Battleship Row from the ORIGINS War College’s Pearl Harbor Series This summer I almost OD’d on conventions. Challenging, but fun. The first, BAYOU WARS, almost didn’t happen. They were bumped a couple of times. Remember Gay Pride Week and Narcotics Anonymous hitting our conventions? Not to mention the impact of the “War in Bosnia” on TROPICON? Well, GULF SOUTH’s problems had a bit more class. One of the lost weekends they were bumped by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. My number one son’s promotion ceremony at Barksdale AFB was being jostled by the shifting schedule of his three star. Fortuitously LTG Carlson was available on the 10th, and BAYOU WARS finally got their facility on the 11th. It wasn’t as far as I know, a decimal anniversary of that convention. But it was a pleasant little convention. Even jostled by the UDC and other trials it was between the size of SIEGE OF AUGUSTA and RECON, and had, best I could tell, a stronger RTT than ours. But that was only the start. I had saved my pennies, and resolved to join Pete and Jodie Panzeri and the Great Lakes crowd at ORIGINS this year, and it turns out this was the 30th Anniversary of “The National Adventure Gaming Convention.” Pete had negotiated a special rate for HM vendors to try to lure them back to ORIGINS, so Vince and I set off in the London War Room van to the wilds of Columbus Ohio. I had made the trip alone two years ago. One of the important things (RECON, BAYOU WARS, ORIGINS, AND HISTORICON-one must have priorities) for which I delayed my medical adventures in 2002.There had been a lot of water under the dam. ORIGINS 02 was a bustling convention. My arch enemy Bob Giglio ran his excellent Chicago Gang Game, Phil Viverito ran his justly famous Siege of Tyre, Pete, commuting from Korea, ran a series of small fast games requiring little baggage but lots of action. My two Blenhiem and two Brihuega games were filled, and Comrade Radey ran a solid Origins War College program. There were over 300 HM games, and the Panzeris ably assisted by the HMGS Great Lakes leadership more or less ran the Miniature and Board Game wing. Unfortunately the convention, which reportedly drew 11,500, lost money. The latest issue of MWAN gives Comrade Radey’s account of the convention’s efforts to reduce the cost of the War College. He and GAMA came to a parting of the ways and last year Pete Panzeri took it over. This year OWC was his primary focus, while Jodie, aided by HMGS GL’s Steve Smith, and a host of others from GL and EAST were looking after the War Wing. The featured miniature game was Uncle Duke Seifried’s notorious but artistic (and enormous) Lord of the Rings series. It had been promoted by GAMA, the new Games Quarterly magazine, and MWAN. Duke was ably assisted by Don Perrin and Mike Cosentino (two of the principals of MWAN) as well as Frank Chadwick. Reported attendance, per a staffer on the last day, was 13,900. I wish I could report that it was bigger and better in all ways than ORIGINS 02. But that would be a bit off the mark. There was a substantial focus on festivities and honors relative to the 30th Anniversary. Numerous Guests of Honor were feted, including our own Dave Arneson (notorious co-author of D&D, and honored author of Don’t Give Up The Ship.) But prior to the festivities, there were key senior staff defections. Anthony Gallella, who had been the POC for us HOT Game Masters (GM) wound up taking on more jobs at the last minute. Table assignments were not included in the program (which seems to be a tradition) and the help desk spent a lot of time awaiting anxiously the floor layout for the next day. Jodie spent a lot of time hustling about with a cell phone at her ear. Monica Hobbs, the Giglios, and Steve Smith were most helpful, but hampered by the search for “tomorrow’s floor plan.” Informants from the dark side relate that outside of the “War Wing” things were even more hectic. My games were under subscribed, but came off well anyway. We were on the French 1940 plan “On se debroulleras” (one muddles through.) But it worked and most of us had a good time. In addition to the LOTR extravaganza, Phil Viverito ran his “Battles for Troy “ complete with a model of the city and surroundings. There were several gems of table top art. But on the whole I was less impressed than two years ago, and the average quality of presentation seemed down. Only the dealer area was crowded. It was guarded by Klingons and Imperial Storm Troopers, who clicked counters whenever anyone entered or left. Perhaps the crowding was due to the fact that the Bikini Babe spent most of her time in the vendor area this year. She is the lady in chain mail bikini standing next to me in the picture in the latest MWAN. I have pointed out to PJ that I am the only male in the picture not staring down the Bikini Babe’s cleavage, but PJ knows me better than that. Not to be outdone by HMGS EAST, GAMA came up with some political fireworks. Don Perrin, was elected to the GAMA BOD this year, and they made him President. There are rumors of shake-ups at all levels. Purges. Lots of excitement. Curiously, GAMA now has a President whose base is in the historical miniatures area. That can hardly constitute a significant part of the economy of the gaming industry. Frank Chadwick, author of Volley and Bayonet and Command Decision, among other systems, was President of GAMA for several years, but his company (Game Designer’s Workshop) was best known for its board games. In any case, it is interesting. As for the purges, they don’t seem to have been complete. Anthony Gallella was at HISTORICON with the Panzeris the next month, not as yet having been fired. This was the 20th Anniversary of HISTORICON. However, it was a closely guarded secret. None of the current leadership were involved in HISTORICON 84, and they like to pretend that nothing interesting ever happened in HMGS before they were elected. For all that, the convention went well. There was much talk lately of overcrowding. But John Drye, the new Director (who was at HISTORICON 84) had taken the upstairs amphitheater for additional gaming. This had the effect of thinning the crowds, causing some people to suggest that attendance was down. It apparently wasn’t. Preliminary but fairly firm numbers suggest over 3,000, the highest since 1998 Phil Viverito’s Troy-an ornament to both ORIGINS and HISTORICON HISTORICON was not without its mishaps. Unlike ORIGINS, table assignments were in the program, a tradition since the first HMGS convention in 1983. But like ORIGINS, the politics got weird. Several members who I hoped had mellowed, were up to their old tricks. They brought in enough people to dominate the Membership Meeting on Saturday. The plan seems to have been to force the BOD to run a referendum to make a fellow who has been in retirement since COLDWARS in 1997 a Life Member and giving him a plaque of some sort. Also, I suspect, to back an effort to lynch Bob Coggins. We have to put an end to the Live Action Fantasy Role Playing Games at HISTORICON. I had a good time, made expenses, and the game went well. It is the one I will run at HURRICON. It was filled, and included an all star cast. Among others Bob Liebl, former Editor of the EAST Newsletter and currently NOVAG’s, Mark McGloughlin who is famous for Princess Ryan’s Space Marines, and James Thomas, HISTORICON Director and HMGS EAST President (retired.) Bob Liebl and I share the honor of having been removed as EAST Newsletter Editor for political incorrectness. The Fascist cavalry got around the Communist left flank, forcing a retreat before the Soria Division. To balance things a bit the Italian CTV advance on the other side of the river was brought to an abrupt halt with heavy losses. This pleased the other players. Even though the lad played well and was a good sport, everyone likes for Mussolini’s troops to lose. Back to Rebel Yell No. 27 Table of Contents Back to Rebel Yell List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by HMGS South 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