ED NOTE: As is usual with these reports, I combine inputs from various reporters on the scene. In this case Jay Hadley, Fred Hubig, Del Stover, Bill Rutherford, Leo Cronin, Pete Panzieri and several others. - DICK BRYANT
Del Stover, president of HMGS-East reported “as hoped, we had a record number of people at FALL IN! Paid attendance of all kinds were 1,502, an increase of almost 20 percent over last year. If you count dealers, minors, etc., there were more than 1,900 people at the show - the best total attendance in the convention’s history.”
One reason for trying the new site at Timonium MD was to draw more visitors, another draw to these visitors was to be the large prescence of GDW games. the later caused no end of consternation as it was percieved that Historical Miniature Gaming space was given ove to GDW. In actuality, this was not the case - the space problems were due to game scheduling. Many games were scheduled in the main hotel - which, I understand, is a bus ride from the convention center - a major inconvenience, though free transport was provided. In any case there were no more than 295 visitors, hardly an impressive number for all the effort and extra expense - they expected over 1000!
The convention Director for Fall IN’03, Fred Hubig, whose monumental efforts helped by many selfless volunteers, made the convention as successful as it was said “We did the best with what we had but I doubt that we will be going back to the fairgrounds. The BOD is trying to get us booked in another location. I hope they are successful because it was a lot of work for a relatively small bunch of old, overweight guys to put on a convention there.
There were 66 dealers and 148 flea market tables. The flea market area was crowded, due to a mistake in the layout plan that forced some “innovative” adjustments by the staff on site. This problem is easily corrected. There were more games scheduled at this year’s convention than at any previous FALL IN! The influx of so many games defeated the plans for wide isles and historical decoration - but games is what the convention is about so that was little loss. For the most part, there was positive feedback on the convention. People had a good time. Some liked the site just fine. Others liked the fact the convention was nearer to their homes.
There was higher-than-normal negative feedback, however. The concrete floors bothered some. Others thought the Gaming Hall was a bit cluttered. The shuttlebus was slow, and a number of people wondered how they would have fared walking between the Dealer Hall and Gaming Hall in a pouring rain.
Finally, the convention lost around $10,000.
On a positive note, The new ad manager for The Courier, Richard Jarocz, won the medieval tournament, I have asked him to report on it.
HMGS PELA Awards
“Fall In! Best of Show”
The PELA (Pour Encourager les Autres -“to encourage others”) is awarded by HMGS at each show to the BEST presentations of games, terrain, figures, etc. to encourage game masters towards excellence in game presentation . - ED.
F-75 Operation Market Garden “ A Game too Long
By GMs of Battle Group Boston : Sam Scott, Martin Barber, Stephen Smith,Angelo Giordano, Tom Davis, Pete English, Tom Ballou, Pete Mancini, Rodney Fernald, Paul Cunningham
In the past I have listed all the awards for The Pela and for the GM Battle Streamers. But as we are short of space this issue, quite a few readers have questioned the need for this for every convention, and the information is available on the Fall In! Web site:www.fall-in.org. The HMGS Web Site is http//www.hmgs.org. I have decided to omit all but the top award. However since I had promised same for Historicon in the last issue (but did not have the data as we went to press) I have included the detail for historicon. - DICK BRYANT
HISTORICON ‘03 AWARDS
In the last issue I mentioned that the winners of the awards for Historicon ‘03 were not ready at the time of publication. Pete Panzieri has forwarded them and they are listed below: -ED.
HMGS PELA AWARDS
“Historicon Best of Show”
Metropolitan Wargamers: (James Grotto and Tony Venturino) “20mm Sand Table Battles”
Best of time slot PELA Awards
ED NOTE: Italics denote winner was in The Courier Room
T-038 Attack on Fenwick Dennis Daughtee
T-002 Aerodrome 1.1 WWI Air Stanley Kubiak and Hal Dyson
T-047 Sash and Saber 40mm ACW Chris Hughes
F-126 Raid Along the Mohawk Bob and Scott Baldwin
F-097 Operation Fenris David Bullis
F-131 Bombers! Raid on Kiel Tom Sparhawk
S-172 The Stand at Uji Bridge Peter Mancini
S-000 Gettysburg Day 1 Lee Burger and Ed Miller
S-135 Zulu Dawn Rob Walter
S-000 Flames of War Phil Yates and Dallas Eves
GM BATTLE STREAMERS
As always, reconition is a subjective thing, and only intended to “recognize, not “RANK” GM’s, apologies offered in advance for those who’s game was not seen or deservedly recognized by the GM Judging teams who volunteered their Convetion time to serve. Any in dissagreement are invited to please step forward and particpate with the program by emailing pete@jodiecon.org
Thursday Afternoon
Judges: PJ O’Neil, Bob Kerstetter, Panzeri
T-010 Meet You at High Noon Kim Caron
T-023 McClernand’s Turn Kurt Schlegle and the HAWKS
T-024 Diadochoi at Gaza, 312 BC Norbert Brunhuber
T-045 Cog Wars Brian Whitaker and Dale Schramek
T-069 Battle for the Ships Paul Dobbins
T-036 Another Fine Mess Chris Borucki and Chuck Turnitsa
T-038 Attack on Fenwick Dennis Daughtee
T-072 Verdun Warfare: Mud, Trenches and Machineguns Mitch Abrams
T-093 Before I was a Marshal Edwin Mohrmann
T-025 The Spanish Armada Todd Harland-White and HAWKS
Thursday Evening
Judges: John Stafford, Stuart Schoenberger, Orest Swystun
T-000 Battlefront WWII Rich Hassenhauer
T-035 Bashin’ at Martinsville Tom Ballou
T-002 Aerodrome 1.1 Stanley Kubiak, Hal Dyson
T-033 The Kinslaying Bill Acheson and the HAWKS
T-019 Napoleonic Naval High Seas Combat Jeff Hunt
T-047 Sash and Saber 40mm ACW Chris Hughes
T-064 Battle of Satia Bay Steve Verdoliva
T-051 French and Indian War “Naval” Bob and Scott Baldwin
T-097 Salem Church Keith Kunkle
Friday Morning
Judges: John Stafford, Bob Kerstetter, James Mattes
F-059 Race to Fort LeBoeuf Bob Moon
F-130 Battle of Cherkasskoye James Grotto and Tony Venturino
F-061 A Day at the Magic Carpet Races Jamie Davis and HAWKS
F-142 Captain Contact and the Walking Dead Pete English
F-126 Raid Along the Mohawk Bob and Scott Baldwin
F-021 D-Day Sword Beach Thomas Thomas
? The Streets of New York Patrick Wilson
Friday Afternoon
Judges: Pete English, Pete Mancini
F-098 Culp’s Hill Curt Daniels
F-133 Sea Sick Sailors Don Dimitrios
F-176 Battle of Ludhiana Mark Stevens
F-095 The Gathering of Vultures Sam Scott
F-025 Take No Prisoners Ray Austin
F-097 Operation Fenris David Bullis
F-112 Siege of Tyre Phil Viverito
Friday Evening
Judges: Michael Panzer, Del Stover, Nate Barrick
F-131 Bombers! Raid on Kiel Tom Sparhawk
F-184 Bumpin’ and Grindin’on the Bayou Scott Landis and Rogues Gaming Group
F-048 Alternate Waterloo Peter Fett and Steve Umbrell
F-079 The Battle of Wakefield ?
F-174 Gettysburg - East Cemetary HillScott Mingus
F-090 Roman Circus Dennis Daughetee
F-127 Helms Deep David Kasper
F-082 Grizzly Times Around the Honey Tree Todd Harland-White and HAWKS
F-013 Battle of the Alma David Waxtel
F-116 Forcing the Malakand Pass Eric Lauterbach
F-162 On to Ulundi George Carr Sr. and Larry Brom
F-190 Caveman’s Bride Hummitzisch
F-198 Little Round Top Robert Brown
Saturday Morning
Judges: Bob Bailey, Greg Schroeder, Steve Verdoliva
S-102 Battle of Medjaz-el-Bab Michael Murphy
S-172 The Stand at Uji Bridge Peter Mancini
S-095 Glorious Gladiators Jim Foster
S-185 Heretics vs. Infidels N. Palmer
S-001 The Crimean War Dave Waxtel
S-004 Rifles, Rams, and Redoubts William Moreno
S-111 Revenge, Gold and Other Bob and Scott Baldwin
S-108 1066 or Something Like That! Iain Black
S-003 Plague! John Fernandes
S-090 Bautzen, May 21, 1813 Nigel Marsh and Lyle Bickley
S-018 Shoot-Out in Bleid Scott Fisher
S-039 The Battle of Tanga, November 1914 Jim Stanton
S-055 Grand Prix Racing! Patrick Chambers
Saturday Afternoon
Judges: Ed Morman, Mike Lorenzo, John Snead
S-161 Stalingrad Kevin Pavlick
S-000 Gettysburg Day 1 Lee Burger and Ed Miller
S-163 Crystal Skulls of Atlantis Howard Whitehouse
S-171 Crossing the Euphrates JC McDaniel
S-099 Viking Village Raid Greg Whitaker
S-113 Bombers Raid on Hannover Tom Sparhawk
S-040 Debacle at Dennewitz Peter Anderson
S-000 Fell Winter of 1311 Peter Hammerskjold
S-006 Fury in the North Country Marston Moor Joe Moore
S-009 Full Force Z Mike Harris
S-082 Ramillies Redux, 1706 Bill Gray
S-112 Hit the Beach - South Pacific 1944 Joe Swierc
S-117 Krasnaya Gorka The Second Day Stan Sunderwirth
Saturday Evening
(Judges: Bob Liebl, Cleo Liebl, Ed Whittaker
S-135 Zulu Dawn Rob Walter
S-067 The American Civil War by GASLIGHT Chris Palmer
S-042 The March on Louistown Adrian Zalonis
S-024 Snowball Fight Richard Kane
S-180 Curse of the Jade Buddah Kurt Hummitzsch
S-166 Hills are Alive with the Sound of Mausers Peter Gaut and Keith Thomas
S-160 In the Trenches Richard Oster
S-99 Battle for Monterey, 1846 Alex Bagosy
Sunday AM
Judges: Bob Giglio, Brian Higbee
Z-000 Flames of War Phil Yates and Dallas Eves
Z-004 War of 1812 Free For All Duncan Adams
Z-005 Fold & Fight - A Beginner’s Game Todd Harland-White
Courier Dispatch News About the Hobby.
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