WINTERCON 2014-Part 1

It's that time of year again here in wintry Canberra, when the Canberra Gaming Society hosts a mini-version of the 3-day CanCon event, called Wintercon. Held over 2 days, Wintercon gives the fanatical gamers of Canberra another chance to play some tournament games, and spend lots of cash at the trading stalls 6 months out from CanCon.

This year, I went to peruse and catch up with many mates I met at CanCon, and Wintercon 2013. I also went to collect a few hundred dollars worth of pre-ordered discount merchandise for my new Roman and Dacian 28mm armies...but more on them in later posts.....

The main games being played were Warhammer 40K, Dead Mans Hand, DBMM, Impetus, Bolt Action, Warmachine and the biggest, Flames of War. A number of one day participation games were also run including Chain of Command, Ronin and Wings of Glory.
Two major distributors set up stalls both days and a number of minor traders added variety to entice the gamer dollars....

Chain of Command Pegasus Bridge Participation Game

The Gentlemen Gamers of Canberra put on two enormous participation re-enactments, one covering the British Airborne taking of Pegasus Bridge in 1944, conducted in two parts, and the other a reenactment of the German Para assault on Crete against the New Zealanders... 

 Chain of Command Crete 1941 Participation Game

 DBMM

 Dead Man's Hand

The legendary Qman (of CanCon Bolt Action fame) ran the inaugural Dead Man's Hand tournament which centred around a motley crew of cavalry men, crooks, swindlers and desperadoes looking for fame...and that was just the players...Dead Man's Hand is a very small scale skirmish game (4-6 figures) with strong cinematics and strongly supported by a great range of Western scenery. The tournament culminated in an all-in brawl through the town.  

 Bolt Action

The Bolt Action tournament this year was low key due to many players taking a break to try other systems (such as Dead Man's Hand and Chain of Command), and also culminated in a massive all in multiplayer game at the end. (more on that next post)

 Wings of Glory

 Ronin

 Flames of War D-Day Campaign

 The Flames of War Campaign was based on Firestorm Normandy, but included a campaign map made specially by Battlefront for the tournament. Allied and German Generals made strategic moves on the campaign map, and the resulting battles were fought out on the tables by the other players. The Germans achieved a ahistorical win after crushing the British forces on the beach. Guess Adolf was the best asset the Allies had in June 1944....

That's it for the general overview, I'll post more detail on the two games I played in , the Pegasus bridge re-fight and the multiplayer Bolt Action game next post.....