I've been thinking at some length about the relative merits of taking our games to shows. There was one show that I attended as an exhibitor putting on a game with the lads when someone on another stand, putting on a much larger game, came over and freely admitted it was a way to get in free and have a game with his mates that they wouldn't otherwise have the space to do! They then spent the duration of the event (two very wet days in a tent next to a certain tank museum!) just playing their game, making absolutely NO attempt to communicate with the public (some demo, eh?) and just presenting the vile 'wall of backs'. To my mind, that's just bang out of order. When I put on a game, I do it to 'give back' something to the hobby I enjoy so much. To me, that means putting on a game that others can enjoy. To that end, the lads who work with me (or me with them) also agree that the game should be big enough to draw the interest of passers-by with sufficient 'eye candy', an easily explained scenario and spaces for sufficient players (ideally around 6) to enjoy the game, enough of us on hand to have an immediate answer to any questions the players have and at least one person on hand at all times to give out handouts and explanations to the casual observers. Last year ( 2001 ), our game at Bovington was the attack against the Tobruk defences, 12th/14th April 1941. We had enough of us that we could field two Umpires for the Germans and Australians and an overall Umpire (me, usually) to adjudicate and keep the decisions 'constant'. I also, as the two umpires knew the rules and the scenario well, doubled up as PR Man for the casual observers as I had the time to do so. We had a couple of others as 'starting players' to get the game moving so that anyone who wanted to join in could do so immediately, rather than have to come back a couple of hours later. OK, we didn't win Best In Show last year (did that in 2000!) but we DID win Best Use of Industrial Aggregate (Sand)!! Good fun all round, several members of the public took part and enjoyed themselves and we rotated 'duties' amongst ourselves so that we didn't get 'jaded' over the time. Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolfe Hedges 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