10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

As soon as ToonCon was over, during a few moments that dealing with the renovations weren’t completely overwhelming, I started thinking about what to do this fall/winter game-wise (and there’ll be another post about that shortly) and that, ultimately, got me thinking about next year’s Wargaming Birthday Bash. This year will be the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash – so I’ve been thinking it ought to be something big… but what?

Here’s what I’ve done over the previous years:

(I wish I could have dug out some pictures of the eariler ones - as I'm sure i have them somewhere... but that was a previous computer and they're all stored on CDRs and burried in boxes under many, many more boxes somewhere in one of the rooms with less renovating going on... maybe I'll do a "Looking Back" post in February and be able to dig them out then...) 

2005 – Operation Biting: the Bruneval Raid – I think we used Flames of War – with 20mm figures - we had just heard of Flames of War and hadn’t even been able to track down a copy of the rules and so played it with the Quick Reference Sheet I downloaded of Battlefront’s website!

2006 – France 1940 – Flames of War

2007 - Mask of Amenakken IV – Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure

2008 – MiniCon - John’s Horse and Musket game, North Africa – Blitzkrieg Commander, Savage Worlds Sailing Ship Battle, Rippers Werewolf Hunt, and Read Dawn: Northern Alberta – Cold War Commander

2009 - Hordes of the Things

2010 – Mini Con with Hordes of the Things  and THREE Savage Worlds games!

2011 - East Africa – Contemptible Little Armies and Warrior Knights

2012 – Dark Age DBA Campaign and Very British Civil War – Contemptible Little Armies

2013 – Force on Force – Top Malo House and East Front - Bolt Action

I’m kind of tempted to run a Hordes of the Things or De Bellis Antiquitatis campaign… though a skirmish campaign of sorts also seems appealing (to me at least…) or just another Mini Con with a half dozen assorted different games (miniatures and board games) played over a weekend…?

Here are some of the possibilities:

HOTT/DBA Campaign

The campaigns are always fun and draw out a lot of folks. I’m kind of leaning towards HOTT because the state of DBA seems a bit up in the air at the moment. Part of me wants to go nuts and finish up a pile of Greek Hoplite armies and run a Greek Myth inspired campaign... Or there’s always the good old Dark Ages…

Skirmish Campaign

This would be a series of linked scenarios using Force on Force or Ambush Z or Tomorrow’s War (or even Savage Worlds, but probably not). Players would control a couple of teams of… whatever… and a “hero” or team leader? And have limited reinforcements over the campaign. Could be head to head  or co-operative. I think I’ve floated this idea before but no one seems to really be willing to commit to show up like they do for the DBA/HOTT campaigns. 

Mini Cons

So many games so little time… Why not play a bunch I haven’t gotten to play in forever over the space of a weekend… I could dig out Contemptible Little Armies for some Great War Action and/or Ever Victorious Armies for some Colonial Action…. A HOTT mega-battle… Something Horse and Musketty - or get John to bring out his 40mm 1850s toy soldiers for Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe… a game of Force on Force and/or Ambush Z… a couple of those board games I’ve been dying to play for a while (Age or Conan, etc)?

One Big Board Game?

I have Axis and Allies 1940 (Europe and Pacific). It looks like it might take a whole weekend to play…

I guess I need to settle on a weekend as well…. 22-23 February or 1-2 March…?