Enfilade 2017

Sorry, no pics. I forgot to pack a charging cord for my iPhone so the 78% battery it had upon arrival to Olympia, WA was all the battery I was getting that weekend and I needed it to get ahold of Gretchen if I had to. Plus, my old-ass iPhone takes pretty crap-tacular pics anyways and I need to figure out my camera game as my nice snap-and-shoot is also dead.

Enfilade 2017, Memorial Day Weekend, the 26th one, at the newly remodeled Red Lion in Olympia, WA and my 3rd one. Of all the different kinds of cons I have gone to this is my favorite one and the litmus on “Cons I Like to Go To”. Without going to deep it’s the only con I like to go to locally.

For those not familiar Enfilade is focused on (historical) war gaming. There is not much else to do and that’s great. The hotel itself is kind of secluded in that there is not a shopping center or some such nearby. A short drive away you have the capital area but it’s definitely not in walking distance and if you are not familiar with Olympia it might be hard to explore. When you are at that hotel that’s what you have, it’s bar and restaurant and all. The convention itself has games to play, a few vendors to shop, and many friends to be social with.

Your days are split into periods, each period has scheduled games by volunteer game masters and you can choose from 30-40 games per period. Each period is 4 hours long and you’ve an hour in between periods to:
eat
sign up for a game in the following period
go pee

wash your hands and face

buy something from a vendor

It all ends about 10:00-11:00 at night, enough time to hit up the hotel bar for a few rounds, get to bed at a non-rockstar hour, and get some sleep before getting up in time for a shower, a complimentary breakfast, and back in the gaming hall by 9am.

Here is what I played and in order and what I thought and how I did:

Friday afternoon: Siege of Haengju – Imjin War (sp) hosted by Dean Motoyama
Great set up by Dean and the figures were really well done. We played with a Hail Caesar ruleset. Activations sucked for us (Samurai) so our initial attack stalled out to the point where it was round 8 and the rounds had to be extended.

Dean had a great set up at his table and his miniature painting is a sight to behold. I hope to be able to paint like that someday. When there was a lull in action I’d pick up a mini and stare at it.

Friday evening: I hosted Fight for York
Using Saga I based (loosely) a scenario off William the Conqueror’s Harrying of the North in 1069. William and a retinue of Norman knights, archers, and crossbows with his Breton ally take on an invading rebellious force of Edward and his Scots allies and some Dane mercenaries. I had 4 seats and 4 sign ups but only 3 of the sign ups showed some I played the 4th seat (as Normans). We got murdered! Scots and Danes took the day!

Spencer and I headed up to  the bar and found Alyssa Fadden and Victor Cina and we got a round or 2 with them.

Saturday Morning: Car Wars Invasion (!!1111!!) run by Bobby Kalahan and Gary Bohon
Used to play Car Wars when I was a kid, all the way through high school with some of my gamer friends in the 80s. Played another game of it in 1996 or there-abouts. Been wanting to play it the past few years and even got the newer reproduction SJ Games put out a few years ago. I LOVE THIS GAME – sorry to squee that one out like that but it’s true.

Great set up on rubber floor mats and some walls, looked like a real Car War arena. We had tricked out Hot Wheels cars and stat sheets to go with them. Speed chart was on a huge dry-erase board and magnets. Great set up and how I always envisioned a “grow-up” version of the game should look.

I did not plan for this nor mean to do it but I even ended up winning the game via victory points (earned for crashes, laps, speed, etc.). Even cooler was the awesome trophies they gave out, mine being of ridiculous size and gaudiness.

That said a fire has been lit up under me to do the same in Portland… that is to run some Car Wars games in the future.

Saturday afternoon: Hastings 1066 by Gary Strombo
Using a Lion Rampant ruleset, Gary set up a beautiful table with his custom terrain. I think he had around 400 minis on the table that he painted. Because I do the same thing, I noticed all his shields were hand painted also.

