'One More Gaming Project' Hits 50,000 Views Milestone

I'm happy to announce that this blog, "One More Gaming Project," has surpassed 50,000 page hits this week.  Thanks to all of those who have stopped by and given us a look. 

GASLIGHT at Historicon 2002: Ten Years Ago This Month

I thought with Historicon 2012 behind us now, it might be fun to travel back in time to the early days of GASLIGHT as it was ten years ago at Historicon 2002. The rules had just been published in 2000, and were already starting to generate a small group of fans.

Buck Surdu running a Northwest Frontier GASLIGHT game featuring British fighting Pathans backed by Russian technology.

Some of Buck's early scratchbuilt vehicles were featured in the game.

In 2002 I was running ACW themed GASLIGHT games.

Union steam limbers haul the artillery forward.

Union steam-pack jump troopers face off against Confederte balloon troopers.

Another shot of one of my ACW GASLIGHT games.

That year I also ran a GASLIGHT game called the G.E.N.I.U.S. competiton.  I can't remember what the acronym stood for any more, .. something, something New Inventions and Unusual Science, maybe. Anyway, the game was a fight to the death between vehilces that the players built themselves and brought to the game.   The field featured a number of booby traps as well.

We also gave an award for the best model as voted by the players.

Two of the entries engage in a close combat, as a spiked exploding ball booby trap can be seen in the foreground.

This was the vehicle that was the last one standing, and the winner of the battle portion of the competition.

Historicon 2012 AAR: HAWK Room Saturday Evening

Saturday evening, before my game started in the HAWKs room, I took a moment to walk around the room and photograph some of the games the the other club members were running in the room. I also took some shots during my game.

Buck Surdu's "Look, Sarge, its the Prussians" game, using the soon to be released "Look, Sarge, No Charts: Napoleonic" rules.

Another shot of Buck's game, using beautifully painted 10mm figures.

Another scenario of Rob Dean's "Not Quite the Seven Years War" using "Charge!" rules, and the club members' Imagi-Nations collections of 40mm homecast Prince August figures.

Greg Preibe's "Corpse & Musket: the Zombies of Trenton" game using GASLIGHT rules.  Washington's forces attacking Trenton find a shambling horde instead of the expected Hessians. 

Zombies overrun an American cannon crew.

Another shot of the Zombies of Trenton game.

Geoff Graff's kids game, "Plastic Pirates Pilfer Parrots", using Lego figures and the rules "Plastic Pirates".

My "Look, Sarge, the Russians are Rafting on our River" game, using "Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII" rules and 10mm figures and vehicles.

My scenario was set in 1941 and featured German forces crossing a river in Russia with the goal of capturing a nearby town, as the Russian's scramble to bring reinforcements to the area.  

German air support harried the Soviet defenders.

Historicon 2012 AAR: Hawks Room Friday Evening

Friday night, after my game was done, I took a minute to walk around the HAWKs room and take some photos of some of the other HAWKs games that were being run in the room.

Rob Dean's "Not Quite the Seven Years War" game using the HAWKs club members' Imagi-Nation collections, comprised of large 40mm Prince August homecast figures

Another shot of Rob's NQSYW game. He used the original "Charge!" rules to run the game.

Greg Priebe's "Corpse & Musket: These are the Times That Try Men's Souls"game, using GASLIGHT rules. Featured American Revolution troops encountering all sort of nasties like werewolves and zombies.

Eric Schlegel's "Where is Werner von Braun" game, using B.A.P.S. rules. The game used 20mm figures and vehicles and the scenario was the  Russians and the Allies trying to capture  German scientists in a German rocket research complex.

Another shot of the Werner Von Braun game. 

Don Hogge's "Take the Factory" game using "Battleground WWII" rules and 28mm figures. Germans and Russians battle over a factory complex.

Geoff Graff's "Look Sarge, No Roads" game, using Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII" rules. The scenario involved 1941 Russians and Germans fighting over some difficult terrain.

Historicon 2012 AAR: Armies for Kids Game

Friday afternoon at Historicon Buck Surdu ran our "Armies for Kids" project game.  This game was designed for 4 kids, and each kid who participated were to receive a 15mm French and Prussian Seven Years War army as well as a box of terrain to keep and take home with them.

This year's two young generals.

 Even though this was spelled out in the convention program, we only got two kids to come out and take part. Sometimes its just hard to give stuff away I guess. Both kids had a blast playing the scenario, and were thrilled with new their armies and terrain.

A shot of the French forces arrayed for battle.

For more information on this year's project see:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=274668

Game Master Buck Surdu answers a question for one of the young gamers.

Historicon 2012 AAR: Mars by GASLIGHT Extravaganza

Saturday morning, Buck and I ran our big 21 player Mars by GASLIGHT Extravaganza.   This was a mash-up game of many different Mars backgrounds, and featured Green Martians, Red Martians, Cephalopod Martians, Rockmen of Mars, and even Rooman of Mars, plus a variety of Earthmen forces, including American, Russian, German, British, and Masked Minions of unknown origin.  We had a full compliment of players around our big 20 ft table, which was decked out with an assortment of terrain from both our collections.

Overview of the table.

