Fall In ‘02 Convention Recap

Courier Dispatch News

by Dick Bryant

Estimates of a 20-25% increase in PAID attendance to 1283 was reported for Fall In’s first appearance at the Host Hotel, scene of Cold Wars and Historicon. If the “guest” passes and the dealers are added in, the count is about 1900. The fears of loss of attendance due to moving from the Gettysberg venue were finally laid to rest.

Dealer impressions seem, at this point, mixed. Some were happy but a number weren’t. Some admitted that compared to previous Fall Ins they did well but they may have been, emotionally, comparing to H’con and CW because of the Lancaster venue. The dealer area felt, at first glance, just a bit lean - until you realized that this was the Fall In dealer area in the Historicon dealer room - it was an all time Fall-In record for dealers.

There was a cat show in the Lampeter Room all weekend. which reduced the space available to the convention somewhat. (ED NOTE: Thankfully I did not bring my kitty litter scenery to the con!).

Bob Bolling (RLBPS) was injured in the dealers’ room on Thursday. He put his foot into a cable trough and when he fell he wound up with a spiral facture of his upper leg bone - really bad. Apparently somebody at the Host forgot to cover it after they prepped the tennis barn for the dealers. Surgery was Friday and he’s going to be in the hospital for at *least* several more days with lots of physical therapy to follow. His wife kept their stall open though, and got a lot of support from everybody at the con. That was a real downer but it was very heartening to see how everybody pulled together to try to help.

DAISY AWARD AT FALL IN!

The Society of Daisy Award was won by Pandora Daniel of Herndon VA. for “Snuffles the Baby Seal” Well known to all so it needs no introduction. Ms. Daniel won the award both for the long run the game has had and her ability to keep the game fun and focused. This was no mean feat as the Fall-In! “show” was attended by about twelve youngsters from 12 to 16 who were main-lining cokes as fast as the hypothetical beers they were drinking (and cute little seals they were clubbing.

As with all the Daisy Awards, this was given because she put on a fun game where the gamers themselves were doing a lot of the fun, and not one which, in spite of a punning title, funny figures or rules, degenerated into an ordinary battle game. Ms. Danile noted that although she had been putting on the game for three or four years at Cold Wars and Fall-In! John McConnel developed the game. Ms Daniel was burdened with the medal with the gaudy pink ribon and flashy design, and of course, the $50.00 cash prize, which the donors of the award assumed she soon unburdened herself from in the dealers area.

GM RECOGNITION

GMSN EVENT "Judging Criteria” is posted in the Files Section of the GMSN Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GMSN/

List provided by Pete Panzieri

HMGS Best Event The Alamo (S-197) Ron Prillaman
HMGS Best Theme Event Rayowska, 1708 (F-150) David Bonk & Lyle Bickley
HMGS Best Feature Event Get Saddam! (S-136) GM Dan McDonagh

GMSN BATTLE STREAMERS
Best Friday AM Event F-25 Borodino, 1812 Frank Chadwick

Friday AM Battle Streamers
F-5 Morning of the 902nd Ed Bates & Jim Shaw
F-20 My Big Fat Greek Sea Battle Gary Coyle
F-21 Breaking the Covenant Jeff Ball
F-51 BAPPO (Beer and Pretzel Operational) Kurt Schlegel

Best Friday Afternoon Event
F-105 Night Escape Scott Fisher

Friday Afternoon Battle Streamers
F-97 Mortimer’s Cross Jeff Ball
F-80 The First Roman Civil War Mark Zaslavsky
F-103 Massacre in the West Woods Curt Daniels
F-107 Tanks A Plenty Mark Young

Best Friday Night Event
F-152 Battle of Brandywine Rich Hasenauer & Tony Figlia

Friday Night Battle Streamers
F-158 White Kepi Desert Sun Frank V. Capotorto
F-161 Black & Decker Amidst the Dunes of Doom Todd Harland-White
F-205 Life in Mudville Jim Foster
F-192 Samurai Skirmish John Covello
F-184 Battle of the Blue and Gray John Zabawa
F-157 Hayes’ Attack on Fox’s Gap Scott Mingus
F-154 Sharke’s Bridge Steve Weeldryer
F-150 Battle of Rayowska, September 10, 1708 David Bonk & Lyle Bickley

Best Saturday AM Event
S-58 “Death of an Army” Bill Moreno

Saturday AM Battle Streamers
S-72 The Prussian’s Stash Jerry Frazer
S-54 Wauhatchie Station, 1863 Pat O’Neill
S-32 Constantinople, 1203 Peter Hess
S-60 Cambrai - WWI Dave Frank
S-75 Block and Sweep BAPS John R “Buck” Surdu
S-61 1944 Huertgen Forest Michael Fatovic

Best Saturday Afternoon Event
S-125 Atrax 198BC Phil Viverito

Saturday Afternoon Battle Streamers
S-129 Escape from Kabul Bob & Cleo Liebl
S-133 Reno’s Last Hours Scott Mingus
S-114 Third Raid on Miki-Miki Glenn Kidd
S-44 Ramillies, 1706 COL (Rtd.) Bill Gray

Best Saturday Night Event
S-205 Butternut and Bucktails Chris Hughes & Bob Eldridge

Saturday Night Battle Streamers
S-190 Warhammer English Civil War Dave Paddock & Joe Moore
S-225 Incident at the Ruptured Swordfish John R “Buck” Surdu
S-207 Broken Arrow Pete English
S-217 The Dogali Fight Mark Fastoso

Best Sunday Event
Z-15 Maleme Crete Tom Garnett

Sunday Battle Streamers
Z-17 Frisian Raiders Ed Watts
Z-20 Sadras Mark Campbell
Z-23 Schlegels Farm Eric Schlegel
Z-7 Alamo Ron Prillaman

We also had a belated “Historicon Battle Streamer” and Certificate for issuance to Scott Mingus’s I Corps at Gettysburg.

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