I travelled up to Kansas City, Mo. October 18-20 to attend Border Ware III. The Heart of America HMGS sponsored the historical portion of Border Con at the Rodeway Inn. It was great! Being sequestered by the Air Force in remote southwest Oklahoma, I have to grab my wargaming opportunities when I can. I made it to the convention early enough to peruse the dozen or so dealers before gaming. The most notable proprietor was the gentleman who runs Howard Hues, up from Oklahoma City, and selling some spiffy trees for very cheap! We talked a bit and I quickly shelled out $5 for a lunch sack full of 30 or so pine and palm trees--very nice! I then strolled upstairs in search of an ancients game to play.

The only thing close was a 25mm medieval game with homebrew rules, but I elected instead to try my hand at Command Decision with Dave Grosdeck and Ray Davis from Pioneer Panzer. Thoroughly enjoyable. Other games that evening included an ACW Fire and Fury game, a French and Indian Ware battle by Sam Gill of HATSOFF, a desperate French Foreign Legion battle against the Muslim hordes, and several others.

Saturday brought out the full crowd in the rather cramped game room. I estimate about 150 attendees playing at 20 or so tables. I planned to play in the WRG 7th edition ancients tournament as I never get to play at home. I was rather astonished to be billed an additional $10 to play though, as the $13 at the door should have been adequate. I guess they needed it to pay for prizes. Perhaps they didn't get enough donations from dealers or manufacturers. Still, I thought the price steep.

WRG

I had been a rather strong WRG 6th player out in California, but the move and lack of opponents has only allowed me to play 7th ed. 4 times in 3 years, so I was filled with some trepidation. I'd also brought a Viking army which I'd been told was not too good in 7th, but what the heck! I wanted to have fun, and I like Dark Age armies.

There were 20 or so entries in the tournamentl at least 4 Seleucids, 2 Byzantines, a Hussite (Jake Kovel of WASAMW, our event coordinator), Teutonic Knight, Arab Conquest, and others. My first draw was the Teutonic Knights commanded by a young army gentleman, and also a WRG 7th novice. We puttered around getting ready, but finally deployed our troops (of course I was outscouted, the whole tournament). Fearing the knights in the open, I placed several woods and brush areas in my half of the table.

I awaited his advance safely ensconced in the terrain, hoping to get his units close enough to charge impetuously and avoid a waver test. Unfortunately he stayed out of range and I wouldn't come out. We skirmished a bit, with me shaking and recoiling a unit of his lights. My only advantage came when one of his combined 2HCW/CB units turned its flank to a LI JLS unit of mine in the brush. I charged, recoiled, then broke the unit before a knight wedge drove me off. Result; 3-2 victory for me, but I still felt cautious (who ever heard of a cautious Viking?).

My next draw was one of the Seleucids. I only got terrain on the flanks, 3 woods end to end. Knowing I had a fair chance against the elephants but still fearing the cavalry, I again moved into the woods (hid?!). I refused to come out and he refused to come in. The only thing left was a little Skirmishing in which I was defeated; 2-3 loss. I'm feeling like quite the wimp at this point, and my ancestors (Swedish, English, Irish) are all rolling over in their graves, so I buck up. I'll be aggressive next game if it kills me (poor choice of words).

My next opponent is Byzantines (Thematic?), commanded by a fellow named Matt (again, I forget the last name but he took second in nationals last year, I think). Great guy!

Between my other battles we had chatted, and he'd offered some tips on improving my organization and tactics which I had yet to use. He plays a very gentlemanly game. Anyway, here is an example of how not to play. I set up woods on each flank to keep the cavalry away, open in the middle (his choice), and FINALLY I got a major water feature which I placed on the left (as in previous games). Since I was going to be aggressive I gave all my units Attack orders.

My three 36-man Bondi units with Bow and JLS would advance slowly in the middle, while the Berserkers and Huscarls advanced quickly through the flanking woods to attack his flanks (Cannes?). Skirmishers force marched to the middle to tie up his advance. However, my plan began to unravel when the skirmishers were quickly driven back and the advance through the woods was slower than I expected. Also, he'd force marched a Peltastoi unit to each woods which tied up up both flanks. In fact, on the right his Peltastoi broke a double wedge of Berserkers on impact) (I roll down 4, him up 1) This causes two other units to shake. Also, every one of my heavy units deviated every move while in the woods, except one huscarl unit which kept getting slowed down by the others moving in front of it. I routed the Peltastoi on the left, and was working on the right hand one, but they had done their job tying up too many of my units too long. Hatt's Varangian Guard and Kataphractoi slammed into my hapless Bondi in the middle.

To their credit, all the Bondi charged impetuously to contact, and actually recoiled one Varangian and chased off a couple LC units. But all three Bondi units were recoiled and subsequently broken. With only the C-in-C and his huscarls left to oppose the Byzantine wave the game ended. Result; 4-1 victory for Matt, much better understanding of the game for me, and a new friend.

Other Events

Other notable events that day were a spectacular 1/285 scale game board of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin (10'X14') done in great detail. Manhattan Maneuver Group provided it along with modern armor battles all three days. Also, Rick Nance and Dave Grosdeck of Pioneer Panzer hauled out their renowned Tarawa game. A beautifully terrained island about 6'long and surrounded by plenty of sea, with scale ships for the bombardment and landings (15nm).

Also, another HATSOFF ACW game and TACTICA and Ring of Iron ancients battles. The Ring of Iron game had some spiffy looking trophies but some were obviously fantasy figures (gasp!). Many other games were available from sci-fi to Napoleanics.

Sunday I brought my 6 year old son Andrew, who'd been chomping at the bit. He's quite a gamer already, with lots of plastic soldier, a few lead knights and fantasy figures, GI Joes, Ninja Turtles, and Playmobil forces. (Spoiling kids is fun 'cuz you get to play too!) We raided the dealers room picking up lots of 20mm plastic WWI French and Germans (Andrew, why do we need these? I don't know anything about this period. But dad, I like them!) Also picked up several magazines, a painted two-headed ogre (I'm the bad guy in the fantasy battles) some Minifigs ACW troops, a new Tin Clad sidewheeler in 15mm and a copy of the old SPI game Kursk.

From there we pressed on upstairs to fight in Bob Koffman's (of HATSOFF) beautiful recreation of the Alamo. His hand-crafted buildings were elegant, and made me wish I had the skill and the time. Andrew threw some lucky dice as the Texans valiantly resisted the Mexican hordes. But a final rush by a fresh Grenadier unit overcame the final defenders. Bowie (me) died on the enemy bayonets In the last bastion to fall. Final tally, 14 surviving Mexicans, 0 Texans. Not bad for being outnumbered 10-1. A very enjoyable, fast moving game.

After one final stroll through the dealer room, and goodbyes to some new friends, we packed and headed for home. The HoA HMS folks talked about getting Don Featherstone to be their Guest of Honor at their convention in May or June. If so, its en event you won't want to miss.