Last year Simmerhammer´s made a plan to invite the Perry twins. He pushed me to write an invitation in English and so I wrote an email telling about Kauzenburg and our convention. We were very happy when Alan agreed to come and looked forward to visit Germany. Alan and Michael suggested to sculpt some hours and answer questions during the event.

No sooner said than done, we picked up Minni, Ninya, Michael and Alan at Frankfurt airport and one day later they joined us in the old walls of the castle ruin. We were very happy to see how open hearted and interested they were and I think they had a really good time on the continent.

What you should know on Ninya is, that she is tailoring Tudor clothes. You should visit her site, there you can see her and Michael wearing very nice clothes:  www.tudortailor.com

Alan and Michael sculpted for several hours on both days. They presented the famous ANZAC troops they did for Peter Jackson. Those models represent New Zealanders and Australians during World War I. Moreover they gave us a sneak peak on the brandnew rangers of Arnor and the new Troll.

Since both are true wargamers they did not just watch the games they played as well. Both were very pleased with the gaming tables of Frank Becker and Frank Bauer and they both played an each table.

During Saturday night, after Alan went in bed because of a cold, Michel was dubbed to knight. Before the ceremony he had to proofe his knightish skills. First of all he had to sing a song, which he really managed wonderful. The lord of castle accompanied Michael on the lute. After that Michael had to hold an two or maybe a three handed swort with his outstretched arm as long as he could do so. He managed incredible 10 seconds and was therefore dubbed to Ritter Michael.

Entering the arched cellar one could first see an Osgiliath gaming table designed by Ninjameister. The ruined city was really very attractive and many gamers decided to fight on that table. Next to the new table there was the Osgiliath table of Sir Michael which was for sure an inspiration for the fellow one. 

Once again it was great to watch those enthusiasts during the biggest german gaming event. Currently we are organising two events a year, one community convention and one tournament. Kauzenburg convention sees no tournament in order to focus on chatting and gaming. This year we had visitors from UK, the Netherlands, Austria. Thanks for travelling so far guys!

The forum moderators from www.herr-der-ringe-tabletop.de/forum/

and their pirate comrades Sör Lanselot, Azgul und Rusus presented their new Lord of the Rings expansion "Treasure Island" ond Rusus´ caribbean gaming table. Dahark wrote those pirate rules with help of Azgul und Glorfunzel. Treasure Island is mainly a fun game and meant to game like in one of these beautiful old pirate movies. Moreover in the future there will be undead pirates and natives as well. 

Rusus and Thomarillion presented both their upcoming projects. Rusus made buildings in colonial style, and Thomarillion currently designs a wrecked ship which will have miniatures designed by Tombadil as well, like the dwarfen tavern.

In the future there will be a downloadable ruleset for Pirates and we hope that there will be more pirates at Kauzenburg next year. You can play Treasure island with just a couple of models like Legends of the old West. It is perfect for short fun games and this web site will soon have a section for that game.

The hosts of the  Hamburgian Tactica Frank Bauer and Frank Becker showed two beautiful gaming tables. One table showed an pirate raid by  Klaus Störtebecker and Gödecke Michels, two famous german pirates, on an village of the Hanseatic league. The other showed a scene during the french indian war near to an woodland indian village. The miniatures contained 3 Mohikans, some british soldiers and two ladies attecked by woodland indians...

Those two historic tables were really an eye-catcher and it made fun to watch games on that tables. The Hamburgians made great test games with the visitors and they were pleased that the Perry twins played on those two tables. The FIW table was populated with Perry miniatures.

On the american gaming table the ruleset of "This very Ground" by Iron Ivan Games  http://www.ironivangames.com/quartermaster.html were uses. On the hanseatic table Frank Bauer presented his own ruleset. His moral system was praised by all gamers who tested it. Every unit had to roll higher than a fixed moral value, every miniature had one die to be added to the result. Therefore it is getting harder to stand fast with a few miniatures.

Kauzenburg convention was the first public event to see the new Rebellion miniatures and the rule system by Ebob in action. After a few games Glorfunzel, Asuryan and Tankred were addicted to the system. Ebob designed the rules for the rebellion of William Wallace but I am sure that the system will fit for many historical and even Lord of the Rings battles.

The first draft of the ruleset is a really smart and new system which  shows a part of a big battle or a small skirmish. Completly new are the concepts for movement. Every leader has his own priority die. The movement depends on commanders not on players. 

Moreover the movement rate of unarmored infantry is 4 inches, armed infantry moves only 3 inches. Therfore tricky maneuvres like the "journey through the control zone" in LotR are impossible. If a commander calls out  a charge  his troops may move with double movementrate in direct line towards the enemy. Then they get some bonus for the charge during the fight.

The fights are resolved with a simple but smart system. The losing side may wound too, if one die was higher than one of the attacker´s. This system proofed to be very comfortable and quick during all test games.

Ebobs rules make the battlefield really look like a medival battle ground. The troups are following their leader and their colors, different knights support each other and try to charge the enemy. I really hope that these rules will succed!