Hola! Bienvenidas. Como esta mi compadres? Yo soy muy bien. Sorry, my daughter has been practicing her Spanish on me. Actually, I am great. I've been playing Third Reich with one friend, Panzer Leader with four others, and I'm planning a combined ACW naval/land battle for the NHMGS Breakthrough Con in November-how could life not be great?
Say "hello" to the Wasatch Front Gaming Society. Mark Irsik, their fearless leader, is headquartered in Clearfield, Utah. He just sent in their premier issue of Warning Order, a 12page well- done color quarterly journal covering the group's activities and offering good electronic resources for gainers. Future issues will be available through their Mark in electronic format. Articles ranged from Renaissance to Seven Years War to WWII. Lots of pretty pictures--figure, movie, game, and book reviews. They just finished a SYW campaign for which you can get a copy of their home-rules by contacting Mark. And they recommend the following websites: achtung panzer.com and the Napoleonic Uniform Source
The HMGS Great Lakes newsletter was another enjoyable read, looks like it grew up to 48 pages this issue. Mike Demana, editor, reports that the Historical Origins Team 2000 (HOT2K) outnumbered the fantasy gainers at Origins this year! Excellent! Paul Westermeyer (westermayer.3@osu.edu) of HMGS-GL will lead next year's event-huzzah. Tom Bryant is their new President, and has put Great Lakes on the eGroups network for those interested in tapping their minds. Michicon and drums Along the Maumee Con were both successes, though attendance was down at the first. WWII events seem to prevail, not unexpectedly. Dennis Frank continues his series on wargaming roots by detailing the three levels of wargaming described by HG Wells-the Lieutenants, Captains, and Generals. Mike Demana laid out a nice expanded DBA scenario with maps and OB for Rome Vs. Vandals and some special scenario rules like impetuous cavalry. Their signature con Advance the Colors would have gone this weekend in Sharonville, OH. Many other local and national events are listed, including 9 hobby shops with regular gaming, and much more-great group. Give them a call.
Gainers living in the greater Rio Grande Valley area would do well to check out Don Wolff's El Camino Real Post. It lists 27 wargamers looking for opponents, showing their gaming periods and scales. There are also gaming sites all over the area, and web sites.
It's always fun and informative reading Bill Harting's HMGS Mid-South Dispatch. First off, the Hattiesburg Kriegspielers wrote a scathing but humorous review ofthe Command Decision 3 rules, detailing their faults. Lord Al goes on about the variety of pirate ships, figures, and equipment for all you potential Blackbeards, which the "mad" Howard Whitehouse immediately follows with some simple rules on how to play with the pretty toys, Andy O'Neil had me rolling on the floor with his possible responses to people who rabidly accuse wargamers of being warmongers, etc. Pete Panzeri sent in a 15-page list of his sources, on-line and books, for use in research. THIS IS A GOLD MINE!!! Contact Bill Harting to get a copy ASAP!!!!!!! Some Viking rules looking similar to Pig wars were included, as well as the early and current Phonetic
Alphabet. Duncan Head discusses the availability and quality of source material on various ancient/medieval popular battles. Lots of humor thrown into the mix, too.
Fall In! the HMGS East fall premier convention is coming November 3-5 In Gettysburg. I'm sure it will meet the usual outstanding performance of others I've attended in the past. Tim Mullen is the event coordinator at tmullen109@aol.coni would love to hear from you. I heard Historicon in July went very well with 3000+ attendees. East's website is my favorite starting place when I go in search of gaming related stuff, too.
You all missed a great event by Northwest HMGS. They held a game day at the Museum of Flight here in Seattle. Emphasis was on air games, but the show was well handled, and of course you get to visit the museum, which is spectacular with many WWII and other aircraft. Jake Bledsoe informed the newsletter readers of the large variety of events occurring on the eastern half of the WA/OR states, including game locations and clubs. Mal Wright added an interesting summary of discussions he had with WWII veterans concerning the German view of Shermans and warfare in general. Former President Tim McNulty is starting a new group, the South Sound grenadiers, for which I don't have any info other than they'll meet on Saturdays at American Eagles in Tacoma. Breakthrough Con is coming in November, where I plan to run that ACW land & naval combo battle. Should be a blast.
The April and May Last Dispatches of the Last Square Gainers crowed about the success of Little Wars 2000. Seems this con reversed a slow degradation of the con over the past few years, with much higher attendance, receipts, and a nice location. Jim Stuht also told a riveting tale of running a Bottleggers miniature game (by Jackson Games) featuring dozens of cops and bad guys racing around with old cars and machine guns. Sounded like fim! He followed that with a nonsensical version of a big game hunt turned fight with the natives. Weird names like W.D. Fourty and Yerbouti-ugh. Jim obviously likes his skirmish games.
Big Muddy Historical Gaming Alliance continues to hold numerous game events in their area, including a con each month Aug to Nov. Earl Hodgen held a skirmish game involving colonials with princes and caliphs and lots of camel-jockeys. Blake Walker wrote another segment in his informative series on Franco-Prussian War tactics, this one centering on weapon employment differences due to varied capabilities. Keep up the good work.
Historical Gamers of Indianapolis are still meeting at 19 & 1 every Tuesday and Saturday. Advanced Squad Leader is a weekly favorite, though many other games are played. Examples from September and October are Fire & Fury, Medieval skirmish, Close Action naval, American Revolution, Napoleon's battles, and Formula I Racing. Check out their new website at http://members.xoom.com/nineteenand1/
According to the Spring Messenger from HMGS Pacific Southwest, their Spring Campaign con only netted 50 folks, disappointing the organizers. They hope to have more than twice that at Mini-Wars 2000 in November at the Verdugo Hills Boy Scout center. The newsletter also included an interesting interview with Tom Dye, owner of Minifigs-seems they have many new figs for us to check out with more user-friendly packaging (toll free 1-877-700-6174).
Heart of America HMGS had a great turnout at their Call to Arms 2000 in May. They are now planning Border Wars 12 for Kansas City, KS that will include a Garde du Corps tournament, a new WRG 7th tournament, and Silent Auction. Todd Carter presented part of the Painting Guide from the Wargarnes Foundry website that has many good tips in it for new or intermediate painters.
I visited HMGS Tornado Alley's website where I found them ginning up for Fort Worth Wars on 27-28 Oct. Lots of Warharnmer variations will be there, as well as Pony soldier, Cross of Iron, DBM Tourney, Bautzen in Napoleonics, Prussia's Revenge nappies, and an auctions. Good luck.
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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