From: David Ferris Subject: CON: Fall In, Gettysburg PA "Whoever it was that said 'wargaming is dying' has obviously never been to a HMGS East convention." It was with a bit of trepidation I embarked on the long drive to Pennsylvania, land of my bir-- um... er... place where I lived a long time. Sure, I told myself, I was on my way to the first Fall In historical miniatures wargame convention for a few days' fun, but for some reason I was unnerved by the thought of driving through some of my old stomping grounds. As it turns out, my fears were warranted: in the three years since I had left Pennsylvania, the inhabitants had moved everything around and changed all the names as a practical joke. My enemies lurk behind every tree, I tell you. I had forgotten how many religious stations there are on the radio in Pennsylvania. I was feeling a bit vulnerable, so I had changed major religions three times by the time I got to the hotel. So there I was, praisin' Vishnu as I pulled into Gettysgrad, when I spotted that dead giveaway sign of an HMGS convention: a packed parking lot. I was very happy to find my room was just down the hall and around the corner from the gaming activities. That's what I like to see, easy access. Much of the gaming and the vendor room was in a "sports complex" sort of building a few hundred meters from the Eisenhower Inn itself, which I found a pleasant stroll even in the constant drizzle of a cold November weekend. Some complained about the split facilities, but I didn't mind. Being a good packrat, the first morning I went straight for the flea market, cleaned house, and whipped off to the vendor room. I picked up quite a few games at very good prices, including a number of titles that have recently gotten good write-ups here on Consim-L. Read 'em and weep, fellow grognards: RAF (West End, punched), World War 3 (SPI, designers edition!, unpunched), West Front Tank Leader (WEG, un), Midway (AH, p), Russian Campaign (AH, un), Marine: 2002 (Yaquinto, p, hi Kerry), General Quarters (C-in-C, WWI & WWII naval miniature rules), Trailblazer (Metagaming, still in shrinkwrap), Starleader: Assault (Metagaming, ditto the shrinkwrap thing), 1941 (GDW, p), Hundred Days Battle (AH, u), Little Round Top (AH, u), South Africa (SPI, u), S&T #48 Sixth Fleet (no game, but I already have it), Plot to Assassinate Hitler (SPI, no mag, u), S&T #77 Paratroop (no game, already have it boxed), S&T #71 Cassino (mag & game, u), S&T #67 Stonewall (mag & game, u), Monmouth (SPI, no mag, p), S&T #84 Operation Grenade (game & mag, u), Sicily (SPI, no mag, p), S&T #73 Panzer Battles (mag & game, u), S&T #65 Cobra (mag & game, u), S&T #74 Ney vs. Wellington (game & mag, p), Mech War 77 (SPI, u), and Dreadnought (SPI, p). Phew. I debated on whether or not I should post the prices I paid for these, but decided against it since I didn't want to listen to so many grown men cry simultaneously. Of course, I also picked up some miniature stuff too. I fleshed out my WWII 1:6000 scale naval collection almost completely, picking up the quite rare Soviet fleet pack and two of the new German WWII Z-plan packs in the process. All I need yet are 25 packs of escort carriers, 4 packs of Cleveland class CAs, and 60 packs of destroyers to have *everything* for WWII down to the destroyer level. (Yes, that includes all the Fletchers. Yes, I am insane.) Now I need to pick up more of the WWI fleet packs. I had a good chat with the gentleman at Emperor's Headquarters who liasons with the fellow who produces the 1:6000 ships. They are selling extremely well, and there's the possibility with enough encouragement we might see a new range of modern navals in the scale in the future. I also picked up a bunch of WWI aircraft stuff in 1:300 scale for the Hostile Aircraft rules, plus some Spitfires, Beaufighters, and a Lysander for the Irvanians in Generic Legions. (Couldn't find a Cessna 180, sorry.) Later, despite my best efforts, I actually got to play in a game. I ended up commanding a division of Confederates in Pickett's Charge. (I wanted to play that Marshall Grouchy guy, but they wouldn't let me. Humph.) It was a very fun game, although we all kinda suspected the homebrew rules we were using were not quite right when I managed to get a complete, intact brigade right up to the Union lines at the Bloody Angle, with an almost intact brigade right behind that, and another division of Rebs coming up close behind me. Meanwhile the division on my left flank had also made it up to the Yankee lines and was about to push through. Not quite historical methinks, but good fun. I was very happy to see lots of little kids