The Snow Never Bothered Me Anyway - the 7th Annual Historicon Musical

Nick and I will be putting on the 7th Annual Musical Theatre Wargame at Historicon this July. This year will be a mashup of Frozen and Anastasia, called “Let It Go, Rasputin!” Here’s some pictures of the table.

 The mat is from Cigar Box Battle Mats, called the "Tundra" mat.  The trees are from various post-Christmas sales at craft stores.

 The view from the Elsa's Ice Castle toward Arendelle.  The Russia-to-Paris railroad runs through the middle of the table.  (Anastasia is particularly vague about its travel geography so having the route run through Arendelle seems to fit.)

Elsa's Ice Castle.  Two plastic playsets purchased on Ebay and stacked on top of each other with styrofoam inserts and a glittery paint job added.

 A frozen fjord, some plastic lighting panels, styled "cracked ice" from Home Depot, styrofoam banks.

The view from the ramparts of Arendelle.  I didn't want to permanently winterize these buildings co I made up new cardboard roofs and added white felt to them. 

Now some of our cast:

 Anna, Kristoff, Oaken, and Sven the reindeer.

Evil Hans and the Duke of Weselton.

The rather pointless Trolls.

Olaf and Marshmallow

Wolves

Rasputin and his talking bat companion Bartok

 Rasputin's fire demons attacking Anastasia's train.  Anastasia and the ineffectual hero Dmitri on the roof.

Do You Bite Your Thumb at Me, Sir? Eureka's Romeo and Juliet Figures

I just got the new line of figures from Eureka that are based on Romeo and Juliet.  Lovely and evocative figures.  Perfect for Renaissance dueling and gang fights as well as role-playing.  Here's pictures:

Historicon 2016 - Meat Pies and Iambic Pentameter

My son Nick and I attended Historicon again.  Another great time!

We ran the fourth annual Historicon Musical Wargame: My Fair Demon Barber of the Opera. This time it was a mash-up of the large number of roughly Victorian-era horror themed musicals with a few others thrown in, including The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, and Oliver.

 The Phantom of the Opera

 Sweeney Todd

 And that greatest of all Victorian fiends, Mary Poppins.

The action all took place in a London Opera House and environs where the various characters were attending a performance or seeking to overcome some of the attendees for vengeance or otherwise.

The action was pretty fast and furious so I can only give a few highlights.  The most well-meaning disaster occurred when Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins (My Fair Lady) tried to rescue Sweeney Todd's daughter Joanna from the clutches of the evil Judge Turpin.  As it turned out, they accidentally shot and stabbed Joanna.  Ultimately, Higgins did assassinate the judge but tried to blame it on Sweeney Todd, who deprived of his vengeance, hurled himself into the portable meat pie oven (In Sweeney Todd, the bodies of his victims are disposed of by baking them into meat pies.)  

Fagin's urchins robbed everyone blind. Jekyll could not keep from changing into Hyde and spent most of the game hurling people off the balcony.  Lucy, the hooker-with-a-heart of gold, escaped from Mr. Hyde by confessing everything to the police.  The other hooker-with-a-heart of gold, Nancy, Bill Sykes' girlfriend, did not fare so well - Bill ended up throwing her into the meat pie oven although he was promptly arrested by Police Constable Arthur Treacher.  The Phantom kept trying to shut the diva Carlotta up and failed, after a chase through the sewers to his secret lair, where he was prompted thrown by the diva into the noisome waters, leaving open the possibility of a sequel. 

We actually had another Julie Andrews on Julie Andrews fight when Eliza Doolittle (Ms. Andrews played her on Broadway) had an extended bout of fisticuffs with Mary Poppins (Ms. Andrews famously played her in the Disney movie) which ended with the Cockney Flower-girl winning against the Nanny who was finally done in by Bill Sykes' pitbull Bulls-eye.  Bert the Chimney-sweep was thrown into the meat pie oven on general principle.  Most memorable line of the night, from the Sweeney Todd Player: " Even as a mature, straight man, I can proudly say that Johnny Depp is as hot as f___!

Here's picture of most of the "cast."  I think we had about 20 players all told and still managed to finish the game in about 2 and 1/2 hours.

Our other game was The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), wherein a modern town in English holds their annual Shakespeare Festival on an old Druid site that accidentally opens a portal to an alternate universe where all of the works of the Immortal Bard are real. I didn't have the chance to take pictures during the game - I think we had 19 players and this too was a fast and furious game.  Here's the table:

Richard III on his arrival

Othello:

Macbeth - since there's an old theatre superstition that saying the name of "The Scottish Play" is bad luck, we had a special rule that if any player other than the one running Macbeth said the name, the Macbeth player automatically got a free action.   We had another special rule for Hamlet.  Since the Melancholy Dane is famously conflicted, no one player controlled him.  Whenever his card came up, everyone diced off and the high-roller controlled Hamlet and his guardsmen for a turn.

Sir John Falstaff, apprehended breaking into a liquor store.  Several of the players represented the townspeople, I used characters from Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz as well as an Elvis-impersonating mystic.  

Constable Danny Butterman encountering Queen Titiania and her Fairy Court

One of the primary goals was for the various Shakespearean factions to get to a Women's Shelter in town where all of the various put-upon heroines had sought refuge.  The fate of the women varied by play, per the plays, was generally going to be unpleasant.  They were defended by a fierce female attorney named Porthia.

