Frustrated Wargamer's Organization (FWO)

I've been terrible at keeping this site up-to-date.  FWO is still occurring every month.  Does anyone want to volunterr to keep a web page?

It's all Chris Vanderbilt's fault. He wanted to try to play some of the great wargames and boardgames he hadn't been able to play for a while. Without having to spend all of his valuable Saturdays hanging around the game shops.
So he sent out an e-mail suggesting we get together roughly monthly and play a board game. Since we want to play a variety of games, we won't play the same game twice in a row.

We meet at my house because I have a big room, a big table and an understanding wife. Michelle (the Empress of FWOdom) has been ensuring there is food available for any who want to eat dinner during the game; this helps us get started on time. Michelle has also been renting a movie for the kibitzsers (that's been wives of players, but we welcome playing females also).

Schedule

All games are played on Friday night, starting at about 7:00 PM and lasting until we stop. In 2002, we are going to experiment with a regular schedule. FWO is scheduled for the third Friday of each month.
Please be on time so we can start as soon as possible and play as much as possible.

All dates are tenative until they've actually happened.
All games are proposed until they've been played.

The mailing list has had problems finding a host, so don't expect it to be running anytime.
 

2002 FWO schedule

Month Date Game Marshall Host
January 18 Cheapass Game night Bruce McLaren
Februrary 15 Ogre miniatures Andrew Richter Bruce McLaren
March 15 Babylon 5 space battles Chris Vanderbilt Bruce McLaren
April 19 Car Wars Chris Vanderbilt Bruce McLaren
May 17
June 21 Ogre miniatures
July 19
August 16
September 20
October 18
November 15
December 20

The experimental FWO Car Wars garage


Previous Games

March 30, 2001
Settlers of Cattaan
Build a civilization on an island.

November 9, 2001
Robo Rally by Wizards of the Coast
Hapless Robots try to follow your instruction around a rather deadly factory. Actually a race game, but we seem to do a lot of shooting and shoving anyway.

September 28, 2001
Ogre Miniatures by Steve Jackson Games
Futurist tank battles with miniatures.

August 3, 2001
Baron Richtofen's War
WWI flying battles.

March 30, 2001
Settlers of Cattaan
Build a civilization on an island.

February 23, 20001
Fairy Meat by Kenizer and Co.
Canabilistic Fairies 1:1 miniatures game.

January 5, 2001
Ogre by Steve Jackson Games
Futurist tank battles

We played a bunch in this time period, but I didn't keep track.

May 12, 2000
Europa
Try to unify Europe while giving your party the most credit.
Bruce won. Mike G, Sam, Chris, Mike L and Dean played.

Supremacy
Tom won. Sam, Mike G, Mike L, Dean, Chris, Kevin, Bruce and Andrew played.

January 21, 1998
Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games
Bruce is setting up this scenario. A fast oval track, where the winner is the one who completes the most laps. Vehicles are $20,000, no dropped weapons.

Kevin won. Sam, Chris, Mike G, Mike L, Andrew, Margaret, and Bruce played.

December 17, 1999
Medieval Merchant
Players are merchants in the Hessianic League competing to establish branch offices and make money.
Dean won twice. Tom, Mike G., Mike L. & Bruce played.

November 19, 1999
Civilization
Each player controls a nation-state in the medittaranean basin from the stone age through the age of the Roman Empire. This is a long game, but can be conveniently called at any time and points counted. Expect lots of player interaction, and a little gratuitous violence. Though the emphasis is not on combat.
Tom won, Deane, Bruce, Chris, Mike G & Sam played.

Car Wars
Ogre by Steve Jackson Games
Each player commands squads of high tech armored vehicles.

July 30, 1999
Robo Rally by Wizards of the Coast
Hapless Robots try to follow your instruction around a rather deadly factory. Actually a race game, but we seem to do a lot of shooting and shoving anyway.
June 25, 1999
Maxi-Scale Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games
1:24 models to be used for counters. $40,000 off road. Car counters will be 1:24 scale (7.5" = 15' = 1 car length. Bases are therefore 7.5" x 3.75" for standard cars). 1:25 scale is close enough.
If you want dropped weapons, you must bring suitably sized counters for the dropped stuff.
No flying vehicles (no helicopters, but hovercraft OK)
The effectiveness of oil slicks off road still being discussed.
The track will be an off-road arena with a few obsticles suitable to hide behind.

