10 replies to this topic

[Tom Oxley]

I'm planning to run my first FAI game at the local game store to get some experience toward running the US/German scenario from the expansion at the Advance The Colors convetion coming up in September. I've run games at ATC for several years, but this will be my first FAI game. The game I played in at Cold Wars seemed to run so smoothly, I just wondered if you had any tips for GMs. Having plenty of dice, and adequate sets of papers seem like a good place to start. I'm gaming with 1/6000 ships, and this scenario seems like it will be a good one for up to 6 players, each running a squadron of BB/BCs, cruisers or destroyers. One of the players is somewhat an assistant GM and an experienced GQ3 player, being the guy who talked me into running the game. Any advice from others who have run convention games would be great.

Tom Oxley

[Blue Leader]

I'm planning to run my first FAI game at the local game store to get some experience toward running the US/German scenario from the expansion at the Advance The Colors convetion coming up in September. I've run games at ATC for several years, but this will be my first FAI game. The game I played in at Cold Wars seemed to run so smoothly, I just wondered if you had any tips for GMs. Having plenty of dice, and adequate sets of papers seem like a good place to start. I'm gaming with 1/6000 ships, and this scenario seems like it will be a good one for up to 6 players, each running a squadron of BB/BCs, cruisers or destroyers. One of the players is somewhat an assistant GM and an experienced GQ3 player, being the guy who talked me into running the game. Any advice from others who have run convention games would be great.

Tom Oxley

Tom,

TheGQIII system is so easy, but it is useful to have paper with the ship logs required broken out for each player so they do not have to search through non-involved ships in order to find their necessary info. Have just the logs they need and paper on which to write their orders. I put my logs in three ring binder plastic sleeves that you can buy at any office store, these can be written on with dry erase or wet erase markers, which I also buy at places like Staples or Target. Once the first couple of turns are run you will likely find your players running the game themselves. For a first scenario, do not try to include too many types of ships and special weather. Keep the Order of battle parameters and victory conditions simple so you can concentrate on running the game. Your players will appreciate a simpler scenario, too. A good scenario to present is found in the download files, called the "Wobbly Eight," it is reasonably balanced and does not have too many different ship types. It is an interesting little battle, too.

[Tom Oxley]

Just wanted to follow up after a first test game. A friend and I played the modified scenario The Yanks Are Coming, taking out the DDs and adding another light cruiser squadron to each side, and we had a blast. I ran the Germans, and a first volley from the forward guns of the Derflinger took out a forward turret, then a critical hit ended up in Ammo Explodes, and the resulting die roll sent the leading US vessel to the bottom. This scenario should allow for up to 6 players. The key thing that we forgot in our practice run was keeping track of the scenario objective. While I was battering his ships, I didnt make an effort to exit his side of the table, thus losing the battle, while his sacrifice of several of his ships ended up preventing me from running after the convoy that was my real target. I'll stress the objectives during the pre-game briefing, but it may be interesting to see a group of players make this same mistake and wonder how they lost after doing the most damage. All my paperwork is made up and ready to hand out to players, so looking forward to running this in a few weeks at Advance The Colors in Springfield, OH.

Tom

[Tom Oxley]

Thought I'd show my face again. Advance The Colors in September turned out to be a bit disappointing as nobody signed up for any of the 3 games I ran, so a freind and I sat and played the modified Yanks are Coming scenario and got a few onlookers who asked some questions and seemed to enjoy the system. Finally, at Cincycon over this last weekend, I was able to run it with a good group of 5 players, 2 allied and 3 German. The game went very well, and we saw two sets of collisions, with a US Battleship colliding with a British CL, to the disappointment of the CL crew as they swam away. The other collision was between a German and British CL, with neither party taking much damage. The German player managed to get 4 CLs off the Allied side of the table with just minor damage as the rest of both fleets traded damage. I'm ready to start doing some new things, like put the DDs back in and run some torpedo attacks. Anxious to get it on the table locally more often.

Tom Oxley

[Bob Benge]

Such is the fun of running convention games Tom. We have the same things happen when we run games at Cons.

GQ3/FAI is a great convention game system since it is fast moving and fun. I have been going through the same learning pains as you with GQ3 as I have been running WW2 naval games for ODGW over the last 2 years. You are doing a great job! Thanks for getting the game system out there for us!

If you are going to Historicon 2012 or Fall-In 2012 and are interested in running a game or games let me know. ODGW would love to have you running your game in our area. We can also provide any support you need, i.e. dice, tape measures sea mat, etc. that you may need.

[Tom Oxley]

Thanks, Bob. Historicon is out for this year, but Fall In is a possible, and Advance The Colors again in September now that a few regional gamers have been exposed to the system. I'm hoping for Historicon for next year already. As soon as I can confirm anything beyond regional games, I'll let you know.

Tom Oxley

[Tom Oxley]

While one local game store has closed, another local hobby shop has expanded their store to include gaming, so I'm working out some demo games at The Hobby Shop in south Dayton. I'll share my experience with that as it comes.

Tom

[Bob Benge]

Great! Look forward to it!

[Tom Oxley]

I have a group of 6-8 players coming this weekend to visit the Air Force Museum and get in a game of FAI. May have as many as 10 playing. I found a scenario in the Jutland module of the Great War at Sea games that is similar to the modified scenario I've been running, that the combined US/UK force is escorting off-table convoy as a German force sorties to try to break through and strike the convoy force. This scenario is all big-gun ships, no CLs, no DDs, so there are enough for each player to have 2 ships. The scenario calls for fog, so this will overcome any abilities of larger calibre guns over others - all primaries and many secondaries will be able to do some damage, and maybe even some tirtiaries may come into play. This started out with a friendly invitation to some gamers on another forum and turned into pretty much their whole club coming. Paperwork is pretty well done and ready, ships layed out, all I have to do is the final setup. No torpedos, but weather may play a roll as fog clears or reduces visibility even more. Should make for a great game to help the club decide on what rules to use.

Tom Oxley

[Tom Oxley]

Well, a large number of the visiting group have backed out, but we still have between 4 and 6 of us including me, so I may be able to take some ships and play if I need to round out the numbers. It's a flexible scenario, easy enough to add or subtract a ship or two to make it fun for players.

Tom Oxley

[Tom Oxley]

The visit and game went well. Most of the visiting club members had things come up, so the actual number of members who came dwindled to 2, but we still had 4 players and I GMd it. The scenario was similar to The Yanks Are Coming, but was an all battleship scenario from Great War At Sea's Jutland module, which brought the range down with starting in fog. We started out at 6000 yards, which even with an American ship in there with 14" guns, hitting power and armor were pretty even on both sides of the table. Each player had 3 ships, with 2 German, a US and a British player. 2 hours into the game, the visitors told me they needed to leave soon, so we wrapped up the turn, and with no clear victors, declared it a draw. Both sides had one ship departing the field after having failed a morale check, one German player had ships that may well have made it past the US/UK line to head off the table end to victory, and both sides had taken enough damage that anything was possible. Anyone else who wants to plan a game day with a visit to the National Museum of the US Air Force followed by a game, let me know and I'll be happy to host if I can.

Tom Oxley