Batrep - Gamex 2009

[lawndart]

This past Saturday and Sunday I attended the Strategicon Gamex convention in Los Angeles - a thrice-yearly family of conventions in L.A. I had good success with a single demo game over President's day weekend, so I committed to two days this time. In addition to just scheduling a demo game each day, I wanted to setup and display my AE-WWII gameboard for several additional hours in the miniature room so that I could just show off the game and interest gamers that happened to just walk by.

I arrived early each day to setup my game board - which contains four full detachments of Darkson figures (two American and two Germans), my meager terrain collection, and a couple of vehicles. In addition, I had some additional Artizan figures packed away in case I needed some extra detachments. These weren't needed for gameplay, but were useful on a couple of occasions to show that Darkson figures and Artizan are the same height.

Here's what the layout looked like:

American Support Detachment (and a M-20 Car):


American Experimental Detachment (and a jeep):


German Experimental Detachment:


German Veteran Detachment (and a SdKfz 222):


American M-20:


The Vehicles were just for show - they look good on the table and attract players who are more into armor than infantry. Future posts in this thread cover Saturday and Sunday in more detail.

[lawndart]

Saturday I arrive to Gamex around 9:00 and setup in preparation for the 11:00 demo. Nobody had pre-registered for the demo, so I was a little worried. By about 11:30 I realized anyone wasn’t going to show up. I briefly considered tearing everything down and getting into a different game, but I was having fun in the miniatures room chatting with people I knew, and a number of people did come by to look at the setup and ask what it was. I’ve had plenty of experience demoing software at trade shows before, and know how to make a quick pitch without sounding too pushy. I was enjoying just kicking back and enlightening the onlookers about AE-WWII. People were interested in the game, and I offered several demos (and mentioned I’m demoing more on Sunday!) but nothing materialized until around 3:30 when someone who had expressed interested earlier in the day finally finished his Warmachine tournament. I explained the rules, set him up with an American Experimental detachment, and squared off against him with a German Experimental detachment. I normally play this detachment in demo as it's geared to just rushing the enemy with its emaciated troopers and Feursoldats - and its fun for a new player to be an American gunning them down. I do try and get at least one unit into close combat to illustrate who that works.

The detachments were squared off across a field with a stable and some fences in the middle to provide cover. I rushed the Feursoldats and troopers up against one side of the house, with a Rollingsoldat (With four actions per turn after being inoculated) and my officer providing covering fire. I like to pick off an American infantry early with the Rollingsoldat as it shows the importance of cover. The American Player rushed most of his troops up behind the other side of the stable - except he kept two riflemen behind some medium cover off to the side (see the second picture). His two Veteran Rocket troopers were holed up in a wrecked building the left side and did a couple of hit and run attacks on the emaciated trooper and killed one them.

As a tried to edge the feursoldats around the building one got picked off. I setup the Mad Scientist to inoculate the other soldier on his next turn. The American player, fearing more inoculated genetic abominations, sent his veteran dos through the stable and double-teamed the mad scientists. The dogs got their target and killed the mad scientists, but the abominations then had their revenge and killed the dogs.



At this point I move the German officer near the abominations in order to start boosting drive, since both the troopers and feursoldats squads were down a man each. The American, player, seeing this large clump of forces, decided to try out the grenade rules. His elite Airborne officer was already up against the other side of the stable, and lobbed a grenade over the stable. It was a direct hit, and killed the German officer and Emaciated troopers. Seeing that this had great success, the officer used his last two actions to throw another grenade at the remaining feursoldat. The result was - another direct hit. Three squads finished off by the Airborne officer in one turn.


Since the Germans had lost four squads total, including their officer, they began to rout for an American victory.

The gamer whom I gave the demo to loved the game. It was exactly what he was looking for – a quick skirmish game in which players can use actual tactics instead of just rushing troops forward. He loved that weapons could be lethal against troops in the open, and that cover was important in preventing this. He was eager to buy the game and show it to his friends (he’s a law student and was looking for a new game with new minis to paint in the summer time since school is now out). He’s a convert for sure and I hope his friends will be as well. In fact, he came by again on Sunday as he wanted to have a quick discussion of detachment building so that he could plan which units to buy.

