A big hoo hah for Northern Va. Transportation

I've worked on two citizen committees here where I live. One was the roadways and pathways committee for our ambitious new parking facility in the VRE parking lot. The other was the new library building within walking distance to my house. Yessir!

Saturday there were two ground breaking ceremonies. One was for the PARKING LOT of the new library facility, which I didn't bother to attend (but here's a picture of the new parking lot anyway).



Why a ceremony for a parking lot? Well, to build the parking facility over at the train station, we will need SOME form parking relief for most of a year. Hundreds of spaces will disappear while this thing is being built. What do the riders do in the meantime?

The answer is to build shuttle parking at the new library parking lot (for communities south of the tracks) and hopefully my church will provide day parking for communities north of the tracks. Not optimal, perhaps, but better than getting tickets for illegal parking.

Gar and I did attend the facility ground breaking, and it was like a Who's Who in Northern Virginia politics.

Sharon Bulova, my district supervisor, emceed the occasion.

That's the facility architectural drawing behind her.



Congressman Tom Davis made some comments, very short and pithy... mostly about his efforts to get funding for VRE (which have been singularly succesful). That's an EZBus behind him, one of the subscription shuttles that move people to the railway station every day.



The drawing there is the side view. It will be a great facility.. very green, with self watering plants and a clock tower. Nice design.



Dale Zehner, CEO of VRE (who rides the same train in I do every day and is always eager to talk about VRE problems) makes some remarks



Let's fling dirt for the camera!!!

Defying Gravity

by Jesse Winchester,
as sung by Jimmy Buffett on his "live from Shea Stadium" CD

Just by chance this was next on the CD on the way to the railroad station this morning.

(Jesse Winchester)
I live on a big blue ball
I never do dream I may fall
But even the day that I do
I jump off and smile back at you
I don't even know where we are

But they tell us we're circling a star
Well I'll take their word I don't know
But I'm dizzy so maybe that's so

I'm riding a big blue ball
I never do dream I may fall
But even the high may lay row
So when I do fall I'll be glad to go

I've been a bit down lately because 3 of my friends passed away in rapid succession... for some reason this was comforting.

What have we learned here today, kids?

---

Important Disclaimer
The following statement is solely my own opinion, based upon my own observations.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.

---

We are now in the wake of one of the better HISTORICONs, thanks to the good stewardship of Bob Giglio and his hard working staff, particularly Duncan Adams and Neil Brennan. I never doubted Bob and company would deliver, despite the rumblings from certain groups. The layouts worked, and worked well. The convention was very pleasant.

The membership meeting was far from pleasant but it was interesting. I think, for a moment there, we were facing a situation with extremely nasty real world consequences. We got there from not communicating with each other in a reasonable fashion, and acting without thinking. To a great extent the Fred situation was exacerbated from the hyperbolic fashion the internet can ratchet up the rhetoric on any issue. Many people took issue with what happened to Fred Haub, myself included. Many people (myself included) spoke out about it in public. I did so for the sake of principle, and not because of any partisan interest. I am not on the board of directors (not even as an ex-officio member, which apparently isn't recognized in our governing documents). I AM an officer of HMGS, as long as I'm signed up to run a convention. So, some might argue, I probably shouldn't have put my oar in the water. I don't agree with that opinion. I think when a principle is involved, it behooves us to express ourselves-- yet remain civilized.

Some people might have felt I was a little hard on the BOD, and in particular Pres. PP, on this blog. I had my objections to their actions and I objected to them on principle. My objections have been greatly alleviated by the results of that four hour long meeting. To continue bashing on the BOD would be counter productive in the extreme and only add to an existing negatively charged atmosphere. I have to work with these people, you know.

Therefore, I am willing to give the new BOD the benefit of the doubt for the time being. I hope we have all learned a little lesson about keeping our eyes on the weather guage here and won't go as far as we did again. I won't be shutting up (far from it) but I want to get back to speaking with a positive voice. To be otherwise is courting bad kharma...

My How they have grown!

Bird Report...

My little pin-feathered pals are quite huge now and growing amazingly fast, faster than I would have thought possible.



