Taking New Ground: A Ranger Report From ConGlomeration with Tony Thompson ConGlomeration is an annual convention held in Louisville, KY.  This year it was held at the Louisville Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center. An annual event since 2001, it was preceded by RiverCon, from 1975 to 2000. RiverCon was mostly focused on the literary world of Science Fiction and Fantasy authors and books, artists and art.

ConGlomeration has expanded further, with more emphasis on films, TV shows, multimedia, and, of course, gaming of all kinds. There was a strong gaming community at RiverCon, mostly focused on 28mm Science Fiction wargames, fantasy roleplaying games, card games and boardgames. ConGlomeration continues this tradition, and has expanded on it, commonly featuring gaming guests of honor alongside the traditional author and artist guests. For ConGlomeration 2013, I had decided that the main focus of my time there would be presenting Flames Of War in as spectacular a manner as I could and offering demonstration games for the denizens of the ConGlomeration Game Room. Given that the majority of gamers at ConGlomeration are not historical gamers, I wanted a big spectacle and the ability to run games with anywhere from 2 to 6 players per table. But first I had to get my badge at the Registration Desk.  Fortunately, I was at the convention early Friday afternoon and since I had pre-registered, I was able to breeze right through badge pickup without a line.

Next up was a trip over to the Gaming Room to check in with Gaming Chairman Jake Lovell and start setting up on the two tables he had reserved for Flames Of War. Jake has been running the Gaming Room at ConGlomeration for several years now and does an excellent job balancing board-gamers, war-gamers, role playing gamers and the ubiquitous card game players, with plenty of tables available around the clock. The Game Room is one of the first events that open at the convention and it stays open 24 hours a day the entire weekend. Only the famous ConGlomeration Hospitality Suite is also open the length of the convention. Right: ConGlomeration Gaing Chairman, Jake Lovell.

Without further ado, I set out my event sign up sheets for Friday and then headed over to my assigned tables and got busy setting up my terrain. It would remain set up all weekend. Left: The Game Room, very early Friday morning.

Below: The terrain setup on Table One.

Below: The terrain setup on Table Two.

After setting up the tables I headed over to the Dealer's Room to see what was available. Being mostly a literary / media convention, focused more on Science Fiction and Fantasy, I didn't expect to see anyone selling Flames Of War.  There were several dealers selling games and miniatures, but no Flames Of War models.  I did chat with a number of game dealers about possibly having Flames Of War models available next year. Back to the Game Room!

Below: The Dealer's Room.

Here was the information for Friday's game: Crossing the Moselle: Arnaville, France. 15 September 1944. Game Master: Tony Thompson The American 7th Armored Division or “Lucky 7th” has been attempting to find a crossing over the river Moselle, near the fortified city of Metz.  Strongly held by elements of the German First Army, including the remnants of 17. SS-Panzergrenadier Division, the US advance has been halted by the stubborn German defenders.  Task Force Charlie has been assigned the job of forcing a river crossing near Arnaville, where the Moselle is shallow enough to allow tanks to ford the river.  There is also a bridge but it is uncertain if the bridge is still standing.  US Orders:  Get 3 Platoons across the river and take the objectives at the rear of Arnaville.  Earn one extra victory point for each platoon that exits the German table edge.

German Orders:  Stop the American advance cold if possible.  If not, earn one extra Victory Point for each mobile US platoon that does NOT cross the river by the end of the scenario. Friday is often slow, but I still had two players, Nick and Garrett sign up for this game, neither of whom are Flames Of War players, despite being regular wargamers.  Fellow BattleVault Ranger Jon Holland was also on hand to give advice and suggestions to Garrett, who declined having his photo taken, playing the Americans while I did likewise for Nick, playing the Germans. Right: Nick prepares for his first Flames Of War action.

