First I must talk about the Cyberbabes. An outfit called Cybergames.com had a booth in the convention hall. Apparently they bought Hero Games, publisher of the old CHAMPIONS superhero rpg, and support CHAMPIONS on the cybergames.com website along with computer game reviews and discussions. They hired three local young women to run the booth and entice, er, convince passers by to register for the website. On Thursday the women wore tight leather pants, on Friday short shorts and tube tops, on Saturday miniskirts. Luckily I am immune to such temptation. Yet, somehow, I ended up registering on their website AND purchasing a Cybergames.com T-shirt, I just don't remember how it happened...
Imagine my surprise to check into the Columbus Hyatt and wander over to the convention centre to find a) the hall looked like Mirkwood, packed to the rafters with flowers, indoor plants, and floral displays. Turned out that the convention before ours was the Florists Association of America, a big change from last year, when we were preceded by the United States Sheriffs Association; and b) the nefarious Food Court was closed for renovation. What splendid timing. Here you have the world's largest collection of junk food eaters assembled in one place at one time and you've closed the food court.
The convention centre badly needs some fixing up, too. It's getting pretty ratty-- stained walls and carpets, HVAC system fading fast with some rooms reeking of mildew, bathrooms poorly cleaned. The food court looks to be the start of a major rebuilding effort (construction was also ongoing in some of the upstairs rooms), and there is a brand new hotel going in just across the street from the convention centre (part of the Hampton Inn chain, much cheaper than the Hyatt) along with a stadium for Columbus' new professional hockey team, so hopefully conditions will improve in coming years.
Andon, the convention organisers, ran a terrible show this year. Lines for Pre-Registration on Wednesday night were an hour long; those for On-Site Registration on Thursday morning were three hours! Coupled with terrible customer service and many scheduling and room assignment mistakes, and the Andon people gave an overall impression that they just didn't give a sh_t. Just wait until next year, when WBC (the former Avaloncon) is the weekend before Origins. And starting in 2002, Origins moves from its traditional early July date to random weekends in June, apparently to give more distance between it and Gencon in August. This sounds like a bad idea, since most kids are still in school in early June and families will be hard-pressed to get away. In 2003 Gencon moves from Milwaukee to Indianapolis, but Origins looks to be set in Columbus for the foreseeable future. We will see what the long-term effects are of all these date and location changes...
I heard that attendance this year was in the neighbourhood of 12,000, an outstanding total if accurate. My impression, from seeing what was being played in hallways and open gaming areas, was a downturn in the popularity of collectible cardgames in favour of RPG's, live action roleplaying, and, a pleasant surprise, boardgames. Sci fi and fantasy boardgames, Euro boardgames, even simple wargames like Battle Cry were commonly seen set up on empty tables. Certainly the wargame companies did well in the convention hall. No runaway blockbusters like DAK was a couple of years back, but sales were good.
GMT had Austerlitz, Ukraine 43, and Risorgimento (Richard Berg and Peter Perla's Solferino/Magenta/Italian Campaign game) as their new releases and promised the Reiner Knizia games Galaxy and Battleline and the 2nd edition of For The People by WBC in early August. FTP 2 supposedly fixes all of the problems of the first edition, but I'll wait and see on that one. Galaxy is a modified Titan: The Arena set in space while Battleline is a very simple trick taking cardgame using Alexander the Great as its theme. At the GMT seminar Vance Von Borries predicted Army Group North by September and a new edition of his Kasserine game to follow, while Alan Ray described his feverish work on the simple Great Battles Of History rules applied to every single existing scenario. This could finally deliver salvation to fans of the GBOH era put off by the parent systems' fiddy-ness.
The Gamers had This Terrible Sound (Dave Powell's regimental Chickamauga) and Sicily (OCS invades Sicily with Patton and Montgomery). TTS is a humungous game, 4 full and 2 half maps and 2,000 counters. They also had a way cool looking game called Circus Minimus, chariot racing as taught to us by Ben Hur. Looks like a real hoot; any game with Hard Whip ratings is a winner in my book.
