The place: LeiriaCON 2008, Leiria, Portugal
The date: January, 26th

How many: 47 players each one piloting 1 miniature


HOW?? Lets find out.

So it was that on the national boardgamers convention with the presence of the author Andrea Angiolino that accepted my invitation to be present where we were to try to game the biggest WoW game ever done.


The very beginning, preparing a 6 meter table.



Warming up with the players starting to get ready.



Andrea himself giving an explanation of the mechanics...



and game play.



The game was helped with each player having...



a record-sheet to keep track of...



damage received, dealt out, and kills scored, and...



also functioning as a player aid.



There was also a handy ruler made for the event.



With everything ready...



the first round started with the players getting the feel...



for the game, and the planes they where flying.



Then the two lines of planes (Allies and Central Powers) collided...



with the first shots traded at long distance, but...



claiming the first victim, with a lucky shot from a Sopwith Snipe (piloted by Guilherme Pombeiro) downing a Spad XIII.



From then on, chaos ran wild in both formations...



with the number of victims mounting.



Destroyed planes were placed aside.



The Red Baron himself was in several places above the battlefield...



and with the help of...



his flying circus...



the allied position started to tremble.



First the right flank of the Allies crumbled...



with 5 or 6 German pilots free to help in the vicinity.



Then suddenly, an uproar was heard from the right of the CP line...



when the Spad XIII piloted by Andrea himself was shot down by an Albatroz (piloted by Paulo Inacio).



With mounting damage, the Allied planes went down one by one, with the last Sopwith Camel (piloted by Pedro Silva) downed around 1h30 after the first shots were exchanged.


For the record, the pilots and respective airplanes were:

Abel Nascimento - Fokker DR I
André - Spad XIII
Andrea Angiollino - Spad XIII
António Cartaxo - Fokker DR I
António Vale - Fokker DR I
Beatriz Costa - Fokker D VII
Carlos Abrunhosa - Spad XIII
Carlos Ferreira - Fokker DR I
Cristina Amorim - Spad XIII
Cristovão Neto - Albatroz
Eduardo Soeiro - Sopwith Camel
Filipe Nunes - Spad XIII
Francisco Pereira - Spad XIII
Gonçalo - Spad XIII
Guilherme Pombeiro - Sopwith Snipe
Hélio Andrade - Sopwith Camel
Isabel - Spad XIII
João Cartaxo - Albatroz
João Ribeiro - Fokker DR I
João Teixeira (Sgrovi) - Fokker DR I
João Tereso - Sopwith Camel
Joel Ribeiro - Fokker DR I
Jorge Sá - Sopwith Snipe
Jorge Teixeira - Spad XIII
Luis Alves - Albatroz
Luis Costa - Sopwith Camel
Luis Miguel - Spad XIII
Manuel Pombeiro - Fokker D VII
Maria João - Sopwith Camel
Nuno - Sopwith Camel
Patricia - Albatroz
Paula Pombeiro - Albatroz
Paulo Inácio - Albatroz
Pedro - Fokker DR I
Pedro Almeida - Albatroz
Pedro Barradas - Fokker DR I
Pedro Gonçalves - Sopwith Camel
Pedro Silva - Sopwith Camel
Pedro Torradinhas - Fokker D VII
Phillip Moringer - Albatroz
Raquel Correia - Fokker DR I
Ricardo Madeira - Albatroz
Sérgio Lobato - Sopwith Camel
Sofia Raquel - Sopwith Camel
Susana Torres - Albatroz
Vasco Chita - Fokker DR I
Vital Lacerda - Sopwith Camel


A big thanks to the organization of LeiriaCON 2008 that supported this event, and to Andrea Angiolino, the game designer, for being there to play in this mega game, and a BIG THANK YOU to each and everyone of the players that made all this possible!!!


With 8 women playing, and the overall ages ranging from 9 to 50+, this was easily one hour and thirty minutes of the craziest, crowded, and funnest game of WoW I have ever participated in. With the players that got shot down hanging around to cheer and help the others, and the final result of a CP winning mattering only second to the fun all where having!!