It was a classic re-fight of the Battle of Hastings though the “big plan” for us (I was on the Anglo Saxon side) was to hold off until we knew we had the Normans in a rout. I was on the Saxon right flank representing Gyrth Godwinson. The Normans hit the opposite flank pretty hard but the Normans opposite me (Odo) got bogged down in the marshy land. I stayed my ground on the hill as Norman archers got within range and did some damage to my shield wall. I REALLY wanted to launch into the Normans and I have a feeling so did they as a unit of Norman knights waited in the wings ready to charge in as soon as I came off that hill and into Odo’s infantry. Brian, playing Harold Godwinson, advised me a few times to not do so. I followed orders and we won the day – changing history!

Spencer and I took a dinner break in the Red Lion restaurant where I had an oyster po’boy sandwich and a Fishtail Ale.

Neither of us were signed up for a game Saturday night. For me it was because I ran out of reserved seats (I had 3 and used them for the above games). Honestly, I surmised that after playing and running the first 4 periods I’d be a little tired by Saturday evening so would either like it “off” or to play something easy and relaxing. Then I noticed (month ago) that Mike Garcia was running a Battle of Kalka River game – Mongols vs. Rus … which is a direction I plan to go soon with my collection. I was too late though as all the reserved seats were full.

My “Big Plan” was to sit in anyways. If there was a no-show I would fill in. If not I would watch for a bit and then go hit the bar early. Mike was using Lion Rampant and, since I was just standing around, asked if I wanted to help him judge so I said “sure” since I kind of know the rules. First lesson learned … I only “kind of” know the rules.

Anyways it all worked out and everyone had a good game and his figures and terrain looked great – even getting a best of award for the Saturday night gaming period.

The night ended with a round of beers with Pat Lowiger – “Beer with Pat” as I call it. He cut a little early to get some rest and I stuck around until midnight with Vitor Cina and a few others.

Sunday morning I went and got breakfast with Spencer after a short visit with “Chief” Andy Doty. We then headed into the game hall for the members meeting which was cool as Alyssa and Victor were announced new Enfilade Board Members, taking the place of Dave and Lloyd. We then started to wrap things up as we wanted to be checked out and on the road by 12:00 noon and we were.

I also brought some extra minis sitting in my Lead Mountain to sell at the Bring and Buy. Not a lot of stuff but I did sell some Varangians, shields, and some other small bits and made $20! Not bad for stuff I wasn’t using. The $20 got spent at the concession stand … where I was getting apples for free (since I was buying burgers for lunch … gotta get into some good habits and I appreciated those apples).

Shopping was light for me this year – nothing at the B&B, and picked up some resin terrain pieces from Monday Knight Games and a Car Wars Arenas set. Just under $50 spent there.

Overall another great convention and my 3rd one in a row. I love these things and plan to keep going until I can’t or they stop. My only, very general, critique is I wish there was more stuff around the Red Lion hotel like a mall or a little entertainment district. The hotel is a little secluded, by the courthouse and some small office buildings and apartment buildings, and since I do not know my way around Olympia I don’t feel comfortable going out on a Saturday night and trying to find things to do away from the hotel like get dinner and a few drinks. This is mainly in an interest to get my wife to come along and she is not a war gamer at all and there is absolutely nothing for a non-war gamer to partake of while there. I guess that’s OK and all but I’d like to offer my wife the opportunity to go sometime.

Things I might do different next year:
1) I plan to, maybe, not run a game next year. I’ve gone to 3 Enfilades and run games 2 years and volunteered at the Bring and Buy for 1.
2) I do plan to volunteer at the Bring and Buy.

3) Bringing food. Red Lion’s restaurant is fine and I liked everything I ate. I even liked the burgers at concessions in the game hall. It’s also the second most amount of money I spent after the room.
4) I hope to get my shirt size down to XL by next year. This year I was at XXL while last year I was an XXXL.