I can attest that mom and dad cardinal have taken good care of their charges because they are getting dangerously fat for their nest. The pin featers are dropping out and real adult feathers are coming in. Both chicks are still brownish which would indicate that they might be females.

Any day now, I suspect I'll have empty nest syndrome... sigh. It's been fun having guests. They grow so quickly.

Throughout the short cycle of hatching and growth, my pickup has been parked underneath the nest to keep the chicks from being knocked out by passing busses and mail handlers striking the cherry tree branches as they drive past. This policy will continue until I'm certain the birds have grown up and flown away.

Link Back:
Another Point of Singularity: Local Guests

Historicon Travelogue Part two

Okay, one more time for nostalgia's sake:

---

Important Disclaimer
The following statement is solely my own opinion, based upon recollection.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.

---

I may actually be saying a few nice things here, so don't be too shocked.

This post dwells on the bits of HISTORICON that encompassed the marathon, record breaking membership meeting of Saturday morning and key event before and after. This may not be everyone's cup of tea so I broke it out from the gaming and convention reporting stuff.

Friday night I dropped into the bar at the Host, after ON TO SARGOSSA run by Pat Condrey. Flush with victory and cash not yet spent on toy soldiers.

I saw Michael M. and a few others clustered around a table so I sauntered over and gave my usual bluff n' hearty convention greetings. More HMGS business than I care to admit gets accomplished in the Host Lobby bar (that's how I got Del Stover to agree to be my publicity guy for CW07, by the way!)

They asked what I thought of the "situation". I replied with my own concerns about HMGS East's future. We all felt that something serious had been done but were kind of in a quandary about what to do next. Fred himself showed up, and sat down, obvioulsy looking for advice. I told Fred that if he wanted people to support him in reversing his firing, than he had better act like it's important to him... keeping mum and not communicating with anyone (leaving everyone to guess as to what his intentions are) might lead people to believe that Fred didn't care about it.
The assembled crowd had their copies of Roberts Rules and the Bylaws out, and that usually makes my eyes glaze.. so off to bed.

The Big, Big Meeting

If anyone were to ask me to name the person that would be the center of controversy in HMGS, and possibly be at the heart of an incident that might bring the whole organization crashing down in ruin, well, let's just say there are many names I would bring up before Fred Haub. Fred is not one of these big, bluff hearty characters. He's shy, good-natured, and thoughtful-- not the sort of guy that would beat you at a game of quarters or slurp jello shooters out of the bellybutton of a Hooters waitress. So the opening of the membership meeting probably came as a surprise to all of us assembled. (You should note that a RECORD crowd of 150 souls was present, and the back of the room was standing room only)

HMGS President P. and the BoD were taking their seats and gaveling us to order, as it were, when in strides Fred Haub, right up to the front of the room, and says in a loud, firm tone:

"Ladies and Gentlemen: I am a board member of HMGS East that was removed without due process that makes the removal illegal"

Pete attempted to gavel him down and declare him out of order. Fred held his ground, and the applause grew and grew along with chants of "Fred Fred Fred".... Pete conceded that Fred could take a seat up front.

I had to admire Fred for that. It took a lot of guts and was nice bit of political theater. The practical benefit of the maneuver wasn't tangible, but it did get the crowd riled up and somewhat on Fred's side.



A full house! It's a dark shot.. but it should show how packed the room is

The attendance was a new high in HMGS history. 147 souls at the commencement of the meeting and more people (including BoD member Mattes) showed up later.



HMGS President P. made a very nice gesture to his predeccesor, Fred Hubig, presenting a Pavlov's Grenadier figure as a parting gift and allowing Fred Hubig the floor. Hubig made a small speech outlining the results of the 7 May meeting and actions taken subsequent to it (including consulting the "corporate attorney" on the legality of the removal of Haub). Hubig's tone was conciliatory and positive, with a plea for the members to be reasonable and gentlemanly. It was probably Fred Hubig's best speech given at a HMGS function.

