Hallowe'en 2016

After posting pictures of the 3rd Battalion we got on with some regular halloweeniness. The kids got bugging me about getting out my new "costume" so I actually got out and tried on this uniform I picked up in Calgary during our summer vacation. It's a long story... (more about that later sometime).



It's actually a replica Canadian Great War uniform that was used in the film Passchendaele - or at least parts of it was... The tunic and trousers were, maybe the cap... the puttees and webbing are new replica items. I have some insignia to add to the uniform at some point, but just haven't gotten to it. Not sure if I got that webbing set up right - but I'm pretty happy with the puttees - the first one took a few tries to get it right.

What the uniform really needs is a rifle... and maybe an entrenching tool... and a leather jerkin...



Messing around trying to make it look like a "period photograph"



(Not actually a Great War Brodie - the helmet is ww2 vintage - but close enough for my purpose)



The Girl also had a costume and wanted a picture with me in mine.



Out of focus because The Boy - who was taking the pics on this rather drab October late afternoon - was giggling too much.



Afterwards we made some halloween-y cookies. Well... okay... they were kind of just regular chocolate chip cookies with yellow, orange and brown Sun Drops instead of chocolate chips... which are sort of halloween-y coloured - or at least autumn coloured.

We didn't get around to carving a pumpkin this year. I don't know where the day went. I'd meant to get one carved AND play some horror themed games in the afternoon... but all we really got done was the cookies...?



After supper when Amanda got home we DID get to play at least one Horror-ish themed game - Forever Young: A Vampire Game from Twilight Creations - they make that Zombies!!! game (which we don't have, but I played once... we do however have Cthulhu: Hastur La Vista, Baby and Innsmouth Escape...). I picked up Forever Young out of Dragon's Den Games bargain bin for maybe $20 a couple of years ago - intending to play it as a Halloween game - but never got to it. (Last year on halloween we played a  Fear & Faith - Flashing Steel mash up horror skirmish game set during the English Civil War).

Forever Young says 45-60 minutes to play... so we'd hoped to play a few more games or maybe go watch a movie after....



But instead the game dragged on for almost FOUR HOURS!? I can't imagine trying to play a 6-player game!? Although once the draw decks got close to running out - it came to a pretty abrupt end in I was knocked out first - The Boy managed to kill my Vampire leader and The Girl discovered my nest... Within another turn The Girl was knocked out of the game and it was just down to Amanda and The Boy - I don't think it took more than another two or three turns - which went a LOT faster.

In the end The Boy won - but it was super close!

(I should have gotten a picture mid-game when there was a PILE of human and vampire pawns and lost of tiles stacked up all over...)

I might play it again (it would be interesting to TRY it with 6  players - just to see how it plays different...). But if I don't, it was only $20 - which is pretty cheap for an evening's entertainment (cheaper than us all going out to a movie!).

What did the rest of you get up to this halloween? Anyone else out there do some horror themed gaming - whether miniatures or board/card games? (I'll bet Terry did!)