Moments in History/Critical Hit had Velikye Luki (which I think sold out), follow-up to Drive To The Baltic. If you remember the old GDW game White Death, Velikye Luki is on the same subject. Combat Stalingrad, sequel to Critical Hit's Combat Normandy, was there as part of CH's attempt to compete with ASL. I was seriously underwhelmed by Normandy and so didn't buy Stalingrad, but the components sure looked good.
I wish I could say which new games Clash of Arms and Decision had available, but I don't think they had anything new. Ed Wimble did tell me that he expects La Bataille D'Orthez (Wellington invades southern France) by the Fall as well as eagerly anticipated books like Christopher Duffy's Instrument Of War (Maria Theresa's army) and Hourtouille's Borodino, sure to be full of neato color maps and uniform prints. Rob Markham, fruitful as ever, had two DTP tactical Napoleonic games, Vimiero and Resaca, early Spanish battles that share the same countersheet. I'm afraid that I haven't yet had the chance to look at them, though.
Wandering around the hall one night, I stumbled on the Europa Fest room. Here the smell of mildew was the strongest, but I don't know if it was from the air conditioning system or the games being played. I stood aghast as a Europa veteran showed me an ongoing game of Wavell's War, 15 maps covering the entire Mediterranean theatre, from North Africa and the Balkans (okay so far) all the way down to Iraq, Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Gulf States. The Ethiopia campaign is especially interesting, he told me, since the Italians start with about 15 units who begin the game out of supply and never receive any supplies, ever, so they must be careful how they defend against the overwhelming Commonwealth invasion.
It's noteworthy that here is where I usually dismiss the Vampire LARP players with a few snide remarks, but they've become such a common sight that I hardly notice them anymore (well, alright, I still notice the truly bizarre ones). However, the image of those dusty Europa players clustered around the Somalia map moving a half dozen counters two hexes each (since they're all out of supply) in a 25-year old game system is the one that stays with me.
I met Ben Hull (designer of This Accursed Civil War, DTP now being redone for GMT) and his lovely wife, and was once again surprised at how different somebody can be in person compared to an impression based on internet postings. Imagine an enthusiastic fan of 17th century tactical games with a Marine Corps haircut and deep Mississippi accent (meaning Ben, not his wife). We played a couple of turns from the battle of Jankau in Sweden Fights On, the follow-up quad to Accursed War covering latter battles of the Thirty Years War, also on GMT's schedule (with Marty Arnsdorf as developer), and enjoyed it. I'm impressed by the research alone that allowed Ben to find maps and OOB's for battles like Jankau and Second Breitenfeld.
I'm pleased to report that Austerlitz was very well received. We had a demo of the historical battle scenario set up all weekend which gathered much interest and a dreaded discussion of the philosophy of tactical game design from Dave Powell. At the GMT seminar suggestions for the next game in the series came fast and furious-- "More big battles. No, we want small ones. Please don't do Jena-Auerstadt. Have you thought about the Battle of Leipzig ?" Should be enough to keep me busy for a while.
I bought a few books from the Lost Worlds series- reprints of the old Nova game that was Ace Of Aces transferred to swordplay- and fought a few duels. Loved the game, the duels are quick (usually over in 10 minutes or less, much less if you're fighting the Lizard Man with his mighty Tail Whip manoeuvre. Or was that the cyberbabes again?), the results often quite goofy. A good way to wind down from a long day spent trying to move Braxton Bragg.
I didn't mention the Charles Roberts Award winners, since they were mysteriously moved from Origins to WBC and won't be awarded until that convention in early August (so mysteriously that Dean Essig only found out when someone mentioned it in passing on The Gamers website). This triggered much muttering from some Midwest/West Coast Origins attendees, who fear an attempt by East Coasters to move the centre of wargaming from Columbus, Ohio to Baltimore. And there may be some truth to that suspicion, too.
Another fun Origins. Although the Andon hassles were a bit of a damper, the cyberbabes were always there to cheer me up. If you've been put off by horror stories about the food court or the hotel, hopefully the current renovations, new hotel, and new sports arena will improve the available facilities. Origins 2001 will be over the 4th of July weekend.
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© Copyright 2000 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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