It’s always nice seeing someone really get into the game, but it’s easy with the great products that Robert, Matt and the rest put out.

[lawndart]

Sunday provided to be very similar to Saturday. I arrived early to setup for a demo for which no one would show up. A number of gamers were interested, and I did get to explain the rules to several of them, but no one seemed interested in a full demo. This changed in the early afternoon when a gamer who had expressed interest earlier in the day dropped by a second time - and brought a friend with him. The two of them wanted to give the game a try. I set them up with the same map and experimental detachments as I used on Saturday, and after I explained the rules they were ready to go.

The German player started with the Mad scientist - who inoculated the Rohlingsoldat who again received an extra action. Unfortunately, the Mad Scientists next patient was the German Officer - who ended up receiving two wounds! The Rohlingsoldat let loose with his MG on some infantry in the open at long range and ended up picking off a squad in the first couple of turns.

In the center of the board, the German player rushed the stable with his Feursoldats in hopes of getting a good firing position on the Americans while taking the high ground. The American player was not looking forward to fire raining down from a second-story window, and used his Veteran Rocket troops to do a hit-and-run raid to kill one of them.


The Americans won initiative on the next turn, and tried to conduct a second Rocket Troop hit-and-run. After using their second action the troopers had not managed to kill the last Feursoldat. Rather than retreating this time, the one Rocketeer with a Thompson decided to stay close and fight - but failed his attack roles completely. The German player then activated his enraged Feursoldat who then torched to brave Rocket trooper who had stayed to fight.

The Americans then send their dogs off to attack the infantry squad that was moving forward to provide backup and managed to kill a Wehrmact rifleman. Since the dogs were no longer in close combat after killing their victim, the Rohlingsoldat opened up with his MG - killing them both.


Meanwhile, the battle for whom would control the stable was not finished. The American sent in his Elite War Hero officer to face off against the remaining Feursoldat. After a fierce battle, the Officer lost two of his three wounds - but the last Fuersoldat was dead. Casualties were starting to pile up on both sides.


The German Emaciated troopers and Mad Scientists were trying to flank the Americans on the left. The robot troopers were able to hold them of the emaciated troopers, while the remaining rocket troops took out the Mad Scientist.


In attempt to retake the Stable, the German rushed it with his own officer. Both opposing officers were in the house - each with one wound each. The American officer tried to throw grenades down to the first floor to hit the German - but they scattered badly. The German then climbed to the second story and emptied his rounds into everything in the room but the American officer. Finally, the American officer fired back with his Thompson and killed the German Officer. This provided to be the deciding fight of the battle - The remaining Germans were in rout, but if the fight had gone the other way it would have been the Germans who were forced to retreat.

Again, the two players had a great time with the rules and seemed eager to pick it up. Again, the reasons given were both the simplicity of the system and the realism of the tactics that could be used.

[lawndart]

In summary, even though the planned demos at Gamex did not go as hoped, I'm at least pleased that I was able to run other demos that were well-received and I hope I created a couple of converts.

Overall, it was not a good convention for miniature players. The convention was not at its usual venue, and the miniature events were split into different areas of the hotel. The Warhammer tournaments were far away from the rest of us - who were stuck in a corner off of the lobby with little to no foot traffic going by. The Labor Day convention is moving back to the original hotel so attendance should be higher and our location in the hotel will be better as well.

[malkcntent]

Sorry to hear about the poor turn-out. It sounds like you had some fun games in spite of the lack of interest and hopefully made some converts. Excellent pics and batreps! That Airborne Officer and his grenades seem to have single-handedly won the game! Good stuff!

[DFlynSqrl]

Great looking games lawndart. Glad you did get some players to try it out.

[wodgerthewobot]

nice pics and batreps and well done on hooking some-more players