So ended our stay in New York and New Jersey. Still no word from Andrew though I phoned his home in England to discover he did leave. I'm a bit worried about his fate. At this point Larry and I thought that Origins would be at about the same level of high intensity and that we could get "higher". So we left for Baltimore on the 25th, went three houses from where we were staying and we were stopped for being dangerous criminals by the New Providence, New Jersey, police department who called in a total of three, yes three, patrol cars while our I.D.'s were checked. We did have a local road crew laughing at the harassment we received. After looking all around and into the car and keeping us for about 20 minutes we were told we could leave but not before the officer could have an ego boost to show us "niggers" that he was being a nice guy.

He came over to the car and said we should vacuum the car (remember we have just traveled 3,000 miles and two weeks of living in a car so it needed a wash and cleaning job.) Larry said it was a little dirty for sure, the officer replied that "I would hate to bust you for seeds." Needless to say Larry and I are not so stupid as to leave seeds in the front seat! Great way to start one's day. But we made it to Origins that night instead of the jail.

Let me say that Origins was fantastic, incredible, constant, and total. There were so many to see and so much to do that one could not do it all. For example, I never saw John Hill! Only talked to some, like Cliff Sayre once, when a long session was in order. Unfortunately, there was no time allocated for the companies to get together and bullshit, which was a terrible opportunity to have missed.

What was it like, well first Andrew was here and after explaining to us how he loved Boston and he did not get it together to contact Larry and 1, he took us down to the Bar to make up for his omission.

There were tournaments everywhere. Where else but at a Convention this size would one see five games of War in the East going on at once (or whole teams of players being disqualified as well!!). Strange people walking around in uniforms. Game, games and more games, both to be bought (and then broken open to be played) but also games at all hours and in all places. And who could forget the 7th circle of Hell in the dorms where the temperature at night was approximately 95 degrees. The pressure of tournaments, e.g. Larry and I in our Wooden Ships & Iron Men tournament playing the same scenario four times in one day with each game a level of pressure higher. Introductions, meeting people, "Hi, we came down from Maine", Dinosaurs of games (Stalingrad, Midway, etc.), plus the new ones. "Do you like von Manstein?" Dungeons and Dragons journey going on. "Where's Schafer Hall, I have a tournament there?" And the pace does not slow down.

Between the well-run to not-so-well-run convention events, I spent most of my time talking with different people in the Hobby, in the bar, or in the Dealer's room. I did get a chance to talk to two Navy people about SSN who both felt that the submarine does indeed have the upper hand in Anti-submarine warfare, that is, surface ships watch out.'

I sat and talked with two Blacks as to their wargaming experiences. David Nesbitt felt that the lack of Black wargamers "de- pends on how you're brought up." It "costs Guineas." His interest was in History, and that brought him to wargaming. Sometimes it is "hard to talk to White people." "I've played racists and I just try to move them to neutral, not even to the left." Keith Bruce felt that one needed "time and money to do this." Keith has been a wargarner since 1972. "I wasn't brought up like most Blacks." Keith felt that one's "cultural back- ground is very important." Keith has never had any problems with wargaming and racism.

I also tried to talk with the "1%" of wargaming, women. Linda Wright made it to the second round of Napoleon at Waterloo where she demoralized the Allies but could not exit the required units in time. I asked her how she got into wargaming, she replied "I got married." Her husband needed opponents so she got involved. It was "not a question of time to be with my husband, we enjoy the games together." Does Linda like to win? "Yes, I really get into it."

"Blue & Grey is so easy ... I enjoy it." She tried to turn a friend onto wargaming and the other women felt, "Oh, it's much too complicated." "I don't read the rules, my husband explains them to me." A man walked up at that time and turned to Linda to say, "Oh, you're part of the one percent."

La Bataille de la Moskowa

The single most impressive new game at Origins was Martial Enterprises (P.O. Box 1315, National City, California, priced at $14.95) with their La Bataille de la Moskowa, a battalion level Borodino game. There has been an evolution in the Hobby of large games, starting with Trafalgar (priced at $11.95 in the late 60's) to Confrontation (Gamescience). Throw in Blitzkrieg and that completed the first generation. Now the second generation is on us with Drang Nach Osten, WITE, WITW, Strategy, and now this monster of 1,000 pieces and four mapboards. Martial Enterprises made a run of 2,000 copies of this. Larry Groves and I talked about it for sometime.

