From: "John F. Kranz" Subject: Back from ORIGINS Just got back from "The Show". Overall, I'd give it a "B". Here is what stood out in my mind. Organization of show seemed good, although some final scheduling changes never made it in the Origins on-site booklet as should have occurred. Best part was the open-gaming areas specifically for GMT, The Gamers, and MiH. A lot of historical gaming going on that didn't get drowned out by fantasy/role-playing/card-gaming. The main exhibit hall had an open gaming area which also had quite a bit of boardgame tournaments going on. Overall, the general atmosphere was very nice and I didn't feel like we were being overrun by WotC/Magic as was the case in San Jose. All the game companies experienced solid sales with many new releases, especially compared to last year in San Jose (some companies surpassed their total sales in San Jose in only the first 4 hours of the show!). Strongest at the show were GMT and The Gamers. All other companies did equally well also (just had fewer products up for grabs). One point: the show opened Thursday for several hours and was open only to "the media". This was a total waste of time and the place was empty. New releases (I'll do my best to name them all). The Gamers: Tunisia & Black Wednesday (the artwork for upcoming Marengo looks great) GMT: Typhoon! and Eighth Air Force. ...both The Gamers and GMT had terrific $$$ sales at the show... AH: Berg's Geronimo game is out and looks great DG: Some basic move-fight quad stuff (yawn) that seemed to sell pretty good Spearhead: Bloodiest Day (very nice looking product but overpriced in terms of components - $35 for one map and 150+ counters compared to $32 for The Gamers Tunisia game w/ countertray!). This game will probably be worth the $35 if the system plays well, however. Vanore seemed more busy indirectly slamming Kevin Zucker for lousy graphics work in Bodyguard than focusing on his new release. Avalanche: Red Parachutes looks great, and some other Finnish game that had a disco-type map that will surely be the talk of the future (pretty scary). Their SS Goeben game has some great looking counters as well (not released yet). GamesUSA: Friedland (I tried and hated Borodino, so I had to pass on this one) MiH: Piercing the Reich. PacRim: That Korea game - whatever it is called. The Charles S. Roberts Award Winners were: Waterloo (GMT), Enemy at the Gates (The Gamers), Waterloo for Graphics, Command magazine, and Paper Wars. Dean Essig got the designer/playability award. The awards ceremony were very poorly attended because the program never mentioned the CSR Awards...I think that 30-40 more people would have shown up since attendance at company-run seminars was from 20-40+. Unfortunately, alot of categories went without a nomination due to lack of votes. Overall feel: East coast is the way to go with Origins. I would prefer seeing Origins join with Historical Miniatures Gaming (Historicon), but I know this will never come to pass. The smaller companies were complaining that distributors aren't taking notice to either carry their product or notify stores of new products because they are so strapped into Wizards of the Coast. Problem in trying to address this problem is that most game shops wouldn't want to work with a wargame-only distributor since they already rely on 2 or 3 big distributors for everything else. Consensus: Direct Sales is becoming more and more important and if the smaller companies don't do well at this, they may be out of business in the short term (or get one title out every year or so)!!! I expect direct marketing to increase by all boardgame manufacturers in the future as problems with the distribution channel persist (GMT is already taking steps to do this with their new pre-sales marketing program which appears to be working nicely). Best promo at the show: Winner is GMT with their get a free t-shirt for $100 or more purchase. Since two games could take you to the $60-$70 mark, many were grabbing up additional titles for the nice looking shirts that would sell separately for $15. Great idea! Berg got Dean Essig's blood boiling on why not include a ZOC-trigger option in the OCS system (i.e. basically a reaction die-roll against action rating so Mobile units in Reserve can stop a unit moving past it). I like this idea but Dean hates it with a passion - probably because he knows Richard didn't play Tunisia or did for only 5 minutes at most. Expect some coverage of this on this Consim-L later or in the next Operations magazine (R.Berg promised to write the optional rules for this mechanic). Of course the big news was that Avalon Hill was up for sale. No one really seemed to care except Mark Simonitch and Ben