the baddies would have to use d6 or d8, well d6 proved to be quite ineffective.
20mm(?) Rapid Fire on the western front.
Met with János (fellow Hungarian blogger and wargamer) at this table and we discussed a few topics, he also gave me a bunch of Italeri/Revell/Strelets and some metal ACW and Tumbling Dice late WW1 German figures, of which the former will be used for Nova Hungaria (the cavalry came especially handy) and the latter for the Fleet Grey/Green project if it ever sees the light (I actually splashed some paint on the Zvezda Russians but I couldn't say it was any progress). A very generous gift.
All in all, an enjoyable day. I had spent almost 5 hours on the venue and stood through it (still have some persistence left from the summer job where I had to stand for 10 hours). The guys at most of the tables were friendly and welcoming.
I have a few remarks to make: compared to larger shows I had seen on the blogs I follow, some tables' layouts were still amateurish. It would require next to nothing, for example, to splash some sand or paint on that Force on Force table and buildings - the game was extremely enjoyable but it takes something away from the immersion. János said the same about a GorkaMorka (or something of that style) table (featuring an orkified Sherman tank and Trabant 601) that was very crudely made although the game seemed fun, but it can raise less attention and avert possible players when your race track is some white lines marked on a brown board without any basic additions like a few plasticard buildings and lego tires along the way. So: it is OK to bring something like that to a club night, but it is not OK to bring to a show, irrelevant of how local it is (being advertised as the largest during the whole year???). It is also not OK to bring unpainted models to a demo game (like on the Firestorm Armada table). A lots of cool ideas remain unfulfilled, and although everyone's having fun, it could be made a lot better with just a little more work.
If you'd like to see more photos, you can visit the 'Games Day Budapest' FB page, there are loads, of the entries to the painting competition and other tables too, and they are, to my knowledge, public.
(Games Day FB-oldaláról és innen-onnan érkezőknek: kommentálni Google-profillal lehet a spam miatt.)
(Games Day FB-oldaláról és innen-onnan érkezőknek: kommentálni Google-profillal lehet a spam miatt.)
Always good to see games and shows in other countries. I agree that painted terrain and figures are better, but we never know what's going on in the club that put the game on. Maybe they had a bad problem the night before and had to put a different game on. But a good club is not relient on a single person. Thanks for sharing your day. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the wise words - of course many factors play their part in this, and it was not a major thing compared to the show's overall quality.
Deletethanks for sharing your experience and opinions, very useful!
ReplyDeletebye
Glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteThat looks like a great day out and I love the look of some of those games, especially the Delta Force one - I've always fancied the modern era games.
ReplyDeleteIt was; I, too, was thinking about playing 20mm moderns in my 'Jazygia 1996' setting, but then I started other projects and it got sort of ignored.
DeleteHi András! I am glad, you enjoyed the day as much as I did. I am sure the figures have a great new home, looking forward to see some in this blog after your exam period. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks - I will certainly paint them as soon as time allows.
DeleteSounds like a great day. My attitude to presentation tends to be a bit more forgiving - an 'amateurish' approach often being a greater draw than slick appearance. I do believe, though, that it is a good idea to keep game detritus (dice and templates not in use) and food and drinks off the playing surface as much as possible. That is a turn-off.
ReplyDeleteI think the problems with the over-slick presentations are: 1. that kind of presentation requires time and money that could be spent (I think) more profitably elsewhere; and 2. I often find it feels claustrophobic. I liked the set-up for the Black Hawk Down gig, whih looked like very simple, but well-crafted scratchbuilt buildings. Very nice. But why did they wait until the show itself to playtest whether the Indigenous Resistance to U.S. Imperialism required a D6 or D8?
Cheers,
Ion
Food and drink was not allowed in the game hall(explained in a forum thread as the school's sole wish to the organizers). At least that was the official approach which I and many other people (especially those holding demo games and thus talking all day) disregarded.
DeleteThe Force on Force guys had a small gaming area and thus the dice and reinforcements could be kept off that - something most people could not achieve because of lack of space in general (hundreds of people, vendors and a good deal of tables limits it very much).
I'm not sure about the reasons as I'm not familiar with the scenario's presentation if played by the rules and how much versatility it allows.
Thank you for writing about our Force-on-Force table - and most of all, thanks for playing with us! We also gladly accept the critics, and will try to improve our terrains' outlook. We are full of ideas, but always short on time.
DeleteF&B: yup, I also drank at our table, but that was against something that was written in the house rules in case of PE lessons and sport events, but cannot be truly enforced through a con like this. Standing there all day long and talking took the toll on my voice oon the next day anyway. As for eating, I wash my hands - I went out to have my lunch, and to spare the unpleasant conversation with the janitor lad. :)
Sidenote: nem akarod bejegyeztetni a blogot az inkvizítor blogfigyelőbe? Én is csak János blogjáról idelinkelve találtam meg.
Ion: Thank you for your feedback. For the games-day, we prepared a tried-and-proven scenario, but, as we played it for a couple of times, both with attendees and among ourselves, we were like, hey, why not try out this one too, even if we never played it before?
Actually, we played the scenario with Andras as it was written in the original book. However, before we started the game, I was discussing with Csernus (fellow gamer and club member), that D6 might be too low for the Somalis. So I gave it a chance to play as it was written in the book, but - as Andras graciously pointed out - was pretty one sided.
Later on that day, we tried out the D8 mechanic, plus toned down the weapon team's bonus dice by one, that made things quite managable.
That's what is cool in this system: flexibility. Nothing is carved in stone, and minor tweaks can change the fun-factor of the game significantly. Speaking of myself, I can hardly imagine it in another system, that it would go so easily, like, "Hey, that bolter thingie on your marines is too strong, let's cut it's range in half, OK?"
Köszönet az olvasásért és az infókért. Terveztem irkálni a blogfigyelőbe, az okfejtéseddel pedig egyetértek.
Delete:D Volt bennem egy ilyen sanda hátsó szándék, hogy ezt a blogot is be kellene terelni az Inkvizítoros blogok nyájába. :D Azért is linkeltem. Örülök a szándéknyilatkozatnak. :)
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ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! Its nice to see that different games where played besides the normal GW ones.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment - they have their own merits but some change is always healthy.
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