(one day late)

As Dave Starry points out, My Kung Fu sucks..

Perpetual Motion, fooey!

In these petrol-hungry days, the notion of 'alternative energy' comes back into our consciousness once again. Solar, Nuclear, Wind, Hydrogen, Grain Alchohol, French Fry Vat oil are all being given the gimlet eye as we try to come up with a Life After Oil (which will, I think, occur in my lifetime). The recent issue of MAKE (one of my favorite periodicals) was on bizarre "edge" science, and featured a series of vignettes on that old hoary chestnut, perpetual motion.

We all like getting something for nothing, hell, I know I do-- and some amazing concepts have been developed in the pursuit of "free energy." The waterwheel comes to mind, and the wind generator. But the fact is they aren't 'free energy'.. there is a substantial amount of loss involved no matter how smart you make the mousetrap.

But we continue to dream.. a machine that could run by itself, into perpetuity..

Thanks to the miracles of the Internet, Donald Simanek has collected a rather extensive collection of images and devices and blueprints of machines that attempt to cheat the laws of energy conservation, and it can be found at The Museum of Unworkable Devices. I strongly recommend a trip there if you are a fan of the absurd and the unworkable.

The first thing you notice when you look at some of these drawings is the elegance and sophistication that went into the building and design.



My particular favorite category is the shifting-mass overbalanced wheel, which can be viewed above.. there are many varieties of this concept in Mr. Simanek's museum. Well worth a visit!!

G is for "Here's Mud in your Eye, King George!" Results

The Penultimate Round

Notes: As this epic game of BPD ratchets to a close (one turn left), We see unexpected good showings from Andy and British Peter, a neck and neck race between Rich, Karen and Mike, and no entry at all from J.R. due to vacation. Bill R. remains "dropped out".

John W. Cornwell is a Maker hero

The maker of the giant potato gun weighs in with a small dorm fridge that will actually launch a beer at you, using a remote.


Robotic Beer Launching Refrigerator - The top video clips of the week are here

Read his article on how to make a beer launching fridge.



I think if it got marketed, it would probably be a runaway best seller-- but I can just see the lawsuits from some drunk getting beaned on the head because he wasn't coordinated enough to catch a flying beer properly.

This is for you, babe

With a doff of the chapeau to Kasey Curtiss!

Battle of Lovcha at Cold Wars 2007

Donald Hauser, aka, "The White General", aka "Poruchik" threw another, bigger game at Cold Wars, and he has posted his replay over at his website. I don't leech another feller's text, so GO TO HIS BLOG to read up on it. Donald's approach is to paint his soldiers in the traditional "H.G. Wells" method, and I think they have tremendous visual and tactile appeal, especially to a younger generation of gamers.

New Horizons of Interest

My experience with Second Life has opened my eyes to other worlds to conquer.. and through a rather interesting article in MAKE, I have come across a group billing themselves as "multiverse.net".. allegedly the "next big thing" in immersive 3D worlds. They tout a more "open source" approach to virtual world building, and essentially give the shop away to developers to set up their own worlds:

By giving developers our platform technology with no upfront costs and eliminating barriers to entry in this market, we’re making virtual world development faster and less expensive than ever before. (from the multiverse website)

That may be true.. but my first experiences with "Multiverse" (having signed up for the Beta test) had me thinking it was a paltry thing indeed. Washed out colours, a very non-descript and bland looking AVI, a very limited, boring world.

And yet.. there is some hope. On Multiverse.Net's "Upcoming Projects Page" I noted this:

Victoriana Online

For anyone who has dreamed of stepping back into a time where elegance, manners, and the pleasures of high society masked a complicated web of intrigue and social climbing, we present Victoriana Online: a gaming experience set at the height of Queen Victoria's reign. Amidst a glittering backdrop of fashionable English society, conspire against your rivals, cultivate your reputation, and secure your family's legacy.

Now, I rather like the sound of this! It seems that multiverse.net would be as accessible as Second Life, and perhaps inexpensive! Maybe a lot less expensive. One can hope. I only hope that Multiverse keeps track of the things that have gone WRONG in Second Life-- land barons, exploitation, griefing, crass commercialism, etc. and take some signficant steps up front to keep it under control EARLY.

