Havoc 2000
After Action Report

Convention Report

By Peter Mancini

In its 16th year, Havoc has become THE New England Area miniatures wargaming convention. Run by BattleGroup Boston (http://BattleGroupBoston.jumphobbies.com)A gaming club, it is primarily historical miniatures but includes many other games as well. The gate is usually around 250 or more people. It has been held at Fort Devens in Ayer MA for the last 3 years in the gigantic sports arena.

Most attendees come from the surrounding states however. with atendees from as far away as Canada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

This year we even had a gentleman from New Zealand who was in the area on business. It's a friendly crowd with young and old alike. There were 16 dealers this year selling everything from painted armies to rules and hobby supplies. Havoc usually attracts a lot of rules authors and certainly has a very diverse coverage of periods of history and rules. There were the usual Wild West games and ACW, but there was also a midshipman's school for Age of Sail, a double blind grand tactical Napoleonic game, Battleground, Colonials, AWI, SYW, racing games and many others. Dick Bryant of The Courier ran a Korean War game (Cross Fire) and a Western Gunfight game. I ran a Samurai game that was a bit tongue in cheek called "By Buddha! They Killed Master" that was fabulous. Keith Hubbard put on a fabulous game called Pay Chests, Passengers, Pirates and Plunder. It was a floor based game on a large blue mat that featured several well done 25mm Pirate ships. Unfortunately I was running my game at the same time and could not jump in - but the water looked fine! There were not one but two night time WWII games that were well done.

In addition to the ninety-six scheduled games, Havoc also hosted a number of tournaments, including Warhammer 40K, Clan Wars, DBM, Puffing Billy, and Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

The program booklet has for the past two years been featuring a cover that reminds one of the previous year's winner of Best of Show. This award, commonly known as 'The Dave' is awarded to the game that was the best of the show - good terrain, good figures, good scenario, and good rules. Two years ago it was Mark Brown's samurai game "Hokkido." Two years ago it was a tie between The Canton Lunatics' Society (a gaming group based out of Paris, Maine) and Northern Conspiracy (a gaming club based in New Hampshire and Vermont) member, Jim Dirmaier. The CLS did a spectacular Napoleonic Night Skirmish in the dark with black lights, while Jim did a beautifully crafted matrix game called "Viva Sandanista!" based on the "Banana Wars" period.

This year the nominees for 'The Dave' were: Jim Dirmaier and his 1920's gangland game entitled "A Piece of the Action." The game was in 25mm and featured scale buildings hand built by Jim. He even discusses how he made them on the "Northern Conspiracy" web page (http://members.ttlc.net/~brodgers /ncpages/terrain/jimd2.html). Jim is a fanatical modeler and won the Dave several years ago for his hand built 1900's dreadnoughts. The work on these buildings goes above and beyond the call of duty. Some had working lights! It was the Stalingrad of prohibition era gangland warfare! Jim used his own rule system.

Gerard Casanova ran a 25mm AWI game called "On the Road to Saratoga - 1777", using Miniature Frontlines rules. The figures were very nice, as was the terrain. The scenario was placed in 1777 after the Americans have lost the battle of Bennington and the German Dragoons have found horses - they with many of their British allies are converging toward Saratoga. As has come to be expected of Gerard's games this one had great suspense, plot and action. It was as much fun watching as playing.

Michael Sammarco was nominated for his game "Red Beach 1." His description was short and sweet: "Betito! You know what it is. All should know war is - not fair." This was a two period game done in 20mm with the Battleground WWII rules by Easy Eight. The game ran very smoothly and the players were totally engrossed. Michael made some very wonderful hand sculpted terrain and had also created some fantastic hand-made landing craft and amtracks. Michael is a super game master and it was evident that everyone participating was having a great time.

The incredible Victor Gregoire, (a multi time nominee, but always the Bride's Maid never the Bride) well known for his modeling skills and for his love of intense detail put on a game entitled, "Berlin: 1946." This hypothetical scenario was extremely clever. In 1946, Gen. G. S. Patton comes into possession of both a V2 and a nuclear warhead and plans to march on Moscow with a reformed 3rd Army and reformed German Army troops. Not surprising, the British and Russians go ape. Vic created some wonderful models of a destroyed Berlin. The game was incredibly tense as the British/Russian coalition attempted to intercept the V2 under the American/German wing. Everyone applauded by the game's ending: The Communists finally targeted the V2 and decided to hit it with Sturmovics - thus setting off the warhead and killing every single figure on the board!

Another Northern Conspiracy member, Bob Rodgers, put on an interesting and exciting game called, "Long Day at the Oasis." It featured Arabs against French Foreign Legion troops. Bob used the "Fields of Honor" rules and fought the game in 15mm. Bob put to spectacular use several items one would normally find in a fish tank as archaeological dig artifacts! Again, this was a game people loved to play.

The winner of 'The Dave' was Rodney Fernald. He ran a non-wargame entitled "Big Game Hunt." This interesting and unique game featured Big Game (antelope, gazelles and elephants among others) and Victorian Hunters. Ah, but the veldt was not soft like zebra hide, there were vicious and hungry lions to contend with! Players could be either the Hunters or the Lions. The game was played on highly detailed hand sculpted terrain (a BGB group project involving Rodney) and featured some really unique miniatures painted to the highest degree. The hall was rocked by the cheers of the players as the exciting game unfolded. Rodney brought this game up to the level of art. It was imaginative and expanded the bounds of the types of games run at Havoc. It inspired a lot of cheering and laughter all through out and it was visually stunning.

Havoc XVII (17) it tentatively scheduled for March 31st - April 1st, 2001. Check the website (http://BattleGroupBoston.jumphobbies.com) for updates on the status of Havoc XVII.

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