Recent Gaming News

I have been doing a lot of travel for work lately, so haven't been able to game too much.  Some things to report, however.

First, Gaming with Chuck headquarters (GwCHQ) is due to relocate just after the middle of the month of July.  We will be decamping from Mossflower, our current location, to larger quarters at Bag End.  Early scouting reports have come back with this photo of the lane climbing up to the new quarters . . .

Approximate map of Andrew Chapel Road, leading to Bag End

Second, there has been a pair of acquisitions in the area of Miniatures for miniature wargaming.  The first of these is a collection of French and Indian War figures, in 15mm, from the Carl Scisio estate sale.  Carl was a member of ODMS, and had recently passed away.  There is a memorial page for him at the Guns of August 2015 website, and there is planned to be a large estate sell off of his (not small) miniatures collection at both Historicon 2015 and GoA 2015.  Prior to that, club members were able to make some donations to the family estate, through purchase of some miniatures.  I selected French & Indian War, which include a number of formed British and French units, and plenty of irregulars.  I plan to run some convention games over the next year, featuring the attack of, or defense of, Fort Carlhouse, and the Springdale settlements, in the forests between the Seneca and Shawnee in Pennsylvania.

Fierce fighting at Fort Carlhouse

The second miniatures acquisition has been the acquisition of a large (over 1000 pieces) collection of Mexican War (1846-1848) miniatures, in 15mm.  Recent sorting and rules reviews have been taking place, but a decent sized Mexican-American War Table Top Exercise (TTX) - meaning a wargame with map based planning, campaign work, and finally tabletop battle execution - is planned for the first serious wargame to take place at the new Bag End location of GwCHQ. 

Mexican American War gaming should be pretty exciting!

Third, several recent Boardgame purchases and acquisitions have taken place, more on that later, but recent board game plays have included some light fare such as Trekking the National Parks, and Dungeon Roll.  Just this evening, however, a game of Vikings took place at GwC, amidst the general chaos of bugging out the HQ and packing up the household.  Vikings is a great Michael Kiesling design, and plays well with 3 or 4 players.  We had a 3 player game, and I had the fun of introducing it to Anita and Heidi - everyone had a great time, in spite of it being a first for them.  I think I owe them a game of something more familiar (Catan or Carcassonne).

Vikings! (bgg image)

Fourth, some upcoming Science Fiction Roleplaying is imminent.  I have been preparing a Star Wars RPG (the WEG D6 version, using the second edition rulebook) session for an upcoming convention session, and simultaneously John D has been preparing a White Star RPG game, for online play (google Hangouts, most likely).  My Star Wars game will feature a band of adventurers on the YT-1300 light freighter "Tumbling Asteroid".  It is set between the battle of Yavin and the battle of Hoth, but the players are not necessarily part of the Rebellion (yet).  John's game will be set in the Solar System (as opposed to interstellar), and the players will be part of ASTRA - an organization dedicated to fighting pirates and smugglers.  Both sound great (as GM of Star Wars, and as player of White Star).

Tumbling Mermaid is a YT-1300FP - combining passenger and freight options

Fifth, in the upcoming (#3) issue of Yaah! Magazine, I should have a couple of Star Wars articles (one for X-Wing, and one for Imperial Assault).  I recently got to play Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures, with Jack H's excellent Monday night group at World's Best Comics, in Newport News.  I had a truly excellent time!  The articles coming up in Yaah are (1) a mini campaign for the Rebels and Imperials to fight over control of a space station, fighting it out using X-Wing Miniatures.  The second article is a fight (inside) for control of the station, once one side or the other projects space control of the area around the space station.  That second battle (inside the station) is fought using Imperial Assault.  I'm pretty excited about the articles, and have started working on several others, and a boardgame design.  Who knows?