Knight, however. From: Pete McCarthy Subject: Re: Back from ORIGINS > The main exhibit hall had an open gaming > area which also had quite a bit of boardgame tournaments going on. Overall, > the general atmosphere was very nice and I didn't feel like we were being > overrun by WotC/Magic as was the case in San Jose. I agree with this all the card players were upstairs in their own room. I wandered by there once and it was organized chaos. > New releases (I'll do my best to name them all). *snip* COA: I did see La Bataille de Corunna-Espagnol for the first time. Since I'm into La Bat, I'll be picking up that one. Even more interesting, was the conversation we had with Ed Wimble on the fourth edition La Bat rule changes (available in the winter). I think La Bat will get much better. I also got a preview of the Pacific expansion to the Fighting Wings series (Over the Reich and Achtung! Spitfire) from J.D Webster (the designer). Cheers, Peter McCarthy From: Christopher Weuve Subject: Origins and ConsimL. > The auction staff generally ran a good show (though the auction was > a looong way in the convention center from the wargame rooms, and the > line behind the cashiers stacked up on occasion). In particular, > our group thought Neil Schlaffer (the game designer) and Daniel > Barnett (Northern Virginia card dealer maven) did great jobs and had > a consistently cheerful attitude throughout. Take a bow, guys, if you > are on-line. Neil is not on ConsimL, but I did give him my card and suggest he email me for subscription information. I did the same with Major Matt Caffrey (USAF), LCDR Dan McDonagh (USN, Retired), CDR Mark McDonagh (USN Reserves), Vance von Borries (Typhoon!), and Bill Gibbs (Carrier War). By the way, I had some very pleasant conversations with the above, and with Perry Andrus, Richard Berg, Gene Billingsley, Ty Bomba, Mark Herman, Mike Stackpole, and Peter Perla. To those of you on ConsimL, thanks for the time on what was clearly a busy weekend for you. I also got to speak briefly with Ferns (Dave Ferris) and Karl Moens, and just missed Walt O'Hara. Next time we need to be better organized. Finally, if Ty's new marketing plans work out and Command becomes very, very successful, do NOT sit in the front row of the XTR seminar. ;-) Christopher Weuve [caw@intercon.com] From: Christopher Weuve Subject: Apologies to Major H! Egad, I forgot to mention Major Holdridge! I spent about 15 minutes at the Arsenal Publishing area speaking to Major H. and the Arsenal folks. There are some neat things in the works, so it sounds like I need to get myself a better Mac at home. Thanks for the time! Christopher Weuve [caw@intercon.com] From: "David L. Ferris" Subject: Origins Report Summary: I had a good time. Extended version: Driving to, in, and from Philly was miserable. Parking was a way too expensive. The rest of it was wonderful. >From the viewpoint of a person who was there mainly to run a couple of game events, the convention was very well organized. Contrary to the usual situation at Historicon and Cold Wars, someone had thoughtfully run a heavy-duty power chord out to my table (in the middle of the big exhibit hall) and secured it with safety tape along the floor. Also contrary to Historicon/Cold Wars, they didn't schedule someone else to be using the table at the same time I was supposed to be using it. In fact, my little area was clear all day, which was really nice because it allowed me to plunk down my gear in the morning and leave it there until I left at midnight. There was quite a lot of card-gaming going on, but most of it was off in side rooms, which I didn't have time to explore. There were also lots of role-playing games going on in booths along one edge of the wall of the huge exhibit room. Perhaps half the room was taken up by the vendor area, most of the rest was occupied by miniatures gaming and board gaming. To my pleasant surprise, a good lot of it was historical gaming (both minis and board) so there was lots to see and do for the average Consimmite. Both my games went well. The British won at Jutland due to some good shooting and good use of formations, although all the players did well. I was surprised to find that over half the people who signed up for SB3 already owned the game, and the rest were in the process of trying to find a copy. (Unfortunately the Armory, who normally carries SB3, thought only to bring card- and dice- type stuff to stock at the con. GHQ wasn't there at all, probably saving their energy for Historicon this coming weekend.) Generic Legions was a riot as usual, with the Irvanians winning this time. Diplomacy was the key yet again; at one point, I suspected that all the players were secretly allied with