The HMGS East Fall In convention at Gettysburg may be the last in that venue as it is moving to Lancaster for 2002 for a number of reasons, not least of which is monetary. This is a sad thing, as we always enjoyed the trip to the Gettysburg battlefield. Many times, we have walked the lines of both the Union and Confederate armies. November is still decent enough weather-wise so that you need only a light jacket to be comfortable. Anyway, we made the most of the weekend in the best SAGA tradition.

The night before the drive down, Bruce Taylor had to cancel his plans for the trip. This meant that Ken and I would be driving down to meet Mitch Abrams and Jeff Ball at our traditional Gettysburg residence, General Lee's Headquarters (Larsen's Inn). The Friday trip down was quite lovely, with the trees in Pennsylvania retaining their fall foliage the further south we drove.

Arriving in Gettysburg, we noticed it was quite crowded compared to our other visits this time of year. We later found out that there were a number of groups in town along with the wargamers, including soccer clubs, the Boy Scouts and re-enactors cleaning up the battlefield for the winter. This meant that restaurants would be crowded and traffic would be plentiful, but we had little trouble overall.

Our accommodations were great this year, SAGA having a suite of connecting rooms, with Jeff and Mitch in one and Ken and I in the other. We left the beer coolers in the hall between the two rooms…lessening the necessary and frequent walks to replenish ourselves. Once settled in and unpacked, we headed over to the convention center.

Dealer Area

The dealer's area and most of the ancients gaming were held in the Allstar complex, a huge athletic building next to the convention center itself. As we signed in and walked through the gaming area, it was great, as always to see all our wargaming friends from across the country. One of the highlights of any convention is getting together with guys you only get to see three times a year at the most. Jamie Fish made his first convention appearance in years, and immediately planned to play in a Medieval Warfare pickup game that night. Greg and Chris Taylor provided the armies, Teutonic Knights vrs. Mongols in 15mm.

There were several tournaments running Friday, including the DBM, Warrior and Medieval Warfare 'mini' tournaments. Attendance seemed to be a little on the light side as several players who had planned to come to Fall In had cancelled at the last minute. Still, everyone looked to be having a great time. I watched Jeff Ball's 100 YW English take on Alex Aimette's Albigensian Crusaders. Alex managed to fail two attempts at getting his knights frenzied and it all went downhill from there as Jeff used artillery and massed archer fire to cut down the milling knights in droves. Rich Jarosz had two impressive wins with his Medieval Poles to win the MW mini-tournament.

After dinner, Dave Bonk ran a very nice demo game, the Battle of Lodwigowo, 1657, using our Renaissance Warfare rules. As usual with Dave's games, this was a visual treat. A few tables over, we set up the 15mm MW pickup game. Within minutes, the sides were chosen, three players each, and battle was joined. Ken and I were tired from the long drive and afternoon of walking, so we went back to our hotel. Mitch later told me how the game went. It seemed that the Mongols never got a concerted and coordinated attack going against the Teutonics, who were established in a corner of the battlefield, defending against the deadly Mongol bowfire. Piecemeal attacks did nothing against the tough Teutonic lines and eventually the Mongols were punished by German crossbow fire. The two new players who sat in enjoyed the game and with that we retired for the night, in order to be ready for our two tournaments on Saturday.

Saturday

Saturday morning we drove over to the convention center and I gave out the first round match-ups to eight players and two co-commanders in our 25mm AW tournament while Bob Eldridge did the same in his 15mm MW tournament. We then settled in for battle. My first round featured my Graeco-Indians against Paul Dobbin's Alexandrians. I managed to roll successfully for hills and established a strong line of longbowmen on them. I had a new player commanding my left, so I asked him if he liked defensive tactics or offensive. Since he was new to the game, he chose defensive, so I gave him a command of peltasts, some longbowmen and a lone unit of heavy cavalry. It didn't take long for him to get into it with Paul's flanking command, charging into them with relish! Defensive indeed…. My own attacks were lackluster, but I did manage to put enough damage on Paul's left flank cavalry to allow my own horse to sweep around his flank and threaten his rear. The Macedonian attack rolled forward and had success in the center, but by the time it had closed and was in combat, the flank charges had destroyed Paul's own cavalry and the subsequent routs led to the loss of the battle. This was a good beginning, giving me a 5-2 victory, thanks in large part to my co-commander.

Looking around the complex, I noted that most of the games being played were actually WHAB, at least in my vicinity, with beautifully painted armies on very nice, and even elaborate terrain. It was pointed out to me that many of the WHAB players were very much into the painting aspect of the hobby, the rules being but a vehicle that allowed them to put their excellent armies on the table. Whatever the reasons for the attraction of WHAB, the many armies were very nice indeed, as were our own.

After lunch, we started our second round. This time I was matched against Perry Gray and his Late Romans. This game did not go according to plan. Perry seemed to be reading my mind as every order I gave my units was expertly and successfully countered by Perry's own orders. Where he would remain in position for several turns, when I finally gave an order to charge, he would have retreat orders and would escape my charge. When my cavalry had halted outside shooting range of his stationary foot, he had now given orders for them to advance, getting up into close range and causing massive casualties on my horse.

