Origins `90 Tournament Report
Part 2

Friday: Canadian Miniatures Event

by J.D. Webster

Adjourning from the seminar most of us ran straight down to the miniatures room where Steve "Madman" Madjanovich was setting up the Air Superiority miniatures game he was sponsoring.

Steve was given a dozen or so jet fighter miniatures (various MiGs, Hornets and A-7s) which were to be given away during play. The basic rule was that you flew one jet and whoever you killed, had to give you his miniature. The scenario involved something like six F-18s escorting four A-7s on a strike into some Banana Republic that was equipped with MiG-21s and MG-29s. There might have been a pair of Flankers as well, but my memory fades at this point.

The A7s were supposed to just be targets, but Steve offered to let me fly and control all four just for grins, as I had been a Navy A-7 pilot several years back. The set-up looked rather grim with the four A-7s out about two miles in front of the escorting Hornets and practically nose-to-nose with six MiG-21s and some MG-29s. To win, the A-7s were supposed to keep their bombs and exit the MiG's map edge (ho, ho, ho), and this with no air-to-air weapons on board. I refused to play until Steve reluctantly agreed to allow each A-7 a single AIM9L for self-defense. I also commented that it seemed a little odd to have the hapless bomb laden Corsairs leading the merge with the enemy.

Steve laughed and play was commenced. My hapless A- 7s were forced to initiate the furball and even managed to survive, although one was crippled and had to jettison bombs. The Hornets, led by the Californian Kids (Mark and Curtis), mounted a brilliant offense, downing four or five of the MiGs in short order with the other Hornets making additional kills. It was a slaughter and quite fun unless you were one of the MiGs.

All told, the scenario set-up was silly, and the game horribly unbalanced, but it was played with a beer and pretzels attitude, and everyone involved seemed to be letting off steam, and having fun after a long day of serious tournament play.

Of note, the miniature jets on their metal stands drew quite a crowd of onlookers and this, along with the fun everyone was having, gave Air Superiority some good PR, so if you're looking to gain some local area converts, you might try a large hex map and some smartly painted miniatures to get people's attention. The miniatures do much better than silhouetted counters in this regard.

Friday: "A Hard Day's Night"

After the miniatures game, most of us were trashed and retired to some beer drinking and talking. A few of the diehards went to open gaming and kept on playing. At around two AM, I hit the sack, tossing and turning as I mulled over how to handle the continuing tournament.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Origins `90 Tournament Report Part 2

Origins `90 Tournament Report Part 1

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