{"id":3514,"date":"2015-01-01T15:16:18","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T15:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=3514"},"modified":"2015-01-02T11:54:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T11:54:26","slug":"hawks-ring-out-the-new-year-with-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=3514","title":{"rendered":"HAWKS Ring Out the New Year with Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Happy<\/a>
Happy New Year!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the sixth year in a row, the HAWKs rang out the new year at Casa Surdu with an evening of gaming. \u00a0Though many of the regulars were unable to attend, we still had a large crowd — 12 gamers plus a couple of kibitzers. \u00a0The plan was to play three games. \u00a0The first was the traditional Santa Claus game using GASLIGHT. \u00a0The second was a large X-Wing game with almost everything I have. \u00a0And the final game for 2014 was Red Dragon Inn.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A long shot of the town of Granville before the battle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first game was set in my pulp town of Granville, Illinois. \u00a0We used To Be Continued… by GASLIGHT<\/em> as the rules. \u00a0In this scenario Santa has been shot down by Venusians and crashed near the Sinclair gas station. \u00a0(You don’t see the sleigh in this shot, because I took it before Chris arrived with the sleigh.) \u00a0The objective of the good guys was to gather up as many packages as possible and get them to Duke Morrison’s waiting airplane, the Anything but a Twenty,<\/em> for subsequent distribution to deserving boys and girls. \u00a0The various groups of gangsters who inhabit the town were trying to gather the presents for themselves. \u00a0In addition, the Venusians (see the gold space ships in the park not far from Duke’s plane), were trying to capture the sleigh and\/or reindeer so that they could study the technology. \u00a0There was also a small group of Nazi Fifth Columnists in the town who were interested in capturing Santa’s giant mechanical nutcracker and clockwork Santas.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A shot of the trailer park before the battle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The packages were scattered around town, and the gangsters were likewise distributed in buildings. \u00a0Duke Morrison, “Boats” Morgan, “Wrench” Web and their soldiers and sailors started near the Anything But a Twenty<\/em>. \u00a0The Venusians began near their ships. \u00a0Santa and a few of his units landed near the Sinclair station. \u00a0Nearby were professor Serafini Nannini and his lab assistants, who moved to investigate the crash, as well a group of friendly snowmen and snowball fighting kids who had a vested interest in helping Santa.<\/p>\n

\"Duke's<\/a>
Duke's plain awaits the arrival of Santa and his packages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of Santa’s other allies, like teddy bear infantry, toy soldiers, additional kids with snowballs, Moonraiser’s Marauders, and additional snowmen arrived in the first few turns, their arrival location being randomized.<\/p>\n

\"Santa,<\/a>
Santa, his militia, mechanical saints, and a giant nutcracker gather up strewn packages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The HAWKs tradition is for my son to be Santa. \u00a0The other unfortunate tradition is that Santa always has gotten killed. \u00a0When my son was younger, that was disheartening for him. \u00a0This year he didn’t want to play Santa, but we made him anyway. \u00a0Spoiler alert: Santa lived.<\/p>\n

The game began with Santa righting his crashed sled and calling four remaining reindeer to his assistance. \u00a0Four reindeer weren’t enough to lift the heavily-laden sleigh, but they were enough to pull it slowly. \u00a0In addition the clockwork Santas and giant nutcracker were enlisted to push the sleigh as well.<\/p>\n

\"Friendly<\/a>
Friendly snowmen take packages to Santa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hermie and Rudloph jumped into a nearby roadster and, after a slight mishap which involved getting their car stuck in a hedge — it turns out that Hermie is a poor driver, they began collecting packages. \u00a0The nearby friendly snowmen collected packages and brought them to Santa while a group of kids with snowballs repulsed a group of gangsters and pursued a second one.<\/p>\n

\"Angry<\/a>
Angry snowmen, kids with snow balls, penguins, and gangsters duke it out<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the other end of the town, another group of snowball wielding kids and a group of penguins battled with angry snowmen and gangsters to secure an egress route for Santa.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A long shot of the fight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chaos<\/a>
Chaos in the streets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Angry snowmen and gangsters tried to set up a roadblock to stop Santa’s sleigh while other gangsters (on the street to the left of the one in this picture) set up a bucket brigade to haul packages from a building to a “borrowed” bus.<\/p>\n

\"Moonraiser's<\/a>
Moonraiser's Maurauders battling with gangsters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moonraiser’s Marauders (from the Island of Misfit Toys) attacked Bonnie’s gangsters, but took the worst end of the subsequent melee. \u00a0This gave Bonnie, Harry the Horse, and the Limey’s gangs an opportunity to try to cut off Santa’s movement toward Duke’s plane.<\/p>\n

