The Gauntlet is Thrown!

On Saturday May 4th at 2:00 PM in Portland, Maine daring pilots will throw the gauntlet down in a contest of wills vying for dominance. The winner will be awarded the coveted Huzzah 2013 Knights in the Sky Cup, with smaller cups will be awarded to 2nd and 3rd place winners. Take the challenge!

This exciting tournament uses the popular fast play Aerodrome 1.1 aerial combat system, which is very easy to learn! Pilots of all ages and experience levels are welcome. A dogfight scenario is scheduled Friday evening to help you get your wings ready!

This event is one of many events being held at Maine’s premier historical miniatures convention Huzzah! Pre-Registration ends on April 26 and then it will be first come first serve! Please register today! Below is a link to Huzzah for registration:

www.huzzahcon.com

Join us for this exciting series of miniatures events!

Huzzah: KitS Results and Great Fun Had!

Huzzah 2012: Winners of the Knights in the Sky Tournament. 3rd Place: Bill Zona, 2nd Place: Shawn Tester, and Ace of Aces: Eric Hatch

Ten pilots took to the Huzzah skies this year for a chance at the coveted Huzzah KitS Cup. It was an engaging contest with a lot of fun cross table talk between the players. The fray was thick at times and the pilots were hungry for victory.

Twice the Central Powers drove the allies off the board entirely clearing the sky of Allied planes. There were several memorable critical hits, including flaming planes and forced glides. Jerry and I had a great time running the tournament and watching the furballs.

Jerry running his end of the table at the Knights in the Sky Tournament.

After a grueling series of missions, Eric Hatch once again dominated the skies. He took the Knights in the Sky Huzzah Aerodrome cup for the 3^rd year in a row and made ace with 5 kills! It was a very close contest with Shawn Tester and Bill Zona coming in close behind. The scores were extremely closely matched for third place with Pete English and Chris getting barely edged out by a single point.

I have already heard that there is planning to wrest the title away from Eric next year. He has a number of successful tactics that the players were talking about.  I suspect that folks will really be gunning for him next time!

The amazing boxer game terrain.

This year there were a number of great games at the convention. The showcase game was a beautifully crafted Boxer Rebellion scenario. The group, led by Andy Niven, who constructed it all before parceling it out for painting, did an amazing job on the terrain. The buildings even included two hidden built-in dice towers with the results tumbling into an adjacent courtyard. There were a lot of great looking and well run games in all periods, along with many excellent GMs. I know I had a blast!

English Bowmen failing to hold the right flank against the French advance.

Huzzah had a great raffle, as always, with lots of terrain, games, and rules being won! I had a lot of fun playing a Pike and Musket game despite the fact that my English Archers could not hurt the enemy and our center crumbled like a house of cards.

I think it is fair to say that most folks had a great time! I hope that next year, if you have not come to the convention, you will!

There is more information at www.huzzahcon.com

Take the challenge!

The Huzzah 2012 tournament prizes.

On Saturday May 5th at 7:30 PM in Portland, Maine daring pilots will throw the gauntlet down in a contest of wills vying for dominance. The winner will be awarded the coveted Huzzah 2012 Knights in the Sky Cup. This year smaller cups will be awarded to 2^nd and 3^rd place winners. Take the challenge!

This exciting tournament uses the popular fast play Aerodrome 1.1 aerial combat system, which is very easy to learn! Pilots of all ages and experience levels are welcome. A dogfight scenario is scheduled Friday evening to help you get your wings ready!

This event is one of many events being held at Maine’s premier historical miniatures convention Huzzah! Pre-Registration ends on April 28 and then it will be first come first serve! Please register today! Below is a link to Huzzah for registration:

www.huzzahcon.com

Join us for this exciting series of miniatures events!

Huzzah KitS Tournament Winner & Huzzah a Blast!

Friday Night Dogfights at Huzzah!

The second annual Knights in the Sky Tournament was held at Huzzah, in Portland, Maine, on Saturday May 22nd. A group of 8 pilots competed for the cup. There was some nice repartee across the table and the players seemed to really enjoy themselves!

Ed Receives His Knights in the Sky Huzzah 3rd Place Award

Scoring was rather tight with victory going once again to the player that managed 3 kills in the 3 mission tournament. Eric Hatch emerged from the tumultuous contest as the victor with Ed Mueller close on his heels and Earl Richards closing up behind him. Eric will have to work hard to hold onto the title of Ace of Aces next year. The scuttlebutt is that several folks are anxious to unseat him next year!

