I enjoyed the fall Kansas City convention a lot. The Lion's Den club has struck a balance on how many games to host as referee and how much time to allow ourselves to visit and play in other clubs' games. Instead of hosting three full days of games, we scheduled one 54mm. WWII game to run Saturday morning and early Saturday afternoon. This left us feeling relaxed and without convention burnout, and more than enough time to enjoy a variety of the activities. This is how I spent my time. Friday evening I played in a W.W.II wargame hosted by the Mid-Missouri Armchair Generals. The terrain and figures were first rate and that is what attracted my attention to the game. The set up was 20mm lead with resin cast buildings. The vehicles were lead cast and all of the paint jobs were of high quality. Chris Coffelt had designed the scenario to pit a U.S. force consisting of tanks and mechanized infantry defending a village ruin; vs, a German armor column with infantry support. I was a U.S. force player posted to our right flank on a road, My 1 squad, 1 halftrack, and 1 bazooka team were secreted in a lone farm complex astride the road in an advance position covering an area our engineers had mined. I was certain the whole German force would consume us in their advance, because the center terrain was wooded high ground and the left flank of the table was complete swamp. Apparently, their recon must have spotted our engineers, because the German force opted to attack across open country and swamp. We were confronted by a lone Panther tank in the farm yard. My squad bazooka man let loose on the German tank as it parked in the front yard- to no effect. The tank rolled back and pummeled the house with HE rounds and then curiously retreated down the lane. We salvaged our equipment and headed for the center of the battlefield, We could approach undetected because of the wooded terrain and ridge line, Once in place on the crest of the hill we could see across the open plane and swamp. German armor was everywhere. Dotting the landscape of our left flank was an enormous German assault. Tanks where advancing and becoming bogged down in the swampy terrain. Picking a nearby half-track that had swamped, our squad opened up on it with .50 cal. & small arms fire. We caused casualties, Then a German tank swung a turret in our direction and obliterated a good portion of my command. As my squad cussed me back down the ridge to our half-track, the German column advanced on the village.... we were no longer part of this fight. The rest of Friday night I spent visiting the dealer tables and talking with friends. I checked out early because the morning was going to be busy. Saturday morning Jon Haworth and I loaded the truck with all of our 54mm Stalingrad equipment, We were debuting Theatre of Operations Skirmish wargames rules and our Mamayev Kurgan, scenario (Stalingrad), We arrived at the hall early and set-up. By 9:00 am we were ready to begin the first phase of the game. We maintained a steady crowd at our table and had a full slate of gamers during both sessions, The Mamayev Kurgan scenario pits a German mechanized platoon with tank support against the stubborn Russian defenders in the factory district of Stalingrad. The game table represents 1/9th of the battlefield the German players must cover to reach their operational objectives. The German player must map his assault route on his command map. The miniatures will move across the tabletop three consecutive times-if the German assault is successful, That is., once they enter one side of the table the game is to get off the opposite table edge and in effect closer to the Tractor factory objective. Then the whole column is picked up and brought to the first table edge again, The Russian defenders are keyed to encounter cards which are drawn when the German units enter new coordinate areas. The resistance stiffens the further into Stalingrad that the Germans progress. Lion's Den members Dan Reardon and Joe Tremel volunteered to game the Russian force. I give them my sincerest thanks and appreciation for their help in this often tedious duty. Jon Haworth was the German force technical advisor and game master. I also extend a congratulations to him. His German force beat the scenario! Here are some of the Highlights: In session one the players encountered a T-34 that had just rolled off the assembly line. The paint on the turret markings was still wet! After a shoot-out in the industrial wreckage the Germans lost a Panzer III and the T-34 was a smoldering wreck, There were many small firefights inside the buildings. The German platoon crossed the first table. Session two would continue the advance into the factory district. We had several return players join the afternoon session, This makes teaching the mechanics very easy on us. Session two was highlighted by an aggressive German advance. Coming on in a wide front and probing the side streets for weaknesses the advancing Germans were horrified at the sound of Stalin's organ being fired off in the distance. A Katayushin rocket attack rolled across the terrain directly in front of the advance units, This caused the German command to pull back and reassess there route. Aside from some mined areas and objects dropping out of the skies, the advance ground on into the factory. Our medal winners for the two scenarios were: Kevin Kraus and a gentleman from Colorado named Ed. Sorry I couldn't find his last name in my notes. With these sessions complete, we packed up the games and headed for Jon Haworth's and a Pasta dinner that has become a Lion's Den tradition! Kevin Smith, of Wichita, brought a racing game that he asked us to play test. 1/64 scale Winged Outlaw Sprint cars on an oval track. This game proved to be a real blast and I think we may even see it at the convention in the near future. The game works with a deck of cards and the players are allowed to design their own cars. Sunday morning brought the HAHMGS membership meeting, I serve on the Board of Directors for our chapter and attended this meeting. (See HAHMGS Communique #46.) After the meeting I got in on a HATSOFF French and Indian game run by Mike Sanderson. The rules were modified Sword and the Flame, The objective of my Indian band was to secuf e a ford in the river to allow my French allies to get wagons of stolen goods across. For the second time this weekend My force was routed and failed moral, We had crept up on some uniformed troops when all of a sudden we were attacked by Indians and in a tense struggle our leader was killed and we all retreated to fight another day. Some really good stuff that I saw but didn't get to participate in were the HATSOFF ACW Megagame. 15mm troops from one end of a six by ten table to the other and really good terrain. The Blue Max WW.I aerial game looked great, The quality of the model planes was very good. I got a lot of good shots on my camcorder, And an interesting use of the BattleMasters Plastic terrain sheets. Very Clever! On Sunday Todd Carter and Mark Duncan were demonstrating their American Football game in 25mm. This looked really interesting. The play seems to develop very easily and the football fields they had made were great! Thanks for your attention. Back to Table of Contents Penny Whistle #21 Back to Penny Whistle List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Lion's Den Publications. 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