Christmas Party at the Games Group

 The Hamilton Road Games Group (meeting at the Crouch Branch of the London Public Library most Saturdays) tries to hold a holiday gaming party on the Saturday closest to the Christmas holiday. This year's event was well attended with over 22 people playing games. That might not sound like much to many of you, but for the Games Group, it's quite good considering the recent pandemic.

When my family and I arrived, two games were already in full swing. On table was holding the continuation of the BattleTech league that has been going on for a while. The second table was hold a game of Star Trek: Ascendency. Once that game ended, a similar game involving the well-known Dr. Who franchise. I've never played that game and I can't even say what the game is titled.

The games in full session

The line forms at the snack table.

A number of us set up a Hamilton Road holiday tradition game of Wings of War which includes Snoopy flying his dog house (Sopwith Camel) and Santa's Sleigh which comes in as  a replacement for the first aircraft shot down. Now if you shoot at Santa, YOU take the damage 'cause you're on the "Naughty List." It's fun and the game is quite colourful. Andy brought the planes and the playing aids for the game. Santa's sleigh came from my family's collection. I say "my family's collection" because my wife and children all play. Beth and Wren were present at this event, although Wren didn't fly a plane, but handed out the cards and damage markers.

An example of one of the Allied planes

German planes face down the Canine Ace of Aces.

I "flew" this Fokker D. VII - I called it the "Candy Striper."

A close up of Snoopy. Originally he was a paper model in 2D, and I built a "dog house'
based on a small wooden block. He's lasted a few years now.

Snoopy, an Allied plane, and Santa's sleigh.
Santa's sleigh was originally a chunk of balsa with a paper model built around it.

After a swift lunch break, the same group (with a rotating gallery of kibitzers) moved on to another almost traditional game - Save Santa from the Krampus! In the past, we've used Iron Ivan's Pulp adventure rules. This year, we changed the format to a mixed version of games from Wiley Games, drawing from their Fistful of Lead series of games - drawing from the modern, Sci-fi, fantasy magic, Horse & Musket, and horror games. We also used individual characters rather than teams.

Here's who was played and playing:

• Constable Steele, RCMP... played by Dan the Dice Man (a fixture at local conventions)
• Warrant Officer Vanier... played by Ralph (Modern Canadian soldier)
• The Phantom (Yes, that guy)... played by Rich (straight from Bengalla)
• Flash Borden (a sly rip-off)... played by Glenn  (taking time off from fighting Ming)
• Professor Destiny (think Dr. Strange)... played by Beth
• Anne Bonnie, Queen of the Pirates... played by Wren
• the tiles and moral support... supplied by Andy.
• All the bad guys... played by Your Humble Blogger, me.

Okay, Santa has been captured by the Krampus and his #2, the Grinch, and has been taken into the caverns beneath Santa's mansion at the North Pole. Santa is being held by the nasties, their Goblins, some monsters, and some mercenaries. The inspiration for the setting was "The Father Christmas Letters" by J.R.R.Tolkien, a delightful little book compiled from the letters Professor Tolkien wrote each Christmas to his children. I'd recommend it.

Tolkien's own art work
"Polar Bear defends Father Christmas"

We used Andy's MageKnight dungeon tiles for the hallways and rooms in the game.

The game... already in progress!

Anne Bonnie, Prof. Destiny, the Ghost-who-walks, and Constable Steele
move through the halls of the caverns.
(The Phantom was originally one of Bob Murch's Pulp Miniatures' Zombie figures.)

A larger view

Andy places doors and the like.
He knew how best to clip the pieces together.

"So THAT's what was behind the door." the Sergeant Major whispered.

Nasty Martian Ape vs. Sergeant Major!
What will happen?

This! Ape down!

Anne Bonnie made it past the Psycho-active mushrooms,
although, veteran D&D player that they are, they carved off a piece...
in case it might be needed later.

"So THAT's what was behind those doors!" whispered Flash Borden...
before he opened up with his blaster... and missed.

Flash jumped over the gobbos with his rocket pack while the Phantom's two 45's and Constable
Steele's Lee-Enfield laid quite a few goblins low. Professor Destiny threw spells to confuse the
goblins, who were none too bright to begin with. (Note that the Constable brought his own snow.)