Earl Receives His Knights in the Sky Huzzah 2nd Place Award

The game saw a few critical hits become a headache for the pilots, as is often the case. Forced glides and at one point a fire gave some pilots trouble. At least one pilot managed a landing in no man’s land only to be captured.

Eric Receives His Knights in the Sky Huzzah Ace of Aces Cup

The Friday Night Dogfight WWI game went very well and folks kept joining us as they arrived. Jerry and I had a great time running it and were up to 12 players by the third mission. The players were boisterous and enthused and it was a great crowd. We hope to make that a regular part of the Friday night events!

Stan Kubiak was kind enough to come up to Maine and run his WWII Aerodrome 2.0 events. He ran a Dogfights game and as well as his well received Pacific Attack game. Folks seemed to have a good time and the Pacific Attack game was a LOT of fun and! The mechanics work well and it is a nice enjoyable fast play system.

Aerodrome 2 Pacific Action

The convention went very well and the players had a great time! Dean and the crew put in a LOT of effort and we had some absolutely great games in a variety of periods. Kudos to all of the GMs who really worked hard to make Huzzah an outstanding convention.

Aerodrome 2 Pacific Action Furball

One of the key events this year was Viking Dawn, a club participation game, where the clubs provided players and painted up bands of Vikings and Dragon Ships or bands of Saxon defenders. There were some well painted miniatures being placed on Chris Penny’s well crafted terrain.

With raffles aplenty and a lot of well run and fun games Huzzah was a blast! I hope that some of you reading this will make the trip up to Maine next Spring to play!

Win the Huzzah KitS Cup!

On Saturday May 14th at 7:30 PM in Portland, Maine daring pilots will throw the gauntlet down in a contest of wills vying for dominance. The winner will be awarded the coveted Huzzah 2011 Knights in the Sky Cup. Take the challenge!

This exciting tournament uses the popular fast play Aerodrome 1.1 aerial combat system which is very easy to learn! Pilots of all ages and experience levels are welcome. A dogfight scenario is scheduled Friday evening to help you get your wings ready!

This event is one of many events, including several WWII Aerodrome 2.0 events, being held at Maine’s premier historical miniatures convention Huzzah! Pre-Registration ends on May 1st and then it will be first come first serve! Please register today! Below is a link to Huzzah for registration:

www.huzzahcon.com

Join us for this exciting series of miniatures events!

Exciting WWI and WWII Aerodrome Events Coming to Huzzah 2011

This year there will be a number of exciting events featuring Aerodrome at Huzzah!  Stan Kubiak has been kind enough to commit to traveling up to the North East to run his extremely well received events once again.  He will be presenting a WWII dogfighting event, an exciting WWII Pacific engagement, and giving a talk on presenting Aerodrome events.  There will be also be a WWI dogfight event and the pulse racing annual tournament where one skilled player will walk away with the coveted KitS Huzzah cup!

Huzzah takes place May 13th – 15th 2011 in Portland, Maine.  Pre-Registration is from April 1st to May 1st.  Reserve your spot today!

www.huzzahcon.com

Here is the detailed event information:

Friday Evening From 7p – 11p
Dogfight!
Aerodrome 1.1  (1/144 scale World War One Aerial Combat)
Up to 16 Players
Presented by Andre Kruppa with Jerry Corey

This aerodrome 1.1 game consists of a series of dogfights featuring several late war aircraft with players matching wits for control of the skies. This is an opportunity to hone those Aerodrome skills prior to the Tournament on Saturday Evening or just have fun battling for the skies. This is an elegant fast play system featuring wooden panels to program moves. No prior rules knowledge is required.  (Under age 15 only with playing adult.)

Satuday Morning From 9a – 1p
Aerodrome 2.0 WW2 Aerial Combat
Aerodrome 2.0  (1/144 Scale World War Two Aerial Combat)
Presented by Stanley F Kubiak
Up to 10 Players

The new WW2 adaptation of the popular Aerodrome ® 1.1 WW1 ruleset. The rules remain easy to learn, easy to play, lots of fun, but take into account faster speeds and greater weapons lethality of WW2 aircraft; rules will be taught, charts provided. Up to 10 players per round, rounds last about one hour, running continuously through allotted time. Spouse & Female Friendly Game.  Under age 15 only with playing adult.

Saturday Afternoon from 2pm – 6pm
Aerodrome® 2.0 WW2 Aerial Attack in the Pacific
Aerodrome 2.0  (1/144 Scale World War Two Aerial Combat – Naval Action!)
Presented by Stanley F Kubiak
Up to 15 Players

Late World War 2 in the Pacific! Torpedoes in the water! Bombs! Flaming Bettys!  Kamikazes? Attack or defend a USN invasion fleet using Aerodrome® 2.0 and its Naval Air Combat rules. Players control Japanese torpedo bombers, dive bombers or fighters, fighting to sink the task force, or USN fighters fighting to defend it. Rules will be taught. Spouse & Female Friendly Game. Under 15 only with playing adult.

