Games n Dice Historical Demo Day 2019

As Gregor is sharing the images from their Longstreet battles and going for quite some length to do research on his regiments, it was about time, to give this ACW rule set a try. Therefore he invited me to join them on their Games n Dice Demo day on historical tabletop systems to Düsseldorf.

The date was yesterdays saturday, and as traveling so early in the morning is quite free of traffic and stress, I was a bit early and had time to take a couple of pictures before hand of the store Drachental.

From the outside you can see, this is more than your "usual" friendly gaming store, as you can see that the ranges that are offered are much broader. Far beyond the regular Warhammer kits and maybe Infinity or Warmachine. And enclosed to the store is a gaming area, with tables that I am pretty sure I have seen somewhere else in the past.

And that impression was continued on the inside, lots of different products, a lot of terrain, made from plastic, mdf or even 3d printed. I already talked about that in my coverage of CONflict 2019 earlier this year.

Games n Dice has their own gaming area "next door", with a broad selection of tables and used it for the demo day to cover multiple rulesets, like Men of Bronce, Rampant and Bolt Action.

But as mentioned further above, I was here to play Longstreet. Gregor / Sir Leon covered the game and what an army needs on the club blog, as well as his two army projects on the TabletopWelt covering the Yankees (We'll fight for Uncle Sam) and the Confederates (It wasn't war, it was murder) as well.

Longstreet was written by Sam A. Mustafa, who wrote Blücher, Lasalle and Rommel. He seems to have a soft spot for last names.

We played a 100 point match, between Southerners from Texas (iirc) and Irish Northerners. I'd take the role of the Yankee and Gregor the confederates for this game.

The armies were mirrored forces, both covering three units with one of them being veterans and a double artillery. Enough for an introduction game. The rules are easy to understand and are more adapted to the conflict, compared to the rather "generic" Black Powder rule set. In addition to dice, a card deck plays an important rule, as you have 6 cards on your hand, which are used to activate units, (partially) block damage and add special commands / effects to your army. It is a bit unusual that shooting comes before moving, but all in all the rules catch those early adaption of modern warfare quite well. Beside the aspect of moral / fleeing units.

In the last round I went into close combat and that fight decided the fate of the battle. I won closely, by wearing down the enemy veterans. Very interesting ruleset and I am more than willing to join again in the future, maybe for a multi player game or so.

By following the coverage of both army projects by Gregor I was amazed about the depth of the ACW. I didn't really care about that war, as it was blue vs. blueish-grey for me and to much of a mirror battle. Beside the missing link for me, as I don't have any connections to that conflict. But with all the information that you can gather on the different regiment, the flags, the history and of course the Perry miniatures range, makes starting a project of your own not only cheap but fun as well, I fully understand what people see in that era and game.

And no, I won't start a project of my own. I am lacking players for that kind of project in the local area, but as mentioned above, I enjoyed the game and would drop by for another, larger game every time I can manage.

As we were using the space of the store and I had a single box of Thunderbolts on my "wanted"-list, I wanted to spend some money there. Unfortunately, that was the only box missing from the Aeronautica range. Anyhow, as I couldn't drink there, as I was the driver, I bought two bottles of IPA in the store (what a great combination, wargaming, food and beverages), to let at least a couple of Euros there.

I did some trades with Gregor and Andi. By that I came in the position of parts of the Imperial Bunker, that will be rebuild with plastic card and join the Oldhammer projects. I got an old Inquisitor in Terminator Armour and the female Catachan soldier. In exchange for some Warzone I managed to get hold of some Blood Bowl Hobgoblins (I am willing to trader for the other two poses, Chaosdwarfs and Bullcentaurs) along with an old RT Librarian with Tome.

Düsseldorf is really easy to reach by the Autobahn and public transport. If you take the time to research a proper parking lot, you can cut down on parking costs by a lot. I went for the ContiParken in the Oststraße (yes, they say 8 EUR per day, it's 10. Update the website you muggers!), as it is less than half the price of the Karstadt parking lot on the otherside of the street. And if you go closer to the Kö' parking won't get cheaper. Same goes for picking up breakfast, I dropped by ReweToGo and was surprised that they charge Highway prices compared to those in Koblenz. Well, I went to the Backtheke at Aldi and picked up some bakery, two bottles of water and sweets for just over 3 EUR.

Any how, I enjoyed my time, it is a pity that I see Gregor and the others so rarely, and I wish you a great remaining weekend.