OttoCon AAR

 This past weekend, I trekked out to Carlisle, PA to the Comfort Inn on Hanover Street for the Society of Daisy's annual gathering, known as OttoCon. 

Founded as The Weekend, by Daisy founder, Otto Schmidt, after his passing it was named in his honour. 

All games, really, are welcome, be they miniature wargames or boardgames. But the focus is always to put on something different, unusual, and especially, fun. 

Tracy Johnson, our current Grand Pooh-Bah, is pretty much the entire staff, although I traditionally assist him (I'm the Volunteer Staff).  For 25 bucks for the weekend or 15 for the day, you get to play in anything and everything available. 

Sadly, circumstances beyond control (aka "Life") managed to keep some Daisys away and cause other to have to leave earlier than expected. Attendance was a couple of dozen, this year. Down from our peak of 90 +/- pre-COVID. 

But the stalwarts who came brought some excellent games.... 

Eric Ackermann put on an excellent Hordes of The Things (HoTT) game set in Barsoom on Mars, between two Martian forces. This was my first time playing HoTT and I loved it. He used 60mm-ish Dollar Store figures converted and homemade Airboats. 

This was a fun and creative game. Just as it should be for OttoCon. 

There were some other interesting games, some homemade, some using commercially available rules. 

Robert Ricigliano put on a Mid War WW2 meeting engagement in Russia with his homemade rules. I did not happen to get to play in this particular game, but the terrain looked nice and the miniatures were excellent. 

Keith Wyttenbach put on a very nice WW2 British Paras versus Germans in Arnhem game with A Fistful of Lead. The figures were absolutely stunning. Another game that I was not able to play in. 

My own game, The Battle of El Guettar, a la the 1970 movie "Patton". This was a test drive for Historicon and the feedback the players provided has been very helpful and much appreciated. 

The game is about 1/48th scale for the tanks and 1/32nd scale for the infantry. I used the Too Fat Lardies rules, "What A Tanker", which is a fast fun set. 

Another fun set of rules, and something I thought I'd never say about an Age of Sail set of rules, was Form On The Admiral's Wake. This was a 1/1200th scale game run by Keith. I led the van of the Royal Navy against the dastardly French and we gave them a solid thrashing. It was a very enjoyable game. 

My dashing ships beating the Frogs soundly! Soundly, I say! 

All in all, OttoCon was a very good, if sparsely attended, show. I brought a 28mm King Philip's War game that never left the box due to my own fatigue and a lack of players. Hopefully, next year the Steering Committee and Planning Staff will be able to reach more folks and we'll get a better turnout. 

Still, a couple of days in Carlisle playing games is not a bad way to spend the weekend.