Once again my boys and I headed down to Williamsburg Muster for a weekend of gaming, eating and general guy bonding time. After a year hiatus from the old Clarion in 2025 the convention returned to the same site, albeit now branded as a Wyndham. We left early enough to make a few stops on the way down before getting an early dinner so we could make the evening game slot.
After picking the boys up early from school our first stop was at Paul’s Bakery for an afternoon snack. This is a traditional stop for us whenever we leave early enough to make their 2:00pm closing time! This picture really brought home the importance of taking the time to include the kids in the things I like to do. I’ve recently been transferring my old posts on the HMGS site to this blog and found a picture of us after making this stop on our first trip to Muster in 2019, and boy have they grown! I first took them and they were in Elementary School and here they are in the last year of Middle School. I’m not crying, you’re crying! After our snack we stopped in at Your Hobby Place in Fredericksburg before getting on the road again.
Anyway, we made it down to the convention and checked in to our hotel rooms. Yes, I said rooms, this is the first year I got them their own room as they are now to big to share a bed! Yes, now that I’m thinking of the extra cost I am indeed about to cry! It was worth it though as they got plenty of sleep and were bright eyed and bushy tailed the whole time! We looked at a few games and then went to dinner.
This year I was able to get reservations at The Amber Ox after having not acted quickly enough last year when the first night of the show was on Valentines Day. This is another place we always go when we are in town and the food never ceases to disappoint. The boys talk about this biscuit board whenever we bring up Muster!
After dinner we checked out a few games. One of the boys and I decided to play in a game of Kill Team while the other played a game using the 40k rules set in the Star Wars Universe. I’ve always wanted to play in that Ewok game, he said it was as fun as it looked! He said he managed to get his Stormtroopers back to base and he won the game, while we were able to escort almost all the civilians with the lose of only a few guardsmen in our game of Kill Team!
We weren’t going to divert from our standard Saturday morning breakfast fare so of course we went to the aptly named Southern Pancake and Waffle House. This year all three of us got Chicken and Waffles, although one of the boys had his chicken in tender form. He got a bit of ribbing from the rest of us, but they were actually quite good!
For the Saturday morning game one of the boys and I played This Quar’s War (sixth picture in the series) and he absolutely destroyed me! He quickly eliminated my teammates light tanks before taking me in an enfilading fire as I was pinned down by his teammate. It was a good looking game for sure! Meanwhile my other son played Blood and Plunder (second picture) and he managed to get his whole force of pirates wiped out! Oh well, there are more where they came from!
After the morning game we had plenty of time before the afternoon games started so we grabbed my buddy and went to the Copper Fox Distillery for a round of cocktails and mocktails and a game of King of Tokyo. They have a selection of board games but we had more fun with this easy to play classic!
As a group we all found a homebrew sci-fi game to play (third picture). It was a fun pulp style game which we decided to call a draw despite my teams faction having more of the objectives than the other side. We could have launched an all out assault to determine the actual winner but we were ready as a group to call it!
We had planned on not doing any of the evening games and going out for dinner with a friend but my boys decided they would rather play in one of the games instead. We had just enough time to run out to Cooks Burger Bar for a quick dinner before heading back.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of cancellations Saturday evening, including the game we wanted to play in. It was disappointing but fortunately a hero of gaming offered to set up him always amazing arena for the classically named Arena Games. It was a close fought game with eight gladiators. Unfortunately my gladiator was unable to hold on as he fought against my son as the last men standing and his rolls were just dramatically better at the end. I fell in battle and he got his name on the Arena wall! Everyone had a great time and I put the boys to work carrying the arena in and out of the venue so the GM didn’t have to put an extra work in other than trying to keep us in line!
After the game we turned in for the night to wake up early for breakfast, the flea market, and a early drive north as the boys had practice to get to! We hit up Astronomical Pancake House where they certainly don’t exaggerate the size of the pancakes! I like this place, but I prefer Southern Pancake and Waffle House by far. I did just realize the boys pancake had powdered sugar on it. I think the first time he had powdered sugar on a pancake was at Southern Pancake and Waffle House when he was 9 and there may have been some tears…. Not so much this time!
The flea market was well attended and I managed to find some bargains in those grey bins in the center of the picture.
The big box of 40k and such is for a friend, and the half tracks are for another buddy but don’t worry, I found some things for me too! I’m slowly making my way to a 2nd Edition Chaos army after a few finds at Muster!
We made terrific time and the boys made it in time for practice. They toughed it out through the cold and rain before we went home. We were all exhausted but once again Muster lived up to our expectations and then some!
I’ve said it more than once that Williamsburg Muster is probably my favorite convention, in no small part to how friendly everyone is and how great it has been to attend with my boys. Perhaps the only real negative over the years has been the awful condition of the hotel. I can happily say that is no longer an issue. The new owners have done significant renovations and the hotel is in much better shape. It no longer smells bad or feel dirty. We had one of our rooms on the first floor, and one on the third. The third floor room felt much more modern with USB and 3-Prong plugs in the walls, a smart mirror in the bathroom, and a new TV, while the first floor room didn’t have those features but was obviously updated with new flooring and paint. Either room was a huge improvement, but I heard of other minor fixes needed in other peoples rooms as well. It remind me of when Wyndham started working on upgrading the Host. It was better in year one and finished in year two, but either way was heads and shoulders above the old conditions.
I like the charm of the no pre-registration for games but I spoke to a few people who wish there was some way to sign up, whether through software such as Tabletop Events, or just a shared Google Drive of some sort. This would make knowing what game you were going to get to play easier but I’ve generally had enough luck getting in some games I wanted and I like being able to walk up see the game and make my decision. It would be nice to have something like Tabletop Events so you a GM could tell you if the game you wanted was going to be cancelled. Saturday night there were at least four games that were cancelled and we had no way of knowing it. We cancelled dinner plans based on getting in a specific game and when that was cancelled we got lucky we were able to find someone willing to run a game. Another slight inconvenience is that sometimes GM’s start their games early. Saturday afternoon we were back around 1:30 and games were scheduled to start at 2:00. Almost all of the games in the main room had already started and appeared to have been going on for at least thirty minutes. I completely understand this as if the GM’s are ready to go and have enough players they might as well get going but it led to some disappointment for the boys. I guess it’s just a risk you take leaving the building!
The above are just minor observations and I really can’t stress enough what a wonderful convention this is and how much I appreciate the work the members of ODMS put on running this show every year. I’m sure they were more than relieved at not having to find an alternate venue at the last possible minute like they did last year! We will definitely be back next year and look forward to hanging out with everyone again.
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 