13 to 16 May, 1999 Braunfels near Frankfurt, Germany: About 100 hard-core wargamers have secured the area. Local inns and stores were pillaged so our troops could operate at full combat supply. The following lectures were presented: Cold Days in Hell Udo Grebe< The Seven Days General Thomas G. Moder (CSA) Atlantic Storm Uli Blennemann Steam and Steel Gerald Leppelt Fruelingswind Dirk Blennemann The Future of MiH Uli Blennemann Burma Ernesto Sassot About 5-15 people who had fun simply joined these one-hour lectures, while the majority kept playing their games. Games that were played: Burma, GD'40, Atlantic Storm, Hell's Highway, Aprils Harvest, In Their Quiet Fields, The Seven Days (Gaines Mill, Seven Pines, and Malvern Hill), Siege of Jerusalem, War Without Mercy, Fruelingswind, World in Flames, Ardennes, Hube's Pocket, Cold Days in Hell, Blitzkrieg General, The Great War, various ASL modules, and others. The Seven Days At 8 pm on Thursday, 13 May, the Confederate Senate met to listen General Moder's plans for the Seven Days battle. General Thomas G. Moder's sparkling personality strongly impressed the attendees. Moder (at right) will not tolerate any bad comments against the Confederacy. "Four Yanks cannot stop a real Confederate from doing a charge. Any one Confederate soldier is as good as 10 yanks. But unfortunately in most cases they have 11 against 1." Moder's speech convinced the Confederate Senate to appoint him the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia for the Seven Days battle. The Union command used the variant to make McClellan operate more aggressively. Union Corps Commander Michael Wachow put pressure on McGruder's Corps in the center, who was out-numbered, out-moved, out-flanked, and out-gunned. And where the Hell was Jackson? Though the Confederates succeeded in retreating to Richmond in order, the Union didn't give them a rest. The Seven Days ended on the second day with a Confederate surrender. Cold Days in Hell The April 1941 scenario was set up. The Axis conquered Yugoslavia in April and decisively weakened Greece. Thus the bulk of the Germans where available to launch operation "Barbarossa" in May -- one month more valuable time to defeat the Giant Red Army before Russian winter strikes. Burma The Japanese won by wearing down the Chindits and eventually executing all Allied units in the Imphal Pocket. The Allies desperately tried to re-establish regular supply from the North, and failed to get in enough supply to the pocket through air. All their efforts were countered by effectively operating Japanese reserves. The Auction One of the highlights was the auction, held in English by Rian van Meteeren. You could purchase games for a quarter of the retail price, many of them in mint condition. Rian makes this really a happening. You must see the smile on Rian's face when he speaks the word "sold." Till Next Year! Braunfels' landscape is impressive and the quality of the air is extraordinarily beneficial. Hotel fees are inexpensive starting with 30 DM per day. Special thanks to the Federal German wargame club GHS for combining Homer Con Europe with their Hexacon XIII. We had a lot of fun, and the Homer Con Europe will continue in 2000. We have not decided yet where and when to do it. Let us know your opinion! Back to Table of Contents -- Operations #34 Back to Operations List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1999 by The Gamers. 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