Hamburg Tactica 2017 / Sunday

"On Sunday Jörg and I played a couple of games on smaller tables that only took about an hour to play. We played a Crusaders versus Saracens board game. The rules were from the book 'Ritter, Waffen, Reiterspiele' by Andrew MacNeil and the miniatures were 54 mm Britains figures. Great Fun."

"Aha."

"Then we went to a beautiful 60 cm × 60 cm table where the author of the ruleset 'Koalitionskriege!' presented his game. We played out a skirmish battle taking place in the age of Napoleon. British versus French. Each player had a set of command markers and secretly had to 'program' each unit at the beginning of each turn. I don't know much about this period, but it surprised me that the author had made close combat more effective than shooting."

"It really depends what 'close combat' represents in the game."

"Yes. I know. I asked the author and he said something about knives on rifles. Anyways, the game was fun. The last game we played was Congo presented by the club Spieltrieb Frankfurt. We were four players, a teenager from Sweden, his father, Jörg and I. The table was covered with red cloth that had patches of grass. On top of it were lots of trees, mud huts and all kinds of African animals. In the centre was a village. One side played a group of European explorers who started in the village and had to make it to the edge of the table with some stolen goods. The other side played an African tribe, trying to stop the thieves. Congo uses cards to activate units. The cards allow you to take certain actions like move or shoot and come with a number for initiative. At the beginning of each round both sides play out a card. The side with the higher initiative goes first."

"That sounds interesting."

"Yes. And you can also bewitch other units, so they can't move or shoot. I played the African tribe with the teenager from Sweden and he was in such a good mood, enjoying the game so much, it turned Congo into the most entertaining two hours I had during the Tactica. Do you know the blog Dalauppror?"

"No."

"The author played at the same table on Sunday morning. There is a report on his blog with lots of pictures."

"Hm. I don't read tabletop blogs."

"Yeah. I know. I'm glad you read my blog once in a while. On Saturday morning, coming from the Abukir game, a bit exhausted, this guy comes to me, Alex, an old friend of my cousin, and says: 'I have something for you.', gives me a bag of miniatures, characters from Foundry's World of the Greek range. I'm like: Wow. Thank you. He says: 'For all the inspiration your blog gives me.'"

"Really?"

"Turns out he wants to do something similar to our Waltrop campaign. Ancient Greeks with mythological elements. I'm going to be in Dortmund with the kids during the summer, so we want to get together and play one day. Man, I was really touched by this. Alex has a wonderful blog. He is an amazing painter and does great pieces of terrain. You should check it out, Dr Moebius Miniature Mania."

"Hm."

"Really!"

"Ok. I'll try to do that."

"So how was your time in Dortmund?"

"Nice. I spent the weekend with my brother and his family. He had to work in the garden. I made the mistake to put my niece in a wheelbarrow. I had to drive her around in the garden all day. I was so exhausted."