Satuday Evening from 7p – 7:30p
Presenting Aerodrome Events
by Stanley F Kubiak

Stan will draw on his vast experience of running fun and exciting Aerodrome games over the years to reveal a few of his techniques and ideas.  This 30 minute talk will help prepare you to run your won Aerodrome games with panache.   It is highly recommended for both new and experienced GMs and there will be some good bits of information for many aerial combat hobbyists.  All folks from those with a passing interest to those with serious commitment to the game are welcome!

Satuday Evening from 7:30p – 11:30p
Aerodrome 1.1 – Knights in the Sky Tournament
Aerodrome 1.1 (1/144 scale World War One Aerial Combat – Tournament Event!)
Up to 16 Players
Presented by Andre Kruppa with Jerry Corey

This Knights in the Sky Tournament consists of a series of dogfights featuring late war fighters in a vicious dogfight with players matching wits for control of the skies. A prize will be awarded for first, second, and third place. The highest scoring player will be awarded the coveted Huzzah Aerodrome Cup. Scoring is based upon Rick Schirtzinger’s well received system. To qualify a player must fly at least 3 missions. Play will be limited to an even number of players. This is an elegant fast play system featuring wooden panels to program moves. No prior rules knowledge is required. See the Rules section for scoring information. Results will be posted here after the tournament. (Under age 15 only with playing adult.)

Aerodrome 1.1 and 2.0 is coming to Huzzah 2011!

Aerodrome 1.1 and 2.0 is coming to Huzzah 2011 and it is only two months away! Saturday night will feature the 2nd annual Huzzah Knights in the Sky Aerodrome 1.1 tournament with pilots competing for the prized Huzzah Cup! There will be dogfights for both eras (WWI and WWII)! On Saturday afternoon there will be an exciting Pacific War scenario with fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers!  The fun begins on May 13th, in Portland, Maine, at the Fireside Inn and Suites.  Join us at Huzzah and have a great time!

Check out Huzzah: www.huzzahcon.com

Aerodrome Dogfights at MWGA Game Day

On Saturday October 16th a number of Maine gamers gathered for an eventful game day in Bath.  I ran an afternoon session of Aerodrome that was well received!  We play 4 dogfight missions using Pfalz DR1s vs Sopwith Camels.  Kills were fairly evenly distributed and players got the hang of the game quickly.

I have been swamped with other projects lately and am just getting to posting this! The ramp up to my RPG events for the next convention cycle starting with Carnage has been taking the front seat at the moment.  I am in the early phases of getting material ready for e-publishing a horror game.

Tighter mission rules and a random mission generator are in the works for this winter and work will start on this in earnest after the holidays.  Stay tuned for more and keep flying!

Aerodrome Event Update

I thought I’d take a moment from a busy summer to post about the status of Aerodrome Events.  I have run several games recently.  More will be taking place in the fall after the run up to Carnage which takes place during the first weekend in November.

I ran a demo at Game Geeks on June 17^th.  It went well and folks had a good time.  I ran 3 missions for six players and I think there will be further interest.

I also ran a small session at the last Northern Conspiracy session and had a fun game!  Game night is often lightly attended in July and so I had few players, but a lot of guys took a look and I think that we’ll see more!  (It is an imperative to enjoy summer while you can in this neck of the woods!)

The next event in stone is a large game for the Maine War Gamers Association on the afternoon of October 16^th.  I expect to be running several other events and we are looking at involving some high school groups and hope to get some involved.  (Stan kindly gave the MWGA some rule sets to help jump-start some interest!)

I am sure there will be a number of pickup games to get a grip on making tighter Mission Rules as the key element of a campaign game.  I see the campaign as being a series of randomly generated missions with specific setup rules for each.  The campaign will progess through the war offering new aircraft and other effects.  I will be looking to post and get feedback once the bones are down and preliminary testing is done!

Dogfights at Game Geeks on Thursday June 17th

On Thursday from Thursday June 17^th from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM two dogfight missions will be presented at Game Geeks featuring Sopwith Camels in the classic match-up against Pfalz DR1s (a sturdier cousin of the Fokker DR1) with players matching wits for control of the skies.

This is the first of a number of Aerodrome events I expect to be offering in the area.  As the summer wears on I will be scheduling more events.

 The next project in the works is the first stage of getting the campaign rules ready.  This first step will be refining the mission rules.  This will probably take a while.