Everyone had their own objective. These were such things as retrieving an ancient artifact, rescuing Dejah Thoris, securing a crate of medicine, capture one of each type of Martian, or obtaining Cephalopod tripod technology, for example.

Green Martians can be seen advancing in the foreground, and German Sea Battalion troopers move out in the back.

The figures used were an assortment of Bronze Age, Parroom Station, Tin Man, Pulp Figures, Hinterland, Ironclad, and a number of other manufacturers. Many of the vehicles were scratch built.

A view of the action near the canal bridge.  A real scrum developed here in the table's center.

In the end, several of the players achieved their objectives, and the players all seemed to enjoy the game. We as the GM's had a blast setting it up and running it. And we appreciated those folks who hung around and helped us clean up.

The Female Hussars advance with their gyrocopter support

Buck (in khaki shirt) helps some of the player work through a close combat melee

The big battle in the center.

The view from the far side of the canal.

A view of the table about midway though the game.

Another scene of battle. In the foreground is the Red Martian Thoat with a radium cannon mounted in the howdah, and the German Sea Battalion's walker. In the back can be seen the Russian tank (copper colored), and on the left can be seen Tars Tarkus riding his Thoat.

Russian cavalry battles a group of Green Martians

A lucky shot blows up the Russian tank, and a nearby Female Hussar gyrocopter is caught in the explosion and explodes itself, killing some of the Female Hussars on the ground.

Buck and I doing our tag-team card calling.  Both of us were constantly calling unit cards throughout the game to keep the action moving and nearly lost our voices by the end.

Historicon 2012 AAR: Rescue on Venus by GASLIGHT

I arrived at Historicon Friday afternoon, and soon after getting there, began setting up my Friday evening GASLIGHT game, "Rescue on Venus".  This was a follow-up scenario to my Cold Wars "Lost Legion of Venus" game and featured an attempt by French Foreign Legion to rescue Victoria Hawkes from the grips of the evil Lizardmen.  Also, present for the first time in this game were my Venusian Amazons. They were trying to free their princess who was also a captive of the Lizardmen.

An overview of the table

  The game was a lot of fun, but unknown to me the Lizardmen and Venusian players had made a deal for the Venusians to not attack them and in exchange the Lizardmen would free their captive princess.  I did not realize this plan was in action until the game was several turns in, or I would of have allowed it, because it upset the play balance of the scenario, and the game ended with a  Lizardman victory.  In the future, I will have to add the "no alliances" rule to the scenario briefing.  Nonetheless everyone had a great time, and I look forward to running the game again at Cold Wars.

The Lizardmen's dinosaur makes quick work of the French Steam-Walker.

The brave French commander finds himself surrounded by lizards

The situation near the end of the game.

One of the things Buck Surdu and I brought this year was a new vinyl GASLIGHT banner Greg Priebe designed for us.  We're really pleased with how this turned out and look forward to displaying it over our games at future conventions.  We also hope to have a T-shirt and poster version available soon in our Zazzle shop.

Buck discusses the convention with Mike Horton, a GASLIGHT fan, who made the trip to the con from the Isle of Man. Our new banner can be seen on the wall behind them.

HAWKs Complete Preparations for the 2012 Armies for Kids Project

    The HAWKs (Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers), have completed the final assembly of this year's Armies for Kids project. The purpose of the club's annual project is to give away free armies to kids, in an attempt to help grow the hobby. The initial project was launched last year, after the club received a sizable donation of unpainted 25mm American War of Independence figures from the Wally Simon estate, with the simple request that the club see the figures got into the hands of kids.

    The HAWKs then held several painting bees to paint the hundreds of donated figures. The results of last years project was the presentation of painted opposing armies, as well as a gift bag of terrain and playing aids, to 8 children who participated in specially designated kids games at Historicon '11.
    This year, the club worked on a Seven Years War project based on the generous donation of 15mm figures from Robert Piepenbrink, as well as the donations of additional SYW figures from Erik Engling, and Ed Mohrmann. The club has been aided this year by some financial donations from folks who generously gave the club money at last year's Historicon, as well as the painting support of John Spiess, who painted two of the giveaway armies for us this year. The rest of the figures were painted by HAWKs club members in a series of group painting sessions held throughout the year.

The HAWKs have now completed the painting and basing of all the armies, and assembled the boxes of terrain and playing aids that the kids will receive. Each participant in the event listed below will receive a painted French and a Prussian Army, as well as some cards, dice, a ruler, buildings, a hill some hedges and other terrain pieces.

This is the event which will be held Friday night at the upcoming Historicon convention:

F-545 HAWKS Army Giveaway for Kids
Seven Years War: 6 PM: Length: 2: Hosted by: Buck Surdu: Scale: 15mm:
Rules: Milk and Cookies: No. of Players: 4.
In this second year of a multi-year outreach effort, the HAWKs
are sponsoring a game to interest children in the hobby.
Several gamers have donated figures to the HAWKs with
the understanding that we will get them into the hands of
kids. All four children who participate in this event will get
a small, painted French and Prussian army to take home.

.

For additional information contact me at CNJPalmer@aol.com
For details on last year's project see: http://bucksurdu.com/blog/?p=541