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Consimworld 2019: Wargames in Arizona

Consimworld 2019: Wargames in Arizona

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Do you like wargames, whether COINs or the hex-and-counter variety? Well, you need to come down to Consimworld! This 8-day wargaming convention happens every year in Tempe, Arizona, literally in my very own backyard. I love attending this convention every year it allows me to play some games that normally wouldn’t come out at other conventions, plus I get to hang out with some of the wargaming legends!

Look at all that cardboard, plexiglass and chits! Gaming is officially underway.

Consimworld was June 22-29. Sorry for the delay of this post; it’s been a whirlwind few weeks. Consimworld is located at Tempe Mission Palms, and the location is so convenient. You don’t need a car as the hotel provides a shuttle to the airport, or you can take the light rail to it. The best part too is that there are plenty of food options in walking distance. (I’m giving a lot of other conventions the side-eye here.)

I arrived on Day 1 and learned to play Maria with my buddy Dan flew into town from Milwaukee. This 3P game is so freakin’ awesome!  It’s set during the War of the Austrian Succession. One player is Austria, the second player is France and Bavaria, and the third plays as Prussia and the Pragmatic Army. Each army has their own set of cards, and armies battle each other based on the suit of the location they’re fighting from. You have to manage your card hand, as well as ensuring your troops are still within range from their supply line. I really want to get a copy of this game!

Maria is such a great game! It’s a 3P wargame, where battles are resolved based on the suited cards your hand and which suitted terrain you’re sitting on.

Dan then showed me his game that’s he’s working on. It’s an Age of Sails wargame that plays in about 2-3 hours set during the Battle of Virginia Capes, a crucial naval battle during the American Revolutionary War. One player plays as the French, and the other as the British, and they move and position their boats along a checkered board (in accordance with the wind direction), and they take turns battling each other. You then both secretly decide which order your ships will fire, and you roll dice to fire upon your enemy.

Dan always has the fanciest prototypes! Here are the ships battling each other out at sea.

Hit points are marked on individual boat cards and designated to an area on your boat based on your opponent’s directive, which makes for interesting player decisions of how to allocate damage. If your boat can no longer move, then it’s removed from the game. The French are trying to last 12 rounds — which killing British ships shortens the game — while the British are trying to move up a track by destroying French ships. The game was tense and super fun, and I liked being able to allocate where on my enemy’s boat they should mark the damage. (It’s like a wargame roll-and-write!) I’m crossing my fingers that it gets picked up by a publisher.

Dan created these ship cards that you mark you hit points on with a dry-erase pen. If your ship can no longer move, it’s out of the game.

Next up was Fire in the Lake. The last time I played Fire in the Lake was at last year’s Consimworld. Man, I was so rusty! And the last few times I had played as the NVA (because I like red), but this time, I played as the VC for the first time, and it took me a bit to start terrorizing and spreading out my VC guerrillas. This game lasted way late into the night, and we had to call it. It looked like the Americans were winning.

Fire in the Lake has the most vibrant board and is one of my favorite COIN games.

Day 2 began early by cracking open Gandhi. Fire in the Lake ended so late on Saturday night that it was a quick turnaround for a 9 a.m. game of Gandhi, one I had briefly looked over the rulebook, but luckily another player read the rulebook as well, and we all decided it was going to be a learning game that morning.

Gandhi is the latest COIN game from GMT Games.

I had been excited to see how a nonviolent factions play out for a COIN, and was equally surprised to see that two of the factions do not have any currency. The British Raj’s actions are tied to the Restraint track, and the Revolutionaries’ actions costs resources. I played as the British and particularly liked being able to affect how much my actions cost. I plan to write more about this after a few more games under my belt. All I can say is this: Gandhi is a great COIN and seems more accessible than the other ones. Here’s me playing Gandhi:

I then played the first of many games of Pax Pamir (second edition) this convention. Oh. My. Goodness. Love at first play! I’ve played Pax Porfiriana and Pax Renaissance before, and while I enjoyed both of them a lot, the game ALWAYS seemed to take so much longer to explain than the actual game itself. And especially with Pax Porfiriana, it was difficult to visualize and keep track of who is dominating what.

Look at these amazing components! Pax Pamir is really well done.

That’s not the case with this second edition of Pax Pamir. The added map and individual player dials make this game much, much easier to see which faction is dominating. The components are gorgeous, and each game I’ve played of this has been different. There are just so many cards, and I ended up playing this game two more times during the course of the convention. I played it as a 3P and as a 5P. I think Pax Pamir plays best at 4P, even though I did end up winning my 5P game.