By Chuck Workman

Multiple images (more than 500) in a very short time. It's excellent!

The White General (wears a fez)

One of the problems with conventioneering is that you just never get a chance to see what you want to see.. too much stuff to check on during the course of the day. At COLD WARS, I never played any games at the convention for the first two years. I believe I DID play one last year, and got in TWO at CW07. These were pickups after 6 PM, however, and not something big and grand and glorious being put on during the day. Such a game was The Battle of Gorni Dubnik, put on during the day at Cold Wars, by my friend Don Hauser. Don maintains an excellent blog primarily devoted to his love of obscure wargaming eras (a passion of mine, too!). Right now his focus is on THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR (an obscure conflict in an obscure century). Gorni Dubnik was fought with beautifully painted glossy 42(?)mm soldiers that Don has been working on for quite some time. I won't replicate his blurb-- go to the blog to read it-- and be sure to check out the photo gallery as well.

Phil's Troy

Phil Viverito, G.O.H. at Cold Wars 2007 and the author of Classical Hack, Homeric Hack and Knight Hack, as well as the president of LMW Works publishing, is also a terrain building genius (don't believe me? go see his Siege of Carthage game he put on for me at CW). His version of TROY (used for his HOMERIC HACK rules) was recently featured in a documentary.

Check it out! (you will need Quicktime installed)

Noticed in Gizmodo

As steampunk-ish as this sculpture/project looks, it actually works. There's a working display, working keyboard, and working morse code input (wtf?). The creator was inspired by both the Apple Mac (he wanted to make something completely different) and Terry Gilliam. If you look at the back, there are working USB, serial, and a VGA port for the monitor.

Crazy? Definitely. Awesome? For sure! Ergonomic? No way in hell. – Jason Chen

(copyright, 2007, GIZMODO. Click for original citation)

It freakin' WORKS.. and it plugs into more modern monitors for the folks that need such things. I think it's totally beautiful...

Original Project Page (requires Kanjii)

Back to Work Comrade!

I snorted orange juice through my nose whilst viewing

G is for "Here's mud in your eye, George III!"

Round 9 is unique. We are focusing solely on that historic document, the United States Declaration of Independence. ALL answers must relate, somehow, to that document, one of the signatories, or some result of its publication.

Standard rules about names apply, with one special rule: No Repeat names.

The Magickal Letter is: G

Good luck!!

Categories

Category 1: Name a "G" Signer of the Declaration

Category 2: Name Signer who Died of Unnatural* Causes

Category 3: A Journal the Declaration appeared in outside the US, soon after publication

Category 4: Military "G" -- Name a signer who held a position in Army or Militia

Category 5: Federal "G" -- Name a signer who held a national government position (post-Constitution)

Cateogry 6: Name a Historian specializing in the Declaration of Indepenedence.

Good luck, history pals!

Round 8, "P is for Pylum"

A tough one to find answers for.. on the other hand, there were fewer answers per category, so it wasn't the lowest scoring round ev-var..

Bill has dropped out, due to medical reasons. He will be back for BPD 4.

The Legion Dies Hard

Some pictures from Jeff Simpson and Ed Watt's great Friday night game of THE SWORD AND THE FLAME. I was a French Foreign Legion commander, extracting civilians from an archeological dig site. In the end, we managed the extraction but the Arabs got to loot the site. Both sides claimed victory!!

Cool Slideshows

The Lord of War

Cold Wars Main AAR

Well, the day had come at last, for my last show as CW Director (in name). In truth, I was relieved. It hardly seemed like "my convention" for the last three months, and poor Frank Preziosi had to shoulder quite a burden stepping in to virtually run things as my new job had me working long hours incommunicado. Talk about learning under fire. Frank, your efforts were appreciated. I nosed my truck into the parking lot Thursday morning after picking up the shirts late Wednesday night.

