NJ Con 7 - June 12 and 13, 2015
This convention offers a lot. First of all, it is small enough to actually "see people". A lot of us have friends in the hobby but when you go to the larger conventions you may never actually see people that you know. You may have heard they are there but, you wouldn't know it because the place is too spread out.
The second that I like is that the staff that runs it is friendly. That isn't to say that the staff at other conventions run around screaming and hollering but the NJ Con staff seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome.
Of course, there are some downsides to the convention. First of all, hotels are maybe a mile away. It is an easy drive through a business complex, but you can't just roll out of bed and into the gaming hall like you can at a convention held in a hotel. Of course, considering what some people look like rolling out of bed, it may be a good thing.
The other downside is food. There is no on-site restaurant. The organizers have brought in vendors over the past few years, including food trucks out in the parking lot, and inside food vendors. The food varies year to year.
My personal favorite was the NJ Con 6 vendor that was there on Saturday. Really good sandwiches and soup and they kept circulating around with drinks for sale. And for those that may be wondering, I believe it was all non-alcoholic drinks.
There are some restaurants in the area, and they have menus at the registration desk for anyone wanting to order food.
Now, about the convention itself. This is a game players convention. There are a few vendors available but primarily I find this a time to game. The vendor are offers a lot of the typical items that you would expect to find. If you need some basic items, then it is a good place to look. If you are looking for that rare, item that you hope someone might have because you would otherwise have to order it online, you will probably not find it.
There is also a "Bring and Buy" offered. This is similar to Wally's Basement at the HMGS - East conventions, but you don't have to sit there with the items. You bring them in, tag them with your name and prices, turn in a master list to the room staff person, and they watch the items, sell the items, and will call you on your cell phone, if there are questions. They charge a 10% fee for this service. Selection here varies from year to year but it is a great service that they offer.
I arrived on Friday around 1PM. I quickly met Augie T. and Chris G. They were planning on playing Sergeants D-Day. Sounded good to me. The staff let us know where some tables were available for open gaming and we went to it. They selected a three player scenario, House of Heroes.
For the SMG players that may not be familiar with SDD, the footprint needed for the game is very small compared to SMG.
The table proved to be just large enough for everything needed to play, except the rulebook.
I believe it was the first time any of us had played SDD. Chris had brought it with him. I am not sure about Augie but I had never actually seen the game before. I saw the Kickstarter campaign but hadn't backed it. I wanted to learn more about the game and really didn't have the cash at the time.
The game itself was fairly straightforward. Augie and Chris were the Americans and I was the Germans.
My mission was to enter at one area and exit at another. Seemingly straightforward but, as a lot of things, easier said than done. From the game play, I figured that Augie had a mission to scout or capture landmarks. The way he was moving around seemed to indicate that. I have actually seen him have that same type of mission in a SMG game and win.
Long story short, Augie won again. I managed to get a soldier or two off of the designated exit point but Augie had racked up a lot of points by fulfilling his orders. Unfortunately I don't remember Chris's VP count or orders.
Overall I really liked the game. It plays very similar to SMG. The biggest difference was the movement differences. We had some questions that came up during playing. Chris posted them on BGG in the Sergeants D-Day forum. I liked the fact that it takes up less space. Of course we were all wondering what maps could eventually be built, that will allow for massive, large scale battles. At this point we can dream but what the future holds, lies in the LBG secret bunker...
On Saturday I arrived early and Chris was already there. We set up our table and prepared for a day of Sergeants gaming. One thing I have taken to doing is to bring something to level the tables. While this is not really an issue when running a standard miniatures game, it does become problematic with the Sergeants universe. Nothing like having the map falling apart on you.
Of course at one convention I had the table collapsing while playing. Any type of pressure on it and the legs would start to buckle. I spent 3 hours with my leg around the table leg to keep it from falling on us.
My wife found foam mats that hook together like puzzle pieces. Previously I had used dollar store foam board and taped the pieces together to create a level surface. This worked well but, would bend fairly easily so new, replacement pieces would always have to be purchased. She found these mats as a more expensive alternative but with the added feature that we don't have to keep buying them.
Setup for the SMG games I ran
Chris preparing for a SDD game
I set up the SMG game and forces that I had for my game while Chris worked at the other end of our table setting up SDD.
I was running my "standard" 4 player scenario from World Boardgaming Championships a few years back. I believe it is called Between a Rock and a Hard Place. I have built four fairly balanced forces. I have incorporated the MG 42 tactics panel that allows them to fire each phase and the American panel that allows their MG to Shoot and Shoot again once per turn.
For the first game I had two players, a father and son. They were looking for something quick because they only had a couple of hours to play. One took the Germans and the other the Americans. I had them use the two MG squads so that they would see the most action. I specifically pointed out the ability of the MGs to each of them. They promptly forgot that. I have seen it happen with experienced players too, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
They actually played the scenario twice. The first game was quite interesting with a lot of random events.
I even had the extremely rare, two random events in one turn happen. If I hadn't known I had shuffled the cards I would have wondered what was going on.
Both players had the same orders, capture the landmark in the middle of the board. They both advanced quickly to the landmark and started shooting it out. The Germans lost the MG 42 and they decided to call it, since they didn't want to stick around on the battlefield.
For the second game I offered them the choice of playing the other two squads, or keeping the same ones. They elected to stay with the same ones. The second game they played had a similar outcome, without the random events though. The MG 42 was lost and they decided to call it. For them the time worked out as they had another game to go to.
Chris continued to run his SDD game at the same time as I ran SMG.
We had some time to relax and look around the convention before the next round of gaming Sergeants would kick off.
Board listing games, times, and location
The city of Stalingrad
Various Waterloo games
NJ Con 7 offered a wide variety of games on Saturday. There were a large number of Waterloo games being run (most, if not all, by Dave Waxtel). The games looked great and seemed to have ample players.
There were also some naval games, a huge Stalingrad game, American Civil War, American War of Independence, and other periods represented. Of course, more games are always needed.
I believe there was also a Flames of War tournament going on. I noticed that there seemed to be less people going back there though. Not sure if it was just a bad weekend of if Flames is dying out. In the dealer hall I noticed that Bolt Action seemed to be the current flavor of the month. There were a lot of dealers selling Bolt Action items.
For the second game of SMG I was going to run the father and son actually recruited two new players and came back for another go.
It was the same scenario but with the additional two players things played out a bit differently. This time around, while everyone was battling over the landmark, some Combat Contact hand to hand broke out.
This resulted in people being pinned, wounded and killed in hand to hand. I built the squads so they have very few kills, so that new players won't get wiped out right away. Some did have some nasty tricks like an extra .45 pistol, piece of equipment that allows them to get a shot in before the combat.
In the long run the game ended with more of the Germans dying but the one German player actually accomplished his objective of eliminating more points of Americans and won the individual orders.
One comment that they had was not understanding how he won, just because he had accomplished his orders, but had more dead than the Americans. I know I have heard other people suggesting "side orders" and then individual squad orders. That way if you lose the orders for your side your squad points are lessened.
Overall they all said that they had fun. Isn't that the point?
Chris had picked up the SDD game and set up for an SMG game. He started out playing another person but then a second player joined in.
I highly recommend NJ Con to anyone interested in miniature gaming, not just Sergeants. This is a great convention. It is small but needs you to help it grow. If you don't go to Historicon because of the move, you should consider NJ Con. A great group of people, in a nice venue, are available in June for all to enjoy.
This has become a great time that I look forward to each year. I hope that it continues to grow and flourish.
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