This October we held our Fall Campaign convention at the Verdugo Boy Scout Hall in Burbank. We covered just about every era of warfare with games from WWII, Napoleonics, Medievals, Ancients, Colonials and Modems played. True to our Chapter, both winners and losers had a great time. Saturday night's games did not end until 4:00AM ! Hah! Who says we old geezers can't game into the wee hours of the morning anymore. Then the doors opened for Sunday gaming at 8:00AM and the gaming stated up again.
Robert Runnels and Marc Canu hosted a marvelous DBA tournament. Unlike their August tourney, a few rules questions came up concerning weird situations on the battlefield. Why is it that we wargamers somehow always manage to get ourselves into freaky could-never-happen-in-amillion-years combat situations?
Robert handled every problem with good humor and fairness and this alone made the tourney an enjoyable event. First Place winner was Bob Burris playing an Alexandrian Macedonian army. Second Place was Mark Parker playing a Late Swiss army. Bob received a painted Carthaginian DBA army and Mark received an unpainted Hundred Years War French DBA army. Well done all!
On the main floor many games were giving out awards to participants for good play:
Battle of Saalfeld 1806
Robert Genso-Allied General awarded $10 Warhouse certificate.
Don Williams - Allied General awarded $5 Webster Co. cert
Bill Rhyme - French General awarded $5 Webster Co. cert.
Attack on Castle Aaaaargh
Mickey Juif - French Captain awarded $10 Warhouse cert.
Art Turney - Templar Grandmaster awarded $5 Webster cert.
Colonials in the Sudan
John Gaffney - FuzzyWuzzy chief awarded $10 Warhouse cert.
Dean Hickman - FuzzyWuzzy Chief awarded $5 Webster cert.
A Bridge Too Near
Michael Svette - German General
Rob Boyans - German General
Marco Quesada - American General
Kevin Rounsaville - American General
Late Saturday night we hosted the HMGS/PSW's version of free psychiatric care: our infamous Roman Chariot Race. Hosted by Allen Hughes, this grand event was even more loud, chaotic, and bloodthirsty than usual. The field started with over 24 chariots. It ended with 6. In this night's game smashed chariots didn't seem to mean that the owner was out of the game. Art Turney had his chariot smashed to bits and was being dragged around the stadium by his horses. He managed to cut himself free, then walked up to Rich DeRosa who was also being dragged around the ring by his own horse team and punched him in the mouth. "There's nothing in the rules covering this one," groaned co-host Paul Say. Bill Heizer managed to heroically cut himself free from his crashed chariot but was then deliberately run over by Bob Burris and killed. When the blood and dust settled the winners were;
1st - Pat "Whipmeister" Finerty awarded ancient Roman coin.
2nd - Mickey "Bloodlust" Juif awarded ancient Roman coin
3rd - Paul "Grave Digger" Say awarded $5 cert.
4th - Mike "Hit and Run" Verity awarded $5 cert.
5th - Jesse "DWI" Boyens awarded $5 cert.
The five o'clock Chapter meeting was energetic with good participation by the large crowd. Many issues were covered that are affecting us.
First, there was a very mixed reaction to the idea of making the main newsletter "The Messenger" a downloadable file from our Chapter website, instead of a mailed hard copy. In the end we voted to keep "The Messenger" a color pamphlet mailed to members. Second, we welcomed the new members that joined the Chapter that day. We applauded the wonderful report from Steve Verdoliva our Treasurer that showed we had about $5,500 in the bank. Finally we heard new information concerning HMGS East's efforts to make "HMGS" a national copyright. Each Chapter must now get their own separate Federal non-profit status ID number. We voted to readily comply with these new requirements.
Fred Rosenberg's WWII rehersal game was well played. "I thought the game went well from our point of view, and we learned a lot," said Fred. "There were those who did not get into the conflict and I feel bad for them. Instead of complicated scenarios, we will be putting on simple battalion bashes from now on until the big monster game in 2004. We project that 30+ players each commanding a couple of companies or battalions will be able to play. Some will play the first day and effectively be out of the game by the end of the day and not participate the second day. Others will not play the first day but will come on the table the second day as reinforcements. Another idea is for those players wiped out the first day to come back the second day with fresh commands".
The 2002 Fall convention President's Award was chosen after the convention was over. The award is given to the best game put on at the con. Judgment is based on quality of painted figures used, terrain, knowledge of the rules and handouts, and overall presentation. The winner of the 2002 Miniwars;The Fall Campaigns is...
Mike Verity
Mike hosted the 25mm Napoleonic Battle of Saalfeld. First off, it must be said that the 25mm figures used by Mike and the Northridge Napoleonics Club are stunning. They have truly turned their figures into beautiful art works. The superior terrain they have built only compliments the luster of the figures. Since the club has created their own Napoleonic rules set Mike lead them through the entire game without a single argument or rules debate. All in all the Battle of Saalfeld was an outstanding wargame and a source of pride for our Chapter. Mike's name will be added to the main Chapter's plaque, receive his own version of the award and receive a $50.00 certificate from Old Glory. Congratulations!
Back to Table of Contents The Messenger November 2002
Back to The Messenger List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2002 by HMGS/PSW.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com