ABERDEEN MODELLERS SOCIETY EXHIBITION 2014 (PART 1).

On Saturday 27 September 2014, I made my third visit to the Aberdeen Modellers Society Exhibition. It is held at The Gordon Highlanders Museum, in Aberdeen http://www.gordonhighlanders.com/ I took a number of photos and I will post them over a few, broadly themed, posts.

First off, Here are some pictures of aircraft models and dioramas.

A tribute to a founder member who passed in January, p[resumably with some of the models that he built..

A wider view of the previous picture.

The view along a table crammed with aircraft.

Close up view of 'The Flying Bannana' diorama.

 

Close up of some of the aircraft in the general view.

Some more models from the general view.

General view of helicopters and some WW1 planes.

Another view of the WW1 planes. Some of these models are made from card and paper.

The Mosquito at the top right of the photo is made of paper!

Some models of German experimental aircraft.

More German Experimental aircraft. Some got into action, some made prototype stage and some did not get off the drawing board.

Close up of the Me 163. 

A view of Spitfires and Hurricanes undergoing maintainance.

Another view of the Battle of Britain diorama.

STAR TREK ATTACK WING: SKIRMISH IN THE CONTESTED ZONE.

Estremis system 2275: Two Constitution class starships along with the Reliant have away teams on Estremis III and IV preparing loads of a rare ore for beaming up. The ore loads are worth 5pts each. losing an away team costs 5pts. To beam up, a ship must be within range 1 of the planet and use an action. 

Their operation is interupted by the arrival of two D7 class cruisers and a K' T' Inga class starship, which I controlled, Rick took the Federation.

Early in the game, the three Federation ships are busy beaming up ore and away teams when the Klingon ships appear.

Reliant fires at a D7, but fails to register a hit.

The Constitution class ships pull a full asterm manouvre to move out of range of the Klingon ships.

The Reliant moves slightly, keeping within orbit of Estremis IV, and getting another shot at the D7, taking out it's shields.

Enterprise manages to defeat the other D7s shields to score two hits. The fire from the D7 does not penetrate Enterprises shields.

General combat is joined.

Constitution takes two hits from photon torpedoes from the K' T' Inga.

The Enterprise moves onto the rear of a D7, scoring a hit!

The new starship Constellation was the distant support for the operation and arrived after six turns. There was a chance that the engines would malfunction, but they didn't.

Constellation scores hits on the K'T'Inga class, which has no shields and can no longer cloak.

The surviving ships of both sides make their way out of the combat zone.

Although, in the end, no ships were destroyed, the Federation met their mission goals, getting all their away teams and most of the ore aboard, thus scoring a decisive victory. Rick generally managed to keep a planet between his ships and the Klingons whilst concentrating on beaming up. Both sides had heavily damaged ships in the end.

IHMN: BRING HIM BACK ALIVE!

Our Wednesday game this week saw my Scotland Yard company take on David's Tottenkopf Battalion company. The scenario was Bring him back alive! Scotland Yard had become aware of a threat to John Cayley, an aeronautical engineer. They had to ensure his safety before the Damned Prussians got to him or to make sure that they couldn't benefit from his knowledge, killing him if that's what it takes!

The Tottenkopf make their way into the engineering works.

The coppers of Scotland Yard make their approach from the other end.

Sergeant Forbes is felled by a rifle bullet. The good Dr Fraser rushes to his aid. Meanwhile, two constables rush to the foot of the stairs, determined to test out their Edison arc truncheons on the Prussians on the balcony.



One of the Prussians fires a grenade launcher and manages to land a grenade in the centre of the group. The poison gas grenade takes out both coppers and Dr Fraser. 

The two constables scatter to avoid a gas grenade rolled down the stairs. Meanwhile Herr Doktor and his hench men emerge with their prisoner.

The end of the game, the Prussians make their escape. One of the Tottenkopf Kommandos bayonet charges constable Piece, which stops him from attempting to shoot Cayley.

Not shown in the pictures was a brief but decisive action inside the engineering works. Chief Inspector Straight and three men tried to approach through the turbine hall. They were stopped by accurate rifle fire and two poison grenades which made the hall impassible. The men had to take the long way round and were too late to influence the outcome. It was a decisive victory for the Prussians, who won by 39 VP to 2 VP.

This was the first outing for David's Tottenkpf. I don't think that even he expected the poison gas grenades to be so effective. They do cost a bit, and have to be paid for individually and, now they have been seen in action, simple countermeasures and tactics can be employed.