\"Santa's<\/a>
Santa's entourage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble, hitched their red and yellow panel van to Santa’s sleigh and began towing it up the road. \u00a0This freed up the reindeer to fly to the rooftops of Granville business to retrieve presents that fell during Santa’s crash landing. \u00a0At the same time, Duke Morrison was battling Venusians and other bad guys. \u00a0Tanks as having a bad dice night, rolling many 20’s. \u00a0It was probably inevitable that Duke would be incapacitated before the end of the game.<\/p>\n

\"Santa's<\/a>
Santa's disabled sleigh being pulled up the road by Yukon Cornelius in the yellow panel van<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of the gangsters began trying to ram into either the panel van or the sleigh itself to stop it. \u00a0At the same time, the Nazi “she wolves” boarded the sleigh and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Santa. \u00a0At this point, I was worried that Santa was going to die again this year, but he passed all his Save rolls and cleared the sleigh of enemy boarders. \u00a0The Venusians came alongside in a “borrowed” vehicle and began shooting at Santa. \u00a0Still Santa Saved, while toy soldiers and teddy bears defended the sleigh. \u00a0After four hours of play, we determined that there was nothing the bad buys had left in their bag of tricks to stop Santa from linking up with Duke Morrison’s men.<\/p>\n

The final count on presents was 24 to the good guys and 14 to the bad guys. \u00a0Santa lived. \u00a0It was a convincing good guy victory.<\/p>\n

I tore down Granville (a significant task) while everyone partook on breaded chicken over pasta with garlic bread. \u00a0The chicken recipe came from my aunt and was prepared much earlier in the day. \u00a0My wife heated it up while we finished the GASLIGHT game. \u00a0 This gave me time to put away all the buildings and figures.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a>
Bill Brought his Deep Space Nine Piece for the Star Trek Version of the Rules<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second game we played was X-Wing<\/em>. \u00a0I wanted to put all — or nearly all — of my X-Wing<\/em> ships on the table. \u00a0Each player had three fighters or perhaps a smaller number of larger ships. \u00a0Bill brought the Deep Space Nine station from the Star Trek<\/em> version of the rules to use as a communications satellite. \u00a0This became the objective. \u00a0The rebels swooped in to knock it out, but were surprised to find that it was fully operational and guarded by several squadrons of Tie Fighters. \u00a0Does that sound like the plot of Empire Strikes Back<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\"Setting<\/a>
Setting Up for a LARGE X-Wing Game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the rag tag group of rebel ships were piloted by experts. \u00a0Some of the ships were older relics piloted by novices. \u00a0The Empire had a couple of aces, but also a couple of academy rookies. \u00a0The rebels also had the Mellinium Falcon<\/em> piloted by Han Solo and a small cruiser.<\/p>\n

\"Rebel<\/a>
Rebel Cruiser Supported by Fighters and Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don’t know if Princess Leah was on board, but this ship was impressive on the table — even though it was armed with just a single weapon.<\/p>\n

\"Tie<\/a>
Tie Fighters Rush to the Defense of the Communications Satellite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Tie Fighters ganged up on the Falcon<\/em>, eventually turn it into an impressive fireball. \u00a0While the Falcon<\/em> was keeping many of the imperial fighters busy the other rebel battle group ground their way toward the communications station. \u00a0Despite heavy losses, they reached the station and were surprised by the heavy armament. \u00a0Several rebel fighters exploded as they approached.<\/p>\n

\"Rebel<\/a>
Rebel Squadrons Approach the Communications Satellite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The communications satellite was an easy target. \u00a0Despite the many shields, the rebels eventually punched through and began inflicting damage. \u00a0Then the cruiser came into range and began to fire. \u00a0A turn or two later, the communications satellite too exploded. \u00a0A good night for the rebels!<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>
Red Dragon Inn: Last Game of 2014 and First Game of 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

X-Wing<\/em> ended about 1130. \u00a0While my wife passed around champaign in anticipation of the ball dropping in Times Square, we set up what we thought was going to be a quick game of Red Dragon Inn<\/em>. \u00a0The game ended close to 2:00 AM with Bruce finally besting my daughter.<\/p>\n

I’ve never understood the fascination with New Year’s Eve, but these marathon gaming sessions, while somewhat exhausting to host, are a nice way to finish out the year and start the new year. \u00a0What’s not to like about good food and fun games with buddies?! \u00a0I played my 42nd and 43rd miniatures games for the year — falling short of my 50-game goal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n