Over 900 historical miniature gamers participated in 67 miniature eventsat a three day gaming weekend in the Washington, D.C. area August 24th, 25th and 26th.
Attending were gamers from as far away as Texas, Florida and Wisconsin. Some 30 dealers also did a land-office business.
The painting competition was the best attended that I have seen in some time with at least 30 entrants... the judges had a very difficulttime deciding but the results were as follows:
| MASTER'S AWARD | Rob Mosca | German East African Army |
| INDIVIDUAL FIGURE | Francisco Vando | Imperial Standard Bearer |
| UNIT AWARD | Bill Rutherford Ben Pescon | Lebanese Phalangite Byzantine Cavalry |
| BEST ARMY | Francisco Vando Ben Pescon | Imperial Army Byzantine Army |
| BEST ESSEX DISPLAY | Francisco Vando | Imperial Army |
| THE COURIER BEST UNIT | Steve Aleo | Colonial British Line |
| MINIFIG BEST DISPLAY | Rob Mosca | German East Africans |
| BEST MICRO SCALE ARMY | John Hinton Bill Rutherford | 1/300 French Napoleonic Modern Armor |
THE COURIER presented an award for the best display of terrain. There
has been a marked increase in the use of good terrain to go with all those nicely
painted troops in the last few years and we want to help the concept grow. There
were a lot more terrain boards than we have seen in the past and these are
certainly the best of all terrain for gaming. However THE COURIER feelsthat
these are not available to everybody and was interested in awarding bold
imagination in the use of standard materials to make a good display of terrain.
The winners were Randy Haynes, Fred Schuller, Arnie Garde, and Steve Borona
who used spray painted sheets, lichen, florist material and scratch buildings to
present a beautiful 1/32 scale WWI] scenario.
By the way, your editor had a fine time! I lost two Divisions in On To Richmond, surrendered my ship at the very first opportunity without firing a shot in Hearts of Oak, and crawled through miles of sand as a Pathan in TSATF. My one success was as Col. Bolzo Brass, leader of allnion Irregular scouting force in an ACW game put on by TRIANGLE SIMULATIONS of NC.
Besides the scheduled events there were dozens of tables being used for pickup games often put on by those who had just done their scheduled events. After the dealer area closed, one could find most of the dealers in various games... most of them are miniature gamers themselves.
Kruse Smith and Steve Roper ran a well attended and cordial Ancient Tourney. The winners were Bob Andriola and his Alexandrian Imperials in the 15mm competition and Johnson Hood with his late Japanese in the 25mm event. THE COURIER gave a GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP award in the Ancient competition... it was won by Richard Rowe.
THE COURIER also recognized PAT CONDRAY for his service to the hobby in putting on, almost single-handedly, these two HMGS events. HMGS has initiated an UNSUNG HERO OF THE HOBBY AWARD. Its well-deserving first recipient was LEO CRONIN of The Courier.
All-in-all, the facility and the hotel were outstanding, the room cost reasonable and there were many local restaurants within walking distance with very reasonable prices (how aboutall you can eat for $5.50!!). HMGS is going to do this again in March of 1985 (1st, 2nd and 3rd - see The Convention Calendar) and I for one will be there if they have to carry me... I hope to see you all there too.
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