Tacticon 2014

Mike (on the right) is a history major at CSU specializing in
the era of 1500 to 1920.  He is a pretty good Prussian also.

Tacticon 2014 has come and gone over the labor day weekend.  It was in the Red Lion/Radisson.  Yes, the split of the hotel into two different hotels is complete.  The hotel bar is in the Radisson, across from the new modern white acrylic/green neon lighting check in.

I hosted only two games this year, a Seven Years War Battle of Kolin on Friday night and a Napoleonic rearguard scenario on Saturday night.

There were four players in the Friday night game.  It was a simplified version of the Battle of Kolin.  There were no streams, only one forest a hill and four villages.  The only artillery battery was an Austrian battery in front of the Austrian main line.  There are only two formations for infantry (line and march column) and three for cavalry (line, attack column, and march column).

The battlefield Friday night.

Since everything was so simplified, the players were able to pick up the mechanics of the game quickly.  

The Saturday night game was set in the Napoleonic period.  Five players - two French and two Russian and one Prussian - fought a close battle set in 1813.  This time the terrain was more complicated and the armies were more difficult to handle.  Both sides had a full suite of cavalry, infantry and artillery.  The Prussians were largely militia.  There was plenty of artillery with two batteries for the French, two for the Russian and one battery for the Prussians.

Chuck, Kelly, Jay, Bob, and Russ playing the
Napoleonic rear guard scenario.

In the rear guard scenario, the French are out numbered 3 to 2 in all arms (infantry, cavalry and artillery) but they have the high ground and a better command deck.  In addition, there is a stream running down the center of the table that hangs up the Russian/Prussian attack just enough to break up their coordination.  The battle was very close with both sides alternately running out of chips and then getting chips from their opponent.  The French left was crushed but the father/daughter team of Chuck and Kelly ultimately prevailed before the Russian cavalry could overrun them.  It was a good game.  The players seem to enjoy themselves.

Tacticon seemed to have average attendance this year.  It was difficult to get a good feel for numbers because all the 40K, Warhammer, and FOW tournaments were in an office building next to the hotel. The quality of the painting of the 40K armies was a little disappointing this year.  However, all the Flames of War armies were very well done.  Once again, Tacticon was a lot of fun and it was good to see a lot of the old guard again.