I've described the drive east through Pennsylvania's hills to Cold Wars in many ways, over the years (not all printable). "Sunny and hot," was a new one, though! The mid-80s Spring day was a pleasant change from the usual ice and snow. I even caved in to Allen and Joel and stopped off at Gettysburg for a quick tour of the battlefield.

It was my first trip there. I especially enjoyed the view from "The Angle" on the Union side, looking across the open ground towards where Pickett launced his charge. The trees and stone walls had a stark, tombstone-like look, perhaps because of the blood they were soaked in on that day or in our memories. I decided to come back in the summer, sometime, and spend the day walking the field and feeling the spirit of the place.

Once in Lancaster, we met up with Steve and Dave and were soon in the gaming spirit. Our traditional Thursday night boardgame was "War: Age of Imperialism" with its hundreds of plastic soldiers, cannons, factories, trains, etc. All except Joel struggled early against stiff resistance from the native peoples. He squandered his lead and his empire's energy, though, in a war against me. This allowed Steve and Dave to become the strongest at the end.

Friday morning saw the five of us scatter to different events and the Dealer's Room until Allen and I rejoined for Great Lakes member Bob Beattie's Big Battle DBA Tournament. We fielded my Picts with Irish ally -- colorful troops, but of questionable effectiveness. We found a definite learning curve in this, our first, Big Battle tourney. Not to mention our dice rolling (especially by the abominable Irish) was subpar. We were beaten by Carthaginian and Roman armies before saving face with victory over the Macedonians.

Things got better for me that night in Midnight Madness, as my Early Poles made it all the way to the semifinals. Then, we tried to get too tricky against the eventual winning army, the Gauls. Nevertheless, four of us celebrated with the traditional midnight snack/breakfast at Denneys.

Saturday was shopping day for me. I scoured the Dealer's Room and purchased two Medieval Southeast Asian armies: Khmer and Malay (from Irregular and Falcon, respectively). I plan on adding the Thais, Burmese and mysterious Cham, eventually. I guess I am still inspired by my visit to Angkor Wat and look forward to researching and painting this new period. Who knows? Maybe I'll have one of them finished in time to show off at Dennis Frank's DBA Tourney at Advance the Colors this September!