The GAMECON conventions are run by NOVAG (Northern Virginia Garners). The first two I attended were GAMECON 15 and 16, reported below. While I am a NOVAG member, the views below are entirely my own. I apologize in advance for any misspellings of names. I had some difficulty reading my own notes scrawled at the conventions. GAMECON 15 (August 19, 2001) This was held at the Best Western Tyson's Westpark Hotel, Tyson's Corner (McLean) in Northeast Virginia near Washington D.C. The convention was in the lower lobby (basement) in a typical hotel convention or ball room, plus some spread into the neighboring hallway. One feature was no pre-registration for events. Instead, interested players showed up at each game for the gamesmaster/host to sign up and decide when the game was full. A NOVAG person later told me that ninety-five people attended. There were a few dealers, one of them was Pat Condray. For my first two games at the convention, I was the host. I put on a reduced, traveling version of the Charles Sweet House Rules for 30mm American Revolution wargaming from the 1960's (See MWAN #85). I used a cloth about half the usual table size, gridded into squares as called for by the rules, and about half the original figures. The scenario was a meeting engagement at a crossroads. In the game, the British (played by Bobby Everson and Robert Everson) beat the Americans (played by Eric Schlegel and Wally Simon). The highlight (or lowlight, depending on your point of view) perhaps came from two "misfires" by the American's field gun. In other words, the American player (Wally Simon) firing the model gun to represent artillery had his model shell bounce the wrong way twice. The first time was not too bad a result, as the shell "killed" both a Hessian lager and an American of the Philadelphia Light Horse. However, the second misfire ended up "killing" five infantry (about half a regiment) from the American 3rd New Jersey. My second game was a 25mm American Civil War battle run by John McDonnell (I believe) using the "Brother Against Brother" skirmish-level rules. For example, I had a company of Confederate infantry. The other two Confederate players, with similar forces, were Wally Simon and Geoff Graff. The Union forces were played by Robby and Bob Everson and Tony Figlia. This was another meeting engagement at a crossroads. The game seemed well run and the rules worked well. The details of the battle have faded, but I seem to recall that it was a glorious Confederate victory. From time to time, I looked in at other games. During my American Revolution game, one neighbor was running a massive naval Battle of the Java Sea (1942) game. There were a total of about 15-20 events from a variety of historical periods, plus some fantasy/science fiction an others which were hard to classify. For example, there was a "Major Dundee" game which seemed to be based on the movie by that name, so the rules were mainly historical, except for the special abilities of the figures representing the movie's chief characters. GAMECON 16 (March 30, 2002) This was also held at the Best Western Tyson's Westpark Hotel, except that there were more events and the games spread more into the hallway. The convention also had more dealers. A NOVAG person told me there were a total of 123 attendees, 102 paying (the balance being children under 12, etc). I did not host a game this time. The first one I played was run by Brian Higbee and Bob Giglio, featuring 19th Century China. An Allied force of Imperial Chinese, the unique "Ever Victorious Army", and British and French landing parties (played by John H. Daniel, Don Smith, and myself) tried to take a fortified city held by the Taiping Rebels (played by IC McDaniel, Dave Furr, Harry Kogelschatz, and Matt Dinkell). The game used 25mm figures and some nice Chinese terrain touches. The rules were basically Space 1889 with the science fiction left out. However, the setting's variety of weapons provided it's own oddities. Some Chinese on both sides had bows or pikes, while the Taiping cannon could (and did) blow themselves up with the wrong die roll. I played the French, supported by one Imperial Chinese pike unit, and more or less successfully carried out a diversion on one flank, although I ended up desperately holding off massive Taiping reinforcements. About the same happened on the other flank. The Allies finally won when, after repeated attacks, a mixed Chinese and British force (Don Smith) finally broke through the city's ruined gate in the center and a unit of British sailors reached the central compound, causing a morale check which most of the Taiping units failed. My second of two games was a 15mm colonial-period battle run by Doug Austin under THE SWORD AND THE FLAME rules. I played the commander of a small British column that was trying to relieve and resupply a British outpost (played by John Snead). The scenario included special rules for an ammunition wagon with the column. The opposing Zulus (played by Lance O'Donnell and Bill Rankin) started mostly hidden, with some reinforcements on the way, and had to choose between attacking the column and/or the outpost. In the game, the Zulu players used an excellent tactical mix of multiple charges combined with their limited rifles. The game was called slightly early, on account of time, but was correctly declared a Zulu victory. By that point, my relief column had lost about half it's men and was basically stalled, while on of three Zulu charges on the outpost had succeeded and managed to get some warriors inside the walls. Once again, there were a variety of other games, largely historical, some science fiction or fantasy. Most used miniatures, but I believe I saw some card games. CONCLUSION Overall, I thought each GAMECON was worth the registration fee, and in my case, the trip, several hours' drive each way. One measure of the hobby's progress is that GAMECON is apparently considered a local convention. However, I can remember when getting one hundred wargamers together in the same place would have seemed a major achievement for a national convention! Back to MWAN #118 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 Hal Thinglum 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