From: "Patrick R. Collins" <pcollins@prairienet.org> 
Subject: [consim-l] Rock Con 

I went to RockCon this year. It was in a small banquet type hall, but
there seemed to be enough room for all the tables, and the dealer area was
large enough to have several dealers, with lots of stuff. I was lucky
enough to get a door prize, an Osprey Caesar's Legions. I also purchased
two terrain pieces, from Mystic Moldwerks. Made of Hydrostone (whatever
that is) they're a set of small walls, and a terrain set of small hills
with shrubbery on them. Should be fine for 15mm, and reasonably priced for
a total of 8 USD. I hope the walls will do double duty as the finishing
top for my Tartar wall/Tianjin city wall, as well as generic field walls. 


Mostly Warhammer 40K types there, but I played a PT boat game. The
scenario was in the Med., three German E boats attacking two LCI's being
escorted by two sub chasers. The rules were a set being done by Warhawk
Hobbies of Rockford, to be ready for sale in the near future. It took 2.5
hours to finish the game, with three players. The system used
command/control in a unique way. Each boat commander was rated 1~5, 5
being best.  Each phased you pulled a chit. If you pulled a 3, any
commander rated 3 or better could issue a command. A boat unable to issue
a command would continue the course from last turn. It could not fire
torpedoes, but guns could engage the nearest target.  To engage a
different target, fire a flare, or calculate a torpedo run would need a
command. 


You could also get a "veer" result, which forces the boat to turn away
from the enemy, until issued another order. Commanders can be hit by fire,
which, if you have a poor captain, gives you a chance that the exec is
better. Aside from too many dice rolls for damage (one to hit, one to
determine minor/major/ another to see the effect) a rather nice system.
Another player and I had the Germans, vs. one US player. Although I had
two boats, one missed with torpedoes, and the other (with a poor captain)
veered off and left the table when the torpedoes were damaged. My partner
managed to sink one LCI. 


I also met AP's sales manager, who was showing SOPAC, Panzer Grenadier,
and Hannibal's battles. He was very eager to show off the products, and
told me that 1898 had been delayed due to box and board problems. The
boxes are in, and they hope to be shipping in four weeks. I didn't really
get a chance to look at the rules for HB, or PG. SOPAC seemed very similar
to the rest of the GWAS series for searching, and for battles. 


Rock Con will be in larger quarters next year, and expects to be bigger.
Saturday had much more gaming than Sunday, but there was quite a bit going
on. I saw a WWII game (using Easy Eight's rules and pieces) and a Napoleon
battle being set up. The Easy Eight stuff was 1/72 scale, which looks very
nice.  Lots of lead in the dealer area, but I resisted all temptation.


Regards, Pat


pcollins@prairienet.org


Last Played: Freeplay '88, Age of Iron (1880's) Mortimer's Cross (TSI)


http://www.prairienet.org/~pcollins