Our agenda was like so:

Quorum Determination
Call to Order
Reading of Minutes
Old Business
New Business (to include resolution of Procedural Issues)
Officers' Reports
Standing Committee Reports
Temporary Committee Reports
Adjournment

HMGS President P. dwelled a bit on procedure, naming Mike Cosentino as a Sergeant of Arms. HMGS President P. introduced the newly constituted board and led off with viewgraphs of our mission statement. It was now 9AM or close to it.

HMGS President P. started with the introduction of the new board.

HMGS President P.: President
Dan McDonaugh: Executive Vice President
Membership Secretary: Bill Rutherford (again)
Treasurer: James Curtis
VP of Education Programs: Don Manser
VP of Outreach: James Mattes
VP of ConOps: HMGS President P.
Strategic Planning Committe: HMGS President P. (and that means the HISTORICON move)
Membership Comms: Dan MacDonaugh
Membership Services: Bill R.
Exhibitor liaison: James mate's
various other committees I didn't catch.

HMGS President P. wanted to go through his presentation and get officer reports. The membership preempted that by voting to table reading of the minutes and moving OLD business to the end of the meeting. Both actions passed.

So we went to NEW business. Now, unheard of when we vary rarely get more than two motions in a single meeting, we had NINE motions that had been made in advance. Here they are (this will all be released in the minutes and was mentioned in the meeting announcement, so I'm not speaking out of school here)

New Motions all had to be submitted in writing well in advance.

1. Motion to make the Minutes from HMGS East BoardÂ’s Executive Session of 7
May 2006 available to the membership

(this was trumped somewhat by the fact that the board had removed the cone of silence on this meeting in advance of the meeting, but they will be published on the website) There was some spirited discussion kicked off by none other than Pat Condrey inquiring if the membership actually has the power to "make the board" do something. Bob Coggins actually supported this by indicating that we probably didn't record the actual discussion of the meeting. Further discussion was obviously desired by many, but someone actually called it into question early and it had to be handled by the parliamentariann (Mitch Osborne) to see if the vote was appropriate.

Pete and Bill read a precis of the events of the 7 May session with a summary of charges made against Fred.

This was a sort of non-issue because of the board's decision to release the minutes, but it got added to the agenda because motions are made so far in advance.

2. Corporate Referendum to amend Article VI, Section 10 of the HMGS East bylaws re: term limits for Directors

This was a motion by Mitch Osborne to address the high number of incomplete terms we have been getting lately-- with the exception of Pete, only Don Manser didn't start out as a replacement for someone who had left by resigning. So there's an issue about term limits for someone who picks up a position emptied by resignation. Mitch gave a little background to the motion and it sounded common sense to me. I voted for it.

3. Corporate Referendum to amend Article VI, Section 3a of the HMGS East bylaws re: requiring a 2/3 majority vote by the Board of Directors to remove a Director from the Board.

There were two of these. One of which (I think the next one) was hugely complicated.. I like the first (far simpler) motion; I believe I voted for it.

4. Corporate Referendum to amend Articles III, V, and VI of the HMGS East bylaws re: membership ratification of Board-initiated removal of Directors from the Board of Directors.

This was lengthy and complicated.. as it had many sections and we had to break it into pieces for discussion. I think I voted against this as it was amended.

5. Corporate Referendum to amend Article X of the HMGS East bylaws re: minutes for Board of DirectorsÂ’ meetings and re: Executive Sessions

I think this was part of a series of non-binding "Sense of the Membership" motions by Bob Coggins that basically would encourage the BOD not to have Executive Sessions. I did not like the sound of it. In a business sense, sometimes we need to have sealed meetings. If we reveal everything to the outside world, we lose some, if not all of our negotiating power.



Even Notoriously Energetic Bob Giglio is poleaxed by the lengthy meeting

6. Resolution regarding continued membership of a Director on the HMGS East
Board of Directors

By far the most contentious of the group. "It was the sense of the membership" that James Curtis and James Mattes should resign for not living up to their fiduciarresponsibilitiesis" Folks from the back interjected to make the language more binding and turn it into a referendum. This got voted down. Then someone suggested maybe we should split Curtis and Mattes out. So we ended up voting NO for Curtis, YES for Mattes.