Just a few highlights, a whole lot more went on - Henry V and Macbeth wiped each others forces out, although both personally survived, likewise Othello and Brutus & Cassius.  Coriolanus and his modern soldiers ended up getting wiped out fairly early in the game but only after he did the same to Tybalt (Romeo's nemesis).  Richard III was the major villain, careening over the countryside in a surplus Russian tank. He attracted a lot of attention, including a tempest cast by Prospero until Constable Nick Angel leapt onto the back of tank and emptied a can of pepper spray into the turret, causing Richard and crew to tumble out incapacitated into the street where a passing Macbeth ended the life of the Hunchback Usurper.  The game concluded of something of a feminist note with Porthia having convinced the insufferably gallant Richmond (Richard III's enemy - the future Henry VII and founder of the Tudor dynasty - Shakespeare knew how to suck up to his patrons) and Marc Antony to form a cordon around the women who she escorted off the board to relative safety.  All that is except Juliette who rushed to her Romeo as he wreckless drove his car through the heavily armed troops of Richmond and Antony, accidentally hit Juliette in the process. When Richmond's men opened fire on Romeo, she jumped in front and both died tragically. Also, Liz, Sean's sometimes girlfriend who was helping out at the shelter, decided to reunite with Sean and Ed and the three of them made it to the Winchester, had a nice cold pint, and waited for all this to blow over.  In the final Act, the Elvis mystic made to the henge and reversed the spell that should have closed the portal and returned the Shakespeareans to their own universe.  In the final action of the game however, Prospero, deciding the modern UK was better than a desert island, reopened the portal, thus plunging our world into a nightmare of iambic pentameter.

We also played in Howard Whitehouse's delightful Jabberwocky game, there was much whiffling and galumphing .

We also played in Peter Panzeri's relief of Vienna game, a fun romp but sadly I didn't get any pictures. also played in Buck Surdu's Warsaw Uprising where I uncharacteristically played a German.

Finally, here's pictures from a number of tables that caught my eye:

Historicon 2015 AAR: The Sound of Music and Regency Zombies

We had another great time at Historicon.  The highlight of course was our Third Annual Musical Wargame - "Fa, A Long Long Way to Run: The Sound of Music The Wargame." Here's some pictures of the board (thanks to one of our regular "cast member," Ray Frandsen for many of the photos):

As in previous years, Nick and I were in full costume.  This year's costumes certainly got the most looks.  I will say I think I looked better than some of the nuns I had as teachers in grade school.

As for the game, the main plot dealt with the von Trapps trying to escape from the Salzburg Music Festival so that Captain von Trapp wouldn't have to join the German Navy and the family could go to America and get a lucrative recording contract.  Here's the annoyingly adorable clan: 

Assisting them were "Uncle Max" the family agent who recruited the Austrian Resistance to help ensure he gets his commission, the Lonely Goatherd, and the nuns of the Noneburg Abbey, including the choir director, Sister Whoopy, a lounge singer hiding out from gangsters because she witnessed one of their murders.

Opposing them were the Baroness, Capt von T's jilted fiancee who formed the female SS chorus line, Rolfe and the Austrian Nazis, the German Army troops under Franz Liebkin, future playwright of the Broadway hit "Springtime for Hitler," and the Austrian Police under Gustav Schwartenegger, father of the future Govenator of Kaleefornya.

Finally, Howard Whitehouse played the Carrie Underwood Maria, trying to replace the good Juile Andrews Maria.  For a middle aged Enlishman, Howard did a surprisingly effective impersonation of  a blonde country western singer.

The game played out with a running battle between the German army & Austrian Nazis vs the nuns all the while, Carrie-Maria trying to convince everyone that Julie-Maria should be arrested.  One highlight was when Sister Whoopy inspired the German troops to join in a rousing Gospel tune.

On the other side of the board, the American gangsters, lead by Harvey Keitel, were pulled over by the Austrian police for speeding.  It did not end well for the police when they approached the Tommygun armed gangsters. 

After wrecking their own car, the gangsters fled in the police car.  They were unable to find Sister Whoopy when their way was blocked by the Vienna Boys Choir.

Meanwhile, the various Nazi groups and the Austrian Resistence effectively wiped each other out.  

Despite several catfights between Julie-Maria and Carrie-Maria, they and the rest of the family had almost made it to the mountains.  However, the Baroness and her chorus line rushed forward.

Rather than attacking however, she convinced the Captain to remain with her in Germany.  The two Marias, realizing the marriage to the Captain would likely be as abusive as Fifty Shades of Grey, left the Captain go.  They escaped to America with the children, had a same-sex marriage, and started a womyn's music festival in New York.  The Captain was subsequently killed in a U-boat in the Battle of the Atlantic.  

As in previous year, the Best Actor was chosen by acclaim to receive the coveted Wazzi award.  This year it was Julie Andrews - Maria.

Here's a photo of the full cast

Finally, the game itself won an award

The other game we ran was a reprise of the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies game I had run at Cold Wars.  This time around, the Bennet Sisters were not quite as successful in obtaining husbands.  They were able to force the cad Mr. Wickham to marry Lydia, mostly through the application of brutal force by Sgt Harper and Mr. Darcy.   However, Lady Catherine was able to prevent Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy getting together by handily beating Elizabeth in a duel.  Here's some photos:

Here's the partial cast 

We also played in several other games.  Here's from a Battle of Antioch game where my Muslim. command was wiped out but won a moral victory in destroying several Crusader forces, including some knights.

We also played in Pete Panzari's Wizard of Oz game, where Nick got to play the Wizard, I was some of the Spooks, and the witch took a bucket of water to the face

The last game we played in was a big zombie game in which President Hillary Clinton was attempting to get to the chopper to escape the zombie hordes.  I played the less than brilliant VP Joe Biden and Nick played the A-team.  Despite us both making to the helicopter first, the plan did not come together and we could not convince the pilot to take off without the President.

Finally, here's some pictures of other games that caught my eye:

These pictures are from an amazing 54mm WW2 game.