So what was the biggest mistake you ever made at a "club" game?

[Harry Faversham]

A classic from the Emporium, me versing the Dynamic Dunderheads, way back in the day. We were using 'Old Skool' 30mm SSM in a big ACW game. Yankee Cavalry massed on my left, and I yawned at the sight, knowing once they'd dismounted my Veteran Reb Butternuts would shoot them to pieces. Only they didn't, they swept around my line and made a proper Cavalry charge, taking four or five of my Regiments in flank and routing them from the field... that day belonged to my two half witted opponents.
Since then, I've often wondered if any 'proper' Cavalry charges did take place in the real ACW?

[Antonio J Carrasco]

My worst, and one that still gives me nightmares, was in a Napoleonics game. One of the guys had brought a very nicely painted 1813 Prussian Army, with some extraordinarily painted landwehr lancers. In the middle of the game, I leaned over the table to measure the distance from my artillery against his lancers. I was using one of those GW tapes that retract into themselves when you free the button. Now, as you can imagine, I did that exactly and the tip caught in one of the bases... I tried to stop it, and the lances -very sharp wires, let me tell you- stabbed my palm. The sudden pain make me jerk my hand... with the base still stuck into it. Well, it flew a couple of meters, hit the stand of the Prussian CinC, which fell from the table; then, drops of blood spread all over the table... A complete disaster! I was so ashamed that almost couldn't stop the tears, and not precisely from pain. My mate understood it wasn't voluntary, but I couldn't bear the shame and a few months later I left the club.

Since, I always double check that the tape is firmly in place.

[warrenpeace]

I'm normally a cautious and methodical player. I'll have my guys charge when a good opportunity presents itself. But I'm not one to take unnecessary risks that promise only marginal returns.

One day we were playing an assault on the Schellenberg in Bavaria in 1704. I was playing the role of Marlborough, and I had tactically retained control of the attack on the hasty fortifications between Donauworth and the old walls on the Schellenberg. My artillery had given these weak defenses a battering. But when my infantry attacked, they were struggling against the Bavarians & French.

At this point our host egged me on to attach Marlborough himself to the assaulting infantry to give them a better chance to breach the Franco-Bavarian defenses. This was clearly against my inclinations and against my better judgment. But, what the heck? It's just a miniatures wargame, right? I sent Marlborough himself into the assault.

Of course, Marlborough received a wound so severe that he was out for the rest of the campaign season, and perhaps for years to come. No Blenheim! No Ramilles! King Louis XIV won the War of Spanish Succession right then and there!

P.S. Antonio, that is a truly horrible story. I hope you have a really good therapist!

[syrinx0]

stabbed my palm. The sudden pain make me jerk my hand... with the base still stuck into it. Well, it flew a couple of meters, hit the stand of the Prussian CinC, which fell from the table; then, drops of blood spread all over the table... A complete disaster!

A lot of my ancients have steel spears/lances. We have shed blood a few times over that.   I rather regret using the steel weapons at this point.

[Harry Faversham]

I rather regret using the steel weapons at this point.

I don't, they're excellent for making people appreciate the toys. A casual grope (ooh, err missus... ) followed by a squawk of surprised agony, usually results in the victim being very careful with the little blighters, from then on.

[warrenpeace]

I don't, they're excellent for making people appreciate the toys. A casual grope (ooh, err missus... ) followed by a squawk of surprised agony, usually results in the victim being very careful with the little blighters, from then on.

I bent over to take a close look at the paint job on a unit with some metal pikes once. Came within a few millimeters of doing my eye some damage. Duh! Friend of mine uses plastic for his spears and pikes now.

[Elbows]

While not a 'club' game, it's in a similar vein.

I wrote and sell an Old West game which I frequently run at conventions.  I showed up, set up my table, set out my mat...set out my town, shuffled my cards and...that was it.  What's missing?  Nothing much just...FRIGGIN' MINIATURES.  So, 5 hours away from home I'm sitting ready to host a non-existing game.  Luckily some buddies of mine who lived locally were able to source a random mix of cowboys, civil war miniatures and even some undead miniatures for me to salvage the game...

As my buddy succinctly put it, "That's a mistake you make once.".

[has.been]

Very similar Elbows.
Our Western game was in 54mm. All the components were divvied up between
several cars.  Rules, scenery, hand outs, Information board, all arrived. 
No sign of the club member with the figures. never mind we thought & proceeded
to carefully place the several tubs of sand & flock all around the town. We even
put on our cowboy stuff to complete the impact.
Lad eventually arrived, 15 minutes after Joe Public was in the hall...
He had forgotten the figures!!!!!
One table volunteer promptly donned one of our fake Mexican moustaches,
declared himself to be 'In disguise' & vanished into the crowd.
 

[syrinx0]

I don't, they're excellent for making people appreciate the toys. A casual grope (ooh, err missus... ) followed by a squawk of surprised agony, usually results in the victim being very careful with the little blighters, from then on.

To be honest it's usually me who impales his hand.  I do now worry about the eye issue as well at conventions. 

While not a 'club' game, it's in a similar vein.

