From: "Louis R. Coatney" Subject: A new convert! CAPITAL CON debriefing. Before anything else, I think I should mention that CAPITAL CON ... at Springfield, IL ... may be the best little wargames convention going. It's held in Springfield's convention center, and space is no problem. Because I was running 3 events, I was charged no admission. And now ... Trying to get the 3 games' components together, I got to sleep at 3AM Saturday morning, to get up at 5:30 AM so I could leave at 6:30 AM for Springfield to be there by my 8:30 "1st Alamein" tournament's start-time. I woke up at 6:49 ... having apparently silenced my alarm ... and jumped through myself to be on the road by 7:00! Throwing (almost) everything (necessary) into the car, I howled down the highway at top speed ... 55, for *my* car and arrived at 8:45 (?) ... only to find out that hardly anyone was there so early and that noone had signed up for the tournament, anyway. SO I just set up a BIG-size copy of 1st Alamein and started finishing preparations for The Battle of the Malayan Shore to start at 1 ... and SKY, SEA, AND JUNGLE ... to be at 5:30. A number of people stopped by, and wanted my webpage address. Finally, Mike M. from Peoria ... who said he was a Dungeons & Dragons player and had never really tried a *war*game before but didn't have anything *else* to do ... and who seemed fascinated by the big map and pieces ... asked to play a 1-hour game. Since he *was* a complete beginner ... who had little idea of how a combat results table worked ... and had no experience with combat and movement factors ... I let him take the Axis and have the Luftwaffe Afrika from the start of the game. His first turn was total confusion, but he started picking up the time-space idea and taking to the hexagons and "zones of control." About the 3rd turn, he really got aggressive ... and hit my 18th Indian Brigade down on the Tagil ... while assaulting the New Zealanders in their Deir El Shein box in the center. With 90th Light and an Italian infantry division, he blasted the 18th down onto the desert floor ... and "spent" the New Zealanders in their box. (At about this time he admitted he usually *did* have incredibly good dice luck. :-I ) With his excitement, others started looking on and even a few of the "Magic" drones, across the aisle, started looking over to see what was happening. The next turn, Mike annihilated the 18th while beating on my armor ... and then he *took* Deir El Shein. (Hmm ... I just remembered: I should have been given a "No Retreat!" order, there! :-{ ) ... and the Desert Air Force *had* been active ... hammering/dispersing his best Italian and German units ... until he started dispersing them whenever possible. Anyway, he then beat my armor back, past the El Alamein Box's southern flank, and made a "surrounded" attack ... risking his 4-4 (15. Pzdiv) ... recklessly. He TOOK it! Even with 2nd Armoured Brigade, I couldn't retake El Alamein, and Mike beamingly won a *6th turn* "sudden death" victory! I gave him a tournament certificate ... he *had* bested the DESIGNER, after all! ... and told him he could put it on his wall ... use it for desert tan toiletpaper ... whatever. He wanted my e-mail address so he could print off his own copy of the game -- and he strode off, the conqueror of North Africa. I *think* I made a boardgame convert. The 1:700 Battle for the Malayan Shore went off well ... although we found some thumbtacks on the rug before starting the game which had been billed as a "down on the floor in your stocking feet" event ... and although I had forgotten my 1:700 HMAS PERTH ... along with the rest of my cardstock fleet ... back in Macomb, in my early morning rush. There were 4 other guys and myself. One of them, John L. (from the Springfield area), was disappointed his son couldn't be there, as he/they had been, last year. John took HARUNA (leading) and KONGO. Joe McS. took 2 Japanese destroyers, and Brent McC. talked me into letting him have ATAGO and TAKAO. Winston M. took HOOD and PRINCE OF WALES ... which might have been better christened the PRINCE OF WAILS, the way we were howling about being out-gunned. I took the destroyers: ELECTRA, EXPRESS, JUPITER, VAMPIRE, and TENEDOS in that order. Joe has sort of a halting way about him, and I could tell that his two friends were looking out for him. Joe was nonetheless undeterred, and sailed his two destroyers head-on toward HOOD and POW, who blazed away at him with main and then secondary batteries as he came on, as did my destroyers. Nothing could stop him, and he cut loose with continuous 2x2 salvoes of 24" torpedoes. Fortunately, our ships were heading toward *him*, as well, and despite statistical inevitability, he scored only two hits: sinking VAMPIRE outright, and crippling JUPITER. (HOOD and POW were usually gone, by the time the 2-turn-running Japanese torpedoes got to where Joe thought they would be.) TENEDOS became damaged, somehow, and quickly fell astern. Meanwhile ... back at the ranch ... Winston had decided to head East to the open sea ... (toward the wall, actually, but we were prepared to "scroll everything back" ... ) leaving Brent's heavy cruisers in the rear. Thus, after dispensing with Joe's destroyers, HOOD and POW were dueling with HARUNA and KONGO, while my destroyers bore in to deliver torpedoes. Just as I was closing with the Japanese battleline, two things happened: 1. A crashing salvo from a damaged POW blew up HARUNA, and 2. A long-range torpedo salvo from ATAGO caught JUPITER ... which had *repaired* its damage and had had its formidable torpedo battery resuscitated ... broadside and sank her -- bam! ... and so my two *leading* destroyers ... having fired off their torpedoes ... turned east to exit, stage right. Although one of my torpedo salvoes had bracketed POW, I hadn't sunk or damaged any friendly ships, in this game. I had to leave to check on something at the desk. (I also dropped by the dealers and found some fellow all but giving away 1:1200 ships! I picked up my second 1:1250 Delphin/Hansa RICHELIEU for $15.00 !! ... although I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with her. :-) Better than playing the slots, I suppose.) When I got back, HOOD had heavily damaged ATAGO, and POW had heavily damaged KONGO ... and the guys had decided to call it an afternoon. In the evening, I saw the 3 musketeers in (St. Louis gamer) Ray Runge's "Harpoon" game. I immediately went to my designated table to start the SKY, SEA, AND JUNGLE tournament. Noone was there, although Warren Burrus ... the grand and good man of Mississippi Valley wargaming ... said the fellows signed up for the tournament included him and set about rounding them up. By this time, I was exhausted, but still keen to see what some gamers thought of SS&J. I had all 4 players for my demo/tournament and quickly found that trying to teach a new game system to 4 other tired gamers in a noisy gaming hall is a bit much. Even the setup became exhausting. Nonetheless, we started off, at about 6:30, and they took right to the factorless naval combat system. These guys are from Quincy, Illinois, and QUINCY/VINCENNES immediately became a top priority target. Although we only got through 2 turns in about an hour, they seemed to have a good time. Steve ... Warren's "Allied" opponent ... did have some of the worst die-rolling I have ever seen: something like 15 straight 1s and 2s. Warren's KIRISHIMA sailed unscathed through the carnage ... until Steve brought in another task force which finally finished even her with full salvoes. (Steve later counted up the victory points and found that he had won, after all. They had had some *bloody* carrier battles.) The other Japanese player lost EVERYTHING he had (up to that point) on the second turn and capitulated. In both games, there were daytime surface engagements, the players were so eager to go to cutlasses. I got some very insistent ... almost unnervingly so ... inquiries about how soon the game will be published -- this week, actually -- from some of the bystanders. Warren and Steve decided to pack it in, too, so after picking up, I was out of there and headed back at about 8:30, getting back to Macomb with enough time to rent Michael Douglas's masterpiece, "The Ghost and the Darkness." ... and I will never treat even housecats with contempt, ever again. Lou Coatney, mslrc@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu