Just thought that I'd drop you a few lines and tell you about our experiences at Cold Wars `91.
Well I guess my gaming career has gone full circle. Just a few years ago I went from boring board games to games with little lead men that were played with some hap-hazard home grown rules; and here I am now, presenting an event at a major convention! Yes, my friend and I took "our" version of "On To Richmond" to the convention. OTR, by Paul Koch. is a very playable set of rules for the ACW period, but we had to screw them up just a little to make easy rules more easier! Our game was called "Glory", sort of a take off of a recent ACW movie. The only similarities were the period and the title. It was a fictitious "meeting" engagement by 8 Union and 7 Confederate divisions that were previously assigned what roads and which turn they would appear on the table. Sort of two armies accidently bumping into each other.
One Confederate player asked me what was their objective. I replied that he was looking for shoes! All in all I think the games were successful because we had a clear cut winning side and almost everyone had fun. I say "almost" because, like I've seen reported in these pages on so many other occasions, there are always a few individuals who are never satisfied with your rules or decisions. Oh well. I guess that's what makes the world go round. My friend Bill, my son Tom, and I left home around 1:00 PM and got ourselves throughly psyche up by playing "Wellington's Victory" and "The 1812 Overture" on the car tape player along the way down the turnpike! We got to Harrisburg around 4 PM Friday and had enough time left to check out the flea market and the dealers before they closed. I found Richard Houston of Lyzards Grin, and quickly purchased about a dozen of his fine ACW ironclads.
While milling about in the crowd I recognized a guy that we had met last year while playing a 5mm Napoleonic game. We re-introduced ourselves and then asked if he wanted to play in an open game that evening. He agreed, and we thought. "Ah ha! We have at least one player!" At 7 PM we had hesitantly begun to set up our scenery for our open game. Before we knew what was happening we had all of the 15 players that we needed! The game played out rather well, but it lasted longer than we had planned. We were almost the last game to leave the hall at around 2 AM! We went back to our room to rethink a "new" strategy for the real game which was scheduled for 10 AM Saturday morning. The main problem was the number of players and the time each new player took for his turn when his operation card was drawn. We really didn't count on learning time. Also we cleverly used a 10 sided die for the entry turns, which could represent up to ten turns of waiting to get into the game. BAD move on our part!
That night while in our room we went to work modifying our already modified rules. Also we had to stretch out our ground felt over the heater. It was drenched with beer that a player had spilled. (What a wonderful aroma to sleep with.) Hopefully an entire Union division would wake up the following morning without a hang over! That beer bath really did wonders for my card bases and water soluble glue. We changed entry turns to six by using a six sider. and went to bed. In the morning we had the breakfast buffet (all you can eat for $5) and went back in for round two.
I bumped into Wally Simon on the way to setting up our game and he mentioned something about my subscriptsion that had run out a while back, but that was OK because now he has fewer stamps to lick! I'll have to get back to him on that.
Again we had 15 eager generals. Even some veterans from the night before! This time the game went a lot faster! I think some of this was due to our "veterans" helping the "green" recruits with the rules. I would say everyone had a good time, except for maybe the Confederates who were soundly trounced by the Federals. We finished up by 2:30 giving everybody a chance to get at all the goodies that the dealers were offering before they closed for the evening. There were a lot of different games out there.
I think the best event was the really BIG deal going on with 30 players, a host with a PA system, FANTASTIC scenery, pirates vs Brits, colonial period, all on a LARGE "L" shaped table complete with an island volcano with plenty of action! It seemed that this would be a rather hectic thing, but everybody seemed to be having fun. Almost like a three ring circus. Hey! Everybody loves the circus! There were also some ACW games going on played with those new rules "Fire & Fury". Seemed if it was ACW it was booked solid no matter what rules were being used. Saw a real nice ACW 10mm game that was really beautiful. The host had mentioned that GHQ was going into ACW 10mm. If anybody has more info on this please let us all know! The only other was from 10 High from the Armory. A complete army; cavalry, artillery, infantry and command, in a poly bag for only $29. Not Bad!!! Saw a lot of ship games, wish someone would do a few articles in MWAN on scenarios and rules.
Oh yes, we can't forget to mention the Godzilla game. Looked interesting ... Had some 5mm cavalry along with the Micro-Armor. Upon closer inspection I found out that these were mounted police ... OK! I asked if they had some scale model squashed tanks. You know, to be used as morale markers, right? If I would have had the time I may have tried out this "semi-historical" concept. After dodging traffic while crossing a four lane highway on foot, we were chowing down at the local Mc Donalds. When we came back to the hall we went into round three. Yep! We had another open event that evening at 8 PM. This time we also participated with the new players who were by now veterans as we had guys that had played in all three games!
We had fun well into the night and by the time we had cleaned up it was around 1:30 AM. Bill had gone to bed but my son and I had gone "exploring". On our way through the various levels of the hotel we had run across no less than five games which were going on in different rooms and probably well into the wee hours of the morning. Great stuff! After breakfast Sunday morning we hit the flea market and the dealers one more time before departing. Once again we saw our "veterans" of three games and they asked if we were going to do it one more time. But the human body can only take so much of setting up and tearing down in three days, so we declined. I know this has to be a first: turning down a game! I was only looking for limbers for my 15mm guns, but had somehow managed to BUY MORE infantry at some greatly reduced prices! It's hard to "just say NO". I was a little disappointed as to not finding that much in 20mm. I needed Napoleonic mounted officers for my plastic ESCI army. RSM had a few which I scarfed up immediately! Well needless to say we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. We spent some cash to support the hobby. We made a few new friends, and also said hello to some old ones. And we found the "courage" to take an event to a national convention. I can truthfully say I owe all of this to MWAN, for without your wonderful magazine I would not have been exposed to all of the different facets of this great hobby.
Thanks, Hal! I'd also like to thank everyone who was concerned with COLD WARS '91. Also, special thanks to Mike Montemarano, who I plagued with many phone calls and to Bob Watts.
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