Drumbeat 2016

So another Drumbeat is in the books … The turnout this year was good, 58 people showed which was up from the 55 of last year. There was a decent slate of games as well, with equal number of games for the 1st session and 2nd session.

I changed up my routine this year, in that I just went to game and did not host a game or really help out while there. Which meant I was able to get into two games this year, a Hail Caesar game and a Check Your Six! game. And thanks to a tip I received, I was able to make a few bucks by selling off some of the All Quite on the Martian Front products!

Hail Caesar - Rome tries to save the Fort from the Dacian Barbarians

For the morning session I jumped into Mike and Troy’s Hail Caesar game … Of course I immediately blundered my first command roll! But even with the bad start, my horde eventually started rolling forward, straight at the fort, and reached the banks of the creek after three turns. Casualties from ranged fire were directed onto just a couple of units and shooting from the bolt throwers proved relatively ineffective [my opponent missed a lot!], so the bulk of my force arrived intact at the walls.

The Horde assembles before launching themselves at the Fort

 My first attempt to storm the walls, saw the Romans hold (high casualties caused one of my units to break). So I attached my commander to one of my "elite" units and stormed around the flank of the fort. This side was only held by a small unit of archers and they were not able to keep the swarm of troops off the walls. As they spilled over the walls, they were soon joined by the rest of the horde and proceeded to destroy the forts garrison.

Roman Auxiliary overlooking the mass of barbarians.

A moment before the fall ... off in the distance the Roman relief column.

They were supposed to sack the camp and head out, but our holding force on the right flank had been completely overrun by Allied Roman cavalry. So the troops inside the fort thought it best to hold out in the captured fort for a bit! The game ended in a draw.

 

Herb ran two The Sword & The Flame games.

Chris's Dr. Evil Must Die! game using Osprey's Black Ops rule set.

A large game of Dead Man's Hand, Jerry, Doc and Crew hosted the game.

Bill's WW1 game - Miracle of the Marne.

After a Lunch break, I jumped into Ken's CY6! game ... flying a mix of BF-109's and BF-110's, mostly Green pilots, though had one Veteran. I was able to score a couple of damaging hits early on, but I was not able to achieve a single hit for the rest of the game! That said, I did manage to down a plane ... my own, as I ran into one of the own planes!

Seven Years War Austrians advance upon the Prussians.



Matt and Wes hosted a 15mm SYW game using Wes's Old Dessauer rules

Regimental Fire & Fury ACW game put on by Scott.

Modern Ops game ... Jerry and James ran the game.

After running a Puget Sound Indian War 1855-56 game, the crew from down South put on a WWII game.

There were several other games that I had no pictures of, in particular, Dale and Sven put on a very large game of All Quite on the Marian Front. Overall another successful Drumbeat and I even have had several conversations with two chaps already planning to host games for Drumbeat 2017!