To my wife PJ, whom many of you have met at the registration desk for HURRICON and RECON, anything north of Jacksonville FL is “The Frozen North.” In spite of the forbidding title, shortly after the JAX Garrison micro con, I headed for the first of two conventions over the northern border. Sam Scott’s Bridge Too Far and Re-enactor at Fall In The first was FALL IN! 03, 14-16 NOV held at the Timonium Fair Grounds just off the Baltimore Beltway. If you had been following the e-groups you probably know that this was a very controversial affair. The new venue was intended to invite spectators and show off our obscure hobby to the masses on the I-95 corridor from Washington to Philadelphia. A great emphasis was placed on large and showy games. A major drawback was the fact that the convention hotel was over the horizon, and the dealer area and game hall were widely separated. A cow palace hosting a game auction was to the right of the route between. No expense had been spared. We were treated to Polish renaissance re-enactors including horse archery demonstrations, winged hussars, etc. The actual miniatures games included Vince Clyant’s (London War Room) Theme Award Winning Walls of Constantinople, a 65ft long game based on Operation Market Garden, and even a 36’ long by 10’ wide DBA Game. As usual, the big HMGS EAST convention drew attendance from all over. Doug Bohannon and Rudy Nelson were on hand, as were Jodie and Pete Panzeri, and even Steve Verdliva from the LA area (HMGS Pacific Southwest.) Everything seemed to be larger than life. There had been write-ups in the Washington DC papers, local ads, and a huge RTT sponsored by Games Workshop whose HQ for the colonies is in Glen Burnie around the Baltimore Beltway from Timonium. As a special service to the attenders of FALL IN! 03 the HMGS EAST Board of Directors retained a sizeable contingent of re-enactors to educate our grandchildren. Above a Polish Dragoon from the days of Jan Sobieski instructs our grandchildren, Dylan (left) and Cody Jacob Mudd on the manly art of fencing. The re-enactors showed considerable interest in their miniature version. David Bonk of Triangle Simulation Society presented a miniature battle of the Kahlenberg 1683, at which the army of relief under Polish King Jan Sobieski broke the last Turkish Siege of Vienna. I enjoyed the chance to see old friends, and while I was in the vendor area most of the time (actually made money) , I did get a chance to see some spectacular table tops. I had fun and made money. But overall the smoke hasn’t cleared as far as the convention is concerned. My educated guess, based on insider information and the stuff on the e-groups, is that it probably drew 2,000 people (a record for FALL IN!) took in $30,000 and cost $50,000 or so. It was a grand experiment. But I’d have to say that the moral of the story is “Don’t try this at home!” Siege of Augusta SIEGE OF AUGUSTA XII last month (16-18 JAN 04) was at the other end of the spectrum. Dr. Jim Birdseye and the Augusta Section of HMGS MIDSOUTH put together a very pleasant and enjoyable show. It was about half the size of our Tampa conventions, and 1/10th the size of FALL IN 03. But it was not only fun, it produced positive cash flow. Major Bill and his brother Don Harting were down from Nashville. Mike Graziano’s Battle of Zama There was a good turnout of Georgia gamers and vendors, and some of us came up from Florida, including Bob Moon of the JAX Garrison, who put on one of his spectacular ACW games. Like FALL IN! SIEGE OF AUGUSTA works on outreach. There is usually some press involvement, and we had several visitors from the local community and several faculty members from the schools where Dr. Jim teaches history. There was a high school chess tournament, and massive NASAMW activity. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the 15mm figures. There were WWII and Vietnam games run by a local high school teacher for several students using dime store plastic figures, home rules, and home decorating terrain. And Chris Hughes of Sash and Saber put his 40mm ACW troops through their paces. I don’t often play competitively any more, but I was tempted by that one. If only the Confederates had advanced their skirmishers to the stone wall facing the Yankee batteries! I was intrigued by the low budget and innovative WWII and Vietnam games. And the 15mm figures in the Ancient and Renaissance (Ottomans versus Poles) games look like at least 28mm figures when brought out in the digital photos. I hope the people coming to see what our hobby is like were as impressed as I was. Top: Bob Moon’s Spring Hill Game at SIEGE XII Bottom: Teacher John Fillop’s WWII on the cheap and lively Back to Dispatch November 2004 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com