Wargame Bootcamp at Orccon 2012 - After Action Report
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Orccon 2012 : The first of this years three Strategicon conventions took place at the Sheraton hotel near LAX in Los Angeles last weekend; the 17th-20th of February 2012.
A regular fixture of these conventions is the Wargame Bootcamp, where volunteers teach wargames to people. The Wargame Bootcamp staff and volunteers are there to help people learn and play wargames; they will teach not only how to play the game but also the tactics and strategy of the game.
This is a great way to learn all types of wargames in a fun and friendly environment.
We had a great time teaching new and old wargames to a mixture of experienced wargamers and people new to wargaming. Once again people earned raffle tickets by taking part and we There were raffle prizes for those who took part and we had a featured game in A Few Acres of Snow
Check us out at our guild here on BGG Wargame Bootcamp
Here are reflections on the Wargame Bootcamp shenanigans at Orccon 2012. feel free to add your own comments:
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Many thanks our supporters GMT Games, DVG and Victory Point Games for the prizes they have donated to the participants Raffle.
The raffle is FREE to enter and participants earn tickets based on how much you participate in the Wargame Bootcamp. We had so many prizes that we held a raffle on both Saturday and Sundays evenings.
Rodger B. MacGowan had kindly created a poster for us to show the sponsorship of the Wargame Bootcamp by GMT Games, RBM Studio and C3I Magazine.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
The popular Martin Wallace designed deck building game A Few Acres of Snow was a featured game at this convention; not only were we going to be teaching the game but we were holding a tournament on Sunday with prizes of games and convention dealer dollars.
The game was taught on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; we some players getting in two or three games in preparation for Sundays showdown.
We had a total of 14 participants in the tournament, the youngest was 15 years old, that we divided into experienced and beginner categories; each category had their own elimination rounds and Grand Finals.
We had 7 games in progress at the same time in the first round.
Well done to all those who took part.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
This geeklist has a list of games we were ready to teach at the Wargame Bootcamp.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
This geeklist was for people to request games to be taught
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
This block game was even more popular than last con, with something like 8 or 9 games played; well done to Brett for teaching it so many times.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
A popular game in both the Victory Point Games and GMT Games editions.
We had more demand from people to teach the game than we could fulfill.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
John Wootress kindly demoed this Standard Combat Series (SCS) Series game.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Many thanks to Gayle and Amara for acting as our Head Quarters, they were very helpful directing people and organizing the Raffles etc; this allowed the blokes to concentrate on teaching games.
Saturday at the HQ
Sunday Afternoon at the HQ
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Always fun is this quick to learn and play WW2 air-to-air combat game; the Down In Flames: WWII-Guns Blazing game was a raffle prize, kindly donated by DVG.
The new gamers were introduced to dog-fighting with very capable late war aircraft and enjoyed the experience, so did I event though I was the first aircraft shot down in my Fw-190A6.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
A good wind-down game at the end of the day, after the official close of that day bootcamp activities, was Pacific Typhoon.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
A returnee to the bootcamp, and local gamer to me , Rick was taught this CDG on the north African campaign... aka Pog in the Desert.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Brett once again featured this fast playing series of solitaire games.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
The designer of this very successful Victory Point Games States of Siege Series game Steve Carey was kind enough to help out and teach his own game design.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
One of the game requested before the con; Karl was happy to feature this dice less game of bluff and strategy.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
This multi-player trick-taking game was a hit when suggested as an hour long game meaty filler. The players fortune ebbed and flowed until the victory went to Kevin with a slew of special cards. A big hit with those who played it for the first time.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
A favourite of mine, I was only too glad to teach this and we had a cracking game with victory only being determined by the resources at the end of one deck, with victory going to the USA player who used the oil price spike with great effect to stabilize Afghanistan. Let's not mention my 3 failed major jihads 
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Okay, it's not a wargame, but Brett did teach this fun game at the bootcamp.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Mark kindly taught the game to a bootcamp returnee Kyle; Mark did a great job as Kyle played the game last night and got an auto-victory as the USSR in the Late War. Well done to Kyle and thanks to Mark.
-
-
19.
Board Game: 303
[Average Rating:6.50 Overall Rank:3836]
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Three of us played 6 games of this fast Battle of Britain game; even with our combined brain power we were all unable to formulate a good strategy for the RAF; The Luftwaffe bombed London in 5 of the 6 games.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
A great multi-player team game, best with 5 players IMHO. I got to play 2 games and I saw at least another one game played.
Both of the games that I played were close calls; in the second game the US players (a young couple playing the game for the first time) worked well together to grab a draw in the last player turn.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
It is tough to find a fun game that you can teach and play in a few minutes, this is one of the few where that is possible.
...and the minis are cool.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
Monday was, once again, Nappy Wars monday with two games in progress.
Not my best game of Nappy Wars; James (France) was awesome in both luck and strategy and thrashed me as Britain. Not only did he land French troops in Scotland but he took Gibraltar. At least kyle learned how to play the game...and leaned what not to do as the Brits.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
After being a Guest of Honour at the previous con, Grant Dalgliesh of Columbia Games was back demoing their block games. Julius Caesar was played a bunch of times.
This game is a great introduction to the Columbia Games block game system.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
A few games were played, much less than normal, probably because the game was not left setup all of the time.
-
-
Tim P.
United States
Thousand Oaks
California
Visit the Wargame Bootcamp guild
To mark the 60th Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
-
We had a few requests for this game and there was an awful lot of raffle tickets in the box for the Combat Commander: Pacific prize (kindly donated by GMT). This was probably the most popular prize offered in our raffle.
Karl stepped up and taught the game, as Brett seemed to be glued to the chair teaching Sekigahara: Unification of Japan and I was teaching A Few Acres of Snow for the umpteenth time.
-
-
|
|
Thousand Oaks
California
Orccon is normally the largest of the 3 Strategicon convention held each year; with the high number of pre-registrations they were predicting an even higher attendance.
If anyone has pictures, comments or games that I missed. Feel free to add them.
Now, if only I could get my voice back...
Thousand Oaks
California
Attendance at the con was up on last year and somewhere in the region of 1600-1800, most of them board gamers.