I put on two All the King's Men AWI game at Texicon 2014 (Grapevine, Texas) on Saturday, June 28. Kudos to Karl and Kevin Pajak for having a great venue for the mini-con. The venue was clean, open, COOOL in the Tejas summer, family friendly and war gamer friendly. It was predominantly a fantasy and RPG type of con with a strong board gaming element. I felt a bit out of place as a historical miniatures gamer but KBO anyway. The spread out game area was refreshing as most game cons are elbow-to a-hole gaming areas. As I get older, I appreciate it. The majority of the games being played were played with painted miniatures although there was a sizable tournament (Warmachine..whatever that is) that just didn't require painted figures. That's a rant I won't go into. Just leave it at I don't play nor would I ever take to a public venue miniatures that were not painted. Personal bias. Personal rant. I won't change. I am a paint Nazi!
On to the ATKM games. I was able to put on two games. Both games were well attended with enthusiastic players. ATKM rules are simple to learn, fun to play but subtle. The rules don't suffer poor decisions gladly. I was able to bring on several units of Native Americans (Woodland Indians to we older folks). Magwa was the war band chief. Ken's rules give Indians some awesome abilities. I want to play them in a FIW style scenario ala "Last of the Mohicans".
The games were played on an 8x6 game table. I got to put out all my collection to date. That's 28 units total. Doesn't sound like a lot? Infantry consists of 14 figures, cavalry 8 figures, Indians were painted in 16 figure units as that's how the came in the box set. I was stoked.
The first game went to the British, the second went to the Patriots. Both games went about 1.5 hours with teaching time/rules clarifications included. If you are considering any rules for American Revolution, like to play in a "toy soldier" style, want something simple to learn but hard to master; these rules are for you. Here's a gallery of the games. Pictures do better than my pedantic style anyway:
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| British right flank-Hessian wing |
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| "Fearsome Tarleton and his Green Dragoons" |
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| Not so fearsome Tarleton and his Green Dragoons meet Patriot riflemen |
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| 2nd Mass. supporting the U.S. Marines |
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| Patriot center |
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| Two good shots are all I shall ask of the militia! |
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| Right flank of Patriot side. Magwa's full side |
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| The Anhalt battalion didn't sign up for THIS! |
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| British center-Lobsterbacks! |
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| New players-game 2 |
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| New player-game 1 |
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| Patriot commanders Game 2 |
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| General Hard Knox urges on the U.S. Marines...Semper Fi!!! |
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| Germans advance |
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| Knyphausen Fusiliers advance |
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| Light Horse Harry Lee's in column...oops...where's that British arty? |
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| Lord Fop would rather be relaxing with a bottle of Port! |
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| Magwa's full side. Thanks Steve Bidwell for the units! |
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| Cowering militia |
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| Not bad shooting for militia-can only hit with a 5-6 on a yellow dice. |
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| British look pretty tough...pretty...but are they tough? |
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| General Hard Knox "recommends" that Magwa move his arse and get into the battle |
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| U.S. Marines! Urrrraah... |
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| Frasiers Highlanders "in trews" oust Magwa with a gift of lead |
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| Pre-Game 1 |
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| Pre-Game 2 |
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| Pre-Game 3 |
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| Pre-Game 4 |
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| Seriously? LOL |
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Nice pics. Looks like a lot of fun. BTW - who painted all those beautiful figures ;-)
ReplyDeleteI got them from a bunch of political prisoners in China... LOLZ
ReplyDeleteThe game wasn't good enough to be considered for Best of Show nor were any of my figures good enough in the "painting competition". I'll tell you about that one...what a sham.
ReplyDeleteFantastic!!!
ReplyDelete