each other. That lasted about half a turn. Frequent passers-by, who were obviously familiar with "epic" scale sci fi miniatures games, were amazed at how fast the game was moving considering how many units were on the board. ("This is a pretty big game," said one fellow. "Um, no, for GL this is a small game." sez I. "This is a *small* game?!" sez he. "Yup," sez I, "only about 120 units." He thinks for a bit and sez, "If this is a small game, what's a *big* game?" "Oh," sez I, "about four or five times this size." He walks away, shaking his head.) The best part of the con was meeting all the people and running into a few names I recognized from the Consim-L list and the ArmourSoft mailing list. Harold Coyle (techno-thriller author) stopped to chat about Shipbase III for a few minutes and Larry Bond (designer of Harpoon and Command at Sea) wandered by to watch Jutland for a few minutes. Pat Condray (president of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society and former official HMGS curmudgeon) drifted by to scowl at Generic Legions. I finally got to meet Chris Weuve from this list, although unfortunately I was in the middle of running a game at the time and couldn't chat much (sorry, Chris). I saw Major H go by several times but didn't get a chance to chat with him as he was busy running TacOps demos. The most gratifying moment of the con happened when I was setting up the terrain in preparation for the Generic Legions game. A fellow wandered by and asked if I had any literature on GL. I told him that it was still in the prototype stage and I didn't have any of the game material down on paper yet, but I showed him the notes and background material I wrote up for the playtesters. He sat there for the better part of twenty minutes, laughing hysterically. People walking by wondered why this fellow was cracking up, just reading from a blue binder. The sad part is, probably the only other people who will see those notes (at least in that form) are Brian McCue and his game group. At any rate, I had a great time. I highly recommend Origins to Consimmers, cost of the food notwithstanding. I'll most likely be there next year. Pittsburgh, is it? ferns1@aol.com David "Ferns" Ferris From: OHara Walter Subject: What I did at my ORIGINS Summer Vacation I would have sent this earlier but had to travel down to Va Beach on a work-related junket at CINCLANTFLT. I have to agree with Dave Ferris about the drive and the parking situation in Philly. It was so dang hot we just didn't want to go outdoors to do anything. A walk down 2 city blocks was enough to make me drenched. This was okay by me but my long-suffering wife and daughter *had* to go hang out at the pool (and therefore, go on a major shopping spree to buy bathing suits, oy!). Overall, ORIGINS was pretty good. I thought the Andon people went to unusual lengths to represent all facets of the gaming hobby, with perhaps more of a nod towards collectible card games (is that a surprise to anyone?). There was a ton of collectible card gaming/trading going on, with little knots of esoterically dressed youths (and elders) sprawled on the floor in the corners. Personally, it didn't bother me in the slightest. I was amused when at 1:00 AM Saturday night, I was accosted by a few pimply youths who seemed desperate to have a fourth hand for a group MTG game. They were incredulous when I told them that I'm a wargamer... Computer games were well represented at ORIGINS. I now have a serious jones to pickup TalonSoft's BATTLEGROUND:ARDENNES published by Jim Rose (late of Avalon Hill's software division and the guy responsible for the extreme QA approach that company is taking towards Computer Third Reich). B:A looks excellent and the AI seems decent from what I could determine in my limited exposure. SSI was demonstrating their new STEEL PANTHERS product-- it really looks wonderful but it was too dang fast on the Pentium. I wish they had had more than one rep at their booth-- the guy they had was too busy to talk to me about it. I asked for the release date and they said September, possibly October. What a tease. Of course, I did not pass up an opportunity to check out Major H.'s brand new PANZERS EAST. PE plays like TACOPS but the game has been changed to reflect the WWII technology and also to add a better contour map system. Shooting on the move is impossible, the tanks move slower, and moving in the woods is near impossible for anything but infantry. I got waxed pretty quickly in a head to head game- dug in units are pretty powerful. All in all, a very impressive programming job from Major H. When queried about the Windows version of TACOPS *and* PE, Jim and the Major said "soon, very soon." Talk about