Conan, painting Red Sonja...CANCON & getting back to Lion Rampant....

The Conan Project continues. 

I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment with these larger 28/32mm figures. The Conan figure is from the HEROQUEST set, and I've been working on the Dwarf, Cleric and Elf figures. I intend to paint the entire collection  of figures from the set, as well as the terrain. You can see here this female warrior figure from Greenskin games - I chose this figure for my RED SONJA for the games.

CONAN/HEROQUEST will be my ongoing endeavour for 2023.

The big event of the past fortnight was CANCON. 

CANCON, Australia's biggest gaming convention, is held in my home town of Canberra and, of course, I attended this year's event and bought a few things such as the 'Red Sonja' figure in resin.

 It was just such a massive convention and to be perfectly honest, I was completely overwhelmed. There were thousands & thousands of people of all ages & gaming persuasions. Tournament tabletop players, collectible card players, board gamers, role-players and quite a few Live Action Role Players trundling around in costumes. 

    I'm not a tournament player so I was mostly attending in order to browse & pick up a few things.

I did hold the notion that I would try a few participation games - such as the TWO FAT LARDIES systems - but unfortunately the main gaming venue was just so busy, unwieldy & noisey that I decided it wouldn't be something that I would enjoy or find satisfying. 

I've been intrigued by those Lardy games, but honestly they didn't look like something that I could casually pick up and learn. The Lardy crew had done a great job setting up amazing tables and display signage, and as hosts, they were very busy at their tables. 

Great job people.

However, there were thousands of people milling about, too much noise and distraction, and all the Lardy games seemed to have loads of little markers and tracking boards & tidbits. It was sensory overload for someone such as myself with only a bit of shore-leave to go and have a browse for an hour or two.

Maybe I'll just take a punt and pony up the dosh for one of the Lardy games this year. 

These two photos are pretty much the only thing I took photos of, and only represent maybe a fifth of what was going on. I did try to take a few shots of games in sessions but as soon as I did an old geezer gave me the filthiest look I had ever seen so I just stopped. 

Maybe I steeped too close to his diorama/table but honestly I was really impressed with the 28mm Napoleonic game going on at the time.

Oh Well.

These two shots were some of the tourney sections. Then there was a vendor hall. A second-hand bring & buy hall... a roleplaying hall...a card comp room...a huge board game 'lounge' area full of busy tables...vendors spilling out into the hallways...it was bursting at the seams truth be told.

I did manage to pick up a few things. 

*A sprue of Gripping Beast Arab spearmen for my Conan Project. 5 figures. I've already assembled, based and primed them up.

*A resin female Warrior from 'Greenskin Games' - it's the 'Red Sonja' figure for my Conan Project.

Here she is complete!

You can see the completed HEROQUEST Dwarf next to her in purple. I just made up the colour scheme for her off the top of my head and I'm really happy with her. The Warhammer Orc is one of my son's figures.

I also continued my search for my personal holy grail of gaming...the perfect Second World War card game...and I came out of CANCON with this from the second hand hall.

This game cost me $15...I had heard a few things about it years ago, but at this price I pulled the trigger. I took it home, read through the rules and gave it a spin a few days later.

The game has heaps of well produced cards & chits, and a nebulous rules booklet that I read, re-read over a few days. I also spent some time on youtube going through equally vague play throughs...

After tinkering with it and getting a few turns in, I have to say, I don't think I've disliked a game as much as this. 

I found it to be a box of onerous & fiddly procedures without the 'hum' of gameplay. The movement and combat mechanisms in the game were convoluted, confusing and vague, and made the simple situations a real chore to overcome. 

There were card modifiers, and chits, terrain modifiers on the cards, then firepower totals to add up and cross reference with the opponent...THEN randomly drawn damage chits that were based upon the differentials of firepower. It made me realise how simple actions and situations - such as a an MG team shooting at a squad in light cover - are resolved so quickly and efficiently in other rules.

Just add a modifier or two if you have to, roll a bloody die and if you have to, roll a save. Sheesh it's no wonder miniature rules sets are more popular than stuff like this.

 Simply setting up the game in FRONTLINE D-DAY involves the chore of scrounging around for chits and terrain cards that all look the same but the correct cards and order are essential for the correct play-through of each scenario.  

When I buy something like this there's always a thought in the back of my mind that 'at least there will be something I can use in other games or systems'...a rule idea, chits or tokens...in this case I thought maybe the terrain cards would come in handy.

I don't think there's much here I can find useful in FRONTLINE D-DAY.

The search will continue.

But enough of my whingeing. I did manage to drag good old C_ across to JOLT to get a very bloody game of Lion Rampant in today. We just managed to jag the very last table available at the shop, and of course...it was the one table with the slate grey tabletop. 

Next time I'll bring my trusty green table cloth. Just in case.

In any case we had a really fun, down and dirty game of Lion Rampant. German mercenaries versus the French. I just used the lists from the 2nd Edition Lion Rampant book, we rolled for terrain, and played the 'Gladiators Ready!' scenario.

I managed to start well, with some decent rolls...but the dice soon levelled out and we smashed heads. My 'gladiator' bested his best Knight in the first round...but soon crossbow bolts were traded across the table and elite infantry were crashing into each other.

C_ killed my leader early in the game but at that stage all of my units were in good order so they held their nerve.

It was a fun dust up and by the time the dice were rolled to signal the last turn, we tallied up our VPs and we tied! 13 points each. 

I think this is the first time this has ever happened to me. 

Just goes to show that even with an ugly table, with a bit of slap together terrain, a good scenario and a good mate you can salvage a good game.

All the best.