I just attended the SEVEN YEARS WAR ASSOCIATION CONVENTION outside of Chicago last weekend. Brian Vizek hosted it and did a nice job. A number of good games, vendors, a flea market, and lots of good fellowship and friends I see only once a year or so. Jim Purkey has taken over the group from Bill Protz, and if one can judge from the attendance, has done a nice job of it. Duke Seifried gave the dinner presentation and talked about the French Indian War, primarily from Eckert's WILDERNESS EMPIRE, an excellent book. He followed this up with a demonstration game featuring his French & Indian War rules TOMAHAWK, which I understand, are in line to be published by THE EMPEROR'S PRESS. Featuring Duke's great terrain (two by two foot modular sections we played out a French raid upon a settlement while the British attempted to stop them. I was Sir William Johnson, leading two units of Indians and two of militia, and did very poorly toward accomplishing my objectives ­ I ended up routing, or being pushed off the board by my good friend, Stephen Lawrence. Thanks a lot, Stephen. I was quite impressed with the game mechanics; simple, fast--moving, some interesting mechanics, etc. It operates with a card system and that is essentially the only thing I don't like about it as my opinion is that card systems result in a general slowdown of game time as everyone sits around waiting for the person whose card was drawn, to take care of his business. Duke's method of presenting a demonstration game was, I thought, very good, as everyone knew the rules after several turns. I'm looking forward to these rules coming out! While at the SYWA Convention, I did overspend; something I hadn't done in years at a convention. I don't know what got into me! First of all, I can t stay away from flea markets; first thing I checked out when I got there was the flea market -- "Oh boy, EAGLE SYW Austrian infantry!" Well, I don't need a bag of 30 such figures, but they were only $15.00 and I could buy a few more and have another SYW unit, so I bought them right away. Then it was a stop by Keith Leidy's table where I picked up a bunch of ELITE French & British mounted Infantry officers, which I really did need for my SYW project. WARGAMES had some very mice REVO SYW 25mm flags, so I invested in them, picking up SYW, as well as Malburian flags, since my units are fictitious, I don't have to worry about having the correct flags. From there, I went to EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS and picked up several bags of OLD GLORY'S' LAST OF THE MOHICANS French Line Infantry which will serve double duty for my French & Indian War/SYW projects. Bill Protz was selling a bunch of his old books and I couldn't pass up a book on the English Civil War. Then I saw some 25mm Austrian flags at Joe Gepfert's stand and couldn't pass them up, even though they were Napoleonic flags. I think I bought something from every stand! How's that for unintended fairness? It was a good time! Haven't been painting all that much; did finish some French Foreign Legion and Arabs in an attempt to fill up some holes in the collection. I've decided to remount all of the foot Arabs three to a fender washer to make it easier to move them around. This is a bit of a pain in the butt, but it should be worthwhile in that I want to make it really more of a solo game and in order to do that, the Arabs have to be capable of being moved around more easily. Actually, I think they look very good like this -- three to a fender washer. The French will still be mounted individually. I ordered a bunch of WWI items from WARGANES FOUNDRY for ny FFL period, namely a bunch of French infantry to fill in some gaps and give me two full battalions of regular French infantry; about six machine guns -- they have three different French machine guns and crews; and some French artillery crewmen. I'm very anxious to see what they look like and hope that they fit in with the "standard" 25mm size that I have. Also painted up a bunch of PASS OF THE NORTH FFL and like them very much. They are in fatigues, which you can't normally find. Sat down and slightly reorganized the FFL period and will do an article on this in the near future. Part of the problem is that I can't get organized this year. In years past, I've always been able to select a period to work on, get the figures, and start painting. None of that doing three or four projects at the same time. Oh, I might start thinking about the next period while I'm still painting the current one, but I never really painted two periods at once. Well, that's not true thus far this year! I've got too many different periods primed and ready for painting, and/or I can't make up my mind as to which period I really want to work on next. What period am I interested in? That changes from day to day; sometimes hour to hour. I know the answer to this problem; remove everything from the table except that which I am currently working on. I guess I can't really pick out that period at this time! A case of too many figures, too many interests, and not enough self discipline! There's quite a bit about the "lead" issue within this MWAN. From what I hear, a number of American companies are going with pewter; Ral Partha, GHQ, Musket Miniatures, MINIFIGS, etc. Take a look at the two main articles on the subject and see what you yourself think. Some manufacturers are reporting that prices will not go up as much as some, including myself, thought, if pewter is to be used. However, let's wait and see about that. What do I think? Well, all I can say is that my wife is greatly against the kids handling any of my figures, painted or unpainted. She doesn't even allow the kids up on the wargaming table, as They used to do, because I many times will clean the flash off my figures on the table and then every few weeks, clean off the rug on the table with a vacuum cleaner. I really can't say that I blame her for this. I don't think lead figures are for children, however, this is not a realization that I came to that long ago, perhaps only several years. I used to let my laughter paint lead figures with me that weren't primed. Pretty dumb, now :hat I look back on it. I do know one thing; some manufacturers are going :o take advantage of the situation, if they go to pewter, and increase prices beyond what they should be increased. There is no doubt about it! This is what I don't want to see. I guess that I know, in the back of my mind, they are going to go to pewter, and I don't really mind this. I don't mind paying a little extra for pewter, or more like it, to reduce the risk associated with lead. I foresee some problems, probably short--term more than likely, in that English companies won't be able to ship their igures here until such time as they began using pewter. However, once hey realize, I think, that they have lost part of their market (the US) because they are still using lead, they will switch over. Watch for the price increases then, though! I'm going to be at ENFILADE! the weekend of May 22--23, 1993, in ynnwood, Washington (Best Western Landmark Inn) as their guest! Very nice f them to do so! I'm bringing my French Foreign Legion collection and lan on running a number of games; attack on a fort; defense of a town; mbush of a French column, that sort of thing. I am looking forward to eeting long--time MWANer's out west, and having a good time! Last night I received a large box in the mail containing Sudan terrain pieces that Howard Whitehouse had been working on for me. There are everal other boxes to follow; however, I was very much impressed with first shipment. So much, that I went to the basement, cleared the wargaming table -- think this is an easy task? I had to find room for all of the things I had-stored on it! -- spread out the 6' X 12' piece of material which Howard had terrained for me, and then put on the hills and zariba he made for me in 15mm scale. Actually, the hills will fit 15mm and 25mm and I plan on using them for the Sudan, French Foreign Legion, and North west Frontier. Then I put on the two 'rubs' of Fuzzy Wuzzies and one of Dervish, and my British and Egyptian regiments of infantry. Looked good! Maybe this is what I need to "push" me into working on a period this year. Keep 'em coming, Howard! He's also making me some banks for the Nile (12 feet), and some very large hills so I can place 15mm villages on top of them and have access from the bottom. Also a mountain pass through which only one stand of 15mm infantry, or one 25mm figure can pass at a time. Sounds like some great scenarios to me! Now I suppose I'll drag out all those 15mm Sudan figures that I finished packing away a week ago to help clear things up on the painting table! Sure wouldn't hurt to get motivated again! LITTLE WARS is on Easter weekend this year although not, thankfully, on Easter Sunday. A few years ago, it was scheduled for Mother's Day weekend and games were actually held on Mother's Day! Now I know the' rationale behind this year; in order to get the location for future years, HMGS--MIDWEST had to take the Easter weekend this year. In time to come, LITTLE WARS will have the same location but not on holiday weekends such as this year. Issue #13 of THE HMGS MIDWEST PHOENIX had a letter to the Editor written by my good friend, Stephen Lawrence, who penned a very literate and thoughtful letter expressing his opinion that it was too bad that LITTLE WARS was scheduled for Easter weekend and because of this, he would not be attending or running games. He ended his missive with the statement "Thank you gentlemen for your hard and unselfish efforts on behalf of the hobby." -- thus, you know that Stephen didn't just fire off a 12lber at HMGS--MIDWEST without thinking about it. PHOENIX Newsletter Editor Jeff Hammerlund, also a friend of mine, patiently explained the rationale behind this move and thanked Stephen for making his views known. A footnote to his response noted the fact that "Since this letter and reply were sent Steve Lawrence has decided to come and run a couple of games for us on Friday. Thanks Steve!" Now, once I saw Stephen's letter, I could have predicted immediately that he would end up running a game at LITTLE WARS, no matter what he said in his letter. I knew that someone from HMGS--MIDWEST would call poor Stephen and talk him into running a game; it is just possible that Stephen will be on the HMGS--MIDWEST board next year scheduling LITTLE WARS on Christmas Day! Hey, I respect people who take public offices to serve the hobby; I was one of the founders of HMGS--MIDWEST and President for two years running. I was never involved in putting together a convention, but I know what trouble and headaches organizers of conventions go through, and how little they are appreciated by the hobby. BUT -- I believe holding a wargaming convention on a holiday weekend is a MAJOR mistake. Am I the only one who has a wife who questions the logic of such decisions? And you know what? I think she's right! Why do we choose, so frequently within this hobby, to alienate our families with our very involvement in the hobby that we love so much. You all know what I'm talking about: the obsession we have with the hobby; the amount of time, energy, and money we spend on it; our choice of vacations (a joint wargaming/family vacation?), etc, etc. We simply do not have our priorities set correctly, and I include myself in this category as well at times! I don't care if you can get McCormick Place for nothing on Mother's Day weekend! Don't do it! How about if we put our families first, instead of a stupid little hobby? We can all do stupid things; I once drove 240 miles roundtrip on a Friday night to attend a convention and "push" HMGS--MIDWEST, then drove another 240 miles roundtrip the next day to another convention to run a game "for the good of the hobby." AND, on top of this, I felt I was doing the right thing! Boy, talk about misplaced values on my part! I think there's a letter in the LETTERS column this issue in which the writer states that he does not feel an obligation to recruit newcomers into the hobby. I could not agree more. What we have an obligation to do, is to have fun doing what we do, but putting it into proper perspective family-wise. Well, got that off my chest! Back to MWAN #63 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1993 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