Tuesday 22 April 2014

NATCON 2014, Christchurch, NZ

As I alluded to in my last post, I headed down to my home town of Christchurch to play a few games with the locals down there.

One of the things which I was really keen on was having some games with people that Colin and I had introduced to Sangin last year. I was incredibly fortunate to have guys like Rick and Simon around to play some games, both new-ish to Sangin, but they both were quickly able to pick up the rules and play their games. It was great to see so many people interested in our rules, and in Skirmish Gaming as a whole.

Nice neck of the woods isn't it?

There were some great games over the weekend, a highlight for me was seeing Rick's Taliban escaping off the board in the Advance to Contact scenario from Despatches 1, a possible lowlight was me attempting to do the same, and getting completly wiped out. In my defense, I was teaching Rick the game, so I was meant to be nice (that's a believable excuse for Rick smashing my poor Taliban right? definitely believable....)

Some of Rick's competant Taliban. Mine are not pictured for some reason....

One other perk of the weekend was talking through a few of the plans for the forthcoming year, and being able to show people the first of the scenarios and rules from the forthcoming Despatches II.

The Scenario is called Rook One Down, and takes the premise that a Blackhawk has gone down, leaving the pilots stranded on the ground in hostile territory. Luckily they have an Apache on station to help them out, and a reserve force of soldiers on their way. All they have to do is hold out until help comes!

Apache on station!

Apache... off station?

As you can see from this picture, the ISAF ran into a few issues- mainly the Apache got smacked by an RPG! All up it was a very tight game, although the ISAF were able to defend the helicopter, they took more than a few casualties, and lost not just the Blackhawk, but the Apache as well!

It was a great weekend, thank you to those who helped me, be it joining in with games, helping me out with terrain or even just talking through the ideas about the game. I really enjoyed it.


We will be back later this year Christchurch, you can count on it.

Pooch

7 comments:

  1. Not a good day to be in aviation

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    1. Not at all!

      It was a stupendous shot on the Apache (something like a 10% to hit, and the RPG rolled a 02, then penetrated, then knocked it out!)

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  3. Lets try that again. Wow jealous, I am really looking forward to coming down later in the year to Christchurch to play some more games down with you guys and reveal a few more of the bits of bobs that are coming out soon.

    cheers
    Colin

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  4. Very bad day for the Air Wing! So the Taliban have options against an Apache!!!

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    1. There are always options- their effectiveness is totally debatable!

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  5. Play this scenario last night, it works really well.

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