Hot Lead 2022; in which Rabbitman Does Not Buy Any Miniatures

 Another Hot Lead in the books. 

Friday night

It was fun. It was mentally exhausting. It was both good and frightening to be back. Just being around all the people and talking and stuff, I was exhausted by Saturday dinner, and knew I'd be grumpy and no fun to play with, so I bailed on my evening game and went home to watch TV and drink some tea.

Sunday morning, still busy with eight games running

We weren't required to check vaccination status or limit hall capacity anymore so those headaches were lifted, thankfully. Most attendees were good at keeping masks on except when eating or drinking. Of course talking a lot through a mask really dries you out, doesn't it?

Saturday morning in full swing. Every table is running.

Attendance was a bit soft because the always popular Bring and Buy didn't run. Key members of the B&B team were worried about being in the center of all those germ vectors, and I can't blame them. I'm keeping a close eye on Mrs. Rabbitman's health since she held down registration all weekend and literally interacted with EVERYONE at the convention. She sanitized a lot what with handling all the filthy money.

Mikey running his clearance sale

Pop Culture who do estate sales

Karl who takes painting commissions. He's paints all of Scott's Napoleonics that show up on this blog regularly.

New dealer who makes dice. She's going to investigate making me some Mordor themed d6 for Dragon Rampant.

But there was a fellow with a heavily stocked booth selling off a friend's wargames estate. Mikey also had a booth piled high with fire sale deals as he tries to clear out his painting room. We also had a dealer who specializes in estate sales selling off second hand gaming stuff. I gave my official blessing to folks putting stuff  on the Friends of Hot Lead Facebook group for sale and then arranging exchanges at the convention. I manged to clear a couple of batches of figures that way. The Bring & Buy is always run to raise funds for a charity. This year we set out a giant pickle jar with a Ukrainian flag taped to it to collect funds for the Red Cross and Ukrainian refugees. Folks were generous with over $500 dropped in the jar. I'll round that up a bit with money from admissions. (Edit- donated $1000 to the Red Cross Ukraine appeal)

A bit of a theme in my reading selection this year...

For purchases, I bought a stack of books at excellent prices and terrain. I did not buy any miniatures! The estate sale dealer had some already assembled plastic Normans for $1 each that I was hemming and hawing about, but then someone saved me from myself and bought them. I invested the money saved, plus what I made  selling a chunk of my leadpile, into terrain. Some coir matt fields for $1 each from the chap selling off his friend's collection and then a bunch of lovely trees from Model Builder Supply. The bare armatures will become winter trees and the big (6" and 8" tall) deciduous trees are just because my Elves need proper big trees.

6" and 8" trees worthy of Lothlorien

A friend also gifted me these super sexy hills. They've been in several of his Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game tournaments that he ran at Hot Lead pre-Covid. I'm certain I've photographed all of them for my inspiration folder. They're a bit worn from lots of play, but a bit of paint will fix that.

Elf surveys the landscape

Big, dramatic corner piece. Note elf for scale.

As far as games went we ended up with:

15mm ADLG Tournament with 16 players

2x Demo tables, one for 9th Age and one for Conquest. Both fantasy miniature systems. The vendor promoting Conquest (Torchlight Games) also ran a painting table to give folks a chance to try their new contrast paint system.

4x Roleplaying games

66(?)x open participation games. Some of the Red Shirts jumped in and put on extra games during Saturday and especially in the evening. Dave's Silver Bayonet set up proved very popular.

I was quite chuffed on Friday night to be in the North American public debut for the new, not yet published, Too Fat Lardies cowboy game, What a Cowboy. Pierre-Yves Troel, aka IWouldLike2Rage on Twitter, set up a visual feast of a table, with very sexy 3d printed player aids to track ammunition and wounds etc. He even named one of his characters after me, which was fun. Although my greenhorn alter ego died miserably during my game. My friend Keith kept him alive during his turn at the game the next day.

I die like a dog in the alley

Our game was particularly bloody. Pierre-Yves ran out of casualty figures.

My legendary gunslinger, John Savage, takes out his rival with a shot in the back of the head.

Attendance was down by maybe 30% but I was expecting that. Between people worried about Covid, canceling because they had Covid, annoyed to have to wear a mask and folks who only come for the Bring and Buy we lost maybe 100 bodies. To make up for them we had people from the United States, and two from Germany, a person flew in from Nova Scotia and quite a contingent form Ottawa and Montreal.  The hall was packed and busy all weekend. Those who came were "in it to win it" and determined to have a good time. The hotel had lost some experienced staff over Covid, so there were some bumps with food service but it will be better next year I'm sure.

Honestly once I saw how things went on Friday night I stopped worrying. The dates are already booked for next year. Save the date: 24-26 March 2023.

Here are other games presented in a more or less chronological order of when I took the picture:

28mm Battle of Tewkesbury

Battletech

Alex of Full Battle Rattle having fun in Battletech

Some Victorian Science Fiction

WW1 in the Middle East

Star Wars using Metaverse rules

Sharp Practice

Cruel Seas

Infamy, Infamy!

20mm Medievals, Might of Arms I think

Drug Wars

Demo table for Conquest

Flames of War

Anglo-Zulu War

15mm ancients. Pyrrhus vs Thracians I think. DBM

The 9th Age Demo table

Bolt Action in Burma

Red Shirt Dave's Silver Bayonet game

ADLG Tournament

Blucher rules. Battle of Borodino

More Cruel Seas

Sharp Practice

More Infamy, Infamy!

Drug Wars

Star Trek I think. Metaverse rules again though

Battle of New Orleans

Rapid Fire

The Battle of Trafalgar. Fast moving, and played in the 4 hour slot

1:300 scale destroyers for Cruel Seas. Operation Biting

More Star Trek

Conquest Demo game

Even the Game Masters Service Dog was having a good day

Bolt Action Operation Biting

Metaverse rules but Babylon 5 this time

American Civil War

Rapid Fire

Battlestar Galactica

Saturday Night's Mongols With Mausers game. Always popular.

Impromptu VSF game Saturday night

War of 1812 Sharp Practice

Sunday morning VSF Mega Bring and Battle

ACW Sharp Practice

Sunday Morning still going strong. Eight games this year.

Bolt Action. The Paras get to the Radar Sation in the 2nd running of Operation Biting.

More MTB action but using Coastal Patrol this time

Now that's what I call a tank overrun!

So there you have it. A full gamut of periods, scales and rules on offer. Something I think for everyone.

See you next year.