Greetings gamers from all over. Just returned from Historicon and had a great time. Of course, seeing old friends is the best part, but a little DBM and DBA, leavened with some WWII and Classical Hack, and too much shopping rounded out the usual excellent event by HMGS East. I think the crowds were a little thinner than the last time I attended in 1999, but concessions have improved, and the game masters put on an excellent set of games for all to see. Phil Viverito and Duke Siegfried both had outstanding visual games to play in 25mm-Phil's historical covering the siege of Tyre and the battle of Atrax, while Duke did the "semi-historical" Lord of the Rings with four (?) battles. Stunning! There were many others too, and I helped Pete Panzeri give out a few awards on behalf of Gamemasters International on Thursday. He and Jodie were doing yeoman's work, as usual, helping out GMs and putting on a game or tow also. So "who's in the mailbox this month" you ask? Not much. You guys haven't kept me on your email lists and pickings are poor. So how about dropping me an email or two and tell me how your club is doing?
I missed Mike Demana at Historicon-seems in his old age he can only cope with Origins or H-con, not both! O Nevertheless, the HMGS Great Lakes Herald showed up like clockwork. Mike reports that he has just launched his "Roman Dreams" website at http://www.geocities.com/mikedeniana/. It contains descriptions and pictures of his armies, complete campaign rules as reported in numerous Herald pages (it's winter turn now, so no big gains have been made), maps, battle reports, and recommended historical fiction and non-fiction. Sweet! By the way, if any clubs are having trouble making money, talk to HMGS-GL Treasurer Joe Cairo who reports over $4000 in the coffers. [Of course, this pales in comparison to the $8900 profit by East on last year's Fall In!] Their flagship con Advance the Colors opens 12-14 September at the Springfield, OH Holiday Inn, and promises to be as good as ever. It's sister event Drums along the Maumee ran in May, setting a new record with 143 games offered. Wow! Scott Jeske wrote an entertaining first-person report of a failed strike by his Alamanni tribe against the Alans. Dennis Frank penned a literary search into the Bronte family and their playing with miniature figures in the 1820s and 30s. Henry Lubbers offered up a quick review of the Russian Civil War and added a wealth of on-line source material for interested readers. Terry Hollern described the creation of two camps for DBx rules-one with farmers sowing fields, and another with tentsingenious!
Besides H-con, what else is HMGS East up to? The latest newsletter starts off with Scott Holder's extended search for the adequate 25mm miniatures tool box/carrier. I didn't know Scott had a sense of humor?!?!? O Fred hubig gave a pitch for Fall In! at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium coming on 14-16 November. He also answers a number of Q&As concerning dealers and their setups, lodging, shuttle service (!), restaurants, maps, website references, and more. The dean of wargaming, Don Featherstone, posted a lengthy article reviewing German military prowess from Roman times through 1815, with a focus to wargaming the various epochs. Very cool.
Big Muddy Historical Gaming Association's Fifth Column was bit thin this month. Summer must be taking it's toll on gamer's time, what with kids to tend to, vacations to enjoy, etc. Nevertheless, Mark Johnson reported a rather lukewarm review of NashCon . Harold Wones drafted an interesting piece on military medals of the US/(how about one on Brit, German, French, Japanese, or Russian ones next?). The local hobby shops are still offering a rotating series of game days to entice gamers on the weekend. NASAMW has done a great job of expanding beyond the WRG mantle of the past. They sponsored the usual DBx games at Historicon, as well as Warrior and Armati, and in both 15nnn and 25mm scales. I played in the DBM Open and the DBA open and Midnight Madness, with a mediocre showing in both but I had fun. The Spearpoint has been great to read too-fewer weird army variations for one rules set, and more entertaining and informative history. The March/April issue featured the Avar siege of Constantinople by Charles Randow. Kevin Donovan will be posting and updating a new rating system for DBM players called the "Glicko". It's a novel weighted system where you get more credit for beating someone better than you and more negativity for losing to someone ranked lower. You can see the rankings and a number of other interesting tidbits like armies unused in tournaments, most successful armies, and arch nemesis match-ups for opponents. By the way, Kevin was DBM Player of the Year for 2002/3, and he won the NICT in 15mm at Historicon-congratulations!! Mike Parsons favorably reviewed the Brit rules Vis Bellica. May/June held Allen Smithee's article discussing Viking shields and standards-gaming versus reality. John Cleaves discussed the rules for and modeling of camps for Warrior-quite interesting. There was also a fairly strong review of the computer game Chariots of War by Slitherine Software. And of course many battle reports, standings, and victory laurels from all over. Dan Hazelwood is stepping down as editor after an excellent year, and my friend Rich Wright will take over the job. Thanks for the good work Dan.
Lastly, Bob Liebl, half of the dynamic duo of Liebl & Liebl, editors extraordinaire of the NOVAG Game Closet, stopped me at H-con and handed over a number of issues of the magazine for capturing here. Digging through the trove of articles I now possessed, I found myself chuckling at Wally Simon's description of CLS combat at the Liebl's as well as a DBM game in his basement where he learned all kinds of "unhistorical" lessons. Not to be out done, Bob Liebl penned his own facetious article describing a GASLIGHT game (Teddy Bears Save the World-indeed!). Ben Pacson and Joe Walukonis ponied up their American wars 1776-1812 rules called Red Flames/Blue Thunders. Victor Schmidt offers some well-placed thoughts on conceiving and running multiplayers scenarios. He followed that with some truly excellent ideas on playtesting new games/rules. Bob had some spot-on reflections on the lack of mobility in WW2 though modern armor games you see at most events, and suggestions to fix that. Then he added a frolicking discussion on the use of terrain in wargames, and wondered at the bizarre rules we saddle ourselves with that force battles in terrain no sane commander would accept. Food for thought. Bob continues with a good review of the seven types of attacks, the French wars of religion, the battlefield career of the Duke of Marlborough, and a set of colonial rules called "Welcome to Mr. Akbar's Neighborhood" Fabulous. NOVAG and the HAWKS have teamed up for the past couple HMGS East conventions to sponsor events--some 35 at Historicon if I counted right. Nice job.
One final plug for you before I go. Pat Condray handed me a copy of the 2003 HMGS Almanac at Historicon that he and some compatriots put together. It's a 44 page compliation of our hobby, with a brief history and review of wargaming as well as HMGS, a listing of HMGS chapters and contacts, an event list for the next year or so, a 24 page listing of clubs and shops (I helped a bit with this), and another several pages of manufacturers, distributors,a nd publishers. If you haven't seen it, contact your local I-IMGS as they've been given stacks of these to pass along to you. And say "thaknks" to Pat if you see him, and consider stepping up to the bar and helping write the update in a year or two. Ciao!
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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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