The tables were already setup out front and downstairs. Rich Wright was running around making last minute adjustments. Frank and Mrs. Prez were very competently shooing people about hither and yon as all the little last minute things were getting done. Shirts out and sorted by size, pre-reg shirts pulled for the people who ordered them. Program books arrived on time and addendum being stuff as we speak. Rutherford busy making sure the machines and label makers were working. Our seed money already distributed.



Over at the tennis barn, Neil Schlaffer was honchoing vendors into position with effortless ease. The peg board crew (The Crouches) were busy ratcheting away at assembly points down near the Help and Events desk. It looked like chaos but it all made sense. Things were happening.



I dropped into a pre-convention meeting with the hotel staff and met some of the new faces and names. I was sad that "Big John" the night manager had moved on, as well as Gloria, the front desk lady that made counting out relatively easy. The new folks, including Medium-Sized Carl (Big John's replacement) and Patty, are quite good at what they do, and very personable.

At six we started taking registrations, selling shirts, and handing out pre-reg. We had some lines but we really handled it efficiently, due to the layout. The homemade stanchions the Preziosis made for FALL IN came in very handy for line control.

The Flea Market and Tournament area were laid out in an unusual configuration for COLD WARS but I approved it. Traffic was great and for once, ALL PARTIES WERE HAPPY! Hooray! It can be done. I might add, that Bob, Neil, and many tournament luminaries had a meeting at this con and resolved a game plan for HISTORICON that seems to be amicable to all parties. Well done, gentlemen.



Look at that happy Tournament GM!!



I should mention the weather. I was wearing shorts on the way up. By the end of the day I was bundling up-- the temperature had taken a plunge. Snow.. and ice! were expected, and the reports were varying everywhere from 2 inches to a foot in places. Oh the joy.



Well, they don't call it COLD WARS for nothing.

The mood in the bar (for people who had showed up on Thursday) was restrained and pleasant. Chances were we would be stuck here over the weekend, but could you imagine a better place to be stuck (that's rhetorical). The restraunt and food services department from the Host were not complaining.



Nothing like having a naturally hungry crowd as a captive audience.

Naturally, there was 'talk' about the impending referendum at Saturday's membership meeting. I went to bed (early, for me at a con) at 1 AM.

Friday sprang up but I did not. Somewhere during the night, my nemesis, arthritis, set in.. and I could hardly stand up. My knee joint had locked up during the night and I felt awful. The only meds I take for an attack are ibuprofen and I didn't even have that. Or even a winter coat and gloves! And it was now icing and sleeting. As you can see, things were NOW looking ominous:



So I hobbled to the reg area, bummed an Aleve and drove over to K-Mart to buy some Ibuprofen, a cheap disposable coat and gloves. Friday's games were in full swing when I got back around 9. Some of them were vastly impressive. Phil Vevrito's massive SIEGE OF CARTHAGE was a shoe-in for best thematic game, in my opinion. HMGS President Pete Panzeri had gone out of his way for COLD WARS, both in suggesting Phil as a Guest of Honor and contacting the WOMAN'S ARMY MUSEUM to provide little statues as awards. Thanks, Pete, you done good!

I was very bummed that I could not get my stuff together to run a game on Del Stover's table on Friday. I had planned on a nice four hour slot to run RED ACTIONS in, but the fact is we had got the game to being about 80% ready for public play but had not had time to complete it. Sorry, Del, didn't meant to let you down. Thanks for the great work on the newsletter!

WHAT WE PLAYED The entire convention featured many OUTSTANDING games being played Here are but a few..

(For reasons of blogger.com compatibility, I have to host the slideshow offsite. Click on the Pig's Head to start the show)



I managed to get in to a game of THE SWORD AND THE FLAME (French Foreign Legion) run by Ed Watts. Details elsewhere.

The best part of an HMGS convention is meeting people in the flesh you only get to talk to on the phone or via email during the course of the year. Some things you don't WANT to see... of course. Here's John Camarano, doing his yearly Frodo at the Crack of Doom pose.



I was so annoyed at his hijinks, I banished him and Dewey to the kids table.