I voted NO for both. In my eyes it was "ethically challenging" to throw two more BOD members under the bus to demonstrate our feelings about the first BOD member getting thrown under the bus.

Does this mean that James Mattes HAS to resign? Nope. It's a non-binding resolution giving the "sense of the membership".

7. Resolution regarding prohibiting the expenditure of HMGS East funds to defend Directors for failure to follow due process

Another Bob Coggins "sense of the membership" thing. I didn't vote for this. We already have directors and CD insurance for this purpose,and this motion would yank the rug under our established procedures. Besides, who could you recruit to run for the BOD or be a CD if this had passed with some binding effect?

8. Resolution regarding the resignation of Directors from the HMGS East Board of Directors

Another procedural thing. I don't recall if it passed or what-- the minutes will surely reflect it. It wasn't as contentious as the previous motions. I *think* Dudley Garidel submitted this one.

9. Motion to make the Minutes from the HMGS East Board's Executive Session of 12 November 2004 available to the membership

Del submitted this and wasn't here to see it pass. This was the FALL IN where he got "resign or else!" as an option. Pity he left early, it would have been amusing to have some discussion on this one. It passed.


Auggie Thiesing, CW07 Events Director Richard Wright, Dan Nedwich, Greg Hacke and a room full of disgruntled HMGS members

The discussion was remarkably civil (most of the time), considering the gravity of the meeting itself, and yes, I do credit our new President for both keeping order AND allowing even the most controversial statements to get uttered. There were definitely anti-BOD factions in the crowd... let's just say a few tournaments got delayed as a result of the meeting. I found it greatly amusing that everyone who had ANY previous military experience would announce it when identifying themselves before speaking "Such-in-such, LT COL, Army Rangers, retired!" that sort of thing. And I got flack for using the phrase "camoflauge mafia!" Silly people. I wanted to cite my Boy Scout credentials when it was my turn to speak but by that point the moment was gone.

I stayed until the bitter end, and my impressions of things are generally positive. Pete behaved very calmly and didn't get rattled. He allowed the malcontents to speak, even the ones calling him a liar and trying to shout over him. That certainly would have rattled me if I were in his shoes.

Even with outstanding reports, nobody was complaining about calling for adjournment, so I didn't get a chance to make my Cold Wars report. I will post it here in the next week or so.

Much later, BOD Member James Mattes approached me in the hotel lobby, saying he had "good news". The board had met again in Executive Session and reseated Fred Haub with 4 votes for (Pete, James Curtis, Don and Bill) and 2 against (Mattes and Dan McDonough).

And so, the great Fred Haub Scandal of 2006 is behind us. Personally, I'm glad to see him back on the BOD, out of principle. His continuing presence there may just be symbolic, but I comend the BOD for doing the right thing.

Oh, no!

This was noticed in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE CLASSIFIEDS recently:

9. NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF
NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF COLLATERAL
BY ORDER OF SECURED PARTY
Pursuant to Uniform Commercial Code 9-610, thefollowing personal property of Eagle Games, Inc. (Borrower)will be sold by Amcore Bank, N.A., the Secured Party (SecuredParty), at a public sale on August 4, 2006, at the hour of 10:00a.m. at Tishler & Wald, Ltd., 200 South Wacker Drive, Suite3000, Chicago, Illinois 60606:
All of Borrower's inventory and all tangible and intangibleproperty rights of the Borrower arising out of, or relating to, itsownership in certain of its inventory, including all relatedtrademarks, trade names, copyrights, licenses, contracts, tradesecrets and patents (collectively, the Collateral) of theBorrower, which is a publisher of high-end board games.Expressly excluded from this sale is Borrower's equipment,furniture, website, webstore, and all rights and interestsassociated with these excluded assets.
A list of the Collateral to be sold may be obtained bycontacting Mr. Jamrozy at (815) 741-7196.
The Collateral will be sold in bulk. The Secured Party hasreceived a cash offer in the amount of $75,000 in totalconsideration for the Collateral. The next acceptable bid must be$85,000 and subsequent bidding shall be in increments of $5,000.
The sale will be conducted in accordance with the provisions ofthe Illinois Uniform Commercial Code. The bid price must bepaid in certified check or cashier's check payable to the order ofAmcore Bank, N.A. Fifty Percent (50%) of the successful bidprice will be paid at the time of sale and the balance must be paidwithin one (1) business day of the sale or longer in the solediscretion of Secured Party. If the successful bidder defaults onthe unpaid balance, the Secured Party may retain the initialdeposit and, at the Secured Party-1/8s option, sell to the next highestbidder. Secured Party reserves the right to bid part or all of theamount secured by the Collateral being sold without certifiedcheck or cashier's check as required for other bidders. TheSecured Party reserves the right within one (1) business day ofthe completion of the bidding to reject all bids. The SecuredParty reserves the right to adjourn the sale to another datewithout further publication or notice by giving notice at the timeof the sale.
If the Secured Party accepts a bid, the bidder will receive aSecured Party Bill of Sale of the interest of the Secured Party inthe Collateral purchased, subject to the terms hereof and subjectto any and all warehousemen liens. THE SECURED PARTYMAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES AS TOTHE CONDITION OF THE COLLATERAL AND THE SALEIS AS IS, WHERE IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS.
For further information, please contact Kurt M. Carlson,Tishler & Wald, Ltd., 200 South Wacker Drive, Suite 3000,Chicago, Illinois 60606 (312) 876-3800, counsel for SecuredParty.

60606

That's definitely NOT good news. I loved (most of) Eagle Games' output: I own CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE and WAR! AGE OF IMPERIALISM.

I hope they can restructure somehow and not just go away.

The Big Bang Boom

Found this on YouTube today.

Quite excellent...



HISTORICON PART TWO (the ugly political bit) report forthcoming. It is quite long.

Historicon Travelogue Part one

NOTE: There's a political element to HMGS East that many people (Duh!) find tedious. Part TWO of this travelogue will include such political observations as are necessary to make about the epic HMGS East membership meeting on Saturday, events leading up to and subsequent to it, and such modest interpretations as I am able to make. In this fashion, the boring material may be easily avoided. There will be a bit of an epilog after Part TWO.

I arrived at the Lancaster Host close to 1:30 PM on Friday. I had hoped to spend more time at the Con, but family responsibilities delayed my departure. Good Sign: parking was atrocious. If there were lots of spaces available, that would have been a bad sign!

Bob Giglio, Duncan Adams, Neil Brennan and company really sharpened their pencils on this convention, trying to accommodate a concern for fire code laws juxtaposed against an ever-increasing need for gaming space. The results were superb. I congratulate the HISTORICON team on a magnificent job. Well done, Hcon team.

First stop Lampeter Room

I thought the Lampeter layout worked for me. The aisles were wider and the tables looked well used most times I poked my nose in there. Gaming TIMES were stretched out to accommodate the layout, that much is certain, but the results were very pleasant.





Warrior Tourney (I think)



Flames of War:



Next stop Registration

There was some clear innovation being demonstrated here. The Wheatland, the room we use as a registration area at COLD WARS, was given over to gaming. The back room of the bar (where we show movies and do MST3K) was turned into the walkup registration area.

Preregistration was sensibly staffed with two people maximum. Here's the booth that was rented for that purpose:



The line was roped off to control traffic.





Inside the Reg Area (formerly the pool table area, back of the bar. That's Augie Thiesen manning the desk)



Greetings were made all around!

Duke Seifreid's game was in the lobby. A visual feast, to be sure. Dang! I didn't get a chance to play.









I had promised Howard Whitehouse I'd lend a hand with Amazing Tales: Africa Screams! At 2PM that day, and I got there about five minutes 'til 2. Unfortunately Howard had enough referees to run the game without me crowding the room even more. God knows it was hot enough!

AFRICA SCREAMS!

There were four "sets"

Rick's Cafe in the Casbah:



The Great Veldt, where Ernest Hemingway and Mr. Shiney were out leading hunting parties:



The Tomb of the Pharoahs:





Howard confidently gives his before-game spiel.