Kevin, Mike G. & Sam handily beat Bruce, Mike L. & Chris.
Kevin has set up a web page displaying the game. Go to Kevin's Size Does Matter Car Wars Page

May 21, 1999
Rise and Fall
Players vie for control of the Roman world as Emporers of Rome, rulers of smaller kingdoms, or leaders of barbarian hordes. As barbarians knock off empires, that player reappears as a new barbarian leader.
Bruce won. Dean, Tom, Joseph, Todd & Sam played.

April 9, 1999
Supremacy by Supremacy Games, Inc.
Players vie for control of the modern world using armies, navies, economies and nuclear weapons. Most especially nuclear weapons.

March 12, 1999
Alien Space by Lou Zoochi
Hosted by Kevin Self. A 2-D space combat game using large scale figures played on the floor.
Dean & Randy shared the win. Kevin, Mike G, Bruce & Chris played.

February 26, 1999
INWO by Steve Jackson Games
Standard game to 12 groups.
That was the longest, most brutal game of INWO I have ever played. It was fun.
Michelle won. Chris, Sam, Dean, Jose & Bruce played.

January 15, 1999
Insterstellar Empires by DEAN LUEKE
Played and enjoyed by all. I can't remeber who won, though. Can someone remind me?
Dean, Mike G., Mike L., Sam, Kevin, Chris & Bruce played.

December 19, 1998
Robo Rally by Wizards of the Coast
Hapless Robots try to follow your instruction around a rather deadly factory. Actually a race game, but we seem to do a lot of shooting and shoving anyway.
Bruce won. Chris, Sam & Mike G. played. Kevin died.

Novemeber 20, 1998
Star Fleet Battles by ???
Chris is doing the set-up. The following is his quote:

Star Fleet Battles is a detailed space combat game set in the Star Trek universe. There is a lot of details, but you only need to know the stuff relevant to the ship you are running. I can explain the rules in about 20 minutes, and we will be shooting in about 30 minutes. I will have a scenario and set of ships ready. The scenario will probably be a simple shoot'em up to get to know the rules, but this may change.


Chris, Dean & Bruce (Federation) won over Sam, Mike G & Mike L. (Klingon)

October 16, 1998
Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games
Sam Becker is setting up a scenario involving Formula One cars and track. This should be a fast game.
Bruce won, Chris & Mike G tied for second, Sam & Mike L died.

September 18, 1998
Double Goal INWO by Steve Jackson Games
This is our home-grown alternate version of the wierd collectable card game. All goals are doubled, so 20 groups are required for the basic goal, up six groups can count double, Bavaria needs 100 points of power, etc. Your deck gets 52 cards.
Michelle won, Bruce, Chris, Mike and Sam played.

August 7, 1998
Ogre by Steve Jackson Games
Each player commands squads of high tech armored vehicles.
Bruce and Sam won a "marginal victory" over Chris and Kevin.

July 10, 1998
INWO: Subgenius by Steve Jackson Games
Not enough people showed up to play Risk. So we drafted Michelle and played the Church of the Subgenius expansion for INWO instead.
Bruce won because Michelle let him. Chris and Sam didn't do so well.

May 15, 1998
Baron Riechtenhoff's War
A World War I dog fight simulation game. I've never played it, but it sounds fun. Chris is providing the game.
Chris won, Sam survived, Bruce died

April 24, 1998
Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games
Drive armed and armored cars and motorcycles on a track. Try to destroy the other cars without getting destroyed or crashing yourself. We are using Micro Machines (TM) as minatures and a large paper track.
See An Sophisticated Evening of Automotive Mayhem for pictures from a previous game.
Sam won, Kevin survived. Chris & Bruce died.

March 20, 1998
BattleTech by FASA
Take control of a massive battle robot. Teams of robots fight and try to destroy each other. The game uses cardboard minatures and a large map. Manish Patel and Joe Gorski provide scenerio, map, figures and rules.
Fought to a 2:30 AM draw. Manish, Joe, Bruce vs. Chris Kevin and Sam.

February 20, 1998
Supremacy by Supremacy Games, Inc.
This is my favorite wargame, though it tends to play long, so everyone would need to have read the rules ahead of time so we could just start playing. It is vaguely like Risk, except it adds economies, navies and nuclear weapons (big BOOM!).
Chric won. Sam, Bruce, Mark & Hans played

January 16, 1998
Robo Rally by Wizards of the Coast
Hapless Robots try to follow your instruction around a rather deadly factory. Actually a race game, but we seem to do a lot of shooting and shoving anyway.
Bruce won. Chris, Kevin & Sam played.


This page by Bruce McLaren Last update 4 Jun 05