Heather's painting program gang showed up and got right to it on Friday. They are located in the "Lancaster Room" (read: the old Gift Shop). This proved to be a great location. Lots of bright light, and natural light filtering in from the glass walls. Hard to miss, too!





I was impressed by the sheer number of board and card games at this convention. Seems like anywhere there was a free table or little nook in the lobby, there were a gang of gamers playing a Euro, wargame or boardgame of some sort. I event got in at the tail end of a game of ARKHAM HORROR very late Saturday Night with such luminaries as John Drye, Dudley Garidel, Frank Chadwick and Bill Rutherford. I only regret that they wussed out and halted the game early. What a pity! I love Arkham Horror. Apparently the complexity factor really sells this one to wargamers. I also saw another favorite, DESCENT (also from FFG) being run by Mike Lorenzo (Goldwyrm from TMP). There's never enough time to play EVERYTHING you want at a convention.

Cool Slideshows

I did my bit for wargaming commerce, and in an act unlike me, spent every dime but five bucks for lunch on the way home at the Vendor's hall. I got (finally!!!) my Japanese Yalu fleet from Outland Games (former Lyzard's Grin). Some more huge-ass 54mm gladiators (must get around to building a stadia one of these years!). Some buildings for 20mm Red Actions (farmhouse and stone country house). A "Jack the Ripper" tableau and rules kit from Old Glory. Various dits and dots here and there, including some serious poundage from Iron Wind Metals, who were doing my favorite thing, selling old Rals by the pound. Sure wish they would do that with historicals!!!







Saturday dawned with a thick crust of ice on it covered by a light powder. Day trippers were up from the day before, but weekend passes waaaay down. Sigh. What can you do?



I went to the Membership meeting expecting fireworks due to the recent proposal to trim the board of directors down to a certain amount plus three con directors. The proposal, by an HMGS Member, had been withdrawn from the floor via phone call. I was pleased to hear this-- we avoided another implosion!! Nominations for the BOD were heard.. and I was very pleased to see Mike Pierce, Gunner Garidel (who did a bang up job as Pre-Registrar for this con and previous Historicons), and John Drye on the ballot. This is a great group of candidates to choose from!!! None of them are particularly political, all of them are hard working and concietionous. Heather Blush was also nominated, and I also think she can do great things-- as she has proven. So it will be a hard choice this year!



REMEMBER, CHECK YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS, HMGS MEMBERS! (vote! it's important!)

the rest of the meeting was remarkably civil and pro forma. They got me to painfully stand up and say nice things. During which, I acknowledged the huge debt I had to Frank for helping with this convention, and had HIM read the numbers. He gave a short speech about plans for CW08, and the theme, which is GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY. Fantastic idea!

At this stage in any convention, it's all over but the screaming (and count out). So I limped around, trying to be helpful here and there, and staying out of the way of those folks who knew their job. A person, who shall remain nameless, gave me a little topical something for my knee that had it feeling loads better in short order.

I flitted here and there and all seemd to be going well. Saturday afternoon and night was more (and bigger) games, including the awards ceremonies. Phil "Classical Hack" Vevrito won for SIEGE OF CARTHAGE, which deserved it. His report on CW07, and the Siege of Carthage game, is HERE. Much better shot photos of the game, too!



The Peking game got the PELA. Did I mention Ilove those statues? I also presided over the judging of the COLD WARS MILITARY ENGINEERING CHALLENGE,and even built my own contraption. Saturday night, I avoided the bar for once and got in a very interesting game of RUGGED ADVENTURES run by Jeff Simpson and Ed Watts (details elsewhere).

Had a nice (unvirtual) beer, and off to bed.



Sunday dawned and so did the sun, doing its best to melt off two days of ice. Numbers were given, count outs were done, and expenses recorded. I will not have the final report until all the expenses are recorded and paid out, but my SENSE is we did as well as we could with the bad weather. People made an effort to come, as evidenced by the all time high for day passes. And the vendors were happy. those that DID come, spent money (I know I did). I won't reveal the final totals here as that is the business of the BOD (and we truthfully don't know all yet).