I wrote and sell an Old West game which I frequently run at conventions.  I showed up, set up my table, set out my mat...set out my town, shuffled my cards and...that was it.  What's missing?  Nothing much just...FRIGGIN' MINIATURES.  So, 5 hours away from home I'm sitting ready to host a non-existing game.  Luckily some buddies of mine who lived locally were able to source a random mix of cowboys, civil war miniatures and even some undead miniatures for me to salvage the game...

As my buddy succinctly put it, "That's a mistake you make once.".

Last convention game I ran was at Adepticon.  I never realized how bad the hotel elevator service was on a Sunday morning due to people checking out. I was gaming early then went back to my room with about 45 minutes to spare to get all my stuff (which I thankfully brought).  Thirty five minutes later I was still waiting for an elevator I could get on (no open stairs available).  Had an epiphany and found a housekeeper.  Got her to call the bellboy who got me into the staff only freight elevator and walked me the back way to the hall (yup - he got a tip). Made the game and set up barely in time.  It was sparsely attended being a Sunday but still fun.

[Kitsune]

Assuming people wouldn’t turn up with tournament lists

[Pijlie]

I once hosted a demo at a convention and discovered I had forgotten my dice! Well, no problem of course. After all I was at a gaming con. I would just buy some.

It turned out not a single trader had thought to bring any.

Finally I scrounged some d6s off some boardgames, concerten my game from d10 to d6 and did my demo. Phew!

[armchairgeneral]

In my teens, when the world was young, we moved to a new area. I normally wargamed with my brother but as he was off to university I joined the local wargaming club. They had an Ancients competition ladder going using WRGs “sacred 6th” edition rules and lists. At the time the only periods I did were Napoleonic and Middle-Earth. Fortunately there was a set of Middle-Earth lists available called The Lidless Eye so I was kindly allowed to field an Elven army against other people’s historical armies.

To enable games to be completed in an evening, the maximum points allowed was set quite low so the name of the game was to get as many troops on on the table as possible for the lowest points cost. To try to emulate the superlative qualities of First Age elves, the lists gave superior attributes to elves over humans under the rules but at a consequent high points cost. Being a complete novice I couldn’t really bring these qualities to bear so I found myself with a small heroic army completely outnumbered.

I remember a particular game against a Khmer army which just seemed to be a wall of elephants that advanced and bulldozed me off the table. Eventually I wised up a bit and managed to cobble together a Norman army using my Gondor troops. Even then I remember facing a Sassanid Persian army that seemed to be entirely either half or full barded armoured cavalry double armed with kontos and bows. Anyone who survived the missile onslaught was soon despatched by these hordes of armoured cavalry.

I was never a fan of the “Sacred 6th” in any case, so I moved on to The Shock of Impact and much better rule sets since then.

[Elbows]

Assuming people wouldn’t turn up with tournament lists

"Oh, sweet summer child..."

[Jemima Fawr]

Not a club game, but at an early-90s Salute and along with two mates, I played the South London Warlords' 'UFO Interceptor' game.  This was based on the Gerry Anderson 'UFO' TV series and the objective was to intercept and destroy umpire-run incoming UFOs.  Any that got past us would then land on the neighbouring game and disgorge alien ground-troops for the assault on Earth. 

The three of us each took an interceptor and things started to go wrong on Turn 1, when two interceptors flew into each other, resulting in bad damage for both.  Missiles were launched at the UFOs.  These were on a pre-set time delay, so would fly for a set number of turns before exploding.  These completely missed the UFOs, but one interceptor took the blast from his wingman's missile, resulting in a fiery death!

Having escaped the barrage of missiles unscathed, the UFOs headed for Earth as the interceptors hit reheat to chase after them and close to engage with guns.  One interceptor overcooked its engine and flew straight into Earth's orbital defence platform, destroying it utterly...

The last interceptor closed to gun-range and completely missed the UFO, but succeeded in overshooting the target and burning up in the Earth's atmosphere...

On the next table, howls of dismay were heard as a massive wave of aliens landed and overwhelmed Earth's last defenders...

When the umpires had finished laughing they told us that it was the funniest display of air defence ineptitude they had ever witnessed and urged us not to join the RAF...  Well that was awkward, as our team consisted of a serving fast-jet pilot, fast-jet navigator and fighter controller...

[Coenus Scaldingus]

First encounter with a local group of players, in an area I recently moved into, was when I saw they were organizing a little tournament for a game I had greatly enjoyed playing for a long time - so I was glad to see there would be local opponents for it here too.

Although several people had travelled a bit to go there, my first game was against one of the locals. During the game, he insisted using some kind of house rule I was completely unfamiliar with, something that wasn't necessary to fix anything that was unclear in the rules, something I hadn't encountered in the past 10 years of playing that game with all manner of people. As it happens, something that negatively affected my army a lot more than it did his. The tournament organiser, another local, agreed with my opponent: after all "that's how we always play it". Clearly, my mistake was assuming people followed the rulebook, rather than use unnecessary house rules that were neither in the tournament pack nor communicated at the start of the game. 

That opponent ended up winning the tournament, I ended up never playing against those people again.