teases. In the board game dept., I was favorably impressed with GMT's TYPHOON (i.e., SPIRES OF THE KREMLIN, GMT style). Bazillions of counters and a pretty neat step-loss system. GMT was showing off their new 8TH AIR FORCE game and taking pre-orders for the Gettysburg game. And of course, given the ancients focus of that company, the GBoH series was being pimped full force. The Gamers really did it right, IMHO. In conjunction with Moments in History (Ulrich Blenemen's company), they had rented out a meeting room and were setting up everything they make (more or less), and had lots of staff on hand to show off their stuff. I didn't get a chance to play GD'40 with Perry, but I did kibitz while he played April's Harvest and a beta of an upcoming TCS game. Saw the pre-pub material on Leros, I think it's a safe bet I'll be picking this up. Played Austerlitz and had a great time doing it. A tip of the hat to the Gamers/Moments in History-- I repayed them both by buying BLACK WEDNESDAY (the Gamers) and A FAMOUS VICTORY (MiH). Saw Gamescience? (I'm guessing here) demonstrating their new FRIEDLAND game. F. uses the same odd area movement/restrictions that their BORODINO game does-- you can't move into areas that your formation can't physically fit into on the board. Interesting, thought I thought the components and artwork were a tad flimsy-looking. Avalanche was showing off their new (*really* new, they didn't have boxes yet) games RED PARACHUTES (I think) and a Winter War game. I was favorably impressed, but being low on bucks and in the "instant gratification" mode, I decided to hold off. Both looked like worthy efforts but I really liked the Kanev game. Peter Perla was in the Spearhead booth, showing off his Second Manassass game. He was deeply involved in demoing so I could only kibitz. It looked impressive, kind of an area movement concept as I recall. Pacific Rim had a slew of Just Plain Wargames titles they had just released, including one on the Balkan conflict and (at last) BLACK DAY OF THE GERMAN ARMY. The quality of JPW is really going up. I bought Troina and a Fight to the Finnish recently and was very favorably impressed by the quality and simplicity of the JPW concept. I dropped by GDW, but the only wargaming items of interest were the new Command Post Quarterly and a Civil War module for their new miniatures game VOLLEY AND BAYONET. Plenty of new RPG crap, of course... Interestingly enough, they had cleaned out the basement and had a lot of old titles their for sale. They didn't have WHITE DEATH, which I'm looking for, but they did have some of those Series 120 games and a Napleonic game I didn't know they had published. Avalon Hill was a disappointment. Asides from GERONIMO and SOLITAIRE ASL, they didn't really have much to show off except their computer games and a rack full of their older titles. They assured me up and down that RISING SUN will be released in time for Avalonacon. I hope so, before the company folds. I got the same assurance for Computer 3rd Reich... Played a great game of REBS AND YANKS, the tactical Civil War card game published by the guys who publish Max's advanced rules for Axis and Allies. R&Y is a lot of fun-- you play to 20 points and draw & discard a battle hand until you are confident you can attack. It's only 16 simoleons and they sold out quickly. I think he let me win... The miniatures dept. was its usual understated Origins self. I played an excellent Home Rules version of Siege of Cawnpore. The British got waxed-- this was not a scenario where you cower and snipe. I also played a game of Dirtside II, which is my current guilty pleasure. I love that game.... So that is my Origins report. I'm glad I went. I would normally have gone to Historicon, given my miniatures bias, but I reasoned that despite all the hype that Origins will be moving to Philly semi-permanently, I don't believe it will. And guess what? I was right! Next year's Origins will be held in Colombus, Ohio! One Origins every five years isn't a bad record after all. V/R Walt O'Hara ohara_walter@po.gis.prc.com From: "D.Schubert" Subject: What I did at Origins Hello, I spent my stay at Origins hanging out at the ADG table drooling over computer World in Flames. The demo looked awesome: no more land boxes, every bit of land is hexed. Every country is represented in the game. Promised modem and email capabilities. Military units gain experience over time and battles. All of the *in Flames rules/additions are included (I'm not sure if THAT's a good thingy). I signed up to be a beta tester. :-) I also picked up a copy of "The Fortunate Succession" and had a nice glorantha chat with Greg Stafford. But that's a topic for another listserv. Bye, Crawford