Nashcon: A haven of thieves and looters

For the record, the title is misleading. The Nashcon folks are great and good people.

Nashcon has come and gone this year and it was an awesome experience once again. This year, I opted to offer more games than in the previous years.

Conquistadors

This year, my conquistadors returned and this year, rather than take on an African chief, they invaded an island occupied by an Aztec king. For this game, I had 4 registered players, along with ActionMan. These four guys had all played The Sword and the Flame before and were from Mississippi. There was John, Lee, Mike and Austin/Howard - I can't remember.

The scenario was simple: it was a free for all, with every conquistador leader seeking to take treasures from the Aztec lord trying to defend his village. A simple recipe that has usually yielded good results.

Here is the original setup before every one on the table. In the center is the King's village.


Actionman as his troops face the Aztec warriors.


A little later as Lee and his Cardinal moves into the village. To the southeast, Mike's men are engaged in a life and death struggle against the Aztec king and his retinue.


A little later as Lee moves in for the treasures while the melee continues. ActionMan's shot troops are moving towards the village. A force comes up from the north to take everyone from behind.


The backstabbing reaches insane levels! ActionMan moves in. Lee is sandwiched in the village. Michael has to fight off Actionman's Inca Allies. CHAOS!


The situation at the end: chaos continues.

In the end, the game was MUCH closer than we all expected.

Michael: 2 treasures (take off the board), Howard: 2 unclaimed treasures (defender), ActionMan and Lee had 1 treasure. A very close game, filled with surprises, twists and turns.

I simplified the original game to run for multiple players and I think it played well. The guys seemed happy and ActionMan thought it was a great game.

The miniatures looked great! The colorful Aztecs really popped, the conquistadors looked "right". I mean if you put those on a table of historical gamers and no one says anything... they look right.

Lunch

These big, crazy battles make for a lot of fun, but after it was done, I was tired. ActionMan and I had a plan for lunch: we went to the Indian Buffet! We both love Indian food so it was on the cards.

We had to return for a game of Gundam at 2. That was the game he was most excited about and throughout lunch he talked to me about Gundam and which of the Mobile suit he likes and which one he dislikes.

But that will be a tale for another post.