After a restless night’s sleep, I was up at the crack of dawn at 5:30am and decided to go ahead and get ready and head over for an early breakfast.

I wanted to let you know that the area surrounding the hotel and convention center is simply gorgeous! Forested mountains with lush green slopes. At this time of day there was a nice layer of misty fog and I enjoyed the still quiet on my walk inside.

Had some good discussions with a few folks at the restaurant and after having a nutritious protein packed breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs and potatoes headed over to the open gaming area for a game of A Gest of Robin Hood from GMT Games with Justin Nordstrom.

He took the side of the rascally Sheriff while I played Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Justin is pretty good at this one and wiped me up early in the 2nd turn. This was my first play of the Merry Men and lessons were learned but even in defeat I had a great time! And just look at that beautiful game! Fantastic.

I then met up with Kevin McPartland for a play of his upcoming The Great Hunger from Compass Games. The game deals with the growth and expansion of Ireland after potatoes were cultivated and lead to population explosion. The players are trying to expand when times are good and the potatoes are plentiful by starting up farms but then later have to switch to survival and exodus as the potato blight arrives.

The game uses cards that have events and special abilities that are tied to the history of this time. These cards are played as the players are attempting to place out their clan pieces (cubes) into unoccupied areas to farm. They can also take advantage of the Industrial Revolution and place their pieces to work into factories and on English Estates. This gives them gainful employment and they don’t have to fear the effects of the coming blight.

I know this one won’t appeal to everyone but it was steeped in the history and I think that Kevin handled it with respect and care.

After this I made a trip to the vendor room and ended up dropping a few dollars there on some great looking games. And yes I decided to buy the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #4 Pacific Theater of Operations from MMP. I am going to make sure to get this one to the table. I promise!

After that I ran into the great John Butterfield and we chatted for a few minutes and I got him to sign a few of my rule books. I really love several of his games including RAF, D-Day at Tarawa and the more recent Downfall.

After this encounter I sat down with Ryan Heilman to get a look at the upcoming reimplementation of Tattered Flags Gettysburg: The Wheatfield originally published by Victory Point Games in 2011. Blue Panther is working with Hermann Luttmann on this series and Ryan is the developer. The game is now being called Tattered Flags No. 1: Into the Whirlpool

It is a tactical American Civil War design that really has the feel of a miniatures game with the way units move and the facing. The really interesting part of the game is the way the map is laid out. It doesn’t use traditional hexes but uses star shapes that act as hexes but are called 8-pointed spaces. The rules are really tight and crunchy as to hit rolls are expressed in percentages and players roll 2d10 with one die identified as the lead.

The game is a blast and I really enjoyed what it was trying to do. They are getting it ready for release in the middle of August and I really think that players will like the changes to the game as well as the beautiful map and counter art.

Next up was a pretty rough unnamed prototype of a strategic level American Revolutionary War block wargame designed by Damian Mastrangelo. It was pretty good. Very rough prototype though so keep that in mind as you look at the pictures below. Both Worthington Publishing and Blue Panther have expressed interest.

I really enjoyed the activation system as the player has cards that have a general with an identified number of units that they can command. These cards also sometimes have events and are really challenging to use but it really makes the game very interesting and unpredictable. The combat system is also very good and as a block wargame it uses steps that rotate the blocks. There also is a firing priority of units which is always fun and interesting because it creates some very interesting decisions about unit composition and makeup of forces as well as decisions about where to take losses to maximize attack strengths.

I think that Damien has some skill and I really look forward to what he is going to do in the future not just with this design but with others he has mentioned to me.

Next up was a game of Maori: Warriors of the Long White Cloud from Compass Games with the designer Kevin McPartland. Maori is a 1-4 player wargame dealing with clan warfare typical in Polynesia before European contact in the 1600’s.

Players will use use their cards as either events of for Op Points to build villages, war canoes and train warriors to create a force to strike at their enemies, while trying to protect or even fortify their home village. The player is represented on the board as the Head Chieftain and if this unit is killed, the game is lost. There is player elimination but you just have to know that going in.

I enjoyed the game very much and thought it was pretty good for what it is. It did play a bit long but it was interesting and all players seemed to have a good time.

I next played an upcoming CDG called New Cold War from VUCA Simulations designed by Andon Orive and Igor Plaza. The first thing to note about this one, and you can see this in the pictures below, is the real high quality graphics and production of this prototype. We were taught the game by Patrick and Julius with VUCA Simulations who were here from Germany for Consimworld Expo and then WBC. They are really great energetic young men and it was awesome to play this game with them watching over us.

The game is based on the most important geopolitical events covering the period of 1989 to 2019. Each of the players is one of the 4 major powers including Russia, China, the US, and the EU in their fight for the new world order. The game is semi-cooperative but there is individual victory. Think Twilight Struggle for 1-4 players that plays in 3 hours.

My final game of the night was the upcoming The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth coming soon from Blue Panther. Great little solo game with several other modes where the player uses resources like police and detectives to search for clues in the hunt for Lincoln’s assassin after the events at Ford’s Theater on the evening of April 14, 1865. The designer is Wes Crawford (Engine Thieves coming soon from Compass Games) and Wes is such a nice guy and so easy to speak with.

This was a really great little game and I had a blast playing it solo with the designer Wes Crawford. There really is a lot to like with the way that clues are found and chits are blindly drawn to verify clues from a bag. There is also a great little movement mechanic with police and detectives to try to acquire more clues.

Well that was a very long and productive day! I am very much tired but had a great time today. Tomorrow starts with a game of Here I Stand and we will see what else I’m able to get into. See you tomorrow!

-Grant