TACTICA Hamburg 2014

After a weekend full of hobby goodness at TACTICA in Hamburg I'm back at home. For all of you not beeing familiar with TACTICA it's the biggest wargames convention here in Germany. With its 1602 visitors it's maybe not as big as SALUTE in London or CRISIS in Antwerp but the atmosphere is fantastic.
Plenty of fantastic gaming tables and figures as well as lots of dealers. Unfortunately this year Comitatus didn't show up so I couldn't buy all the Gripping Beast and Musketeer stuff I had in my mind for expanding my Frankish and Late Roman armies. I of course found some other ways to spend my hard earned cash and bought loads of goodness from Wargames Foundry and quite some terrain pieces from Stronghold Terrain and a great Roman Temple in 28mm from Lasermodellbau.

This year also saw me on the gaming tables having lots of fun. Both games were based on the very enjoyable Triumph & Tragedy rules. The first game was hosted by Jan (aka Lt. Hazel) of "At the Mountains of Lead" fame and his friends. Me and my dear friend Chris (aka Axebreaker) pitted Jans masterfully painted Romans and Goths against each other. As always I fielded the might of Rome. My mission was to bring a cart full of riches into safety while Chris had to stop me. As always I lost the game in the end but it was big fun and we both had a great time. Therefore many thanks to Jan and friends.

The other game took place on sunday morning and I had the pleasure to play with Björn the author of T&T. In remembrance of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the great war he hosted virtually two games. The one was a game set in the very first days when the Germans attacked France.  Beautifully painted Germans were crossing the borders and were greeted by colorful French using their Hotchkiss LMG's to maximum advantage. The table in my opinion was great and really captured the feel of the early war of movement.
For his other game (the one I played) he turned on the wheels of time to a point when trench warfare had all the western front in his grip. Again the figures were painted absolutely to my liking and the trench tiles really made me think to start working on my own again. I played the Germans while Björn took command of the not so contemptible little (british) army. My objective was to break into his trenches and search for goods of value in two hidden dugouts. Exceptionally I won the game when my troops almost wiped out all his troops and by sheer look found the barrels full of valuable oil in the very first dugout they entered.

I took quite some pics and wasn't able to decide which ones to show here so I hope you don't mind to click through them all.

The WW1 trench warfare game I played

The WW1 war of mevement game I unfortunately didn't play

Triumphus et Tragoedia game

Force on Force "Operation Ursa" game presented by the 'Wardogs Hannover'

SAGA village raid by Stronghold Terrain

"White Death" Scenario hosted by THS on actually !!!TWO!!! tables

The Perrys really seemed to enjoy the game

Walking Dead by Peter Birger

Reanimated by Malte Schulz

I really loved this figure... I really have to get me one with my next order.

Bolt Action "The battle of Tilly-sur-Seulles" presented by Tabletop-Club Rhein-Main

Behind Omaha Scenario

Victory Decision "The cannons of Saint Marcouff" by Thomas Nalizinski aka Rusus

"In clouds of glory" by 3TH Tabletop Club and the designers themselves

Field of Glory Renaissance "Lützen 1632" presented by Kurpfalz Feldherren

Quatre Bras "Liebertolkwitz 1813" by Frankfurter Partisanen

By Fire& Sword presented by Wargamer Company

Impetus "Lord of the Rings" by Frankfurter Spieltrieb

Field of Glory "The battle of Marathon" by Matthias & Thomas Richter (Thanks for the nice chat btw.)