I absolutely cannot get enough of Pax Pamir! I wish I owned a copy of this game.

Saturday night ended with another awesome game of Battlestar Galactica. This is the second year in a row I’ve played with Dan, Mike, Harold and Jordan. We even got Kurt into the mix! These guys are always so much fun! I became a cylon sympathizer during sleeper, and despite two cylons and me as the sympathizer, we still lost to those awful humans. The worst!

These guys are so much fun! I look forward to avenging my loss next year!

I took a day off on Day 3 since it was a Monday. I played a quick game of Sekigahara, and by quick it was about 2 hours. The game continued through all seven weeks and came down to victory points. I love this game so much!

My favorite part of Sekigahara is the hidden info of which armies are going toward you.

I then played my other two games of Pax Pamir at the various player counts. I then got a chance to play Rococo. It’s a shame that this game isn’t more widely available! It’s a deckbuilder about making dresses. Players collect materials at various locations on the board, and ultimately, it’s an area control game in regards to where you display your dresses and coats. The game plays out over seven rounds. 

Making dresses in Rococo can be cut-throat!

In the middle of Rococo was the welcome ceremony. John Kranz took time to welcome everyone and give expo updates. Altogether, over 350 people had signed up, with more than 60 newcomers. Very cool! He also highlighted those who came from afar — some as far as the Philippines and Bahrain! That’s super neat to see people travel for all the wargames!

Everyone’s all gathered! John Kranz likes to give updates about the convention, and there’s a giant raffle at the end of this meeting as well!

One slide featured a nice tribute to my buddy Tom Wells. I miss gaming with him; there was never a dull moment gaming with him.

I finished Monday night with another tense game of Maria! My buddy Mark and I did better this time, but Dan still beat us. (It’s one of his favorite games, after all.)

Dan and Mark are too much fun! Dan and I are heading to SD Historical Con in November. I’m looking forward to that!

The rest of the week I worked during the day but I stopped by afterwards to get in a game or two. On Tuesday night, I got a chance to play a prototype of Barrage. What a clever eurogame with very specific spatial and timing quality to it! You are all companies trying to harness the power of water to get electricity. You have to build dams, conductors and power factories on this hill so that you can capture that energy as water flows down.

There’s an intricate network of how things need to be powered, and when you spend resources to build your buildings, they’re locked up on this wheel on your personal board, and they can only become available to you again when you build more buildings, which you probably won’t be able to do since your resources are tied up in this wheel! What a dilemma! You can, however, spend actions on this main board to move that wheel along. The main board is where the majority of the worker placement happens.

Stuff rolls downhill! Here are are trying to harness the power of water, and hoping someone’s dam doesn’t get in your damn way.

Each player has a team of engineers, and you can allocate however many you want to an action spot when it’s your turn. Players take turns placing their engineers until they’re have no more workers and must pass. So you need to manage your pool of engineers with the actions you want to do, while also trying to complete objectives during each round. Lastly, the last piece of the puzzle is that water isn’t always available each round. It will flow according to the cards drawn, and if someone else’s dam blocks water flow to your buildings, well, that’s a damn shame.

On Wednesday, I fangirled sooooooo hard. I got a chance to sit in as the awesome Mark Herman taught one of his games, Pericles: The Peloponnesian War to John Butterfield, Nick Karp and Bruce. They all go way back to Victory Games, and it was like being among the wargaming legends.

Here’s me being chill, even though I’m fangirling so hard inside.

Mark taught one round of Pericles, and I jumped into a second round, (holding my own I might add!) and pushing the Demogogues forward. It was great hanging out with them and hearing about old industry stories.  Also, achievement unlocked below: my dinosaur dress got into a C3i report!

The last night I attended Consimworld, I played Root twice, first with Kurt and Jordan, and then we picked up a fourth player for our second game. Kurt LOVES, LOVES Root (and if you want to be highly entertained, next time you see Kurt at a convention, ask him about COIN games.) 

Our first game of Root that evening. I won as the cats!

And just like that, an entire week of wargaming ended. I always have such a great time at Consimworld, and I always feel included among all the gamers here. That said, I’d love to see more younger folks here, especially more women and people of color. If you’re interested in these types of games, please let me know and maybe we can schedule something special for next year. I’d love a chance to teach some of these heavy games! Save the date: next year’s convention will be June 6-13, 2020. You’ll find me in the back with some giant tweezers pushing some cardboard chits.

