GAMEX 11 Report

Over the Memorial Day Weekend (24-27 May 1996), the GAMEX 11 game
convention was held at the LAX (Airport) Wyndham Hotel.  GAMEX is
generally the smallest of the three Los Angeles cons (others are
ORCCON and GATEWAY). Nevertheless, some folks told me that attendance
was up slightly overall.

Organizers made a controversial decision to move open gaming from the
Ballroom area (on the main floor) to the Penthouse.  Card games took
over the Ballroom.  My impression is that wargaming at the con seems
to have stabilized.  I didn't notice any significant growth or
shrinkage.  Of the usual suspects, I saw: Alan Emrich, Gene
Billingsly, Joe Youst, Tony Zalewski, Chris Cummings.

On Friday evening, I got sucked into the "We the People" tournament by
the tournament director.  I finally got to experience what everyone
has been raving about.  It's a fun, simple, fast game.  I guess it's
time to pull my copy out of the pile and punch the counters out.

On Saturday morning, I talked to Gene Billingsly over at the GMT
booth.  C3I #6 has gone out (mine showed up in Saturday mail).
"Samurai" was not out yet, though the tantalizing box was on display.
The "SPQR Player's Guide" is getting some more material.  The next few
games out will be Berg's "Battle for North Africa" (simple like Glory)
and a Saratoga game.  "Barabarossa: The Southern Front" by Vance von
Borries is the next game in the "Typhoon" series.  This one will
expand the area covered in (3W) "Blitzkrieg in the South" out to
Rostov.  Various other projects are also going on.  Gene also said
that the Ritchie's Leningrad game (using the Lost Victory system) will
end that series.  A lot of Gene's time has gone into dealing with
family illness and running computer projects, so he is turning over
C3I duties to Rodger MacGowan.

Late Saturday morning, Joe Youst started a "Spires of the Kremlin"
game.  We played the 3-map 15 Nov 41 scenario (There Will Not Be
Another Marne!).  We had three players on each side, including some
who had never played before.  Each Soviet player took a Front,
including CONSIM member Danny Holte.  Each German player took an
Army/Panzer Group pair.  I got the 4th Army/4th Panzer Group which was
in the center.  We played until midnight and continued on Sunday,
eventually stopping in the afternoon.

The scenario starts with Frost (previously mud) allowing the panzers
to do their thing.  Then, snow and stiffer Soviet resistance came
along to slow things down.  Trow (commanding German 2A/2PG in the
south) did a mini double pincer on Tula and Sepukhov (with a side trip
to Kashira), getting futher than Guderian did historically.  John
Spaulding (9A/9PG) cleared out the area from Kalinin and the Volga
Reservoir down to the Istra Reservoir.  I did my best to grind the
Soviets away just north of the Vyazma-Moscow highway with another
thrust from the Naro-Fominsk area towards Podolysk.  We never did
breach the Moscow-Volga canal, but the Germans did end up adjacent to
Moscow, when we stopped.

Danny, Joe and the other Soviet player (forgot his name) put up a
tenacious defense.  German lines and supply were streched to the
limit.  The attrition in German mobile and specialist troops was
terrible.  The Moscow area was defended by walls of tall stacks.  They
also would laugh evilly about their massive secret army being built up
in the hidden Stavka reserve!  Also, Don Miller came by to watch the
game and discuss the campaign.

All in all, a great intense game.  We spent a lot of time talking
about the system and other random subjects.  Also, Danny told us all
we needed to know about the Dodgers :-).  Joe says the next one out
will be "Baltic Storm" from Spearhead.  Spearhead is apparently going
to give the series the kind of development it needs, rather than the
bad job that 3W did.  Next con, we might do a 3-map 30 Sep 41
scenario.

On Sunday afternoon, I tried (GMT) "Glory" with Joe, Danny and Chris
White.  We played the Chickamauga scenario.  What a chaotic swirling
battle!  Some strange things happened in this fun game, which provoked
a discussion about how we could fix the system.  The need for sleep
forced me to leave at midnight.  The others apparently went on to 4AM.

Monday was the auction.  Prices seemed to be up somewhat, though,
bargains were still common.  I did pretty well, myself, netting about
$90 in sales.  Despite staying up until 4AM, Danny, in his usual
style, carted away a ton of games.

-ted

Ted Kim                     Email: tek@ficus.cs.ucla.edu
UCLA Computer Science Dept. http://ficus-www.cs.ucla.edu/ficus-members/tek/
3564F Boelter Hall          Phone: (310) 825-7307
Los Angeles, CA 90095       FAX:   (310) 825-2273