Why is this look so brief? Because, at FALL IN!, I was dizzy, I had no energy, I had a hacking cough, and I wanted to do nothing but sleep. Fred Haub and I had volunteered to help out on the staff... and it was Fred that kept me in action: "Up, Simon!" "Move Simon!" "Don't just sit there!". In effect, I had enrolled in Haub's Boot Camp, and a horribly efficient drill sergeant he was. The Eisenhower Inn at Gettysburg has a gigantic 'sports complex'... in effect, a huge quonset hut... separate from the motel proper. The motel furnishes shuttle service to the complex (it's about a 10 minute drive). Gaming tables and dealers kiosks were set up in the complex... no lack of room, lots of space, lots of tables, and in part because the ceilings were so high, the noise level was quite low. The Inn itself contained the flea market area... some 30 tables set aside for those selling their treasures. Separating the flea market from the dealer's area seemed to keep the dealers happy... although one unhappy dealer appeared at the main registration table: "Why is the flea market allowed to open up earlier than the dealer's area?" If I had my way, we would have dumped his body in a trashcan in the Peach Orchard. I didn't play in any games, but, wandering around the hall, modern armor games won the day. I usually look for ECW games or those dealing with the renaissance, but I couldn't find any. I did sit down at a demonstration of PIQUET, Bob Jones 'multi-era' set of rules. The demonstration was set up for a skirmish encounter in WW II. I've observed a couple of PIQUET demonstrations, and for some reason, I've never quite caught on to it. Brent Oman, one of the key pre-publication play-testers, has authored an article or so in the REVIEW, but the procedures still escape me. I discussed this with another PW member, who, some time ago, had sat in on a demonstration game. His thought was that if the demonstration didn't make the rules clear, there was something wrong with the rules. I disagreed, thinking that perhaps it was my own mind-set preventing me from grasping the concepts. Jim Butters came along, waving a page of rules... "Now these are super rules!" He had just participated in Pete Panzeri's huge 25mm Custer-Versus-The-Indians battle... three full-size tables full of Injuns and Custer-people, and swamped with gamers. Jim had been in command of Benteen's unit... he indicated that when his command moved, he tossed lots of (around 20) 6-sided dice. Every '6' that showed up enabled his men to 'do things'... they could fire, they could move, they could spit, etc. Truly a great set of rules, stated Jim. Unfortunately, in my deteriorated, dizzy state, I couldn't really investigate all that went on at FALL IN! I could tell my disinterest, because I bought nothing in the flea market. Ordinarily, I toss a couple of hundred dollars down the drain at a convention... here, I spent nothing. Evidently, the number of attendees was around 900, hence the convention itself was a success. Back to PW Review November 1997 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 Wally Simon 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