NY Miniatures Convention Well Attended

I recently returned from N.Y. Con, an HMGS sponsored convention for miniatures gamers. The Convention was held at the Taft Hotel in downtown Manhattan. This was not the most picturesque locale but the facilities were adequate for a convention of this size, and the price of accommodation in the hotel was reasonable.

The Taft Hotel itself had seen better days (around 1920). It's very unnerving to be shaving and see, out of the corner of your eye, something small and fast scuttle under the bathtub.

A couple of negative comments concerning the convention, organization first. Some of the events had to be cancelled when the people supposed to run them did not turn up, and the parking lot attendant knew nothing about the special, half-price, weekend parking fee. He stuck us for the full $30.00. On the other hand the fast majority of the events did take place as scheduled, the gaming area was adequate although sometimes a bit crowded, and there was easy access to the separate dealer area. Registration was fast and simple with the dates and times of the various events pre-scheduled and well laid out.

The events themselves were very enjoyable. THE COURIER staff were involved in staging a couple of demonstration games; a 15mm ACW using the "On To Richmond" rules, and a 25mm colonial skirmish game using "The Sword and The Flame". The ACW game was so popular that we had to schedule a second encounter the same evening. The results of the battles was mixed - the Confederates held off a massive Federal attack in the first game and claimed a great victory, but in the evening game they were thoroughly smashed by a Northern army ably commanded by "yours truly". In the colonial battle the gallant red-coated lads blasted the hordes of godless Zulus back to Ulundi. All participants had a most enjoyable time.

There were a lot of Renaissance games in evidence and they were very well attended. In particular there was an attack on a fortified bridgehead that involved some spectacular scratch-built terrain pieces and a lot of well-painted 15mm troops. In another Renaissance game the organizer made an effort to recapture the flavour of the times by providing characters for each of the players on both sides, and giving individual victory conditions for each player.

The game was preceded by some simple map- movement where the players on either side may, or may not, act in their side's best interest depending on how they wished to pursue their particular victory points. It was a good attempt to generate a battle with some meaning rather than just a straight "slug-fest". The result was that, although the French side won the battle, the Empire forces seized the undefended French home city and trapped the French between two Empire armies. As a result the Empire players received a lot of victory points and the French players ended up with very few. The Empire strikes back indeed!

Apart from Historical miniature gaming there were rooms for boardgaming and seminars all of which were well attended. A very popular and enjoyable event was a tournament seminary on historical tactics in fantasy gaming which combined elements of miniature and FRP gaming.

The convention drew between 150 and 200 gamers over the 3 days which, for a primary historical miniatures convention wasn't bad at all. The New York location was also a good choice and drew many gamers from the local area. I for one would be happy to see a repeat performance next year, but I think I would prefer something a little more suburban for the venue.

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