Manuel Pombeiro
aka Firepigeon
LUDO ERGO SUM


Edit: Corrections made possible thanks to The Deacon (will64) that provided me a superb edited version of my poor writing skills

Simply awesome. I wish I could see a time lapse overhead shot of the action!

Great report Firepigeon! Now I can really see what happened... From the cockpit of my SPAD the view was pretty limited. Especially after a short while, when smoke and fire started sprouting out from the engine!

Thanks again for the invitation and the hospitality. It has been a honor, and I spent a great weekend. Thanks also to Susana, Pedro, Ricardo, Paula, Guilherme and wohever else helped with the event. Thanks to all the players who took part in the battle, especially to those providing the miniatures for the others. And thanks to the organizers of the LeiriaCon, a very pleasant and finely managed event!

Thanks also to Runadrake, my Portuguese publisher for WoW, and to Nexus Editrice who provided some prototype miniatures from Series 2 and printed a special souvenir postcard for the event.

Great event.

Great!!

Firepigeon,
very enjoyable read and looked a lot of fun.
Is it possible that you might post your 'record sheet' as a file that can be downloaded for others to use?

regards
Peter H

Hi Peter and all the others. Thanks to you all.

The recordsheet is in portuguese, so give me a couple of days so I translate it to english, and then I'll upload both versions.

Manuel Pombeiro
aka Firepigeon
LUDO ERGO SUM

This was really a tremendous success. Pombeiro is on the lead of all this.
Congrats and see you at LeiriaCon 2009 with 47+1 miniatures!

Paulo

Edit: typo

Some more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/torradas/LeiriaCon08

(as if Manuels did not enough! )

I wish I was there! It looked like a lot-o-fun.

Hmm... I wonder if there's a Guinness World Record for the most people playing a war game simultaneously? Could this be it?

Good question! I wonder if...

This thing of the largest WoW game ever started almost as a joke. In May 2005 I received the new of a funny WoW game played by 13 people at Bossolasco, in the "Weekend Enogastroludico" ("WineFood&Games Weekend"):



Just before clicking "send" on the email telling people around I decided to call it "the largest WoW game ever in the world". This started a game-in-the-game among different shows, clubs and gathering, and it seems that it generated quite several fun for quite a lot of people! I am glad of it. If anybody has an idea of how to chek in the Guinness cares for that sort of things well... We will do all the necessary bureocracy.

Thanks a lot!

Andrea

Hello!

Last Saturday, while we were preparing the WoW event, Anna Cinque announced it at the Italian radio during her "Giocando" show (Radio Rai Due, 13.30-15).

Next Saturday from 13.45.00 to 13.48.30 I will be on air to tell to my country how LeiriaCon2008 was and... uhm... ehr... what happened to the yellow SPAD XIII paid by Italian contributors with their taxes and trusted to me as a pilot....

Happy gaming,

Andrea

Ohmygod!!!! we have to do it again next year to go to the Guiness???? Coool

Check out the link - I think I see the new planes!!!

How much longer do we wait............

Please... they look awesome

I think they are also in this page. For example, here you have Udet's (red with white stripes) and Goering's (all white) D.VII:
http://firepigeon.smugmug.com/photos/247960631-M.jpg

The three on the lower right are Camels, bit the other 2 dark ones should be Snipes:
http://firepigeon.smugmug.com/photos/247962051-M.jpg

Nexus Editrice indly gave a few prototypes for the event.

A couple of containers of them (and of Squadron Packs for WWII) left Asia in opposite directions. They should reach the warehouses of Nexus and FFG by the end of the month.

I can't wait too...

My report:
http://www.wingsofwar.it/read.asp?id=3105

I Invite everyone to go to http://leiriacon.blogspot.com/ to check out the oficial site of the LeiriCon and sign our guestbook.

Specially Andrea and Firepigeon...

I think I will go to Portugal next year. I enojoy a lot the country, the people and now I have another reason to go... thanks for the session report¡

And we would like to have more of you!!!

The ones who bravely fought:



To read it better, please go there:
http://www.abreojogo.com/fotos/2008/02/muito_obrigado?size=_...

Any chance of a copy of the same paper the players used.