playing games, all throughout the convention. In my Pickett's Charge game there were two young ladies, I'd guess perhaps age 9 or so. They were very well behaved, attentive, obviously were having a good time, and even played well. The homebrew game system used range estimation as part of the artillery system (!) and one of the little terrors kept correctly estimating the *exact* range to the oncoming Confederate troops, causing quite a few casualties on my right flank. The parents of both young ladies deserve credit for their excellent behaviour. There is hope for the future of wargaming, I say. For me, the highlight of the convention was not a game but a movie. A new feature for HMGS, Military Science Theatre 2000 featured a really bad 1948 serial set in WWII. (MST3K fans know what I'm talking about.) Good one, Crow! Summary: I had a great time. Highly recommended. _____________________________________________________________________ David Ferris Technical Account Manager dferris@research.att.com CGS Computer Associates/AT&T Labs Research Room B221, 973-360-8664 http://www.research.att.com/info/dferris From: "Walt O'Hara" Subject: Re: CON: Fall In, Gettysburg PA Dave Ferris sez: QUOTE>I was very happy to see lots of little kids playing games, all throughout the convention. In my Pickett's Charge game there were two young ladies, I'd guess perhaps age 9 or so. They were very well behaved, attentive, obviously were having a good time, and even played well. The homebrew game system used range estimation as part of the artillery system (!) and one of the little terrors kept correctly estimating the *exact* range to the oncoming Confederate troops, causing quite a few casualties on my right flank. The parents of both young ladies deserve credit for their excellent behaviour. There is hope for the future of wargaming, I say.< END QUOTE This was very heartening. I had a fair proportion of kids 10 and up in my HELL COMES TO COW TOWN (Friday night) and HELL COMES TO COW TOWN, TOO (Saturday Night) games; what they lacked in tactical and historical judgement, they made up for in sheer determination and creative mayhem potential. Aside from being interupting me (politely) fairly constantly ("Mr. Walt!, Mr. Walt!"), they behaved themselves, played nice and didn't run with sharp objects. Well, they played as nice as you can in a Western gunfight/donnybrook/brouhaha. I was planning a BIG DINO DUKE-A-ROO game for Fall-In as well as the Western thing; mostly because I thought the average kid would lose interest in a historical/semi-historical subject quickly. This was not the case! (I still will probably run the Big Dino game at CW or HIS one of these days; I've bought waaaaay too many garage sale dinosaurs to NOT do anything with them). In addition to my humble kid-friendly game, there were several events on the dance-card that were not just kid-*friendly*, but kid-*specific,* namely the "Alamo for Kids Only," Star Wars, and some of the pickup fantasy stuff. Very heartening indeed. OTOH, I personally saw at least two kids turned away from gaming tables just for being kids, and my wife consoled a moping kid at the pool who couldn't find an event to get into. Damn shame, she should have sent him my way. There's always room for another gunslinger! On my procurement list: FAR SEAS (The S&T game), RUSSO-TURKISH WAR (ditto), PANZERGRUPE GUDERIAN (AH- had to see what everyone was complimenting in John Kranz' first SPI Revival issue), DUNE (3 bucks!), An assortment of Mexican peasant, Gringo Gunfighters, and turn of the century Mexican and American (Villa era) soldiers, three Western/Spanish buildings from TCS (in 25mm), some cheap hills from the flea market (green and desert), 2 Musketeer figures for the Fencing game in the works, and an assortment of "cover game" issues of the General-- specifically for CIRCVS MAXIMUS, GLADIATOR, SL, COD, and 3R (I've been looking for those for a while). Oh yeah, I got some critters for my Wild West game, primer, glue and putty stuff from the Armory and Ral Partha. == Walt O'Hara ------------------------------------------------------------- Home Page- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1861 Tank Commander: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1861/tc.htm Fun and Games Page- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/1861/fag2.htm Totlly Shameless Page: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/1708 Email: Doktor_Rat@humanoid.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ________________________________________________________________ Sent by Yahoo! Mail. Get your free e-mail at http://mail.yahoo.com