Winter War Preview: New Events Added

So far my previews for the events of Winter War 34 were based on the first version of the pre-registration packet. Since then new a updated schedule has dropped with new stuff to play. The following material supplements my previews for Friday afternoon, Friday evening, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon.

Friday, February 9th, 2pm

Two very promising miniatures events have been added for the Friday afternoon slot. Phil Hall will be running "The Spear of Destiny" a pulp action skirmishy thing using .45 Adventure, "a tabletop miniatures game of two-fisted action set during the era of the pulp magazines." The event description promises Nazi-fighting. Hot damn, but that sounds fun! Phill Hall is a cool guy, too. Speaking of cool guys, Tom Reed will once again be running Desperado, a Wild West shoot-out game. I've played a couple minis games with Tom over the years. He's a fun-loving easy-going minis guy. And every time I've ever walked past one of his Desperado games everyone was having a helluva good time.

Also added is a 15mm American Civil War game, run by Russ Hartley and using Fire and Fury rules. I don't really know enough about this game to offer anything useful, other than to note that the American Civil War is a perennial favorite of the local tin soldier set.

Friday, February 9th, 7pm

Holy crap, go sign up for this next game right now! If you like cut-throat political boardgaming run by a good-natured moderator, the latest addition to the Friday night schedule is the best thing going. John Satterfield returns with his "Kingmaker on the Big Board". The rightly-called Big Board is a ginormous custom jobbie with 25mm miniatures replacing the normal Kingmaker chits. Even the cards you use are super-sized. But here's the most important part: John Satterfield is the nicest and most fun guy I've ever gamed with. Period. This game is his baby and he makes playing it a hoot. If you like people that don't suck and games that are fun, do not pass this one up.

Saturday, February 10th, 9am

Two more events have been added in the Saturday morning miniatures section. Phil Hall will be running a second pulp-tastic session of .45 Adventure. Mr. Hall promises a totally different scenario than the Friday afternoon event, so you can play both if you'd like. Russ Hartley will run some more 15mm Civil War.

Saturday February 10th, 3pm

Hey! Three new boardgames, all of which look awesome! My kid sister is running Tumblin' Dice. I blogged about this game a while back, but the short version is that you will learn this game in two minutes and be having a great time immediately. I'd tell you all about my sister, but she's supposed to be babysitting for me next weekend and I don't want to screw that up. I will share one small item: she blames me for Don Botkin's Railroad Tycoon game being scheduled at the same time as her Tumblin' Dice event. Not because I had anything to do with the scheduling, but because I was the one that encouraged her to run an event. Railroad Tycoon is her favorite game that no one in her game group likes to play. Sorry, Jenn! Bring your copy to the Blind Sniper room Saturday night and I'll conscript some players.

So anyway, I don't know Dan Botkins. But I do know that, of all the train games I've played in the last couple of years, the boardgame version of Railroad Tycoon is one of my favorites. And it doesn't use a crayon. I know those crayon train games have a cult following, but I find them personally unappealing. Even though I love crayons.

Also on tap for Saturday afternoon is Dave Dubin running an event he calls "80's Retro Attack Settlers". Man, am I jealous. I wish I was the guy who first strung the words "80's", "retro", and "attack" together. The actual name of the game being played is Borderlands, which Mr. Dubin is pitching as one of the inspirations for Settlers of Catan. Something about that game rings a bell. Was it reviewed in Dragon once upon a time? Is the setting licensed from a novel or something? I can't quite put my finger on it.

In the next installement in the Winter War preview series I'll be taking a look at the games running the Saturday night of the con.