Seven Years War Association Annual Dinner
by Ken Bunger
The Seven Years War Association held its tenth annual convention and dinner in Chicago on March 19-20, 1993. As with past conventions, it was well organized and attended by approxiimately 100 Eighteenth Century enthusiasts. Since our Association is unencumbered with officers or other bureaucracy, no annual meeting was necessary.
The five large gaming tables were occupied continuously. Games included an American Revolution game, the Jacobite Rebellion, Ottoman Turks, India, French and Indian War and several European Seven Years War games. The games all had very attractive and well thought out terrain. Dealers in attendance included Wargames, RSM, Emperor's Headquarters, the Reiter, Herb Gundt Buildings and Elite Miniatures. hese dealers, who are all great supporters and members of our Association, also contribilted door prizes.
After dinner, and a short talk by Duke Siegfried, the conversation and gaming continued to well past four in the morning. The particular joy of this convention is the opportunity to see old friends and exchange research with fellow enthusiasts. Special thanks must go to Bryan Vizek of Chicago for organizing the entire affair.
The Association was formed in 1980 by several U.S. and U.K. gamers. Bill Portz began publishing the Association's journal in 1982. Annual memberships, including a subscription to the quarterly journal, can be obtained by sending $20.00 ($25-00 in the U.K.) to our editor, Jim Purky, at 9415 Drake Avenue, Evanston, ILI 60203.
Little Wars Alive and Well in Chicago
by Pat Condray
Little Wars was held at the Woodfield Hilton and towers, within sniper range of the Inn at Palatine IL where LITTLE WARS was held in 1985. The new facility is quite luxurious, competitive, in fact, with the Lancaster Host Resort in Lancaster PA, home of COLDWARS and HISTORICON. Sharing the new location was another event, ominously titled SPRING FANTASY REVEL. The combination enables the sponsoring organizations (HMGS and RPGA) to command a good deal on the facility as well as share costs on the program! Right side up on one side the program reads LITTLE WARS 93 - upside down (depending on one's point of view) and reversed it announces SPRING FANTASY REVEL.
In spite of the relatively small size (about 500 attendees), the Chiwaukee Axis of HMGS has a lot of talent to draw on. This is the home territory of Frank Chadwick, Greg Novak, Duke Sciffied, Todd Fisher, Hal Thinglum and a host of others. I was recruited for a Spanish Civil War game and discussion, while Bob Coggins flew in to authoritatively demonstrate BATTLES OF NAPOLEON. Over 90 scheduled historical miniatures events were listed. To lend scholarly dignity to the affair, Todd Fisher arranged for a special dinner with Marshall Krolick giving an after dinner talk on the First Day at Gettysburg. This included an explanation of the Pipe Creek Line and contained numerous highly controversial points (Abner Doubleday didn't invent baseball? Next thing you know they will be telling us Lew Wallace didn't write BEN HUR.)
Since it was the turn of the HMGS MIDWEST Flagship Convention to host the HMGS NATIONAL Board of Directors Meeting, additional talent made the trip. Rick Nance, up from Kansas City, brought with him the celebrated TARAWA game in 15mm using COMMAND DECISION Rules.
Curiously, although HMGS MIDWEST has drawn occasional jests from critics, including myself, about its flirtation with fantasy miniature gaming (my invite read: The BOD of FMGS MIDWEST invites you... and all miniatures events (including fantasy) were under HMGS auspices, fantasy was not much in evidence. There was a huge space station (it looked more like a maze for scientific rats) on site for awhile, a funny looking pseudo medieval game with some big ugly types WHICH I took to be trolls, and an occasional BattleTech thing.
The historical events were quite good. Tarawa was as always picturesque. Uncle Duke carried his flair for theater (and overloud background music) back to the SYW Frontier in TOMAHAWK. Medieval warfare (with the emphasis on REVENGE but some corruption by BATTLESYSTEM) was much in evidence and Napoleonics were present in everything from COLUMN, LINE, AND SLAUGHTER (or was it Square) to BATTLES FOR EMPIRE. Hal Thinglum's French Foreign Legion epic was aesthetically correct if a bit bizarre in some of its results. I would comment on Jeff Hammerlund's 1/285 micro-armor game but while everyone seemed to be having fun, the models are a bit small for my old eyes. I can't do complete justice to all 90+ events here, but the gaming was excellent, as were the chances to talk to old friends and new. Concerning the Spanish Civil War, a northern column of Fascist Oppressors, unburdened by the surplus of senior COURIER staffers who got the Army of Africa in trouble at COLDWARS '93, succeeded in brushing aside the Red Scum at the Second Battle of Somossiera.
LITTLE WARS has been a lively and enjoyable convention for as long as I've been able to getto it. If this site hold, we can hope for steady growth in numbers to go with the quality.
Johnson Hood Recovering
by Dick Bryant
Johnson Hood is recovering In England after surgery on a benign brain tumor. Wargames has been operated with nary a glitch by his charming wife Shiela, daughter Charlotte, Ed Phillips and Dan Jackson. Johnson is progressing quite nicely and will return to the States in September. Sheila and the Wargames staff will hold down the booth at Historicon'93.
Johnson and Sheila whish to thank everyone who sent card and letters. and are especially appreciative of the help given by so many wargamers.
