What in the world is TWINCON '9l? A good question! TWINCON is a gaming convention that is still in its infancy. Thus, it is not as well known as some of the more older gaming conventions that have been around for some time. TWINCON '9l is a gaming convention that was held the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area on Memorial Day Weekend (May 25 - 27). TWINCON is now two years old, and getting better each year. TWINCON '9l had a lot to offer this year. There were six special guests. A challenging painting contest. There were exhibits and demonstrations; vendors; contest and tournaments. And of course, games; games, and more games; whet.her you are a fantasy gamer or a historical gamer. Unfortunately, the author of this article was only able to take in one day of this three day extravaganza, though all the others he was able to talk to who participated in the other days gave very positive reports of the games and happens. Guests of Honor TWINCON '9l featured six guests of honor. They were Gregg Scott owner of GHQ; Julie Gutthrie; a professional scupltor, Craig Taylor from Avalon Hill (Napoleon's Battles); Ken Rolston, of Games Workshop; Margaret Weis a freelance writer of fantasy; and lastly, Scott Bowden, author of several rules sets including "Empire". The guests divided their time between lectures, demonstrations; miniature events, and causal time to talk with gamers on an informal basis. Being there for only one day, and a busy day at that; I was not able to talk with all the guests. Which was my loss. The one person that I really wanted to talk to this year was Julie Guthrie. From what I understand; she is a great person to talk to about the subject of painting and scuplting. She is very willing to offer good advice and tips that can help any gamer who is into miniatures. There are miniature painters whose figures are something to greatly admire, who are always learning something new when they talk to Julie. I also had the chance to talk with Scott Bowden he came by my event as I was setting it up. Thus; our conversation was rather short - he would have joined in if not lured away by GHQ's new miniature event that features a whole line of figures that depart from their Micro Armour line (I will mention what they are a little later on in the article.) He gave me good marks on my terrain, noting that good terrain adds a dimension to historical miniatures that can not quite be achieved on a flat surface marked with masking tape and books. Personally, I am a gamer that is more concerned with the aesthetics of a miniature event than with what rules we are going to use. The other guest that I was able to talk to was Gregg Scott, owner of GHQ. I met Gregg Scot.t last year at the first TWINCON. He is a very interesting person to talk to. He has some very interesting and unique ideas about gaming; designed to enhance historical miniatures as now played and on how to broaden the hobby to bring in new gamers. Interesting Things Even though the time was short that I was able to be at TWINCON '91, I did see a lot of interesting things. First, I will start with the Fantasy games. Now I am not a Fantasy gamer, nor do I have an interest in becoming a Fantasy gamer. But, Fantasy games were part of the convention. so I will mention them. In fact they were a big part of the convention for two simple reasons trom my point of view: Fantasy games are hot items. They are big among young teens and college students. Most of the miniature gamers that I meet at work, are fantasy gamers though I have been able to get a few to switch over to historical miniatures. It always amazes me as to how many fantasy gamers have never heard of historical miniature gaming. Fantasy games have a big following in the Twin Cities area. Fantasy gamers in this area have their own little convention each fall on the campus of the University of Minn. (added Note: TWINCON is working hard to make historicals a major part of its convention). There are several things that I want to say about the Fantasy events; based upon my observations at TWINCON '90 & '9l. First, they tend to field some rather large 25mm armies; something that I have not observed in historicals. Two; the older the gamer, the nicer the figures, plus more creative and well designed scenery. Three, there is a lot of creativity and the drawing of others into the game group participation is high. An example of this was a Circus Imperium game using 25mm figures; run by a gal named Elizabeth Kimball. She recreated the stadium using cardboard and stryfoam. She was costumed for the event; and had a manner about her that drew the gamers into the event, whether they be young or old. It was fun to just watch her. Historical Miniatures Now on to the Historical Miniature Events. TWINCON '9l provided a lot of variety to the historical gamer. There were ancients to modern games; miniature events as well as board games, and demonstration games that encouraged even the novice to participate or encourage the avid historical gamer to try a new period. In the area of Naval games, the TWINCON people tried hard to provide games that deft. with every area from Napoleonics to modern. The Civil War period was represented in Naval combat by two new rule sets; Yaquinto's Ironclads and Minifig's "Steam, Iron & Tin." Speaking of the Civil War, GHQ was there with a new line of figures for that period. They are 1Omm figures, featuring a lot of sharp de1ail; beautiful poses, and easy to paint. The figures were introduced via GHQ's event, "Ground Round Top." It was an enjoyable game. I was able to participate in the second game, but wished I could have been involved in the first game with Scott Bowden. In that game, he was a Southern artillery commander. The Union players let him amass his artillery on a small hill (a Napoleonic grand battery at Gettysburg). With this mass of artillery, he picked of the Union Regiments one by one. They in turn were unable to stop him. In the second game; the Union fared much better. (Note: as of this writing the GHQ figures have not been released for sale yet, hopefully by later this summer). Another game that I have found very interesting at TWINCON is a miniature event called "TANK BASH". Every player starts at the bottom of the list in tank and armoured vehicles. To move up in tank quality: one must score a kill and then exit the board via a random roll. There are five tank levels, and with about 10 people playing, it does take some time to reach that fifth level. What is nice about this game is that players can come and go at will; play a little, leave and then come back. The purpose of this miniature event is to introduce gamers to micro armour gaming. Plus, it is just plain and simple fun for those that enjoy gaming with armour. There are serval other comments that I need to make about TWINCON '91 that came from others who attended. The first comes from a gamer that participated in Scott Bowden's Napoleonic game using Empire rules. To being with, this gamer noted that Scott's game was the first Napoleonic miniature event that he has ever been able to finish. The gamer has been involved in Napoleonic miniature for quite some time, and never once in that time has he played in an event that came to a conclusion. The basic problem was of too many troops and too much time spent debating the minor points of the rules. Niether of these two items were present in Scott's game. Deceptions, Deceptions The second comment comes from a game judge who has been involved in running miniature events at conventions around the country. He stated that he had finally witnessed the most classic move in miniature gaming basically with micro armour. In his basic scenario, the German players had to capture and hold two towns on the board (which was a good 6' by 6' layout). Ther was a major hill between the one German player and his town objective. On that hill was the American player. The German player advanced within 12 inches of the American player; and then began to fall back - his losses were heavy. His whole demeanor was that of "Why did I do that?" As he fell back, the American player gave chase. When the American player was 2/3rds of the way down the hill, to far to defend the city; the German player's face lit up. In the woods; next to a road was his Panzer Grenadiers, who on the next turn took to the road and buzzed into the town unopposed. My point in mention this is simple; In miniature events it is not whether you win or lose that matters. but how you play the game that counts. More often than not; a gamer who can use deception effectively seems to achieve the goal they desire. Lastly; I need to say "TWINCON" is a fun time. I hope that you will set aside Memorial Day Weekend '92 for a visit to the Twin Cities and a fun time of gaming. TWINCON '92 promises to be even bigger and better than TWINCON '91. Hope to see you there. Back to MWAN #53 Table of Contents © Copyright 1991 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