MayDay!

On Saturday, I went to MayDay, the local annual gaming convention organized by some fellow members of the EWG gaming club.  This year had an excellent turn out and was held in a larger venue than last year.  There were many interesting games hosted by volunteers, as well as larger tournaments for Warhammer 40k and DBA.  I hosted a Squadron Strike game, (detailed description to follow in a later post) which went quite well, and also participated in the DBA and Saga tournaments.

 

The initial position of the Squadron Strike game.  This was the first time I hosted a game this complex, but the players did quite well.

A couple of big ships dueling it out in Squadron Strike.

My first game in the DBA tournament, with my Normans versus Aztecs. (quite an ahistorical matchup!)  I managed to win while losing a couple of units.

My second DBA game, with Normans versus Egyptians.  I suffered the dreaded 6 to 1 roll several times, losing two knight units and my general, and lost the game.

You'd think the third game would go better, but this time I played a very experienced opponent (hi Dave!) who used some inspired maneuvering to kill my general.  So I ended up winning one out of three in the tournament.

The Saga tournament later on went better for me, since it was a new game and all of us were more or less newbies.  Things were on more of an even footing.  The first game I played my Anglo-Danes against Will's Vikings, who were a bit more fantastical than historical.  We had a lot of fun though, and the game ended when Will charged his warlord into my warlord.  Unfortunately for him, a warlord alone always gets killed by a warlord surrounded by underlings.

The second Saga game was against Terry and his recently painted Welsh.  He managed to use terrain and his abilities quite well, and did quite some damage to my Huscarls.  However, I managed to charge my warlord and a bunch of underlings into his warlord, killing him and winning the game.  I'm seeing a pattern here...

I also took some pictures of the other games going on at the same time.  Most of the games were quite nice looking indeed.  Here is a game of parking lot Warhammer 40k.

An English Civil War game run by Dave, with historically accurate banners and everything.  Nice stuff!

Here's one of Bob's games, something based on Battlelore or Command and Colours.

Overall, this was a great event, and my only regret was that I couldn't play more of the games.  The whole "can't be in two places at once" thing was my downfall... Well, until next year.