Manufacturers Shift to Pewter Alloys
by Greg Rice
Lead-free miniatures are clearly the wave of the future, with increased materials costs certain to be lower than the costs of litigation. Among others, Falcon Miniatures, GHQ, Ral Partha, Grenadier, Games Workshop, Stone Mountain, Quality Castings, and Soldiers and Swords have either already switched to lead-free alloys or are in the process of doing so. Several manufacturers have said that their new alloys produce figures that are more bendable and hold slightly more detail. There is some difference of opinion on how much prices will have to rise to cover the new alloys, but it now appears that virtually all manufacturers will have dropped lead from their lines within a year or so.
DAVID CLAYTON NO LONGER ASSOCIATED
WITH MODELERS MART
by Dick Bryant
David asked that it be announce to his freings and customers that he is no longer associated with Modeler's Mart of Floridarn but continues to do business as Elan Miniatures at PO Box 5101, Hudson FL. 34674.
ANOTHER CREDIT CARD DEFRAUDER CAUGHT
by Dick Bryant
Even the small community of Historical Miniature gamers have their crooks. Miniatures supply companies are often victims of Credit Card Fraud. But they are not easy victims!. Joe Thomas of Moscow ID, and formally of Mississippi, was recently convicted of defrauding Wargames and several other companies (Shell Oil, etc.). He was fined, ordered to pay restitution and placed on probation. We are happy to publicise the name of any gamer who is convicted of crimes against the gaming community so that his gaming aquaintances will know him for what he is -- a thief.
CALL FOR PAPERS
by Dick Bryant
The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society will be conducting a Military History Forum on 10- 12 March 1994.
Papers dealing with any aspect of military history in any period are acceptable for submission. Papers will be reviewed in a blind referee system for scholarship and value as a contribution to the study of military history. Authors of selected papers will be asked to present their works at the Cold Wars 1994 Military History Forum in March 1994 at the Lancaster Host Resort in historic Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Selected works will be published in the 1994 HMGS Military History Forum Proceedings.
Papers should be ten to fifteen typed double-spaced pages and submitted in three copies with a 100 word abstract on a separate sheet. The author's name and address should appear only on the abstract. Complete cites and a bibliography must be included with each copy. Any maps or art work must be completely identified.
Papers should be submitted no later than 1 November 1993 to Editor, HMGS Military History Forum Proceedings, 4252 Woodland Dr. Augusta, Ga. 30907. For more information write to the address above.
AUTHOR OF BLOOD AXE ANCIENTS DIES
by Dick Bryant
Lance Runolfsson of Adventure Books and Comics writes to say that his friend David Kaser, editor of Blood Axe Ancients Rules, succumbed to leukemia a few weeks before the reviews of the rules appeared in the Courier.
Paladin's Opinion: Got to Be A Better Way
by Anonymous
I went to HMGS Cold Wars '93 and enjoyed myself. But I guess some people didn't. One guy in particular I overheard complaining about how you signed up for games at the convention said he was never going to go to another HMGS convention because of this.
He was not the only one upset by the way sign-ups for games was conducted. Others complained that they could not sign up for the next day (which one had to do at six in the evening the day before) because they were already playing a game and could not leave it for a half an hour or more to stand in line to sign up.
I have been to a lot of conventions and this is a common problem. One would think it could have been solved by now. As I see it, there are basically three gaming periods in a day at the convention: morning, afternoon, and night. For some reason, the starting times of games during one of those periods differ; some morning games, for instance, start at 8 AM while others start at 9 or even 10 AM. I guess it must be because of the person running the game because a scheduler with sense would start them at the same time.
I realize that games run for different lengths of time and that a scheduler wants to keep the tables utilized to make the most games available, but things still basically run morning, afternoon, or night.
Why do the people running these conventions not let people who are pre-registering sign up for as many games as they want, restricting only by saying you can only register for one game per gaming period. Instead, you pre-register for two games, then register again for games on Friday, and then register again for games on Saturday.
I suppose this has something to do with the fairness and equal opportunity doctrines which seem to prevail in this country today. However, everyone has an equal opportunity to pre-register (at least those who constantly go to HMGS conventions) and it would seem fair to let those people who have taken the trouble to pre-register to get first shot at all of the games they want to play.
There has got to be a better way. Since I don't know all of the problems involved, never having had anything to do with scheduling games at a convention, I cannot really offer reasonable solutions - but I hope someone does.
Having said all of this, which, in a sense, is knocking the people who run the conventions, I must add the following point. Thank God for those people who are at least willing to try to run things. They might not be perfect but at least they are out there trying do something for the rest of us and I for one am thankful for their efforts. Without them our hobby would not have made the progress it has over the past dozen years.
A final point. Those who arc turned off by one or more aspects of a convention do themselves and the rest of us a great disservice by not attending future conventions. Other than gaming, they must have other reasons for attending a convention. The chance to see all of the different figures, books, or terrain you might like to buy; the ideas for scenarios or terrain which you can get by just observing some of the games, and the chance to see old friends and meet new ones these are better reasons for attending a convention. If you come across a problem why not help yourself and the rest of us by trying to help solve it. I am sure the people running these things can use all the help they can get.
Courier Dispatch News About the Hobby.
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