HMGS was founded by a group of interested gamers in Nov 81 meeting at Walter (Wally) Simon's home (in the basement, hence "Wally's Basement') to discuss courses of action to take to reverse the seeming decline in the hobby. We did it and we're glad. I think the overall effect of what we built has been positive for the hobby. Historical miniatures gaming (aka playing with toy soldiers) got short shrift in what some termed The Greater World of Adventure Gaming (my acronym "TGWAG"). At ORIGINS 81, which was run, I think, by Jay Hadley, the TGWAG masses voted Frank Chadwick's SYSTEM 7 NAPOLEONICS board game counters the "Best New Miniatures Line." Both Frank and Jay were historical miniatures gamers, but clearly our hobby had gone from being the "Lunatic Fringe" of the toy soldier collectors to the stepchild of TGWAG. HMGS first promoted historical miniatures involvement at ORIGINS 82, very successfully. Then I proposed a small off season historical miniatures only convention, the Historical Miniatures Mini-Convention (HMMC) to keep up our momemntum, pay the bills, and promote the hobby. Borrowing from my wife's somewhat joking motto for her since failed health care company I sometimes say that we did It to "Do good, have fun, and make money-not necessarily in that order." It worked. When the TGWAG companies in our area consistently proved intransigient, I proposed and ran HISTORICON 84 so that our role in the prime (summer) convention season would not be forever dependent on entities and individuals who did not share the goal of promoting our end of the hobby. It worked. When we outgrew Washington area facilities (subject to cost and convenience) we moved to rural PA where we outgrew yet another facility. Jim Dunnigan, the expert on wargaming whose business acumen took SPI down the tubes and probably launched the long downward slide of board gaming, gave short shrift to historical miniatures in his books on wargaming. Yet I'm told that in recent years while maintaining his idea that there are no more than 20,000 of us world wide (less than the sales of NAPOLEON'S BATTLES) he seems to have noticed something. I understand that he expressed the idea that we make a disproportionate showing because we are more social. That has been the role of the HMGS (EAST) convention program, which has inspired the others. At HISTORICON, or COLDWARS (successor in 1989 to the mini conventions which were no longer mini) hobbyists can spend days in an historical miniatures friendly environment gaming, shopping, and exchanging ideas and experiences. Every so often people tell me that this is not the way to promote the hobby. Some say that a super dooper video tape is the way to go. Others that the way to promote the hobby is to preach to the teen age community hanging out in shopping malls. It isn't. Some say that dead end negative cash flow free game days are the way to go. I doubt it, but without tapping into the positive cash flow of the convention program that wouldn't be an option. The convention program has inspired and regenerated the hobby. It has inspired all the other HMGS chapters. Back to Dispatch May 2000 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South 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