And so, I nosed my truck into the traffic and headed home after chipping it out of the ice. We had done well. Things had come together in spite of my new job, the weather, and the Host's always changing construction schedule. I have to thank Frank Preziosi for being a hard worker and virtually the REAL con director from January onward, Neil Schlaffer for the Vendor support, Pat Shields, Sandra & Ann Marie Bennecke, Kathy Higbee at the front desk, Dudley Garidel for the pre-registration work, Richard Wright for the Events management, Jim and the Flea Market gang for one more year's effort, Heather and the Painting Gang, Geoff Graff for the Cold Wars Military Engineering Challenge and the various other staff members I haven't mentioned. Your efforts paid off handsomely.

In closing, it's been a fun four years. Some of them were better than others, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I will now go back to the many projects I have let linger over the last few years... (grinning).

Other Galleries:

Bill Gray's AGE OF EAGLES Dennewitz game at CW07

Chris Vaughn from TMP posted a rather comprehensive CW07 photo album on the web. Mostly .45 Caliber Adventures stuff.

"Yeah, I saw the Lieutenant, hanging from a tree about a mile back"

This one was put on by Jeff Simpson and Ed Watts on Saturday night. Jeff came trying to recruit players (see lousy weather in the general report post). I was happy to oblige as I was looking for a game to get in.

The Rules were RUGGED ADVENTURES, the setting WW2, Western Front, D-Day, during the airborne landing phase. The setup was pretty simple. The players were all American sergeants, leading a squad in from the edge of the board to the other edge. Some of us had some specialists along with like a heavy weapons squad. All seargeants had s "RPG attribute" we had to play off of during the game. My guy (the first sergeant) was a dithering ass that could never make up his mind and so had to spend a lot of time rolling 1D6 to overcome his "fieldcraft" score in Rugged Adventures. Other sergeants, like the one played by Harry Morris, were smart in most things and probably should have been put in charge.



One of the interesting aspects of this game was that EVERY SQUAD possessed imperfect information. We were all working off of a ripped and torn piece of map that was all that was left of the titular dead lieutenant's map case after he took a mortar round. We had a piece of a tactical map plus some vague instructions about taking a bridge, plus one wider scale Airborne landing map.

The game moved along briskly, the map building itself as we went... and always the feeling that there was a German around every corner... very atmospheric stuff. At one point, a group of 2 US Jeeps drive up and confer with my 1st Sgt. and the other leaders. They are recon units from the 441st Glider regiment. They'll be happy to scout ahead, they say, and then they zoom off ahead, never to be seen again.

Slideshow:

click on here for direct link to the Slideshow hosted at ImageShack

Along the way, My squad encounters some fire as well.. Germans keep popping in, engaging, both sides take a few casulaties, and the Germans bug out. We encounter some Anti-Aircraft prime movers and oddly enough, for once we're positioned correctly to support each other in the attack. Harry (the smart sergeant) takes out the lead track with bazooka fire, and I jump up and fire up the following track from behind, killing the driver and making the vehicle crash into a tree.

What appeared to be our objective (as small village with a bridge we had to take) was around the corner. we engaged in a sharp firefight with the Germans and both sides were taking casaulties quickly. At this point, Jeff called the game, citing that the game was really about our reactions under fire with imperfect information and an unknown hostile force popping in on either side of us. The game, he said, was based upon the movie A WALK IN THE SUN (1945) which featured an American platoon caught up in an almost identical situation. We didn't know it, but our sergeant RPG characters were drawn from this movie.

I had a fantastic time, myself, and thought it was a unique and innovative idea for a game.

BPD Delayed until Wednesday

I've received BPD submissions from German and English Peter, and Rich Low. That is all.

Due to my rather hectic last week, I wasn't around to nudge everyone to answer. Please do so now.

Until Wednesday, then!

