Our Editor has such a persuasive way with words. He said to me, "I want you to volunteer to represent THE COURIER at GENCON." "I'm not sure" said 1. "It's an order," says he. So it was, with some trepidation, that I took on the task of bringing the gospel of historical miniatures gaming to the fantasy world of GENCON. I selected a character (lawful-good, of course) with high hit points, a potion of resistance to the fantasy bug, and trusting to the talisman of temptation to table top tactics set out with my partner in gaming, Bill Marshall, to the fields and halls of the University of Wisconsin - Parkside (UW-P). We two, in the guise of clerics, sought to bring the good news of THE COURIER to the assorted dungeon denizens frequenting that wilderness campus during the weekend of August 22-24,1980. In order to steel ourselves for the expected ordeal, we paused in our journey fron Ann Arbor at an oasis of delight just north of Chicago - the Hobby Chest. The Hobby Chest is one of the oldest military modelling stores in the country and it still carries a wide assortment of collector size figures, paints, cutout buildings and wargaming books and figures. The store holds special nostalgia for me since it was there, almost 15 years ago and I met Bob Cory (co-developer of Column, Line, Square) who introduced me to organized wargaming. The Hobby Chest is a must for any gamer passing through the Chicago area. After attending conventions in Detroit, New York and Chester, the site of GENCON was quite a surprise. The UW-P campus is located in the middle of open countryside. I don't believe one can see any dwellings or other buildings from the convention building. There is no "drop-in" traffic like at ORIGINS. The site is beautiful. A fairly new campus situated between Kenosa and Racine, it is spacious and yet compact. All activities take place in a single "MEGA-building" (as Joe Orlowski, convention coordinator, described it). Various segments are connected by glass enclosed walkways which cross over the campus roads. The exhibit area was in a very large hall and on two floors of the learning center, all of which was well lighted and at a comfortable temperature. At right, Jay Hadley gives a less in painting. One could stand at a booth and not worry about blocking traffic in the aisle or even bend down and not bump into the table across the way. There were not as many exhibiters as at ORIGINS '80 but as far as historical miniatures gamers are concerned all of note were there save HINCHLIFFE, USA. MINIATURE FIGURINES who kindly shared their booth with THE COURIER were showing off the Valley of the Four Winds, the World of Greyhawk and, believe it or not, Napoleonics - both 25mm and their new superdetailed 15mm jewels plus some ancients. HERITAGE presented a full selection of fantasy and historical items and highlighted their new Knights 'n Magick system of gaming beyond individual fantasy role playing. MIKE'S MODELS had a very nice display of their expanding range of 15mm figures. Other advertisers from THE COURIER present for muster were POLK'S HOBBIES, and RAL PARTHA with their full range of fantasy figures and the exquisite ancient and renaissance lines. The convention was run very smoothly as exemplified by the short lines for registration and the ease of handling special problems. For example, our registration badges did not indicate that we were exhibitors but a quick trip to the "War Room" and a short explanation put everything in order. Suprisingly enough, there were a goodly number of miniature events and they were all attended. For some time, I watched an "American Civil War between the States" game in 25mm using Ed Pauley's BLUE-LIGHT MANUAL (reviewed in T.C. Vol. 1 No. 6). I had never seen a game of this period played with 25's before and it was quite a contrast to the 15's with which I am familiar. Yet another contrast was seen across the hall where some folks were playing a Napoleonic game with 1/300 Heroics figures. They seemed to have the battle of Waterloo going on a table one yard square. The detail on the figures was amazing and the figures, when mounted on basis, were easy to move. Two armies for under $75 and you still have miniature figures - not cardboard counters, not bad at all if you can still see after painting the little dears. For the skirmish game fans there were plenty of western gunfights, chariot races and even a 24 hours of Le Mans with car miniatures. Miniature gaming activities also included WWII armor, Naval (steam and sail), Napoleonic in 15mm and 25mm and a goodly number of mass fantasy battles as well as role playing games with miniatures There were quite a sufficient number of miniatures games to make the trip worthwhile to any mini's gamer Moreover, a number of seminars such as those by THE COURIER Editor Jay Hadley on painting were also plentiful. Highlight The real highlight of the Con for me was the opportunity to meet so many gamers from the midwest. Since leaving Boston in 1970, I have always looked eastward from Anr Arbor for information and activities on gaming. Except for the enclave of Napoleonics which once formed around Fred Vietmeyer along the Chicago- Fort Wayne axis, I did not think there were many gamers west ol Michigan. To my pleasant surprise, I had the opportunity to meet many knowledgeable and friendly miniatures gamers. Foremost among these is our 7 Years War Theme Editor, Ken Bunger. Not only did Ken and I have stimulating discussions about the state of miniatures gaming, he also invited me to attend the annual GENCON Seven Years War classic (at right). This battle with some 4000 25mnn figures and 14 players in held every year and is by in vitation only. Most of the other players were people I had met during our two day stay and included Bill Protz (THE COURIER contributor), Ed Phillips (master mole maker for MiniFigs), Dick Zimmerman (of Z & M Enterprises) and Jim Bartels (author of a number of Sapper Reports). Other players included Greg Hunt, Rich Black, Jim Harms, John Flesner, Kurt Donzelli, Greg Nichols, Dean West, and Rob Oldenburg. I had not previously seen a game of this period but found it truly exciting and colorful. One very interesting aspect of the figure selection was that they ranged from nicely painted Airfix AMR figures, through Scruby's MiniFigs, Garrisons and Hinchliffe's. While all are nominal 25mm figures, the variation in size is obvious. Yet when pain. ted, mounted on bases and mixed together on the table top they all go very well together. Dick Zimmerman had some very nicely painted Airfiz US Revolution figures painted as Hessians. He had primed and painted them in such a way that they could be touched and knocked about but not chip. I hope Dick will share his secret with us. People just getting into the hobby and who like the pagentry of Napoleonics, want to play with 25's and like fairly simple games should consider seriously the Seven Years War. What must have been one of the highlights for the fan tasy players at GENCON was the participation of a MINIATURE FIGURINES team lead by Steve Carpenter and a RAL PARTHA team in a mass fantasy miniatures game. Steve assured everyone at MINIFIGS/THE COURIER booth that he was immune to a spell of fan tasy and was doing the game as a gesture of good will All the same, he had his army on display for all to see and prominent in the display was his personal command figure, Napoleoric I. Let's hope when back to the sane tuary of Pine Plains he will recover from his malaise. By the way, RAL PARTHA won a marginal victory but lost their command figure! We had but two days out of four at the convention but those two days were filled with good experiences. GENCON is a boardbased convention with a good selection of activities for gamers of all persuasions. I hope to return next year. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. 2 #2 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1980 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com