Electrabowl XXVIII Electric Football in the Lion's Den

Welcome sports fans.  On Saturday the 24th of January the Secondhand Lions gathered for their 28th playing of the electric football tournament and championship game.  This annual event has seen years of dedication by a core group of enthusiasts for the old school toy and sports game by Miggle and Tudor Games.  The images below are from this years six team double elimination format tournament of Electric Football Champions!

The Daniel Reardon trophy claimed by Ken Van Pelt and the Minnesota Vikings.  Seen here on the field in the final moments of the Carolina Panthers Minnesota Vikings Championship game.

As time expired on the clock the Panthers attempted a two point conversion and were stopped by Minnesota.  This left the game at 21 to 20 and Minnesota and coach Van Pelt would be the 2015 Electra bowl Champion.

Pregame press shot.  Minnesota vs. Carolina

Electrabowl XXVIII

San Franciso is defeated by Minnesota in a run to the championship.  Here we see a Viking receiver cross the goal line.

It will be remembered by all in attendance that the dice were the Viking's friend.  Penalties arrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at least on three occasions where penalties and missed field goals left teams scratching their heads in disbelief.

The shamed dice above are from the game against the Chiefs in which the kicker missed an 85% chance at scoring and winning the game for Terry C.  Minnesota went on to take over on downs and score the victory in an overtime match.

In other games interceptions were denied and reversed by penalties always in the Vikings favor.

Miniature electric football figures painted by Dan Reardon.  This was an early season game with Vikings vs. Chiefs.  These figures have been in use in this tournament for 28 years.  Older than all of my children.

Thanks for looking in.

2015 NAWGASOC Nerf Division

Welcome to the new year and the 2015 North American Western Gunfight Association Shoot-Out Championship Nerf Division.

This semi-annual competition was held in the sleepy hamlet of Greenwood this last Thursday evening among the Secondhand Lions wargames club.

Let's look in on this event and stand table side with these outlaws and lawmen...

Greenwood, Missouri 2015 1875.

The NAWGASOC players used 1/72 scale cowboys in a cut and paste western town on a 2x2' table to maneuver and set up a line of site shot on each other.

Please bare with your erstwhile editor as I am learning Picasa Web Albums and have played overly much with the photography editor.

This shot is of the town and game room of your host Kenneth Van Pelt.

This western gunfight wargame was played out using a variety of Nerf weapons to resolve combat.  This target box was what we shot at when it was our turn to fire.  The modifiers to hit were adjusted via the size of target hole we needed to hit to score a wound on our opponents.  We shot at this target from about 4 yards away.  The smallest target hole is an inch and a quarter in diameter and the largest is five inches.

Here is an aerial view of the town we moved around.  By a card dealt initiative we took turns moving 3" using a movement stick.  This movement stick was left in place to show the path of travel for the gunfighter.  In our rules set we assumed that all of the action taking place was simultaneous and that the path of travel may be seen by an opponent so it was indeed possible to shoot at the path with of course a penalty modifier.  This sort of allowed an "OP" fire or opportunity fire overwatch. 

And now back to our melodrama...

Below we see the victory shot by our new sheriff Ted C.  Mr. Ted, on the right in this image, plugs the last outlaw, Mr. Van Pelt to take the championship 2015 NAWGASHC tin star.

When your playing piece was dealt three gunshot wounds you were eliminated from the competition.  Gunshot wounds were actual blood stickers made for the event.  You can see them in the dead shots of the killed outlaws.  

Sheriff Ted Conn.  2015 NAWGASOC champion.

Kenneth Van Pelt, last outlaw in the town of Greenwood 1875. RIP

Shot by Sheriff Conn.

The notorious Jon Mark Haworth, killed 1875 by sheriff Conn.

That wily outlaw and Nerf gunsmith Terry Carr, RIP town of Greenwood 1875.  Shot in the street by Kenneth Van Pelt.

Another scurilous villain.  D10 Billy shot at Greenwood, 1875.  Shouldn't oughta brought a derringer to a street fightin' shootout.

That south of the border nabob, Carlitos.  Plugged early on by sheriff Conn.

The death of D10 Billy.

Thanks for looking in on our blog and gaming table.  Hope you enjoyed the story and listening to the piano player play as we roll credtis.

Go Get That and Bring it Over Here

A wargame night of pick up and deliver games played in the Lion's Den.  Our first offering was a Parker Brother's game from 1960 called Trade Winds.  I didn't get any images of this game play but it was our first game of the night and was a blast.  I got this copy off of Ebay and it was a bit of a grail find.

Here is the game on the table pre-event.  This is a fascinating game of pirate action in the Caribbean and plays up to six players.  We had five and the event was won by our prodigal governor Carl L. - in a fantastic epic battle in his home port.

Then we headed out west and went gold mining in the Ravensburger game, Eureka.

I pimped this game with some HO scale cowboys and Indians.  It is traditionally played with wooden meeples.  I also printed the expansion fan art cards from Boardgamegeek and we added equipment cards.  this gave us guns and gold pans a clock and a mule.

This one was won by our stalwart regular Ted C.    He made a bid for taking all my gold from a bandit and surpassing that wily Indian character Terry C.

Final game of the night was a 1956 Gabriel games Stampede.  This is another pick up cattle and move them to your coral.  The kicker in this game is that the pawns are spring loaded firing mechanisms that you use throughout the game to kill rustlers.

The man in the yellow hat (Curious George reference) won the cattle baron award and that goes to our own Terry C.

And finally here is my game room tour that I am going to post on TMP.  It is currently in vogue to show your game room, paint table and your collections of games and toy soldiers.  So welcome to the Lion's Den.

Thanks for looking in.

Afghanisraq Micro Armor in the Sandbox

I need a name for my sandbox campaign and micro armor gaming.  I want to do fictional missions in the modern era in 1/285th scale and have heard the term Iraqistan, Afraqistan, and then Afghanisrq.  Hmmm. I cannot decide as yet what will be my working word to tie into this game set.  What follows is my first solo mission.  The GHQ Command Pack MRAP US Urban Combat team is fighting the AlQada/Mujahadin Command box set.

What follows is a Hordes of the Things Modern US force at about 36 points vs. 50+ points of insurgents.

The insurgents came on in spurts as we entered encounter areas.  I use this in my Vietnam gaming and decided to try it here.  The game area of operations has Rummy Tiles scattered  across it that are keyed to the encounters from the insurgent collection.

The tray below has a matching tile that tells you what to add to the table as the tiles are turned over.  So I get to play solo against a randomly generated enemy with a decent amount of fog of war.

I also use a die roll between each turn that generates an offensive attack on a roll of 5,6 on a 1D6.  I charted the attacks with 1-3 sniper, 4-6 IED.

My lifelong gaming buddy staring me down over a piece of pizza.