The US artillery pinned the SS-Panzergrenadiers in the ruins, who never unpinned, but massed .50 cal fire failed to kill any German teams. Since crossing the river was a key to victory, the American armor bypassed the German infantry and drove on towards the objective. The ford objective was only guarded by the SS Company Commander and a single depleted Panzergrenadier platoon. US artillery and MG fire left only the Company Commander, the Platoon Commander and a single MG team. Now a single assault on the SS infantry would secure victory. Unfortunately, the Fearless SS troops had other ideas.

The first Sherman platoon managed to outflank and destroy the Sturmtigers but the assault on the river objective went horribly wrong! The final result was a 4-3 victory for Garrett and his 17. SS-Panzergrenadiers. Despite destroying the Sturmtiger platoon and a PaK40 platoon, the failure of the assault cost the Americans the victory, as they had lost a Sherman assault gun platoon to the PaK40s ambush, as well as the Company Commander and the first platoon of Shermans. At this point, the gaming session was up and Nick and Garrett headed off to their next games.

During the game there were numerous spectators who came by and watched the game, with many of them asking questions about the game, who made it and where the miniatures could be purchased. The convention's photographer, Erin Cook, came by several times and took pictures. She also asked me if we minded her setting up a camera to get a series of time lapse photos during the second game on Saturday, which was no problem at all.

Here is the information for Saturday's game: A Bad Day At Bastogne: Bastogne, Belgium. 21 December 1944. Game Master: Tony Thompson The American 101st Airborne Division, Screaming Eagles, has been rushed to the key road hub of Bastogne, Belgium, in response to “Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein,” Operation “Watch on the Rhine,” the German surprise attack through the Ardennes Forest.  Now under siege in Bastogne with elements of the 10th Armor Division’s Combat Command “B” and the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion with its M18 Hellcats, the 101st has been assigned to hold Bastogne until relieved.  Surrounded and bypassed by the German’s crack 2. Panzerdivision and Panzer Lehr Division, the 101st now faces determined infantry assaults from the veteran 26. Volksgrenadier Division, supported by 2. Battalion of 4. Panzer Regiment. US Orders: Hold your position at all costs. Earn one extra Victory Point for each mobile enemy platoon that is NOT in your deployment area at the end of the game. Ignore platoons capable of firing a bombardment in this case. German Orders: Crush the American Paratroops. Earn one extra Victory Point for each of your mobile platoons within 16"/40cm of any objective.

Again, Garrett and Nick signed up and showed up for this game. There were two other people who signed up but never showed up. About an hour after we got the game started, Erin Cook arrived and set up her camera for the time lapse sequence, which would cover about 30 minutes in the middle of the game. This time, Nick chose the US Paratroopers and was assisted by Jon while I would assist Garrett with the German Volksgrenadiers.

Below: The setup for Saturday's game.

An artillery duel ensued as the Volksgrenadier mortars suppressed the US towed 105 battery and the Panthers and PaK40s killed the US M10s, while the StuGs and German 15cm guns hammered the Priest battery off the table within two turns. The US Shermans and the Paratroopers first platoon got revenge, blasting a Volksgrenadier platoon out of the woods and trading blows with the SS Panther platoon. The last surviving Panther would eventually be killed by the Paratroopers' 2iC but only after the loss of the Sherman platoon, while a lucky bazooka shot killed the last StuG. In a final bloody assault, the Volksgrenadiers' Sturm Platoon, with its StG44 assault rifles finally killed the Paratrooper platoon holding the objective on the village road and secured a 4-3 for Garrett's Germans. During the Saturday game, there were a large number of spectators, including a number of veterans from US Army and Marine tank units who where quite intrigued by the game.  Most of the convention's ConCom, including the Convention Chairman, Sean Reck, also spent a good bit of time kibitzing from the sidelines.  Flames Of War was quite well received by the attendees of ConGlomeration 2013 and hopefully the BattleVault Gamers will be able to expand Flames of War at future ConGlomerations. ~ Tony.