--- /dev/null
+Title: Tacticon 2025, Denver, Colorado
+Category: Events
+Date: 2025-09-07
+Tags: events, wargaming, forbiddenpsalm, flamesoforion
+
+Occurring at opposite ends of the year, Denver has two fairly major gaming
+events: GenghisCon in the late winter, and Tacticon in the late summer. Where
+GenghisCon is dominated by role-playing games, Tacticon predominantly features
+tabletop miniature war games. Someone among the [Strange
+Artifacts](/pages/strange-artifacts.html){. .anchor} crew suggested we get a
+table of our own for the event, so we did exactly that.
+
+While I have attended GenghisCon for the last couple of years, this is the first
+time I've attended Tacticon. Where GenghisCon was divided up among many
+ballrooms and conference rooms, the bulk of the con was in one massive hall,
+with tables upon tables. The vendors, a far smaller array than the winter event,
+took up the circumfernce of the room. A full third of the hall was dominated by
+[Star Wars Legion](https://www.5280legion.com/){. .anchor} players, with large and
+beautifully appointed tables. The rest was a mix of Bolt Action, Warhammer and
+Battletech.
+
+{: .image-med}
+
+Our intention for the event was to demo three games: Forbidden Psalm, Flames of
+Orion and Void Admiral. Our goal, if we indeed have one, is to gather all the
+28mm, independent weirdos in the area to play our favorite games. I started out
+wanting to bring everything, but found that even three games was perhaps too
+many. This selection, however, does a good job of covering both fantasy and
+scifi as well as including modern classics, a new release and in Void Admiral a
+game I feel could be a sleeper hit in the community.
+
+We were assigned a table for four hours. While we'd expected a full, 6'x4'
+rectangular table among the other games, we were given a single 6' round table
+off on the periphery. Not to fret, we set up two boards. Strange Artifacts
+foundin member, [Kitbash Chaos](https://calixiscrusade.com){. anchor} built his first
+static board, a beautiful red desert scene suitable for fantasy, scifi and
+post-apocalyptic settings. For my part I brought a recent, modular desert board
+with an assortment of hand-built and 3D printed terrain and buildings.
+
+## Flames of Orion
+
+{: .image-med}
+
+With an odd number of us in attendance, the best way to get started was to array
+our models on the table and to start playing a game. As one of us had never
+played Flames of Orion and another only having played one game, I chose to
+adjudicate a game between my friends. After a brief overview of the rules we
+rolled for scenario, landing on _Scavenge_ in the core rule book. I brought two
+fully painted lances and plenty of terrain so we were off to the races.
+
+For those not familiar, [Flames of
+Orion](https://underthedice.com/flamesoforion/) is a small-ruleset, miniature
+agnostic battlemech war game by Steve from the Hive Scum podcast. The game
+successfully kickstarted over the summer and should fulfill in the next several
+weeks. Each player fields a number of mechs or units, frequently four each, and
+either plays a stand-up fight - which like in any game takes to long and is
+boring - or you chose an objective-based encounter either home grown or from the
+book. Units are built either by rolling randomly or by spending a certain number
+of points per force. Before the event, I rolled up two lances so we could get
+down to it.
+
+{: .image-med}
+
+{: .image}
+{: .image}
+
+I'm unprepared for a battle report, but at the end both players said they
+enjoyed the game. The rules are fairly intuitive and easy to pick up. I feel the
+game benefits from having an established narrative, something to drive the story
+along and enrich the experience. I can see it being especially good if combined
+with a sci-fi role playing game, like [Death in
+Space](https://deathinspace.com/){. .anchor} or [Salvage
+Union](https://leyline.press/collections/salvage-union){. .anchor}. Flames of
+Orion seems like a good ruleset for dropping out of pure RPG to act out combat
+encounters on the table.
+
+## Forbidden Psalm
+
+After the game of Flames, one of our buddies needed to leave, so Kitbash Chaos
+and I set up for a game of Forbidden Psalm. Mike built a beautiful new board for
+the occasion, that we were both excited to try out. Sadly for the blog, but not
+so much for us, we were both too in the moment to take any pictures. Having
+played the first scenario in the Endtimes Edition last time we got together, we
+played the second, My Heart Has Joined The Thousand. I played a warband
+consisting mostly of [Ramshackle Games](https://ramshacklegames.net/){. .anchor}
+[Boglanders](https://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/66-boglanders){. .anchor}. You
+can find Mike's [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/@KitbashChaos){. .anchor}.
+
+Mike did provide some pictures of his wonderful board to share with you here.
+
+{: .image-med}
+
+{: .image}
+{: .image}
+
+## Overview
+
+How was Tacticon? I think for what we wanted to do, to hype our favorite indy
+28mm games, it might not have been the right scene. While to groups did stop by
+and ask a few questions, for the most part attendees knew exactly what they were
+going to do before they got to the event. Tacticon is a great place to get
+together with your friends and play epic wargames for four days straight. For my
+part, had I been able to, I'd have been at the Battletech tables for hours.
+
+On the other hand, and this is the most important, a few friends got to get
+together and play fun games on cool terrain with beautiful painted models (if I
+do say so myself). Like any time the Strange Artifacts crew can get together, it
+was a great time and I look forward to when we can do it again...
+
+...perhaps during the Strange Artifacts Forbidden Psalm Invitational next month?
projects / vexingworkshop.git / commitdiff
