Compass Games Expo: 2024 November Edition

[Whiterook]

It’s getting closer to November and I am, planning to go to the Compass Games Expo once again! I’ll primarily be playing my buddy Tim during the days and nights, and I am hoping to gather a few gamers from some evening multiplayer games; I want to attend some seminars; and I’d like to see if I can get some late late night gaming in, which I’d only done one game ‘til about midnight one year…I’d like to beat that and take advantage of the 24-hour gaming! I’ll be staying over for a five night stay, and six days of gaming!!!

The primary pick for both Tim and I will be one I am bringing… Lock ‘N Load Publishing’s, Nations at War. Platoon-level WWII fare, it’s in my Top 5 Favorite Games list.








The secondary game that will see a lot of table time will be Compass Game’s, Brothers at War. American Civil War fare, Tim will be bringing his copy, which he taught me a couple years back… I long since forgot how to play it, but I was so impressed with it that I purchased it at that Expo!






…those two will take up most of our time, really. The way the Expo has worked out in the past for me is, start playing around 9am and get a full game in up to about 1pm for a break for lunch. Reconvene around 2pm and play until dinner time. So basically, these games typically got one, maybe two scenarios in, unless it was quick play games. Evening were either multiplayer games with a small group of gamers, or more face-to-face gaming with Tim.


A tertiary game I plan to bring is All Alone Game’s, Bite the Bullet. Old Wild West fare, where we can play 2-Player, or maybe even get a multiplayer in!






A fourth pick is Rebellion Unplugged’s, Sniper Elite. A WWII miniatures on board map game, this is one that is also 2-Player or Multiplayer (as well as Soloe-Player)






An alternate game to have on hand is Phalanx game’s, A House Divided. More American Civil War fare, this can also be played multiplayer.






Games may change as we get closer, but these are the ones that so far, have risen to the top!


Seminars I’d like to attend are:

• Still Haunting After All These Years: 2024 Seance with Ghosts of SPI, by Danny Parker and others
• Battle of the Bulge 80 Years On: Meet the Ardennes Experts, panel discussion
• Peiper’s Last Gamble: Could Kampfgruupe Piper Have Reached the Meuse and Changed the Course of the Bulge? View from a Book and a Game, Danny Parker
• Messerschmitt, Tigers, and Liege, Oh My! Things You Didn’t Know about the Bulge that “The Last Gamble” can teach, panel discussion with references to that game

These are by leaps and bounds, better offering than in years past, and Compass Games has made a significant effort to up their prowess in seminar presentation topics.

[Whiterook]

I’ve got Bite the Bullet down pretty darned good, so I’m moving on to other game rules.

Working on LNLP’s Nations at War rules, and re-watching The Gimpy Gamer’s videos. I remember much of the rules, but I noticed in all previous plays that I’ve missed little things, like Concealment and Ranging In artillery bombardments. I find it useful to revisit the rules, especially since I haven’t played this game in almost a year. I’m going to try and get some games in this weekend, and the rest of the two weeks before expo here and there.

Sniper Elite will be next… I’d like to play some games next week.

A House Divided will probably be bounced at this point… instead, I just got Escape from New York and I’d like to learn and play it so that I can bring it as a filler game… and for multiplayer evenings.



My game partner wants to plat Brothers at War, so I’ll leave him to teach that to me, as well as Undaunted.

[Whiterook]

It was a great Expo!!! I have to say that, I haven’t enjoyed past expos this much since the first one I went to, and even then., this was by far my favorite of all attendances! …I think that’s because this time, I concentrated on less hardcore wargames, where the complexity is high, as is the brain drain… and rather, played games that were more non- or untraditional wargames. 

The most played was Bite the Bullet, and my gaming bud and I played half the scenarios from Volume 1, and a playtest scenario, and had a ball! It was also the most checked-out game by other gamers at the expo.


Me, on right, with my gaming buddy Tim















A game that took me totally by surprise was Marvel Zombies: X-Men Resistance, where I played the Marvel character, Mystique, who kicked zombie butt!!! This is a seriously FUN game, played cooperative, so Tim (Magneto) and my gaming buddy Roger (Wolverine) were team mates in two consecutive games, where we won the first (blue board), but lost horribly in the last game (red board)


Me, and Roger (right)









The third game I played was Sniper Elite: The Board Game, which I taught Tim and Roger. I was the Allied Sniper and they killed me dead in both games!!!







It was five days of gaming, morning, afternoon, and night, about 11 hours a day. I think I found the winning combination in lighter, fun games!