Origins 1996

A Convention Report

by Paul R. Price


Origins '96, the Game Fest and Expo (and convention of the Game Manufacturers Association) was held from July 4 through July 7, 1996, in Columbus, Ohio. As many of our readers would suspect, the convention was dominated by the hottest part of our hobby: collector's card games. However, board games, military miniatures, computer games, role-playing games, and play-by-mail games were all represented by exhibitors. Additionally, the convention had many miniature games, board game tournaments, collector's card games, tournaments, role-playing events, and open gaming area for attendees who wanted to play, not just buy.

Of the many exhibitors at Origins, the following would likely have been of the most interest to our readers:

    Avalon Hill had its usual line of ACW and other board games.

    Columbia Games had the board games Bobby Lee and Sam Grant, as well as the collector's card games Dixie: Bull Run, Dixie: Shiloh, and Dixie: Gettysburg.

    Strata May had a card game (not a collector's card game) called Rebs and Yanks.

    Stone Mountain Miniatures had its own 15mm and Adler's 6mm miniature lines. Additionally, Stone Mountain was selling John Hill's Johnny Reb III. Further, John Hill frequently manned the Stone Mountain booth to answer questions, hawk his rules, autograph copies of his rules, and talk with gamers. (Those of you who have met John will know that he is one of the most enthusiastic people in the hobby, and his enthusiasm is contagious.)

    Vulcan Forge had a wide line of 15mm ACW infantry and artillery.

    The Gamers had several ACW board games.

    Mayfair Games had several ACW board games.

    Speerit Games had a unique board game called Gettysburg: Three Days in July. This game attempts to combine limited intelligence features (similar to Stratego or Columbia Games' Napoleon), with board movement of traditional board games, and ranged combat results (similar to miniatures.)

    Ral Partha had a small sampling of its Minifigs lines.

Overall, American Civil War gaming and card gaming were well-represented by the exhibitors ar Origins. However, ACW miniature gaming was under-represented, except for Stone Mountain Miniatures and John Hill.

As for miniature gaming events, Origins had numerous miniatures events available, including a fair number of ACW games. However, many of these events were short on players. For example, the refight of Shiloh (using Johnny Reb III), in which I participated, had about five players for a game intended for ten. I suspect many historical miniature gamers are passing up Origins in favor of Historicon. Too bad. They missed an opportunity for much good gaming.

Back to The Zouave Vol XI No. 1 Table of Contents
Back to The Zouave List of Issues
Back to Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1996 The American Civil War Society

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com