At Andon's EASTCOAST GAMEFAIRE, in NJ, I Game-Mastered both the Little Big Horn and the Alamo to "RECORD CROWDS" Unfortunately they were the wrong kind of records. I had only 6 players in Alamo (2 were recruited) and only 8 players in Little Bighorn (sounds ok eh?) but they rotated through never more than 4 at any one time, AND THE GAME IS DESIGNED FOR 20!!

The real let down was the half dozen or so HMGS members there who came by to cheer us on, but didn't help us improve the game by "PLAYING ALONG." Too bad, because it is the crowd that makes a game good, and these guys enjoyed in my previous games and enjoyed Historicon, but were perfectly willing to let the HMGS banner droop at "outreach projects" like Gamefaire. They were all in the Magic Card Tournament (they all lost out, too bad.) Since neither game lasted over 3 hours, my bug-spook confidence.

The good news is that we recruited the few alt.gamers and we got them into HMGS, so despite the slim pickings we were SUCCESSFUL at what we went to do. And we got some GOOD folks too!!

So, in the end, it worked out good for us. Thanks again to Andon for the invite. The supported us very very well. I hope they got the mileage they wanted out of us. While We didn't get the crowd of miniatures gamers in as I'd thought when Andon called to invite us out, I think we' did some good PR for us all. We handed out 200 of our promo-flyers for Origins to people who came to gawk at our Historical Miniatures Demonstration (even though I could have used a dozen more players) we enjoyed "showing-off a showcase HM show." ALSO my AAR articles on the web and in the periodicals will turn out to be good "advertisement" for Origins and the other shows.

We also met a lot of great people and got to talk with Andon's new staff people (Colette, Gwendolyn, etc. all seem very professional, and personable). Aside from a lot of Rain, Noah, the Floods, and still more torrential rains it was an enjoyable endeavor, and a success for us.

Because of my pre-occupation recently with Origins, I didn't canvas or *PUSH* the local HMGS and HM clubs the way I'd have liked to, [and the weather] I'll be able to do that more next year and I hope Andon is planning ahead for that one again there. Bryan Leshinskie was a "little let down" not to have many takers on his Napoleonics games, but . . . live and learn. There really was not a large enough crowd to draw from. He departed early. I normally count on being able to interest about 5% of the other gamers with a good promotion and an attractive set up. The total attendance was a bit low too.