As our lines clashed, there was one decisive combat in the very center of the battle. I had successfully flanked a unit of legionarii and they were forced to take a morale test with so many negative modifiers it would take a miracle for them to survive. They got their miracle rolling a '10' and going frenzied! As my own cavalry were destroyed by the much more numerous foot opposing them, my army reached its breakpoint (1/3 of the units had been lost or routed) and the game was over. Perry had a 5-3 victory.

We concluded our tournaments after the second round, something I feel will become the norm for AW and MW at future conventions. This allows the players to avoid tournament burn-out and they can play something else in the evening. It also makes it easier for the players who wish to play in two tournaments on subsequent days, again cutting down on fatigue. Jeff Ball won the 25mm AW tournament while Kevin Boylan took the honors in the 15mm MW. Mark Bloom and Steve McCroary won Best Sportsman awards respectively. I would like to thank Gripping Beast and Historical Collectibles Associates along with NASAMW for awarding prizes and plaques to our winners.

Other Observations

Two things stood out as I walked around after our games were concluded. First of all, I saw no ARMATI games, neither tournaments nor demo games for the first time in a decade. It seems that interest in ARMATI has virtually disappeared. Secondly, there is a revival of WRG 7th, called Warrior that is making headway into the DBM strongholds. Scott Holder and his associates are readying these rules for publication. It seemed to me that with the popularity of WHAB, our own growth with AW and MW as well as the new Warrior rules coming out, that variety is a success. All of these rules have their adherents and supporters where just a few years back DBM was the overwhelmingly dominant set in use. I applaud the efforts of all the new rules players in bringing back choices for the conventions.

As we walked through the gaming area, other non-tournament systems were in use, including Phil Viverito's popular Hack games. Phil can always be depended on to put on a number of interesting and well-received games at most of the regional conventions, and Fall In was no exception. I missed Frank Chadwick's new Ancient Conquest game with 54mm figures, but Jeff played in it and thought it interesting. There was also a huge DBA Battle of Chalons and a Warhammer ECW battle as well listed, but I was unable to see what they looked like. We headed back to our hotel and prepared for the morning excursion…we were going to walk the route of Pickett's Charge.

The Gettysburg Battlefield

It was sunny and in the mid-40's as we drove to the Virginia monument on Seminary Ridge Sunday morning. Looking across the field, we could see the copse of trees and the stone wall along the ridgeline of Cemetery Hill, the focus of the final Confederate attack at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. I have a very real connection to the battle in that two of ancestors were with the 2nd New Hampshire regiment. They had been run over by a Confederate attack in the Peach Orchard on July 2, one being killed, the other wounded and captured, spending the next year at first Libby Prison and then at Andersonville before being paroled. As I looked across the peaceful and beautiful Pennsylvania landscape, I could not help but be swayed by emotion thinking of what those men must have been feeling almost 140 years ago.

We began our walk. The ground had a very light decline as we descended Seminary Ridge, keeping our eyes on the Union positions in the distance. After a few minutes we had actually reached a point where we were in a low area, a place where the troops making the attack would have been fairly safe from enemy artillery fire. I could see where an advancing line would have a sense of false security as we marched through the undulation in the ground. This does not show up on maps, but it is significant, for as we came back out of the low ground, we suddenly could see the stone wall and copse of trees in vivid profile, as we had covered quite a bit of ground already.

At this point, the Union artillery would have been switching from solid shot and shell to long range canister. The rest of the march would be very difficult. We crossed several fields of corn, but there was no dead ground from here to the top of Cemetery Ridge. From the point they came out of the low ground, the Confederate troops would have been under extremely deadly fire. As we neared Emmitsburg Road, the Union positions were overlooking our own route of march. From this point, rifled musket fire would have been more and more devastating.

Crossing the wooden fence and the Emmitsburg Road, you are immediately struck by the sheer volume of fire that must have been poured into the Confederate advance. Looking to the left, the Union artillery on the Round Tops had a virtual enfilade, as did artillery to the left. Every one of the 5,000 Union defenders uphill ahead would have been firing as rapidly as they could bring their guns to bear. It is easy to see why at this point so many Confederate units simply melted away, swept by fire or turning back in a primal sense of self-survival. It was not far to the top of the ridgeline, but it was an uphill charge, and as we finally crossed the stone wall, you could understand the sheer elation the survivors must have felt as they saw the Union troops turning and running. Who wouldn't, seeing these seemingly invincible demons coming at you with screams and yells?

There were simply too few charging men left to overwhelm the Union positions. As we looked around, we wondered how anyone could have survived at all. We estimated that the men in Pickett's command would have been under fire long enough to take 30 rounds of artillery fire from each of the guns firing as well as several volleys of musket fire before reaching the stone wall. Longstreet was right. The attack was doomed from the start.

We noted the various markers, Armistead's fall, the high water mark, the stand of the brave Union regiments, and then headed back to look at a new bronze full-size sculpture of General Longstreet back on Seminary Ridge. This is a magnificent work, one I would recommend seeing if you ever get the chance. The pain and futility of failure is apparent in the expression on the face of the sculpture. All in all, it was a very moving experience.

As we said our goodbyes and headed back home we talked about looking forward to Cold Wars in April and more AW, MW and RW tournaments, demos and open games. Anyone interested in our plans can email me or join our rules discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoreAMwar