Just back from Cold Wars 2003 in time to get the HAWKs news off to The Gamers’ Closet. I’ve got lot’s to tell about the latest HMGS East convention and some other doings. So I’ll get right to it.

The HAWKs ran 33 Cold Wars games in the Paradise room. All games went off as scheduled with most filled to capacity. On Saturday night we had games going all eight tables simultaneously and the aisles jammed with spectators -- the joint was really jumpin’. Our games won two of the five “Best in Theme Awards” -- Harry Kogelschatz for his Samurai Skirmish scenario and Patrick and Seth Chambers for “Capture of an Errant Earl.” Among the other highlights, Rob Dean’s friend Ross MacFarlane came down from Nova Scotia and together they ran two “Big Men in the Big Woods” scenarios. This is a unique 40 mm homecast French and Indian War project that always turns heads. Todd Harland-White kept the younger set happy through Saturday with two Teddy Bear games and an innovative game using origami figures -- you have to see them to believe them. Eric Schlegel and I ran three of the “Schlegel’s Ferry” scenarios -- “The British Come to Schlegel’s Ferry” (Rev War) “The British Come to Schlegel’s Ferry Again” (War of 1812) and “The Rebs Come to Schlegel’s Ferry” (ACW). For those of you not familiar with this project, it follows the history of a fictional tidewater town in the upper bay starting with the founding of the Maryland colony in which one basic terrain setup is used and evolves through the centuries. Since the project started we’ve done a few games every Cold Wars (as many as six in one convention) and have so far covered Early Colonial, FIW, AWI, War of 1812, ACW and prohibition, with a few more on the drawing board.

Registration for The Battles for Beginners Contest, which will be held at Fall In! 2003, officially closed with the end of Cold Wars. In this competition, experienced GMs get a chance to show off their tricks for making good looking games from inexpensive materials. The goal is to publish an anthology of how-to guides for use by entry level gamers. We have about a dozen contestants.

As you probably all know by now, NOVAG’s Walt O’Hara was announced to succeed John Drye as Cold Wars director. Congratulations Walt -- I think. We’re sure he’ll go a great job, and of course he can count on the HAWKs’ full support.

In mid January the NOVAG Yahoo list passed along some information on Johncon, a general gaming convention run by the Johns Hopkins Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (HOPSFA) at the Baltimore Campus on March 1st. After some discussion we reached a general consensus that we would run three games in sequence, to test the waters and spread the word about our club and alternative miniatures gaming. We proposed a program of one Darkest Africa Sword and the Flame game, one Buck Rogers 54mm antique figure tavern brawl, and one Civil War GASLIGHT game. We asked the convention to put all the games in the same place and specified our table size requirements. Several Hawks came along in addition to the gamemasters as a precaution against a shortage of players. Unfortunately we had a last-minute problem when one of the GMs fell ill, but we had a spare game in hand as a replacement if necessary.

The requested space was provided, the only problem was that it was not on the main traffic route for the convention, and we had very few people walk by. We only had about a dozen people who stopped in to look. We had one player show up for the 0800 game. With the extra Hawks there we were able to play the game. For the noon game the one player wanted to stay, but we were unable to find any more players, so we again filled the rest of the positions with the Hawks standing by. By the time the 1600 game would have been setting up the handwriting was on the wall. We threw in the towel and headed on home. We had a couple of good games among our group, so the day wasn’t a total loss, but in terms of showcasing the hobby and gaining any recruits, it was a bust. If we try this particular venue again next year, we will have to negotiate a better location.

As I’m writing this we’re just starting to work on Historicon plans. Todd Harland-White, the HAWKs Historicon coordinator, has contacted the convention staff and confirmed our use of the Marietta Room again. We should have a preliminary list in a few weeks -- probably in the neighborhood of 50 games again. As we’ve done for the last two Historicons, we’ll be reserving one of the Marietta tables for continuous kids’ gaming through Friday and Saturday. Again we’ll be running the Annual HAWKs BAPS Extravaganza on Friday night; preliminary plans are for a late WW1 scenario. Wow, just back from Cold Wars and already starting to get excited about Historicon!

We’re still in the talking stages with Harper’s Ferry about a demo; nothing definite, yet. In the meanwhile we have received a written invitation from the Fort McHenry rangers to bring our War of 1812 display game back to defenders day in 2003. Finally, we’ve recently been contacted by the Baltimore Civil War Museum (turns out the president is a HAWK!) about an ACW demo game similar to the Fort McHenry setup.

That’s it for now. I’ll send more on the demos and Historicon in another issue.