HMGS was invited to help with this Origins/GenCon and it showed. Bob Bigalow and Todd Fisher with the help of more people than these pages have room to name managed to schedule 225+ (125 were in the program) Historical Miniature games (with 3800 game slots for approximately 2000 historical gamers out of 12500 attendees) not including the large, well attended Ancient Tournament including the National Championships. Historical Board Gamers were heard to complain at the GAMA meeting that they felt that they had been relegated to second place behind the Miniature Garners! That is quite a turnaround from past Origins. Don Featherstone (he pronounces it Featherstin) seemed to putin a 30 hour day with numerous game demos and illustrated talks about the hobby and the people who got it started back in England. The high points for me were two dinners with Don (attended by a who's who of historical miniature movers and doers). Having talked to Don by phone and corresponded with him on many occasions, I find that, in person as well, he is one of the nicest people I have ever met in the hobby. Efforts are underway to have him attend Historicon in July'89. DON'T MISS IT! Members of the Seven Years War Association put on a number of entertaining and visually appealing wargames including a Charge! game on Bill Protz's scratch-built terrain. The game was judged by Bill McHargwhere Dick Bryant's Highlanders suffered 70% casualties turning back a determined advance by the Lion of Ostlandt's invading forces. Walter Simon was not there to run his Ostlandt troops (or I could have hung him on the field... ED). Todd Fisher hosted the Battle of Little Big Horn wherein Custer finally won one. Every period and just about every rule system was represented from Fletcher Pratt-on-the-floor Naval Games to Aspern Essling with literally thousands of figures on the table. The improvement in terrain in use was very much in evidence, The Courier having a great deal of difficulty in selecting people for awards. The winners were Duke Seifried for the Best Demo of a Miniature Wargame with his Colonial game. Even without his megaphone, Duke drew people from all over the hall to view his game. The Best Demo of Wargame Terrain was won by Mike Hill of the Buzkrieger Wargame Club with the beautiful scratch built buildings used in his Fire Team game, a WWII Skirmish action. I saw some very interesting terrain ideas in use among the fantasy and science fiction miniature gamers aswell. Of particular note was a 1 5-20foot long rendition of a castle. It is disconcerting, however, to walk over to a beautiful terrain setup only to discover that the troops have too manyarms or legs! Another advantage (to this dirty old man's eye) to having role players at conventions is the large number of young nubile scantilly clad ladies in various costumes running around the place. I took over 50 flyers from one young lady dressed in a black kitten costume but have no idea what the flyers were about. A particular innovation was a play by FAX international game played realtime with a group at the English convention WARCON 1. Todd Fisher arranged this and tells me it will be a regular feature. The GAMA awards and Ancient competition results are listed below if I have received them in time, otherwise they will appear next issue. Best Historical Figure Series, 1987 Shogun Hard Guys: The New Samurai, Ral Partha Enterprises, Sculptors, Dennis Mize & Bob Charrette Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame, 1987 Arkham Horror, Chaosium, Inc. Designers, Richard Laumus, Lynn Willis & Charlie Krank Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Figure Series, 1987 Julie Guthrie's Fantasy Line, Grenadier Models, Sculptor, Julie Guthrie Best Graphic Presentation of a Boardgame, 1987 Shogun, Milton Bradley Company, Graphic Designers, Alec Justurn & James Bremer Best Vehicular or Accessory Series, 1987 Star Trek Miniatures, FASA corp Sculptors, Randy Hoffa & Steve Apolloni Best Play-By-Mail Game, 1987 Alamaze, Pegasus Productions Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game, 1987 Pirates, MicroProse, Inc Designer, Sid Meier Best Miniature Rules, 1987 Harpoon, Game Designers' Workshop, Designer, Larry Bond Best Role-Playing Rules, 1987 Star Wars, West End Games, Inc. Designer, Greg Costikyan Best Military or Strategy Computer Game, 1987 Project: Stealth Fighter, MicroProse, Inc. Designers, Jim Synoski & Arnold Hendrick Best Role-Playing Adventure, 1987 Tournament of Dreams, Penciragon, Chaosium, Designers, Sam Shirley, Les Brooks & Greg Stafford Best Screen Graphics in a Home Computer Game, 1987 Pirates, MicroProse, Inc. Graphic Artist, Michael Hair Best Role-Playing Supplement, 1987 Star Wars Sourcebook, Star Wars, West End Games, Inc. Designers, Curtis Smith & Bill Slavicsek Best Professional Adventure Gaming Magazine, 1987 Computer Gaming World, Golden Empire, Editor, Russell Sipe Best Graphic Presentation of a Role-Playing Game, Adventure or Supplement, 1987 Miskatonic University Kit, Call of Cthulhu, Chaosium, Inc.Graphic Designer, Lynn Willis Best Amateur Adventure Gaming Magazine, 1987 Polyhedron, TSR, Inc. Editor, Jean Rabe Hall of Fame Greg Stafford Best Pre-20th Century Boardgame, 1987 Shogun, Milton Bradley Company, Designer, Mike Gray Special Award for Outstanding Achievement Awarded 1987 The Dragon, TSR, Inc. Best Boardgame Covering the Period 1900-1946 for 1987 Scorched Earth, Game Designers' Workshop, Designer, John Astell Special Award for Outstanding Achievement Awarded 1987 The Courier, Editor, Dick Bryant Best Boardgame Covering the Period 1947-Modern Day for 1987 Team Yankee, Game Designers' Workshop, Designers, Marc Miller & Frank Chadwick NASAMW ANCIENT EVENT WINNERS National Champion: Derek Downs, Bactrian Creek Runner Up: Bob Plylee, Carthage 25mm Open: Gavino Arias, Seleucid 15mm Open: Ed Hardina, Indian 15mm Best Painted Army: Art Hayes, Early Imperial Romans 25mm Rest Painted Army: Walt Leach, Vikings Best Terrain: Art Hayes Sportsman (The Courier Award): James White Prizes were donated by Alliance, The Courier, Greenfield, Falcon, SimTac, RAFM, Rai Partha, and Wargames. HMGS AWARDS Place BEST TERRAIN BEST PAINTED FIGURES ON FIELD BEST OVER ALL 1ST Tom Tuck Bill Protz Ed Harding 2ND Bill Hudson John Brewster Dale Wood 3RD Dave Richards Karl Johnson Nick Klapper More Courier Dispatch News About the Hobby. Origins/GenCon '88 a Success: Don Featherstone a Gem HMGS Puts on Another Great Historicon Little Wars '88 Products Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VIII No. 3 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1988 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