Thanks for having me, Consimworld! Can’t wait until next year’s con!
Consimworld 2018: Big Push, Flashpoint: South China Sea, Cataclysm, Mr. President

Consimworld 2018: Big Push, Flashpoint: South China Sea, Cataclysm, Mr. President

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It’s been two weeks since Consimworld (I had an LA trip in between since so I apologize for the write-up delay), and all I want to do is play more wargames! Consimworld, short for conflict simulation, is a wargame convention that lasts for eight days in Tempe, Arizona. You need eight days, because some of those games take literally three days to play!

I was lucky enough to be a special guest at the convention, now in its 18th year. I went the entire first weekend, and each day after I got off of work for the rest of the week. I got a lot of gaming in, folks! And of course, it was great seeing out-of-town friends and hanging out.

The front of the gorgeous Tempe Mission Palms, my home away from home for a week.

The convention is super informal; there isn’t a sign-up sheet for gaming. Instead, there’s an Excel file online and you can contact people who have expressed interest in playing a specific game. The only events scheduled are the Mega Games, which require official participation since they take a few days to play. There are also nightly seminars, a large flea market and an auction at the end of the week. I got an excellent deal for Thurn and Taxis at $20!

Consimworld is held at the Tempe Mission Palms, which is right off Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe. That means plenty of food options within walking distance and convenient light-rail access. Pretty darn sweet.

It was great seeing Harold Buchanan (center), of the San Diego area, and Dan Bullock, who is from Milwaukee.

My buddy Dan Bullock, designer of No Motherland Without, came into town and we started the first day by playing Pax Porfiriana, Churchill and John Company. I ended up losing Churchill on the die roll because I was 17 points ahead. It was a fun experience though as we played all 10 rounds, which was my first time playing the long scenario.

I ALMOST won Churchill as FDR in our long scenario. Alas, that die roll.

Harold Buchanan, podcaster and game designer of Liberty of Death, taught us the John Company. I ended up playing this game twice during the convention — first as a 6P and then as a 5P. I liked the experience much more as a 5P. John Company is so bonkers! There’s a lot of randomness in the game, but I’ve come to appreciate that at its heart, it’s a negotiation game moreso than an economic game, which is what I had originally thought it was going into the first game. I ended up winning my second game with zero points. ZERO?!?

Should we let the company burn? But I need to retire first! And watch out for that elephant. John Company is all kinds of bonkers.

Day 2 of Consimworld started with Fire in the Lake, my favorite COIN game from GMT Games. I’m most familiar with this war compared with the other COINs I’ve played, and the board is just gorgeous.

I love using my giant tweezers to pick up cubes.

Dan then picked up a copy of The Big Push, a new game from Hollandspiele, and he cracked it open and learned how to play the game right on the spot! I don’t think I could ever do that; the pressure would be so huge that I’d completely mess up a first play.

The Big Push is the newest game from Hollandspiele, who were at the convention selling games and gave a presentation.

The Big Push is a 2P World War I strategic card game in which you program your cards along various battle areas on the board, and resolve them. The order by which you resolve battles matters, and depending on which cards you play, you can add to your attack or defense value with leftover cards in your hands. Lots of tough decisions about timing and card play in a game that played in about 90 minutes. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a copy. I did purchase Supply Lines of the American Revolution though!

Lots of tough decisions about where card placement, and if that battle is attacking or defending. Crunchy!

Dan, Harold and I then finished Day 2 with a game of play Battlestar Galactica, my favorite! I ended up being a cylon this time. One guy was being super shifty, so Harold brigged him and I became the CagMiral (Cag and Admiral). I was able to just let resources die down for the cylons to cruise into victory. It was marvelous!

About 270 people attended Consimworld, held at the same hotel for the past 18 years. There were 54 newcomers this year. Some attendees even came in as far as New Zealand and Japan!

I arrived on Day 3 after getting off work. I attended the Welcome Reception, where I learned that the convention has been going strong for 18 years! Even more impressive was that there were a group of folks who had attended every single year. The organizer, John Krantz, is now based out of Texas but used to live in Phoenix when he first started the convention and has kept it at the same location since its inception. Which is awesome for me as a local gamer! The reception also raffled off a lot of games!

Here’s me with John Krantz, organizer extraordinaire of Consimworld.

Dan and I also got a chance to play Flashpoint: South China Sea, Harold’s new game. Flashpoint is a 2P card-driven game that pits China and the U.S. in the hotly-contested area of the South China Sea. The Chinese player works to influence countries while the U.S. is works to maintain influence in the region and keep China in check. Meanwhile, tensions between the two countries can escalate through events and actions that take place.

