Siege of Augusta XXXIII - Convention Report - Jan 2024

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Another Great Time at Siege of Augusta (Georgia)

Six of my wargaming buddies in the Wilmington\Southport, NC area jumped in two cars and drove for about 5 hours to get to this little gem of a convention. They announced record breaking attendance for the weekend which is fantastic news. Tons of games, tournaments, flea market and dealers here at the show in Augusta, GA. I love going to this convention and comes right when the winter doldrums are kicking in!

As usual, click on the photo for a larger version.

Below, Jerry Frazee is running his first edition of War of the World (All Quiet on the Martin Front) set of rules and miniatures. Jerry always puts on a spectacular game and his painting skills are legendary! 

Martian tripod just turned into molten lava! 

American armor is advancing to try to save the civilians that were sprung free by special operations teams!

Oh no! Tripod moving in on the flank.

These ships below are just gorgeous. I think this is Distopian Wars, but can't remember.

Friday night I got into a Boer 1881 battle pitting the British vs. Boers. I was one of the Boer Kommando commands. This game was four Kommando groups versus 4 British columns. I had a lot of fun and we used simple THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING rules from Osprey. The rules didn't have enough chrome in them for my tastes, but great for a convention. 

Below is the British column closer to me.

All figures are 20mm and I love the characters like the stretcher teams. 

Heliograph station!

Overview of all four columns

Field ambulance

One of the random locations where my Boer Kommando units could arrive.

Me, my Boer Kommander. :-) 

My friend Rich and Michael put on a pretty 1859 game of Fire & Fury with Austrians vs Italians. I look forward to playing this game in the coming weeks. The convention game went well per reports.

This post doesn't really cover all the things that happened or were played at the convention, but I did love the look of this table and miniatures.

In the Dealer area someone was selling buildings for the new Wars of Ozz miniatures from Old Glory. Several Ozz games were run at this convention.

I'm a sucker for terrain add-ons and these pumpkin patches look great!

Some of the Wars of Ozz figures painted ready for battle.

DEAD RUN! This is one of the must fun Zombie games I have played. I got to reuse my character from last year. Hope he survives so I can use him in 2025!

Well, that is all for now. It was a great convention and so nice to see friends from all over the Southeast as they poured into this venue to have a great weekend of fun!

Boxer Rebellion - Two Battles - Rescue the Mission

Sorry for the long delay in posting this. I'm not sure I will remember all the details, but we had two very enjoyable games of Din of Battle 2nd Edition, featuring my 15mm Boxer Rebellion collection. Most buildings were made by Mal Wright. I made the Mud Fort (still need to finish it up). Temple is an aquarium piece.

There were two distinct battles going on in the scenario.

Americans and French attacking a Imperial Chinese held mud fort, while Russians and Italians tried to save the local Christian Mission from being overrun. The International forces already tried to evacuate the Mission with Royal Marines, Russian sailors, Italian Sailors but a large Boxer for appeared out of no where and they were trapped!

There were four commands, each with their own sequence deck:

• Americans\French 
• Mission Force - Italians, Russians, and sailors.
• Imperial Chinese
• Boxers

We fought this scenario twice over a two week period. I'm only posting photos of the first battle as the 2nd battle was relatively the same, but the Boxers didn't win the second battle.

FIRST BATTLE

Here is the International Mission with Black Banner Boxers and Yellow Banner Boxers prepared to launch another attack.

Russians and Italians ready to advance and relieve the Mission from the nasty Boxers.

The Chinese mud fort guarding the busy harbor while US forces on land and French Marines on paddle wheeler troop transports prepare for an amphibious assault.

Junks and sampans everywhere!

Imperial guard wondering the streets.

Busy dockyard

And the Boxers launch their first assault, with casualties everywhere. There were Russia sailors, British Royal Marine Light Infantry, French sailors, and Italian Navali Regina in the Mission.

Here you can also see that there is a RED Banner force of boxers heading for the mission.

Can the Russians and Italians get there in time?

International force holding so far.

Men are tested to their breaking point!

US Infantry and Marines start their attack on the mud fort.

French landing force arrives, but is too far from shore to support.

There is a Russian gunboat also shelling the fort. It is barely visible in photo at the bottom right.

Boxers breach the walls where the French sailors are defending with armed civilians.

Boxer casualties are high

Italian Bersaglia tear into the Red Banner boxers.

RMLI pushed back by Yellow Banners. Italian Regina Navali take over for the French and rout the Black Banners.

Massed Boxer reserve appears as the Russians arrive.

More hand to hand fighting outside the mission.

Massive attack by the Yellow Banner boxers (Each banner was reconstituted once to give the Boxers a better chance). The RMLI is driven from the wall and you can see all the yellow banners in the Mission.

It is over, the Boxers have driven the French, RMLI, and Italian sailors from the walls on three sides, while the Russian and Italian reinforcements are too little too late.

Phil, the Boxer Commander, wins a metal (Boxer Rebellion medal I purchased) and will be rewarded by the Emporer for his glory of destroying the mission!

Truly fun game! The Americans were defeated by being over-zealous on their assault on the mud fort so this was a total Chinese victory.