Recently, Bruce and I have been invited to a couple of club meetings in order to demonstrate our rules. This entails an out of town day trip, but the expected reward will be converting gamers to our system...at least, that is the assumption! One club, in Syracuse, recently has tired of DBM and considered going back to 7th. A couple of the members, familiar with our rules, suggested giving Medieval Warfare a try. An old friend (and wargame opponent) Jevon Garrett, made the overture to me and I quickly accepted. Not only does this give us the chance to get the rules out before some gamers, but it also gives us the opportunity to introduce new gamers to wargaming the Medieval period.

Putting on an interesting, hands-on game is essential to getting people interested in gaming a new period. How many have at least seen Duke Siefried's elaborate set ups at HISTORICON and not been drawn to the period displayed? A nicely painted 25mm army placed on a terrained table is always a focal point...at least for me. With Medieval gaming, the armies must be historically matched (we are using Later Teutonic Order vrs. Burgundian Ordonnance). The armies, though of different composition and look, are armed with basically the same weaponry and are technological equals. This is important for play balance in a demonstration game. No one, especially the umpire, wants to be left with those very angry looks from gamers who feel that their army was no match for their opponent's.

Making new players feel comfortable and not out of place is essential to attracting them to your game. Usually, we try to place new gamers next to experienced ones...at FALL IN, we had Dennis Leventhal (who, by the way, had never played MW before, but he is an experienced WRG gamer) seated next to a twelve-year-old playing his first historical miniatures game. That worked out extremely well with Dennis' experience tempering (to some extent) the rashness...and luck, as Jamie Fish, the youngster's opponent would cry...of the new player. We always are ready to offer tactical advice as well if anyone looks like they are about to make a serious faux pas. New players are encouraged to learn the game in a fun atmosphere.

All these factors add up to attracting new gamers into playing Ancients and Medieval wargames. Whether they stay with our system or gravitate to DBM, ARMATI or whatever it is essential to getting people interested in gaming a new period. How many have at least seen Duke Siefried's elaborate set ups at HISTORICON and not been drawn to the period displayed? A nicely painted 25mm army placed on a terrained table is always a focal point...at least for me. With Medieval gaming, the armies must be historically matched (we are using Later Teutonic Order vrs. Burgundian Ordonnance). The armies, though of different composition and look, are armed with basically the same weaponry and are technological equals. This is important for play balance in a demonstration game. No one, especially the umpire, wants to be left with those very angry looks from gamers who feel that their army was no match for their opponent's.

Making new players feel comfortable and not out of place is essential to attracting them to your game. Usually, we try to place new gamers next to experienced ones...at FALL IN, we had Dennis Leventhal (who, by the way, had never played MW before, but he is an experienced WRG gamer) seated next to a twelve-year-old playing his first historical miniatures game. That worked out extremely well with Dennis' experience tempering (to some extent) the rashness...and luck, as Jamie Fish, the youngster's opponent would cry...of the new player. We always are ready to offer tactical advice as well if anyone looks like they are about to make a serious faux pas. New players are encouraged to learn the game in a fun atmosphere. The idea is to get them into gaming...and to keep them playing.