Boromir: Oh no. They have a cave troll.Eric, James and Peter have all been playing Lord of the Rings wargaming. We visited a games convention in Canberra back in January and met an old wargaming friend who I first met about 20 years ago. (That is in itself very scary - I don't feel that old!) We chatted about the boys gaming and he suggested we participate in a competition he was running. So that's what we did this weekend.
I went to Sydney with the three boys. I teamed with Peter, and Eric teamed with James making two entries. There were eight players in the competition and it was really good fun. Getting up at 5:30am on Saturday made the day too long for Peter so he missed the second day, but both Eric and I won and lost games - which is much better than I hoped. I figured we would be lucky to win any games considering our lack of game experience.
Our fellow competitors displayed great sportsmanship. One of the other players was a dad and the others ranged in age from around ten to sixteen. We all sat around between and during games assisting with rules interpretations and game hints and tactics. We learned a lot!
The draw as to who plays on which table using the "Swiss Chess System" meant we each played three other players of ability getting very close to our own by the competition's end. So my last opponent? Eric and James!
The very last game required that I move my good forces of Boromir and his Gondor men across the board, whilst Eric was to stop me with his Goblins. The picture above is a re-enactment of a critical point of the game where Boromir and his men are heavily outnumbered by lots of goblins and a cave troll! Boromir succeeded in killing the cave troll but died soon afterwards swamped by eleven goblins. Not a pretty scene at all!
Much to my chagrin, Eric beat me in the last game.
Some dads go fishing, others hiking. I go wargaming with my boys.
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