In June at the Origins International Game Expo, Duke Seifried was the Miniatures Guest of Honor. He brought the Tales of Tolkien to the show. 6 battles in total. Helms Deep, Pelenor Fields, Black Gates, and the three small battles of Erebor, Loth Lorion, & The Greenwood. Helms Deep was played on Thursday, Friday & Saturday. Black Gates played on Thursday, & Friday. Pelenor Fields only played on Saturday. The three small battles played every day. Duke ran the Black Gates & Pelenor Fields. Frank Chadwick ran Helms Deep. Don Perrin ran Greenwood and I ran Loth Lorion. We had some additional help from Brian Beal and others, All the games played very well this time around. With Duke being very pro good, Don & I felt it was our duty to be ultra pro-evil. Don & I did our best but that little %$*&@ midget Frodo still managed to drop the ring into Mount Doom. I guess you can't win them all. Sigh. All in all it was a balanced weekend for both the forces of good and evil. We did have some excellent players who brought with them the perfect balance of competition and sportsmanship. I wish to thank all who played with us because as Game Masters you made our job very easy. For me, this was my first Origins experience. I can honestly tell you that I had a great time. I looked around at a enormous number of different games. Being primarily a historical gamer these days, I am a little out-of-touch with the fantasy/adventure gaming market. I walked into one room which turned out to be the Call of Cthulhu room and was impressed and frightened all at the same time! They had a giant squid at one end of the room. According to a few people I talked to, these giant squids (or Great Ones as they are called) are the center of all that is evil and unholy in the game. I walked through the art exhibit and was very impressed. If I only had a few more walls to put things on I might have been tempted to purchase a piece or two. Of course there are still the large contingent of card gamers at the show but to each his own. Hey, I used to play Magic: the Gathering all the time. There was a good representation of board games and a very strong presence of miniatures at the show. Pete and Jodie Panzeri have done a great job with the HOT program and now with the HMGS Great Lakes team running the show, things are in good hands. Steve Smith from HMGS-GL is the current HOT Director and I could not think of anyone else who is better suited for the job. I have known Steve for a few years now and he is an asset to the hobby. Steve has run the DBA Tournament at Little Wars for the last 2 years. He is an excellent guy, friendly and fun. Just what the program needs. I salute you Steve! Nice job! Also this year, another friend of mine had been brought on staff to be the overall Miniature DirectorBob Giglio. Bob is an outstanding Game Master and excellent organizer. I see a bright future for miniatures at Origins with Bob at the helm. The exhibitor hall was a sight to see. It was a true festival of gaming and paraphernalia. I was able to see some great historical venders at the show as well as some of the premier companies from the adventure game market. I loved walking around to see some of the impressive booth displays in the hall. Some companies really go all out. Outside of the Eagle Games booth they had a huge floor game of Attack! It was really cool to sit back and watch the game unfold. I also got to meet some of the people who worked on Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead and the other movies in that series. One of the new games released at the show was from WizKids. It is a collectable Pirate ship-based combat game, called Pirates of the Spanish Main. In each pack you get a random selection of 2 ships, a terrain piece, die and treasure tokens. The ships can be put together very easily unless you are challenged like myself. James Earnest is the game designer for this game and it does play fast and fun. Nice job James! I did spend most of my days wandering around the show, soaking up all the ambiance. My early evenings were filled with running the Lord of the Ring games and my late night was spent loosing money to my traveling poker group from the GAMA Trade Show. I love playing poker with excellent players. It is both fun and a challenge. I did not walk away a winner this round but lived to play another day at the GAMA Trade Show in March, 2005 (Las Vegas, NV, The Riviera Hotel). In conclusion I really enjoyed my trip to Origins. It is smaller than GenCon but that makes it more accessible. It's good people with a variety of things to do. I would recommend it if you are looking for a show with all facets of gaming. Back to MWAN # 131 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com