He wanted to design a game where cavalry acted like cavalry, skirmishers acted like skirmishers, etc. Further, the leader counters and aides were important for realism, even down to the transmitting of orders! There are six scenarios taking from three hours to two days to play in game time. "Fire is pretty devastating." Mollwitz and maybe a Waterloo game are in the works. We're "into big games." "Artillery has an intensity factor of target" aspect. Leaders effect cavalry, artillery, infantry, and morale under separate headings. Weak points? One should have a feet for the period. The rules "are different." One should start on the small scenarios, and there is an errata sheet. In what other game can General Officers be captured, killed, and/or wounded, all of which is done quite realistically. The scenarios are easily played between two players.

Let me say now this is a highly detailed and I think one of the most interesting ones to appear in some time. It makesan interestin Napoleonic warfare appear where, in myself, there was a but a small degree of development. The Mapboard is somewhat boring but the pieces are beautiful. Nationalities and types are wellpresented. This is a labor of love. Also, for only $624.96 one can also get all the pieces in the game handpainted! Dennis Spors is offering this service with some Corps going for only $27.50. So for the ultimate, write to Dennis Spors, 8604 via Mallorca Drive, La Jolla, California 92037. As he says, "Want to bridge the gap between the exactness of boardgames and the colour of miniatures?" Alt "in the correct regimental colours." $2.00 postage for overseas people.

Imperial games brought 100 copies of Friedland to sell and mentioned that Vlttoria for $7.00 should be out in the fall.

I talked to At Nofi of Rand/Moringside Project for a bit at the Rand booth. von Manstein is selling a bit better than Vlcksburg, the latter being a game of manuever in the Mississippi River valley, while the former deals with the different battles in Southern Russia during World War It, (they both cost $6.95 from Rand Game Associates, Box 1776, Liberty Corner, New Jersey 07938), Vicksburg includes forts batteries, cavalry, and both Foote's rive fleet as well as Porter's seagoing fleet Vicksburg requires one to think out one' moves as well as capitalize quickly on the enemy's errors. At Nofi did most of the design work on Vicksburg while John Prados (3rd Reich) did most of the work on von Manstein. Both are currently working on a game dealing with the Peninsula during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte.

On women? "As John Boardman says, there weren't any women in Science Fiction 25 years ago." "Our society brainwashes" which is why so few women are wargamers. On violence of wargames? "I don't think they do one whit towards militarizing or demilitarizing." A[ closed by feeling that something like Star Trek is needed for wargaming to really get the Hobby moving.

I had missed Frank Chadwick while visiting GDW but cornered him at Origins. He had just finished Fall of Tobruk which he described as a "family game" in the tradition of the Conflict game company. Frank is most happy with the relative values of the tanks. "Meateaters but fragile." One can also have the "88 ambushes of Rommel." Frank does wish that the length of the game was shorter. I talked with him a bit about Torgau, He feels the Prussians usually win by solid use of their longer range artillery and the saving of the Guard to the last. For the Austrians to win they must ambush someone early in the game.

I asked GDW during a break about the idea of marketing violence. "The history of man is violence," was Marc's response. Marc went on to say that it "can't be ignored." "Violence is the attribute of all human endeavor, sports, history ... games remove the element of violence from it." Frank pointed out that he felt "wargaming is at least ethically neutral."

Frank pointed out that "I was playing more wargames in 1968-1969, which was also my height of anti-war participation." On women, Frank said that "it is harder for a woman to conceptilize what a wargame counter is."

On Origins, Frank felt that GDW was "doing a lot more business then we thought we would." "People in the Hobby are getting along." "The only two companies competing in the industry are Avalon Hill and SPI." On his Waterloo game, Frank said it would be on Avalon Hill's scale (division/ brigade level). "I like playability and operational aspects." Waterloo may be "20 fast-moving turns."

I spoke with another woman wargamer, Laurie van de Graaf. What type of games does she like, "short ones." She enjoys Midway, Crete, and especially Dungeons & Dragons. She also likes Diplomacy. She got into wargaming because of "(my) husband." She feels that wargames are not more popular with women as they are "not personal". They are objects and are not interrelated, also the competitional aspect turns her off. "Men are always out to prove themselves." I asked what she most enjoyed: "the tactics," was her reply.

More Cathedrals

Cathedrals of Wargaming: Introduction
Cathedrals of Wargaming: Game Designers' Workshop
Cathedrals of Wargaming: Avalon Hill
Cathedrals of Wargaming: SPI
Cathedrals of Wargaming: On the Road to Origins
Cathedrals of Wargaming: Joe Seliga and Steve Peek
Cathedrals of Wargaming: Taurus Games
Cathedrals of Wargaming: Postscript