This is going to be a long post, so hold on to your proverbial hats...
I arrived on Thursday and did some shopping at the Brookhurst booth, chatted with some friends, took in the Flea Market and playtested my game for Saturday night with my cohort Jon Yuengling and buddy Joe.
We had a club room so we were able to lock the door and leave the gaming stuff there. I got up early and drove back down to Valley Forge, PA from Allentown (an hour drive), so that the door would be unlocked for Jon to run his "A Very British Civil War" game using the I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM) rules
I watched a bit of the game and then did some more shopping. That afternoon I set up my game, and had dinner with Jon.
The first game I ran was Chetequera, a raid on a SWAPO camp during the South African Bush War. The raid on camp Bravo at Chetequera was part of Operation Reindeer in 1978 and was the baptism of fire for South Africa's new APC, the Ratel.
This is a view of the Northern edge of the camp seen from West (North is to the left in the photo). The South Africans start the game a bombardment from a Canberra and Buccaneer and then assault down the road with two Eland-90's a K-Car helicopter gunship. On turn 3 they receive 4 Ratel-20's evenly spaced 9" from the trench line. The aerial bombardment is mostly ineffective (need to change that up a bit next time), and then as predicted the Eland armoured cars are hung up by the Recoiless Rifle team in the bunker. When the Ratel's show up the fight is still going on with no knock out blows by either side.
The armoured car commander musters his courage, charges to the edge of the barbed wire and rolls a 17! In the IABSM system this magic number destroys any crewed weapon. The damage also killed the Big Man crewing the gun.
Rest in Peace Big Man. Long live Little Big Man!
The Ratel commander realizes time is against him and rushes the trenches after two turns of little movement. It comes as a cost though. The SWAPO second in command, nicknamed "Little Big Man" mans a recoiless rifle, turns it and attacks a Ratel in the rear as it rushes by rolling an 11 on 2D6.
Things are fast and furious near the end with a second Ratel being knocked out by more great shooting. The South African player pushes forward to the board edge as Ratel's are recycled for a second wave of attack. Several gun crews are killed and infantry rush forward along the trench line to take their place (this is something that happened in the actual attack). I give them an 8+ on 2D6 to man the gun and then it can be used on the following turn. One Ratel gets stuck on the trench line (1 on a D6), but manages to free itself on the following turn (50% chance). With this and some great movement die rolls the South African player manages to get 6 Ratels off the board by the end of the game, narrowly eking out a win.
I messed up the rules a bit and things were chaotic at times, but everyone had a really great time. After some clean up I went to the big gaming hall in the Convention Center and found Martin, Steve, Mark, Brian, Jeff, Ralph and a few other folks. We chatted until midnight and then I drove home to get some rest before the last day.
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