Cold Wars 2002

On Conventions and Venues

by Russ Lockwood



I had a talk with Bob Coggins about conventions and promoting the hobby of historical miniatures. We talked about Origins--he had just read my Origins 2001 report in MWAN 116--and my thoughts about it as a venue for promoting historical miniatures in general and HMGS in specific.

Nigel (behind computer) gives a taste of the Carnage and Glory computer-moderated rules system at Cold Wars. The Napoleonic battle in the foreground is but a tease as to what he and his 15-member umpire crew will be running at Borodino 2002, to be held Sep 5-8, 2002 at Fort Monroe, VA. See www.jodiecon.org for more details.

While I thought it had potential, I noted a number of shortcomings. I should note that GAMA has taken over running the convention from Wizards of the Coast. GAMA is supposedly trying to lure back the historical miniatures crowd. Indeed, the convention pre-registration booklet boasts about 7 pages of historical miniatures information--you can all thank Pete Panzeri for organizing and running HOT, and his hard work at making Origins a more miniatures friendly place.

To digress a moment, Pete and I have had discussions about Origins as a venue and the support the WOTC folks were providing. There are a number of differences between Origins and a convention like Cold Wars. At CW, it's $20 registration ($10 for HMGS members) and you can hear any lecture, play any game, and partake of all the events. At Origins, it's $40 to register and $2-$6 dollars for each event you want to be in ($15 to attend the War College lecture series). Both offer literally hundreds of miniatures events you can enter--and the usual range of historical periods. So, you can, at Origins, like Cold Wars, immerse yourself in historical miniature events for the whole convention. And the Columbus convention center offers roomier accommmodations than the Lancaster Host Resort.

The nitty gritty of command: French and French allies clash with Russians over another village somewhere near Borodino.

However, it was the supporting things that make CW a better place for historical miniatures than Origins. First, because Origins charges $550 per booth and $50 for electricity (versus CW $100 per table of comparable size) , the range of historical dealers is incredibly small. Forget any book sellers or smaller miniatures shops. In the five years that MagWeb.com has taken a booth at Origins, I've watched the "military history" section shrink--not in size per se, because the number of booths in this special area seems about the same from year to year, but in the fact that more and more sci-fi and fantasy companies are inserted into the area reserved for military history product booths. It used to be one or two. Last year it was four. Board wargames have also shrunk in booth size. And no flea market any more--a sin if ever there is one. In any case, MagWeb.com is giving Origins 2002 a miss. Perhaps 2003--I'll wait for a full report, and also hope they get the show off the 4th of July weekend.

Origins, which started as a board wargame convention (I attended the first two in Baltimore and the third in Staten Island before it wandered across the country) has become a card and RPG convention. I mean, you can't blame WOTC--Magic etc was the big money maker and D&D was TSR's big ticket. That's where all the seed money came from to make the convention that big. Now that Hasbro bought WOTC and Avalon Hill, it's somewhat ironic that the biggest promotional event for its two new subsidiaries was the first thing it jettisoned.

Will GAMA really turn it back into a historical and/or board wargame convention? I doubt it. The money's in cards et al. And before you harp on me, I do enjoy certain card games, notably L5R and the new (as opposed to the "old" years-ago version) LOTR. Right now, for historical miniaturists, Origins is an expensive convention. On the other hand, I believe most folks are like me and have multiple areas of interest, so an all-encompassing show might be worth the travel and expense.

Open gaming at Cold Wars. A large Napoleonic battles in 15mm.

Anyway, back to historical miniatures. Fall In will be moving in 2002 from Gettysburg to Lancaster, and in 2003 it will get to its new home in Timonium, MD. The Maryland State Fair is held there, so it has plenty of space (not that HMGS will need all of it, but you can't complain about lack of growth).

On the other hand, I had a talk with Bob Giglio and Norbert about the Timonium site (which is just north of Baltimore off I-83). He noted that the initial buildings do not have an attached hotel and had some concerns about its square footage. I don't know the square footage numbers mentioned during the conversation--I wasn't taking notes--but if it's comparable to the Gettysburg site, then it will do all right. On the other hand, hotels usually cut deals when you get "x" number of rooms sold for your event. I think it was a few hundred room nights to get the ballroom space at little or no charge--and Fall In Gettysburg did that every time.

Norbert did a statistical analysis of where people came from when they attended Fall In. The number one departure point? Maryland, followed by NJ and New York. I suppose a site in Wilmington, Delaware would be right in the middle, but I'm only guessing.

The other point of note is that Timonium has a PR department of sorts that can help publicize an event. I doubt the Eisenhower did anything similar. And it is closer to major metropolitan areas.

More open gaming at Cold Wars. It looks like an archeological expedition has run into Anubis-worshippers.

I, for one, agree with the move. I wasn't particularly fond of Gettysburg, and like Origins, it seems to me to be a number of small things. I mean, I attended four of the five shows there, but it never generated the allure of Lancaster. Certainly, from me as dealer perspective, sales were always low, but I went to support HMGS. It was always well run and I was always treated well, so I never had a problem that way. I know folks complained about the walk between the main hotel and the sports center. Yes, it does seem five times as long as walking between the main hotel and tennis barn at Lancaster. I don't believe that was a deal breaker. I don't know--it just never seemed to attain the mythical status of Cold Wars or Historicon. It was also an extra hour travel time to the west. I guess it really just was the addition of numerous little things.

The "move" was a kind of a topic of discussion around the convention. But I didn't hear anything approaching a mutiny on the subject. In fact, a lot of folks seemed pleased that it was moving. I'm also sure a lot of folks perhaps are not too pleased.

Now, there was some discussion about Baltimore's inner harbour as well as central NJ, but you have some concerns about costs (hotel and parking, facility rentals, etc), although someone I talked to later in the show noted that it might not be that bad compared to a touristy spot like Lancaster. And if you've tried to book a hotel in July, you'll find the rates have increased with the traffic and the number of outlets.

I should point out that there was some discussion about erecting a tent for spillover dealers, but the hotel was going to charge $16,000, so that was the end of that. I don't know about rates, but I know the HMGS board looked into such things as well as other options. I mean, moving a convention is a pretty big undertaking and they must have done a lot of research before settling on Timonium.

And yet more open gaming at Cold Wars. Not sure of the period, but the town and terrain were nicely constructed.

In any case, MagWeb.com plans to attend Fall In 2002 in Lancaster and 2003 in Timonium. I say we give it a shot. We can always move it again. Maybe even to Wilmington. Or Trenton.

For the record, I have no attachment to Wilmington, although I've gone past it in a car and on a train, visited one of the mansions on the outskirts, and dragged a convertible sofa bed up to a second floor apartment in 95-degree heat in a run-down section of town my brother in law called home while attending grad school. I have a nice attachment to Trenton, a neat little city with a brand new convention center/hotel about 15 miles away from MagWeb.com world headquarters and within walking distance of Amtrak RR station.

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