Warband, an HMGS-Great Lakes sponsored wargame convention, was held Saturday 2/28 at the Knights of Saint John's Hall in Reading (an inner suburb of Cincinnati) Ohio. It was a rockin' little local con. We had unseasonably good weather, warm and sunny, but the gamers stayed indoors rolling dice all day. (The good weather held on Sunday, so I did some yardwork this weekend after all.) I estimate we had a total of about 100 souls in the building throughout the event, with guests coming from as far as West Virginia, Lexington Kentucky and southern Indiana. Several gamers brought their young children, and a zombie-hunt game ran all day for their entertainment, which also drew some adults. The HMGS-GL Ladies Auxiliary ran food service (brats, chili, chips and slaw - burrrup!) out of the KoSJ Hall kitchen, for the convenience of the guests and as a fund raiser, and the wet bar in the basement (yes!) served soft drinks and beer. Upstairs in the main gaming hall, 5 or 6 events ran at any given time, as well as a double-sized DBA tournament. There were more games than tables, as some events ran over-time and there were few no-show GMs. That's a good problem to have. My own event was a bit squeezed for time, but no matter. I was happy that I was able to introduce 3 new guys to Mustangs miniatures, and I was invited to put on my game at a couple of local clubs. My favorite event was a Renaissance naval wargame hosted by Rich Smethurst and Dale Kemper. Rich and Dale scratch-built fleets of Turkish and Christian galleys and cogs from wood, painting patterns on a lot of fretted wood trim from a dollhouse supply store, and wrote their own rules. The ships came out both gorgeous and functional; their decks are wide and clear enough to hold proper stands of 15mm figures for crew and marines. For this game, the figures were mounted 4 per base, Napoleon's Battles style. The game was fast, furious and colorful, and drew much applause from players and spectators. Rich and Dale say they hope to publish their rules, and build ships for commercial sale. Watch for Rich and Dale selling out, and remember that you read it here first! The flea-market was successful, as was the raffle. Warband has always been a free event for all participants - no admission charge and no event fees. (I was staggered to learn that in Australia, the conventions charge the _GM_ a fee to put on an event. That would put me off running a game.) Expenses at Cincinnati cons are paid for by HMGS-GL members donating painted wargame units to be raffled off. The pride of this year's raffle was an Early Imperial Roman DBA army painted by Scott Jeske, which drew over 30 raffle tickets at $3 each, and paid the hall rental by itself. Go Scott! We'll do it all again in June at the Warparty mini-con, and I can hardly wait. Come and see. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 3 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com