We’re about to play Harold’s Flashpoint: South China Sea. And Tom Russell hung out with us, too!

The game takes place over four rounds in under 60 minutes, and Dan and I had the chance to play the prototype. At the start of each round, a new crisis card is flipped and the text is triggered. Each player then draws up to a hand size of seven event cards and selects a card to bid for initiative. On each event card, there’s a number for action points as well as an event. When bidding for initiative, the event does not trigger, and the person with the higher number on the selected card is the winner. The winner then gets to decide who goes first.

Here’s the prototype board for Flashpoint: South China Sea.

Players then take turns going back and forth playing a card and taking actions based on the action points on the card. In this phase, no matter what, the event always triggers first, and the text is supposed to be taken literally. Dan and I had to get out of the mindset, a la Twilight Struggle, that the event will only affect you negatively. Some of the event cards will say something like “Chinese remove 1 Economic influence from Vietnam,” which means that the Chinese player can remove either the U.S. or Chinese influence cube from the board. (They will likely remove their opponent’s cube, unless there aren’t any left. In that case, then they have to remove one of their own cubes.)

A sampling of the event cards for Flashpoint. The event always triggers first for this game.

After the round ends, countries are scored based on majorities, and players have the option to add add cubes from the Political Warfare track to boost majority. I really enjoyed playing Flashpoint! There’s so much tension in a relatively short game, making hard decisions about the order to play your cards or forgoing an action you had originally planned to instead reduce the Tension track so you can put influence cubes back on the map. Plus, it plays so quickly in 60 minutes, so every majority and VP matter. I can’t wait until this game comes out!

On Day 4, I attended an evening seminar from Hollandspiele. Tom talked about how he and Mary started the company, and how using a print-on-demand business model allowed them to enter the board-game publishing company. Thus, in having their own company, they can publish the idiosyncratic wargames that they want to.

Here’s me with Tom and Mary Russell, who are Hollandspiele. It was lovely meeting them and seeing how they work so well together.

On Day 5, I played The Grizzled twice and learned how to play Cataclysm: A Second World War. It’s a recent release from GMT Games, and the “learning round” took 2 hours to play. The game uses a chit-pulling mechanism, in which your flags and operations are placed into a cup or put on an initiative track. Play is determined by which chit is pulled, or if you’d like to use an interrupt with your chit on an initiative track.

One of GMT Games’ latest releases is Cataclysm. It’s a very long game, my friends.

I then spent the next two nights playing this game, and we only got to Round 5. The first two rounds breezed by, but by Round 3, whenever you do an action that’s next to another power, they get a flag that’s placed into the cup. So then the length of these future rounds exponentially gets longer as more and more chits need to be pulled from the cup. The box says the game lasts for 90-600 minutes. I believe that!

The Cataclysm maps usually go side by side, but we placed them this way because we were on a round table. So many chits!

On Day 6, I stopped by the room where Mr. President was on display. I sat with Gene Billingsley, Rick and Tom as they playtested a scenario for the upcoming title from GMT Games. Mr. President is a ginormous solo game about being president for four years, about advancing your agenda, dealing with diplomatic and war crises, and keeping the U.S. safe.

This is Mr. President. Not shown is a board to the left that dictates the round sequence and tracks your Cabinet, bipartisan cooperation, scandals and a whole host of other things.

This board is a giant map with a bunch of tracks that tell the story of your diplomatic relations and threat levels in various regions across the world. There are events from Crisis cards that come into play, and at its core, it’s a resource management game. It was so inspiring and humbling to sit in on the playtesting process where they were tinkering with various track values. These guys know so much about that point in history! Mr. President aims to give a deep and immersive experience for the solo gamer. But man, it looks so intimidating!

It’s always great seeing Gene! I hope to make it back to GMT Weekend one year.

Lastly, Harold interviewed me for his awesome podcast, Harold on Games. If I’m being honest, it’s always nerve wracking being on the opposite side of the interview chair. I’m used to interviewing people and asking the questions. Check out the episode and listen to all his other interviews as well!

I first met Harold over a year ago at Strategicon in LA. He hosts his own convention in San Diego in November called SD Historical Con.

And then just like that, an entire week of gaming passed. I had a great time at Consimworld, playing both old and new-to-me games. If you love wargaming, then this is the convention to be at.  Next year’s dates are already set. Hope to see you there on June 22-29, 2019!

Thanks for having me, Consimworld! Can’t wait for next year!