I have offered to coordinate themes between Origins and Hcon .. so that more involved speakers and GM's can offer their work at both east mid-west events. Last summer Hcon had D-Day, and Origins had "Rising Sun 1941" (RS'41) RS'41 was our Origins "Fusion Program? (Fused Thematic events from all 3 of: "War College" - HOT - and the War Room Boardgamers) Next summer we're considering several (not final) overall OWC'05 themes. The top two being: 1. American Manifest Destiny! 1800 ("Lewis and Clarke") to 1850 "Ante Bellum") Conflicts start with the (Naval) Quasi War with France and the Barbary Pirates through, War of 1812, all of the expansion, Wild West, Indian and Gold Rush/Range Wars from Florida to California, Texas, California and various other independence conflicts, Border flashes with Canada, and wrapping it up with Mexican American War (on 3 Fronts) and other hypotheticals like N. California conflicts with the post Napoleonic Russians. 2. "COLD WAR FLAMES!" 1945-1991 Possible WW III Scenarios and major Cold War historical conflicts Featuring Cuba'62 (which was probably the closest BRINK we ever came to full scale thermo-nuclear war) and including: Post-WWII BERLIN Crisis, ALL the NATO vs. Warsaw Pact air-sea and land scenarios from "Patton's Dream 1945" to "Team Yankee" and Fulda GAP'88. Asian conflicts include Korea, Vietnam, the Fall of Nationalist China to Mao, Taiwan triggering UN war with China. Africa, North Africa and the collapse of European Colonialism ALL the Arab Israeli wars The Brit/French Suez intervention a WORLD WAR III Trigger? Reagan's intervention in Beirut/Libya South America and Mexico, The Falklands, Panama, Grenada expeditions And finally, the Russians in Afghanistan, and US in Desert Storm. 3. Something else? The goal of a THEME is to: 1. An ICON to Promote the program and convention with media. 2. Encourage interested parties to get involved and work together. The many RS41 events and ~FLOOD~ D-DAY events at Hcon, should show that while not everybody "does the theme" (thank GOD!) plenty are happy to participate. Back to After Action Review September 2004 Table of Contents Back to After Action Review List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Pete Panzeri. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com