…an Austrian Brigade against the Prussians in 1866…
…Manfred von Richthofen against the RAF in the skies over France in 1915…
…commanding a French frigate on the high seas in the early 1800’s…
…the Procyons and my Kraken allies assaulting the Terrans behind a shield wall…
…two tinclad Confederate tugs against the Union Navy in 1864…
…American revolutionaries against the Redcoats in the colonies around 1776…
…my Red starsoldiers in battle suits against faceless jump troops in the far future.
No, I did not take a time-tripping excursion that will demand a not-so-random whiz quiz at the start of next work week. Instead, I attended the 2026 Fall Assembly wargame gathering sponsored by The Armchair Dragoons in Cary, North Carolina from 9-11 October...
…and, boy, was it fun!
Thursday – The calm before the storm
Unlike previous years I drove down Thursday which meant that, 1) I got caught in traffic that added an extra hours to the drive and, 2) Made it for the Social at Craft Public House where I started my cheat weekend very early.
Friday Quartering Party
Friday started out a noon. The Assembly Area again was the small cottage behind the Cary VFW Post.
Kriegsspiel – My first event Friday was a Kriegsspiel scenario run by Paul L. which took place during the Prussian-Austrian War in 1866. I was part of the Austrian (Red) 2nd/4th Brigade Command team that was charged with holding the advancing Prussians back. A few players had played Kriegsspiel before but most had not. In this Kriegspiel, both sides had two command teams and an overall commander. Paul, assisted by Aaron, ran the game.
As usually happens, the Fog of War dominated the game but the Austrians eventually held the Prussian advance off. The most enjoyable part of any Kriegsspiel is usually the after-action review (AAR) where all the players talk about how they planned then saw the battle develop. The big moment is when they all get to the “ground truth” to discover the reality of the situation which often is far from what they individually perceived.
Now more than ever I need to get Kriegsspiel from Catastrophe Games off my shelf-of-shame and get going on running my own Kriegspiel events.
Red Baron’s War—WWI Air combat a remake of Richthofen’s War – My second Friday game was a home-brew design from RedBaronsWar which is a loving homage/remake of the board wargame Richtofen’s War. I got to fly as the Red Baron himself. I hope to see this one produced as some sort of published rules set as it has decent crunch but still plays somewhat swiftly. RMN Jr. took his copy of Wings of Glory (Ares Games…different system) with him so maybe I need to dig out my old Yaquinto Wings game instead.
Sails of Glory – My late Friday game was Sails of Glory hosted by Paul (PKHansma). With six players we each sailed a single ship and, though sailing a small frigate, by luck I ended up engaging the British early in the battle. Let’s just say that my sails were not filled with much glory this day….
Saturday Game Day
Cracking the Hammer Bastion – Saturday started off sitting down with designer Keith Tracton to play the next installment in his Firepower Pass series of wargames. Keith advertises Cracking the Hammer Bastion as an “epic-scale” wargame. Compared to his previous Firepower Pass title, Raider Drop Zone, this new game certainly steps up the scale but keeps to the core simplicity of his ’Shock and Awe’ rules. Like Raider Drop Zone, the new Cracking the Hammer Bastion uses CRT-less combat. Cracking the Hammer Bastion is literally a campaign-scale tower-defense game and will be one of four modules of the Hammer Bastion forming a series. Look forward to seeing this one printed via Blue Panther maybe as early as November.
Stepping outside with Derek to discuss Outside the Wire – I was happily surprised to meet Derek from Kazmos Studios who showed up. Derek’s new roleplaying game (RPG), Outside the Wire, is a game that I discussed before and backed on Kickstarter. Derek showed up with a near-final proof copy of the rulebook and, frankly, I was blown away. Our conversation covered a large swath of topics but, very importantly, Outside the Wire will be reaching final fulfillment soon. I think backers will be very impressed, and I look forward to supporting and working with Derek in the future as he makes Outside the Wire available not only to players but also to veterans and veteran’s groups alike.
Anaconda – Designer Mike Nagel brought his playtest kit for Anaconda: Gray Skies, Blue Water which is, as Mike explains, a Flying Colors-adjacent title. For Anaconda think, “FC goes to the American Civil War.” Although the game looks quite complete below, Mike still needs to write the rulebook out and playtest the scenarios. Our battle was loosely modeled on the Battle of Albemarle Sound where CSS Albemarle and some tinclad tugs took on the Union Navy. The game system plays fast and furious and looks to be very fun. Mike is hoping this one gets to the GMT P500 before the end of the year.
Road to Independence – With a gap in my schedule before Saturday evening event i sat down with Aaron D. as he laid out his blown-up map for Road to Independence from Blue Panther. Stevbe at Blue Panther graciously granted Aaron permission to print blown-up maps for use in his academic classes and Aaron testing the print for size and playability. I sat opposite Aaron and played the Americans for several turns and basically had them on their heels. Road to Independence is a nice quick-playing game with custom dice and may just be worth the investment for the personal collection. I eventually had to step away for my scheduled game and was replaced by Rich who carried on my work and eventually defeated Aaron. More importantly, Aaron got to test his map and will be ready for his students in a few weeks.
Mass Impact – My final game of Fall Assembly was Mass Impact from designer Mike Nagel. Mass Impact is a sci-fi skirmish wargame that Mike admits is his remake of Battlesuit (Steve Jackson Games, 1981) that was set in the OGRE universe. Steve Jackson Games apparently passed on Mike’s version. Unlike Anaconda, Mike has a rulebook for this one but is not sure when he might publish.
The Haul
What would a gathering of wargamers be without new wargames. Though I did not win anything in the raffle I still drove away with more than I arrived with. My haul is a combination of self-purchase (Off the Line by Mike Nagel from Relative Range), The Armchair Dragoons publisher review copies (Spectre from Mödiphiüs Entertainment—out of print?—and The Battle for Normandy Deluxe Edition errata counters from GMT Games) and swap table claims (Assault: Red Horizon 41 from Assault Games and Expansion as well as Gulf Strike by Mark Herman from Victory Games).
Dragoons, Assemble (next time)!
The Armchair Dragoons Regimental Commander Brant is already planning for next year’s Fall Assembly, scheduled agains for Columbus Day weekend (or, in North Carolina terms, the weekend before State Fair). Brant is in serious discussion to grow into a larger venue next year which likely will mean more games, more swap table space, a better admin arrangement, table for eating (protect your games!), maybe some RPG play (Derek with Outside the Wire?), and hopefully a small vendor or two for at least Saturday. Doing so will require YOUR support. Personally, I think I need to up my Patreon contribution by a bit to help finance next year….
Feature image courtesy RMN
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Great write up Rocky! One of these days I’ll head down south and attend as well.