I had also tweaked my coppers to allow use of equipment and talents from the expansions. Sadly, I never got close enough to use the arc truncheons much. You may also wonder what happened to Professor House, the consulting detective? He was there, although he was using his 'master of disguise talent' but never got in to a position to make a really effective 'reveal'. He did make himself known to use his 'erudite wit' in the last turn.

Despite the loss, I enjoyed the game. It was played in a spirit of narrative interpretation, which reall helped create a great gaming atmosphere.

IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME: BREAKTHROUGH!

A week past Wednesday, rather than our usual games night at David's, we decided to game at the Geek Room's games night, which is held in the function room at the Brig O' Dee Bar.

 David's Secret Service team was taking on Del's Star Theatre Players. The scenario was 'Breakthrough'.

With both teams small, Del took the' attack is the best form of defence stance' and attacked, appart from his hunter, who decided to hold back and pick off any enemy getting past her colleagues with rifle fire.

David unleashed his Ape. This is a fast and deadly creature.

                                      A fierce battle was joined near the edge of the board.

In the end, despite casualties on both sides, David got enough figures off the board to leave Del looking for snookers to win on victory points. One of the characters that escaped had the famed Duquesne Scroll.

An exciting game. The atmosphere of the game was not like one of our normal games. This probably had something to do with being in a club setting. Our games are normally accompanied with a lot of chat and cups of tea. At the Geek Room the game was more focused and flew by.

DEAD MAN'S HAND: JUSTICE IS SERVED (NOT).

A Thursday game from a few months ago. We played a two game mini campaign of Dead Man's Hand. The first scenario was, I think, 'Ambush' 

Two bad guys (left) ambush a good guy. 

Another good guy(left) exits a building straight into a hail of gunfire and is out of the fight.



A third good guy moves towards the bad guy. The second bad guy is sheltering at the corner of the second building on the left (betrayed by his face down card).

Both bad guys are at the top of the street. Accurate fire

A bad guy tries to finish off the closest good guy. His mate manages to shoot accurately and put a second good guy out of the fight. 

Two good guys down. Victory to the bad  guys!

The second scenario was.'There Will Be Blood'

Good guy, right, encounters a bad guy.

In a dastardly and cowardly act, the bad guy plays a card that allows him to take a hostage.

The other good guys muster in support. The bad guys prefer to do their shooting from the cover of buildings.

The marshal manages to cause hits despite the hostage.

Two street level views of the action.

With two good guys down, victory to Rick's bad guys.

The game system is great for fitting into the amount of time you have available for gaming. Two games in completed in under three hours.

STAR TREK: ATTACK WING: ATTACK ON DERNA.

Not having played Attack Wing for a while, and recently having acquired some Hideki Class and Federation fighters, I decided to put on a game for last Thursday.  

Starting positions from the Bajoran side.

 I used the 'blockade' scenario for inspiration. A Dominion battleship, controlled by Rick, had to deploy marines on the Bajoran moon Derna. It was escorted by three fighter groups. The Bajorans had two interceptors and support from a Federation Nova class science vesel and two fighter groups.

Bajoran interceptor and Federation fighters manage to get the battleship in their sights, but are blocked by Hideki fighters,

 The battleship moved relenlessly forward. The fighters cleared the way by taking out one of the interceptors and the Nova. The battleship had it's shields overwhelmed and some of the Dominion fighters took damage.

The Federation fighters find the battleship effectively screened by Dominion fighters.

 The other Bajoran interceptor was dispatched. The battleship carried on it's inevitable progress, but not without taking hits.

The remaining Federation fighters break through the screen to attack the battleship as it lands the first marines.

The battleship managed to get within range 1 to begin landing troops. By this time only one unit of Fedaration fighters was left. They managed to inflict some hull damage before being wiped out.

Mission accomplished, the battleship limps away after taking considerable damage.

The battleship managed to land three units of marines. It limped away, victorious, escorted by the two remaining groups of fighters.

This was a very attritional, but enjoyable game. I had designed the scenario and chosen the ships without really considering things from a gameplay point of view. This became apparent when the Hideki fighters destroyed the three larger Baj/Fed ships in two turns. Fighters have as much firepower as larger vessels; they have four damage steps, which means no matter how many hits they take from one source, they only lose one step. Of course, they can be countered by taking hits from more than one ship per turn.

The squad building rules restrict fighters to only one per force. We discussed other ways of reducing their power, from using three models to represent each fighter unit, to starting them with reduced damage steps. We may try these out in future games.