Lords of Siege

It all started with an innocuous conversation with Geoff Graff at FALL IN 06. Geoff was tired of schlepping events for Cold Wars, but wanted to contribute.. SOMETHING of note to the convention as a whole. He didn't (at the time) wish to be a con director, but wouldn't mind being named Assistant Con Director in charge of something... Just improvising, I said why not try heading up a theme event of some sort? "What sort of theme event" "Oh, I don't know, something goofy and not so serious... like a siege engine contest". "Brilliant! Let's do this..." and the conversation evolved into the highly technical as I could see Geoff had taken the bit and was pulling hard.


What emerged was inspired. I knew that I didn't have the time to chase this one home (or for much of anything else), so Geoff would have to take that ball and run with it. Being Geoff, he ran pretty hard. I did what *I* could, which wasn't much-- getting him a budget for awards and expenditures and such, but just about all of what evolved was pure Geoff.

The Cold Wars 2007 Military Engineering Challenge:

1) Assemble a team of 1-3 individuals.
2) Design a Projectile throwing device, out of parts we provide.
3) Assemble & fine tune a projectile throwing device, in one hour.
4) Compete against other teams for distance, accuracy and wackiness.

The Flyer Text:

Cold Wars 2007 Military Engineering Challenge

Measure yourself against the finest military engineers in our time (and location).

You’ve heard of this type competition from some of the finest engineering schools in the country, and maybe even viewed a version on TV. Now YOU can join in the fun.

Assemble a team of 1 to 3 participants, and assemble a projectile throwing devise from the box of useful and not-so-useful parts provided. Then fire your devise, competing against other teams for distance and accuracy. And all in indoor comfort!

Yes, you too can test your engineering skills against other gamers, by building a devise to propel a ‘stone’ for distance and accuracy. We provide all the parts and tools, you provide the labor and genius.

Each team will have 2 hours to plan, assemble, test and fire their catapult, or onager, or ballista, or mangonel or trebuchet or whatever projectile throwing engine you can devise. The choice of design is up to you!

And there are prizes! Plaques for first, second and third place both for distance and for accuracy, and a special award for Extra-Ordinary Engineering.

There will be space and parts for twelve competing teams, four each at 10 AM, 2 PM and 6 PM on Saturday.

Don’t be shy, form your team or compete as an individual (Hey, why share the glory, or the prize?). Remember, this is being done in the spirit of fellowship and fun. Sign up in the convention registration room.


Sound easy? Well, I for one, can tell you it wasn't! I entered in the two pm slot on Saturday. I had in mind a long, graceful trebuchet style flinger... something like THIS. What I ended up making would have made Vauban wince. We ended up using every available second of the time alloted, and had to fine tune the trigger and basket on the firing line. Meanwhile, the family entry (from the Woman's Army Museum) was thoroughly kicking our butts in solidity of design and speey execution.

The boxes were full of stuff-- some standard wood lengths that everyone had, some standard bits and fasteners and screws and rubber bands and piping and such. Plus some non-standard items unique to each box.

I didn't take a picture of it, but I should mention one of Geoff's special rules about tool use. He brought a static set of tools-- drills, hammers, rulers, pliers. Teams were given chips that turn in for tools. If you want another tool, you have to provide the chip for it, or return a tool to get a chip back.

The other entries in the event were all very solid. The Engineering Buccaneers made a short treb with rubber band assist, and they recommended that I add elastics to the rocker bar of my design (The Lady Go Diver) to increase the whipping action of the bar. The Tower of the Sun was the catapault to beat, with a distance record of 20+ feet. Alas, the Lady only managed 9.8 feet. Fortuitously, she was a good performer in other respects, and did give us the best accuracy score of the day.

I ended up awarding the director's plaque to the Family Entry, as it showed rapid improvisation and creativity. Their enthusiasm was a joy to behold! Seriously!

In summary, I'm very glad we have guys like Geoff Graff around to honcho ideas like this. EVEN WITH A SNOWSTORM RESTRICTING ATTENDANCE, we had 8 entries. I loved it! I think the Military Engineering Challenge is an event that could stand some repeating in future cons. Geoff has already been approached to think something up for COLD WARS 08. Fantastic. Geoff, if your'e reading this, Thanks so much for your energy, creativity and hard work. You really added value to Cold Wars 2007.

More Pictures: