Gaming

By David Garvin

On the 9th of June, Paxsims hosted Connections North, a conference on professional wargaming. According to its website, it is “…a community of practice devoted to the professional use of wargames (and other serious games) for education, training, and policy analysis in Canada.” There were over 70 in attendance, ranging from military members, and civilian members of the defense community as well as many in various think tanks, government departments, and me. The conference was held at the impressive Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

“GOOOOOOOOD Morning, VIET-NAM!”

With the upcoming re-release of ‘Nam by Battlefront, Scott Roach and I decided it was high time to break out our ‘Nam armies.    We had painted up our forces this winter for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but we realised we just didn’t have enough jungle.  We had some of the ‘Nam jungle and paddies, but nowhere near enough.

We gathered up everything we had and one Saturday just laid out the drill, hot glue gun, and MDF and made a heap of jungle bases.  Once covered in AK ‘Jungle Earth’ we just added a bit of ground clutter and away we go. I think we still need a bit more, but this will be fine for our first game. We decided to (loosely) play the opening days of the Battle of Binh Ba.

By Robert Kelly

The National Army Museum is located in a modern building almost next door to the famous Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the famous Chelsea Pensioners.

Home | Royal Hospital Chelsea (chelsea-pensioners.co.uk)

Home | National Army Museum (nam.ac.uk)

While I was visiting London there were a number of transportation strikes on. Some days it was the trains and some days it was the Tube, or Underground. On the day I chose to visit the Household Cavalry and National Army Museums, the trains and buses were running, but the Tube was not. I was able to get close to the Household Cavalry Museum by bus, but it was closed as the staff couldn’t get into work.

By Troy Hill

This weekend (May 27-28, 2023) saw chaos and pandemonium descend on the Detroit suburb of Novi, Michigan as the Death or Glory group of GW gamers hosted Motor City Mayhbem, a Grand Tournament style of game convention at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

In addition to all of the Games Workshop madness at a GT, Warlord Games Raider Jeff Wiertalla organized two Bolt Action events, which I assisted by playing as the Gumby/Ringer in both.

Other games like Kings of War, Conquest, and Star Wars Legion also had events. Below is my own recap of my action in the Bolt Action tourneys, and a photo-dump of what I saw in the non-GW space.

Home Page – The Guards Museum

By Robert Kelly

Located between the Guards Museum and Buckingham Palace is Wellington Barracks.  That is the home to the troops who are on ceremonial duties and conduct the changing of the guard ceremonies. Here are a group of Irish Guardsmen getting ready for parade. I found this part quite interesting and there were no crowds. 

Then I followed the troops to Buckingham Palace. The British tend to make the forming up and inspecting of troops a long drawn-out affair, but those from other armies might find it interesting. 

In fact, a US veteran was standing at the fence with me and I explained a few things.  Most don’t know that one of the reasons that the officers “promenade” back and forth along the edge of the parade square is to show sobriety. This goes back a long time when drinking was one of the few forms of entertainment for the troops and for officers.

“Flawed on every fundamental level, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is possibly the most unplayable garbage available on the Nintendo Entertainment System.” — Game Informer

By Patrick S. Baker

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Jekyll & Hyde) was a video game developed by Advance Communication Company and released by Bandai for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1988. The game was based on the classic horror novella by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The novella tells the story of the brilliant scientist, Dr. Henry Jekyll, well known for his decency and generosity, but with a hidden and terrible dark side. He creates a potion to separate his dark side from his better self. Instead, the mixture changes him into a cruel and violent man named Mr. Hyde.

Jekyll & Hyde was a unique game for its time, in that it tried to tell a rather complex and subtle story through a video game.

by Dennis ‘MATT VARNISH’ Campbell

The second Canadian Tabletop Championships (CTC) was held over the Mother’s Day Weekend here in Ottawa, ON, Canada, after a 4-year hiatus thanks to Covid 19.  I attended the first CTC in 2019 where I was the ringer for Flames of War on Day One and wound up winning the Team Yankee event with my Syrians on Day Two.  I would have participated in the two-day Bolt Action event this year were it not on Mother’s Day and my wife’s birthday weekend, but I am assured next year will be earlier in the month, the first weekend of May.

By Tom Gall

Terrain in the form of buildings for the tabletop has evolved over the years. The technology for what makes for a great building continues to evolve. Scratch builds, plastic model kits, cast resin, pre-painted resin, MDF, 3D print just to name a few. Depending on how long you’ve been around you might have a variety of samples from from technology stage.

I was especially happy many years back when Miniature Building Authority and Battlefront/Gale Force 9 offered pre-painted terrain called “Battlefield in a box” that once the packaging was open you had something to use on the tabletop. It was nice to not be adding to my paint queue for a change.

Old favorites like Novus Design while great kit still had a “you must paint it” step. They just recently retired from the business and will be missed.

Micro Art Studios recently released a line of Normandy-themed buildings with “pre-painted” MDF in 28mm. This article takes a look at the line.

By Caroline Gilmore

The day is May 1, 2024: China is about to attack Taiwan, North and South Korea are poised at the precipice of conflict, and in India, unexpected floods force people from their homes.

Thus begins “Rising Tides,” the annual kinetics wargame organized by Strategic Crisis Simulations (SCS), an undergraduate-run organization at George Washington University.

By Tom Gall

This year I was pleasantly surprised to be in London on business at exactly the same time as Salute the largest independent game convention in the UK. This year, the 50th anniversary, was perfect timing for the first time ever attending. The event is held at the ExCel center on the east side of London. It was super easy to get to by the London Underground via the new Elizabeth Line. Once inside, queue up to enter…

Different than AdeptiCon or GenCon, no badge pickup, just get in line, get to it. Also different from those other Cons was something that really had me going, I wanted to sign up for a variety of games to play. Maybe a tournament? Or something? I did pack a tape measure and dice but going in this idea of going to a game convention and not knowing if you’d even get to play anything was well, weird.

With Salute it’s different than the states, there it’s run by the South London Warlords club. A good portion of the games were run by the variety of game clubs in the area. Then intermixed with the demos games were row after row of vendor, demo games, vendor, vendor, demo games. Different, but refreshing especially if you were looking to try out new things as well as shop.