The audience hangs on his every word.



The roles are doled out:



The actors in various parties...

The Fastidious Otto Premiger like German Director and his film crew:


Biggles and crew, badly out of focus:


The Shadow, Margo Lane and crew (with the Spider standing in for the he who clouds men's minds):


Rick O'Brien(?) from the Mummy and crew (right), Jasper Gutman and his seedy crew on the left, Indiana Jones in the center (with Marion) and in the far background, the Lord of the Jungle and Jane.



The crowd yucks it up a bit.



That's NEOTACHA and her husband MWEAVER? from TMP!



Casbah interior:



I felt a little superfluous, and didn't have a hotel room yet, so I bowed out and went hunting for Bob G. to straighten out a place to sleep. I had a rollaway in the Presidential Suite.

I had me a kind of of dry overcooked hamburger for dinner, having waited a bit too long, and did a quick flyby the dealers room. Bought some 20mm French guns for my Russian troops from FAA. Baxter Key was a laconic and gentlemanly as ever.

Passed by Toby Barrett at Thoroughbred, we yucked it up a bit about recent events. We will address this in a follow up post. And got told that those cool Russian Civil War books (in Russian) weren't at ON MILITARY MATTERS. DRAT! At that point we were all (politely) kicked out.

ON TO SARGOSSA! Friday evening

I wanted to get into a game, and spied ON TO SARGOSSA! in the program book, run by none other than Well Known Poison Pen Pat Condray. I love between the wars as a period and have played Pat's rules, Vive la Christo Rey!, before about 15 years ago.

Turns out that the game was to be held at table D-44 (Distelfink 44) but when we arrived there was nothing but a big hole where the table was, and no Pat Condrey. It's not like Pat to sign up to run something and not show up, so I went to the GM desk and they were unable to find either his table or notice it had been dropped. Eventually Pat was found, calmly at a table nearby... He wasn't there the first time we looked, honest! Anyhow, I was pleased to find Jeff Ewing on the opposing side-- haven't seen him in an age. The OTHER player on the Republican side was Curt Daniels from my neighborhood (fahter of Grant, my occassional barista) Eventually Chick Lewis, whom I had bumped into earlier, jumped in to cover one part of my command, but I was mostly the sole anti-communist counter revolutionary player in the game.

My Guardia Civil troops.



with POUM and armored cars and guns...



My line, right flank looking North. Legion cavalry with a mounted MG. Then Carlists, then two artillery pieces of dubious quality.

Here are the Carlists. I actually redeployed them to the left, as they were slightly less wretched marksmen than the Falange, who made a floating reserve in the center. I put my Guardia troops (my best men) to the left and right of the bridge-- mostly to the left, as I (correctly) surmised that most of the action would occur there. The bridge dead ahead is the center of the line. Our goal is to deny the enemy (all those Anarchists and POUMistas) a chance to cross the river and drive "On to Sargossa!"



Viva El Christo Rey! (Carlist saying, and the title of the rules we were playing...)



Close up on the Nationalist Cav. They would prove to be decisive.



Redeployed Carlists, on my left



The Falange (front) deploy to support the beleagured Guardia troops (closer to the river) and plug up the hole in the line to their left. Alas, ranges being what they were and the Falange being as wretched as they were, they rarely shot anything.

Meanwhile, the armored car and artillery trucks advance over the bridge.



At some point, the Guardia machine gun down the Armored car, and there was much rejoicing on our side. That didn't slow down the hordes of Milicianas, Anarchists and POUMistas.

I deployed the Nationalist Cav on the right, as they were pretty good by the standards of the troops engaged. Big mistake. The troops opposing them (more POUM) did nothing for several turns, and the cav were stalemated. I did put the detachment of Morrocans on the left flank to bolster the Carlists. If Jeff had given these guys orders to advance, I think he would have broken through. We were THAT low on troops.



Eventually Chick Lewis showed up and took over the cav on the right, which made the battle easier to manage.

The Carlists sidle up to the line and get their butts shot off...



The skulking Guardia his the road...



The Wave of POUM...



