What follows are the sordid details of my recent excursion to Prezcon, which is held annually in Charlottesville, VA. Due to poor road conditions in South Baltimore, I was forced to delay my departure to Prezcon until 11:00 a.m. Friday morning. Fortunately the Double Tree Hotel canceled my reservations: thus freeing me from the responsibility of Thursday night. There were plenty of rooms available and I was able to lock in the Con room rate for Friday and Saturday nights. All of my targeted tournaments were over by my arrival time. 1812 was played Friday morning as was Napoleon. I had no chance to beat my record of earliest elimination from a tournament game: 10 minutes, set at 2001's WBC Napoleon event. Fresh in after a 3 hour drive, I headed for the game room in search of Streets of Stalingrad. I don't know if I found it or it found me, but there was Streets laid out in all of its glory. Three huge Plexiglas covered maps, 2000 counters & what more can one want in a wargame? It was 1980 all over again. Those were the monster days weekends of War in Europe, Empires in Arms, Highway to the Reich, Korsun Pocket. Only it isn't 1980. After watching the only 2 SoS gamers to show at Prezcon slowly make their way thru SoS's 15 turn phases (no typo here, 15 phases/turn included no less than 4 bombardment phases), I made a strategic retreat out of the monster game room in search of something a bit manageable to play. What a relief. (Note to self: put my copy of SoS on ebay). Browsing the dealer area, I had a pleasant chat with Charlie of CoA (my 1st such encounter) out of which I purchased Rebel Seas. My interest in playing Age of Sail wargames is certainly influenced by my recent read of the book Broadsides. Other than its ridiculous pro-Brit/anti-French bias, the book is fantastic and is recommended by yours truly. Next was a visit to GMT's table. There's nothing like the wonderful odor of a newly run print job. It was time to satisfy the urge. Out came my wallet and before long I had a copy of Guilford Courthouse, Vol. 3 of the Great Battles of the American Revolution. I'm looking forward to playing this one. Pretty map, few counters, solid rules. It is the anti-SoS. Friday evening was spent playing Van Mantsein's Backhand Blow. My opponent, John, is a police officer in the Charlottesville area. He gave me his card, which I consider equivalent to a get-out-of-jail-free card when driving in the state of Virginia. We played the 4 turn scenario. It was a learning game for the both of us. The system proved very clean. Adding a general movement/combat phase to the system is a great improvement over the T3 series. I recommend using VBB's turn sequence in the T3 games. John and I had several good chats throughout the weekend. We plan on continuing our gaming via email. Next morning, I returned to the SoS room. The two dedicated gamers managed to complete 1 entire turn of SoS during Friday's gaming. Wow. To be fair, these fellows bit off a bit too much. SoS does include several small(er) scenarios. The campaign game requires a minimum of three players/side. Saturday, Joe Gamer did show up to partake in the SoS festivities. He had to tell his wife that he was working since she would not approve his attending the con. When Prezcon's photographer stopped in to capture an image of SoS, Joe had to bow out of the photo so as to prevent any evidence of his being there. Gentlemen, this is not what is known to therapists as a healthy relationship. Rick Young had his playtest copy of Europe Engulfed and I sat in on a campaign game. At WBC I took the role of Uncle Joe, this time I plopped a big old cigar in my mouth and proceeded to sing God Save the King (the Pistol's version). Another fellow joined us (another David) and we had a 3 player game going. By 5:00 p.m. we were deep into 1944. The Wallies (me) had managed to clear the Germans (Rick) out of N. Africa and were proceeding up the boot of Italy. Russia was a little behind schedule; this heavily impacted the Wallies return to France. When my Operation Overlord kicked off, Germany had plenty of resources available to send it packing, which Rick did. The game ended with Germany the victor. Has Rick ever lost a wargame? Saturday evening was spent in Scotland via the Hammer of the Scots tournament. I managed very poorly. This isn't surprising since I don't know what the hell I'm doing in the game. My opponent was Rick Young, who went on to win the HOTS event. Sunday morning was a time of rejuvenation. My last act at Prezcon was a game of Leningrad, the old SPI game based on PanzerGruppe Guderian. Everyone knows that Leningrad is unbalance: it is almost impossible for the Germans to achieve victory. I very close having broken thru the Russian final defense lines only to be stopped at the gates of the Birthplace of the Bolshevik Revolution. Let us consider this a German victory. Also purchased at Prezcon was the Eurogame, Hunters and Gatherers. Hopefully I can get Jena interested in this one. H and G was on many a gaming table at Prezcon and it appeared people were really enjoying it. Back to OSG News April 2003 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Operational Studies Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com