To the Crux of the matter!
Flash Borden and SM Vanier enter the assembly room to find Santa tied up,
with the Krampus, the Grinch, a bunch of assault rifle toting mercenaries, and
one lone crazed goblin (probably ate too much mushroom) in that room.

Actually they made short work of the bunch. The rest of the rescue team caught up and

they took out all but two mercenaries (who surrendered and were arrested by Constable

Steele), took down both the Krampus and the Grinch in record time, freed Santa,

and SAVED CHRISTMAS!!!!  Yaaaaaaaaah!!

I think both Santa and the Crampus are from Reaper Miniatures.
The Grinch is a troll from an unknown, unremembered line.

Because of some things that were scheduled later, our family had to leave after the adventure finished.

It took about three hours which was about right for the day. We wished Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas all around and took our leave.

I wish the same to all of you who read this little thing. If you can get The Father Christmas Letters, do so. Every Tolkien fan might enjoy it.

Until next time, here is my family's Weihnachtspyramide in full spin. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My family is in no way German in background, but we like this,

"Stay down, ya big ape!"

Early Christmas Celebration at the Hamilton Road Games Group

   Usually the Hamilton Road Games Group holds a Christmas season party later in the month, lest the Advent Avenger get word of it. This year, one of our number, Martin had to return to his family home early because of a family wedding. So we held the gathering early. The games were traditional (for the group) and the seasonal treats were well done - hot chocolate, cookies of all types, and some slices of panatone, a delicious Italian Christmas cake.
   The morning was given to snacking, kibitzing, and finally playing "Wing of Glory", our WWI airplane game. Three of us took German planes and three took Allied planes. The Sopwith Camel was replaced by Snoopy and his dog house, a requirement of tradition at the games group. The game is a product of Italian gamers and we find it fun to play and easy to learn. We played this until we took a lunch break.

The Red Baron makes his appearance with the Flying Circus.

Snoopy, our hero, puts down a full spread of MG fire on the German plane.

It was a swirling dogfight befitting the heroes involved!

For Canadian flavour, Billy Bishop goes to war!

My plane, piloted by Lt. Fritz Höhn, was shot down right at the end of our play.

   The afternoon was filled with the Pulp-ish Rescue Santa game. I used a variation on Nordic Weasel's 5-Core games, taking bits and pieces from their WWII and 20th Century skirmish games, the Pulp adventure rules, and the fantasy rules. All use the same very workable mechanics and made the game go fast and fun.

Here's the teams, each with a leader and 4 troops, plus a few fun figures:

• Nia with the Shadow and a squad of town police with riot guns
• Derek with the Phantom, his dog, Devil, and the Jungle Patrol - rifles and one LMG, joined as well by none other than Captain Spaulding ("the African Explorer? Hurray!")
• Bear with Captain America and Fury's Rangers - Tommy guns
• Matt with the Marshal and his posse - revolvers, Winchester repeaters, and one sniper rifle
• Martin with the Banana Republican Guard* - one Magic User, and 4 assault rifles

*The Banana Republican Guard were the brainchild of Martin's fevered imagination and his 3D printer. In this case, a picture is worth 10,000 words.

Such a-peeling figures!

Martin is working on his doctoral dissertation...
and it's warping his mind... obviously.

    Santa and his elves were being held hostage in the workshop by the Krampus and the Grintch where were being assisted by... MARTIANS! Martian soldiers, Martian tripods, and allied Lizardmen were holding the North Pole. They threatened to hang Santa, those lousy, nasty grumps! The teams listed above went north to free St. Nick. (Three other teams were available but were not chosen - the RCMP, the US Rocket Corps, and a team of gorilla/guerrilla fighters from the Planet of the Apes.) My daughter, Katie helped me dream up the scenario and outline the teams and she brought more than a few new ideas to plague the other players.

Nia, Derek, and Bear wait their turn.
That's the biggest Martian tripod in from of Derek.
It had two "Scrooch" Cannons, which froze the entire team for one turn

 

The workshop, the statue of Buddy Cthulu, and the Martian gallows.
The Martian troopers (left) are re-purposed Tau. The Lizardmen are just beyond the Gallows.
The Krampus and the Grinch are just behind the workshop.
All the Martin weapons were "Scrooch" weapons, which immobilized but didn't kill.

Declared by Kevin to be "The most terrifying thing I've ever seen",
the Martian spaceship prepares to take off.
Here you can see Santa on the gallows.

The red cube at the foot of the gallows stairs is an "encounter." Something unknown lurks there.
In this case, it was Marley's Ghost. Whoever encountered him had to roll against fear.
"Buddy Cthulu" was a 3D printed thing, but it was just terrain or window dressing.

Captain America and the Rangers push through the standing stones.
The gnome tank is a lawn ornament.

Martin ran off the gallows on his 3D printer, figuring I could use it in the game.

Martin's team of fruit-fly-attractors fought against the one small tripod and later in hand-to-hand with the lizardmen, although they encountered both the Candy Cane Forest and the jugs of spiked egg-nog. They then were both drunk and sugared-up, or "marinated" as Martin put it. They suffered the most casualties, but took down a tripod and used their assault rifles well against the lizards. Bear's Cap and rangers found Santa's sleigh which took off in a random direction, but they were able to jump off before it crashed and hurt them. They used a fallen tripod for cover as they advanced. The rangers and the Jungle Patrol took down another tripod. Nia's Shadow/police group faced the Martian Soldiers and took them out, using their riot guns and the Shadow's Eerie Laugh. ("The weed of crime bears bitter fruit!") They also encountered a gaggle of coffee-ed up elves, who tried to give them the jitters, but ended up following the City's Finest. Derek with the Phantom and the Jungle Patrol were frozen once but pushed on, even though the Mis-fit Toys tried to keep them where they were. Matt's Cowpokes met three Wise Guys - Caspar, Melchior, and Vinnie the Nose - who tried to make them "an offer they couldn't refuse." After some negotiations, they gave the Marshal a cryptic note.

Katie and I sat at opposite ends of the table to ride herd on the craziness.

     Matt took the note and approached another encounter marker where they were faced with Tim the Enchanter who asked them "Questions three!"

• What... is your Quest?
• What... colour is Rudolph's nose when he has a cold?
• What... caused St. Nicholas, now known as Santa Clause, to punch out Arius at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD?

He couldn't answer them all correctly the first time and he had to fall back. His sharpshooter with a sniper rifle did do great damage to the medium sized tripod. Matt soon realized that the scrap of paper given to him by the "Three Wise Guys" held the answers!

• To find and free Santa
• Rudolph's nose is ALWAYS red!
• Arius' heresy regarding the divinity of Christ ("Pow! Right in the kisser, heretic!" Look it up!) 

Derek's Jungle Patrol moved in on the gallows. Matt's cowpokes took down the Grinch. Marley's Ghost frightened the Patrol, but Devil, the Phantom's Dog, was uneffected! He rescued Santa and they freed the elves and Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey in the workshop. We all ended up with bellies full of panatone and chocolate-chip cookies and were awarded points for what was done.

·         Free Santa and elves – 20 points  (Derek)

·         Take down a walker – 10 points   (Derek, Matt, Bear, Martin)

·         Recover sleigh with no mishap – 10 points  (Bear)

·         Recover Jack Skellington’s hidden bag o’ toys – 10 points  (Nia - I forgot about this one. "Don't look in! It's scary!)

·         Feed the captured egg nog to the Grinch – 10 points  (“Self-loathing at 3 o’clock; I’m booked!”) [The Grinch took a bullet - actually two - before this could happen]

·         Correctly Answering Tim the Enchanter’s three questions – 25 points   (Matt)

Well, we didn't really keep score, but it was fun.

The Jungle Patrol approaches the gallows and Marley's Ghost appears!

Shortly before that, the Jungle Patrol escaped the Mis-fit Toys, who stood aside
while the Patrol - and Captain Spaulding - faced a single Martian trooper

The Banana Republican Guard mix it with the Lizardmen.
The bartender is the symbol of being drunk with the spiked egg nog.

The Shadow, the cops, and the coffee-ed-up elves follow to support the Phantom.

Cap and the rangers take cover behind a fallen tripod.

Devil frees Santa! And there was much rejoicing!
The Phantom began life as a Pulp Figures "Zombie of the Stratosphere."
A little judicious painting and added pistol holsters made the difference.

Santa is free! Christmas is saved... again!

There will probably be other blog posting on the way, but take this as our Holiday Greetings 

from the Hamilton Road Games Group for however you celebrate the end of the year holidays! 

Peace be yours!