Uh oh, is he deploying his guns? That could be trouble! Note those gray troops advancing in the back there? Those are the Assaultos, the absolute best troops on the Republican side in this battle. Fortunately they are advancing directly on MY best troops, the Guardia.



Jeff, manning the center and left of the opposing side, was very effective with his gunfire rolls, landing a shell right on top of the heads of my general staff and killing my nearby gun. That sucked. Even if I wasn't hitting anything it helped keep their heads down.

Positions at game end:



I swear I took more pictures of this.. somewhere.. but to get us to the finish and on to other things, I'll abbreviate. The left flank almost crumbled from persistent attacks from the Anarchists. Unfortunately for him, I retreated until just inside of rifle range and continued to keep steady fire on him, even if my Carlists DID break once. This forced them to take losses and go prone in the river, neither of which would advance the cause.

The center was the bloodiest. Between Jeff's artillery, MY artillery landing wrong, and his armored car, the Guardia took a lot of casualties. It went down to the last stand, with HIS Assaultos facing MY Guardia Civil, which must have been ironic, if you consider they were both paramilitary police troops at the start of the war. So my best versus his best resulted in the Assaultos buggering off and the Guardia getting decimated, even with the Falange backfilling to their left.

Even though they were my worst shots and poor troops, the Falange put up a spirited fight before being forced to retreat. They caused the opposing POUM force to bugger off as well before they broke.

The climatic event of the game was Chick taking over for the static right flank, putting the deployed cav back in the saddle, and charging right into the flank of the oncoming POUMistas on the RIGHT side of the bridge. I only had one stand left of Guardia there and was expecting a breakthrough at any second. The charge alleviated that and those POUM troops left found better places to be.



There was ONE formed unit left without casualties, on the Republican side, but Pat C. ruled it was a Nationalist victory (at horrific cost) because we held the line.

I'll take what I can get. LOVED the game. Thank you, Pat, if you are reading this.
I'll make you some decent order chits one of these days.

The best moves were not executed by me-- I was shuttling back and forth from crisis to crisis, and not very proactive. Curt was a savage attacker on the left flank and had he been reinforced, he might have broken through. The river and the ford saved my left. Jeff was a crackshot with the cannons where I could not roll a hit to save my life (not entirely true, I guess, having nailed a few stands of infantry). As I said earlier, if he had pressed on his left he might have won it, because we could only defend in so many places. But the best moves go to Chick Lewis and his cavalry charge. That decimated the POUM's best attack of the day.



OTHER CON STUFF!

I wandered around, after the game, schmoozing with people and looking at other ongoing games.









Hey, that's Ed Watts! Nice hat, Ed!


A prominent member of HEBBS displays his black ball!


Saturday

There's a whole range of stuff to discuss about the HMGS East membership, before and after, and that will be covered in post two. This post is solely for the fun stuff!
Some of it might be out of sequence, sorry about that.

Congoers Brian Higbee, Bob and Cleo Leibel all realize how they've become slaves to fashion.



I think this is more Command Decision... a huge game in the back of the Distelfink run by John Drye and company. That's Dudley Garidel, who will be the preregistrar at COLD WARS 2007 next year.



More of the same.. it was Romanians on one side and Italians on the other, all trying to get into Stalingrad.



Is that the Notorious John the OFM from TMP? Sure it is!



That's young Dillon, who was so helpful with the HMGS Outreach program at the Rennaissance Faire in Virginia earlier this summer. I helped him prime up a big batch of starship trooper models so he could assemble and paint them at the painting program.



Who says the hobby is greying?? Young Ethan, son of my friend Mark Nedwick, indicates his approval of the convention.



One of the more innovative additons to our program in recent years...





Civil War action.. that's Roxanne Patton, the iron lady of NOVAG, in the background there.


Most of the day on Saturday was spent in the dealer's room, buying supplies for a fantasy wargaming "camp" I'm running soon. More on this later. I also did a lot of "fetching wood and carrying water" for the Cold Wars 2007 and TRIADCON conventions, talking and informing people, meeting with folks, etc. I did get a bunch of preliminary COLD WARS fliers from Del and I distributed them about the convention and at various hobby shop vendors I knew of. The fliers were great looking but very limited in terms of information, just giving the bare bones. We'll have a much better one for FALL IN. In any event, Del Stover, my promotions guy, did a great job and I thank him very much for his efforts.

I wandered up to the ShowRoom to check out the layout and lighting. Folks, you know me. You know I don't have an axe to grind in this one. So when I tell you there was plenty of room and the lighting was more than adequate, will you believe I have no reason to lie?

Wild West setup in the Showroom.


Mark "Princess Ryan" McGlaughlin playing some Command Decision up stairs in the Showroom.



I Leonardo being set up in the Showroom.



An awesome Stalingrad factory in the Showroom..





One of the better ideas was renting out this basement room to add a few more tables to the vendor area. It was steamy in there (to be polite) but I found some great stuff.



Large scale (25mm) HOTTS in the tournament area.





Goldwyrm (from TMP) and his dangerous pals play DESCENT in the Flea Market after hours. Fun stuff. I got this for my birthday and haven't played it yet.



One of them was MKSeibler from TMP!



And Thomas (GnomishNutsack or something like that on TMP, I forgot the specifics)



It was great to see Norbert Brunhuber there.. here he is patiently pitching me a big idea: "You see, Walt, I'll put on a huge, VERY PRETTY game, make it very slow moving and muddy the rules.. and you'll pay me 2000 dollars! Okay?"



Mee-YOW, Norbert!

Thomas said he could trump Norbert's efforts for a cool grand. We talked.

Bumped into Richard Borg running Battle Cry in large scale, and selling his (now out of print) game at cost. Nice thing to do!



Former prez Hubig, former BoD member Coggins, and Eric Turner having a kaffeklatsch... wonder what was being discussed there? hmmm?



Did some political post-meeting chatter with Jay Hadley while he was playing this cool looking Star Wars game. It looked great.



There are more and more of these plastic piece faux-minis games being played in the after hours these days. Here's BOOTLEGGERS (and you already have seen DESCENT)..



And Memoir 44 from Days of Wonder...


Another tournament shot. It seemed to me that they had plenty of room, but whadda I know?



The bar was dead and there weren't many late night games to sleeze my way into, so I sat in on some TRENCH WARS discussion with Heather Blush, Paul Trani, and a gent who they called English Bob. Now that was a fun time! They were very hospitable with their beer supply as well, which endeared them to me. Alas, tragedy struck when SaintRigger (from TMP) became so obnoxious with his notorious lax personal hygiene standards that we had to promptly kick him to death. We did feel bad afterward though.



BoD Member, bullet dodger and (they say) Mister Fall In! 2008 James Mattes dropped by to lecture us on the senseless waste of human potential. He was quite ... "jolly", I suppose you might call it, so his stern rebuke lacked the proper stinging quality. I'm sure he was tired, having driven all the way home and back again Friday night!



I bunkered off to bed after that, feeling a bit wobbly myself. Woke up at a decent hour, packed and said a sad farewell to my little rollaway and did the things we have to do on Sunday mornings-- stall for time, eat a good breakie to have energy for the drive, dash through the Flea Market (I found 1st Ed. Johnny Reb for 5 USD, and some "Dragonfly" mageknights for VSF purposes... yay!). Had some good planning conversations with Heather (about painting and marketing), Del Stover (about promotions for CW07), Greg Hacke (former GAMA guy who may be working on a web based registration system for CW07) and Andy Turlington about TRIADCON. I had breakfast with Bill Alderman, my good friend who runs events at PREZCON and he had some sharp criticisms about our procedures and staffing, meant constructively. And he has become a member of HMGS! As such, his VERY FIRST membership meeting was Saturday morning's marathon. He was greatly amused.

Having done what I came to do, I reluctantly pointed the Thunderbird in a southern direction, and got home in time to take my kids to the matinee of NACHO LIBRE, which was pretty hilarious, in a low way..

SUMMARY: HISTORICON (the non political bits, the convention itself) was a smashing success and we all owe Bob and company our thanks for his professionalism in pulling this one off. Good job, Bob.