Tomorrow’s War at Games Plus on Sunday, January 29

We’ll be following up our successful game from two weeks ago with a series of smaller Tomorrow’s War games at Games Plus this Sunday, starting around 1 PM. Why the smaller games? We’re play testing a draft of a points system that Shawn Carpenter and I have been working on to answer the many requests we’ve received. I’ll be mostly floating from game to game and observing, taking notes, asking questions, etc.

Hope to see you there…

Tomorrow’s War at Games Plus

Late breaking announcement: I’ll be running a game of Tomorrow’s War at Games Plus in Mt. Prospect, IL this Sunday afternoon. I plan on being there at 12 PM with game time somewhere around 1 PM. I haven’t decided what exactly it is that I’m running yet, but most likely it will be the Bugs in the Reactor scenario from the main rulebook. Rett will also be running a game, so we should be able to accommodate plenty of players. Hope to see you there!

A Few Photos from This Year’s Legends

Another November and another Legends in the Fall convention come and gone. This year’s convention marked the first time I was a vendor instead of a game master, although I ran two Force on Force games at the booth and my sons put on two Tomorrow’s War games as part of the scheduled events.

First up, a few shots from the Tomorrow’s War/Starship Troopers game run by Steve and Will:

TW/SST on left; FOF game on right

Bugs approach the Trooper line

Troopers prepare to receive the charge

More Bugs pour out of a hole..."this place is crawlin', sir!"

The game was the usual mix of highs and lows as the intrepid Mobile Infantry reacted to Bug parries and thrusts. This game has now been run at every Legends convention since 2005.

Tom Konzcal, one of the Ambush Alley Games pointmen, ran an urban Afghanistan scenario using Force on Force:

Tom K in action, making sure the players kept their heads down

Tom's 20mm FoF game...you can just see an MRAP entering from the left of the board

Tom had a full table of players and lots of dice being thrown. My understanding is that heavy fighting started early, kept going and didn’t let up until the last turn of the game.

I, too, ran a FoF game at the booth, set in the green zone of Afghanistan. I used a much smaller layout than the one I had at Historicon:

My FOF Afghanistan layout at the AAG booth

The Taliban wait for the USMC in ambush

In both games that I ran, I had a USMC Recon element trying to go from one end of the board to the other against Tier One Taliban. Both games saw the USMC have difficulties initially, but eventually prevail.

There were a ton of beautiful, beautiful games, including a Weird War II game by Mark Feldman…a Star Wars game on Naboo complete with giant force field over the Gungan forces…several great World War II games…Orc’s drift…all leading up to Saturday night’s first inaugural “Legends in the Skies” tournament. This year’s honors went to the English (despite my efforts to exhort the Germans to victory). Here are a few shots of the game:

The German and British flyers face over Britain.

A closer look at the Saturday night tournament action

While this year’s Legends attendance was down from last year’s, the one thing is continues is the quality of the games being run. Thanks to Skip Peterson and everyone who helped to make not only this year’s convention, but all the Legends events, a success.

Reminder: This Weekend is Legends in the Fall

This weekend is our annual Legends in the Fall convention at the Doubletree Hotel in Mundelein, IL. I will be there representing Ambush Alley Games; other vendors include Scale Creep Miniatures, Unique Gifts and Games, Legends-in-Time. I will be running Tomorrow’s War and Force on Force games at my booth…and rumor has it I may have some advance copies of Cold War Gone Hot, the latest Force on Force supplement, for sale. My sons Will and Steve will be running Starship Troopers/Tomorrow’s War and Post-Apocalyptic/Tomorrow’s War games. Additionally, Saturday night will see the inaugural “Legends of the Skies” Battle of Britain dogfight tournament, replete with Squadron Leader Skip Peterson and Fleigermeister Roots as your guides. Visit http://legends-in-time.com/WordPress/?page_id=2 for more details. I hope to see you there!

Ambush Sunday Cancelled for November

I just wanted to put out to anyone planning on attending Ambush Sundays at Unique Gifts and Games that we are cancelling all events for November. Why? Mostly because of other gaming commitments. This weekend, November 6, is Rock-Con, in Rockford, IL, and two weeks from that date is Legends in the Fall Convention in Mundelein, IL. As I can’t physically be in two places at once without violating quantum mechanics at some level, I am electing to stay within the laws of physics.

We’ll pick up again in the month of December. As to specifics, I need to work that out with Ken and Kathleen at Unique Gifts and Games. We may switch days or time slots, so stay tuned.

A Return to Ambush Valley

In preparation for the upcoming Legends in the Fall, I am running an Ambush Valley scenario of my own devising this Sunday. The scenario will feature two squads of US infantry attempting to sweep and clear a village that has been known to harbor both Local and Main Force Viet Cong elements. The US players will have to be careful not to alienate the local civilians while they search for weapon caches, tunnel entrances and signs of the elusive VC. Game time as always is 1 PM at Unique Gifts and Games in Grayslake, IL.

Both Ambush Valley and Tomorrow’s War have been released, and quite honestly, I need to run something other than Tomorrow’s War for a change of pace. You can purchase both through Ken at Unique Gifts and Games, or you can buy the PDF  directly from us at http://ambushalleygames.com/products/store. I have to say that Ambush Valley is about the most comprehensive sourcebook for Vietnam that I have ever seen. Piers and Joe have outdone themselves on this one.

I am hoping to have my 15mm Vietnam figures mostly painted by Sunday, but we’ll see. If not, I’ll borrow some of Skip’s 20mm FAA figures for the game. I am using a mix of Flames of War and Flashpoint figures, with buildings by TimeCast. For tunnel markers, I am using some of Khurasan’s mine shaft entrances (with some green stuff/modifications). Hope to see all of you on Sunday.

Legends in the Fall November 19-20

Mark your calendars for the weekend of November 19-20 for this year’s Legends in the Fall convention in Mundelein, IL. This is the first year that we are doing a two day event. We’re also offering two wonderful Saturday night dinner/tournament events. I will be attending as a vendor this year, representing Ambush Alley Games. I will be running games most of the weekend at the booth.

Games that I know of so far include Starship Troopers (with TW rules), Star Wars (TW), a “not” 40K game (with TW) and a Force on Force game (the Bala Baluk scenario from the OEF book). If I get enough stuff painted, we will also run a game or two of Ambush Valley (Vietnam) and the forthcoming Cold War Gone Hot book. There are also a ton on non-AAG games planned from some of Chicagoland’s top game masters.

Skip Peterson is the convention organizer and always puts on a world-class show. We’d love to see you at the event and get you into a game! For more information, check out http://legends-in-time.com/WordPress/?page_id=2.

Ambush Gipson This Week and an Update on Projects

Mark will be running Ambush Sunday this week as I will be at Indiana University visiting my son Will this weekend (it’s the Illinois-Indiana football game at Indiana, so I’ll be wearing my orange and blue and cheering for the visiting team). Mark is planning on running a Tomorrow’s War scenario of his own design, so come on out and support Mark at 1 PM on Sunday at Unique Gifts and Games in Grayslake, IL.

My projects at the moment? In no particular order…

1. Shawn Carpenter has asked me to wrestle the  Tomorrow’s War point system to the ground, so I’ll be playing with my spreadsheet over the next few weeks and then submitting my draft for review by the Ambush Alley Games play testers. As we’ve said many times, we’re looking to put together a system that helps people write and balance scenarios, not a comprehensive system for tournament play. Ken G. and I already have a good start on things, so I’m hoping to have a draft by the end of the month.
2. Skip Peterson is starting to get things going for the upcoming Legends in the Fall game convention and I’ll be helping him organize the event and some of the festivities. I will be attending as a vendor this year, representing Ambush Alley Games. I will be running games at our booth, most likely Cold War Gone Hot scenarios and Tomorrow’s War stuff. I do know of two games being run for sure. First, my son Will is running a Tomorrow’s War game set in his alternate Fallout timeline. Second, the Roots’ family tradition of running Starship Troopers will continue. My two sons (Will and Steve) will be running the game this year. Again, we’ll be using Tomorrow’s War as the rules system.
3. I’ve put together the planned scenario list for next year’s  Force on Force expansion Contra! Wars of the Americas and have started writing. As I’ve mentioned before, the time frame will cover Bay of Pigs (1961) to present day operations.
4. On the painting table, I’m working on two projects. The first is my 15mm Neo-Soviet VDV platoon for Tomorrow’s War. I’m nearly finished. The figures are Micropanzer’s SAS troops, which I’m painting in a summer Russian VDV camo pattern. As a tip to “fashion,” I’m giving them the dark aqua berets. The second project is a 15mm US rifle platoon and about 50 main force Viet Cong for the release of Ambush Valley. I’m using a mix of Flashpoint and Battlefront figures for the forces. For the most part, the figures are good; there are a few sculpts that need some work, particularly the Flashpoint VC RPG figure and a few of the Battlefront US riflemen (legs too skinny and prone to snapping).

Big Announcement :)

Well, it’s official. I now join the ranks of people with two jobs, but this newest addition to my responsibilities is a fun and welcome one! I have joined Ambush Alley Games as a member of their board of directors. Here is the press release:  http://ambushalleygames.com/incoming/press.

Shawn, Peggy and Robby Carpenter are a great group of people with whom to be in business. They are talented, fun and very collaborative by nature. I am looking forward to a long, long relationship with Ambush Alley Games.

Advance Notice: Ambush Sunday September 11 CANCELED

We will be attending Recruits in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, so there will not be an Ambush Sunday game at Unique Gifts and Games in Grayslake, since I have not been able to solve either the human cloning or teleportation issues. Our next game will be September 28. For those of you attending Recruits gaming convention, we will be running Force on Force and Tomorrow’s War demo games at the Ambush Alley booth.